“Yes, I did.”

Mark hit a key on his laptop.

The courtroom speakers filled with a soft tick, steady as a heartbeat, and then Emily’s voice, thin and distant, asking whether the snake could hear her.

Thomas Miller adjusted his watch strap.

The leather made a faint sound in the hush.

Claire kept her eyes on the judge’s bench.

The audio played for forty-one seconds and ended where the line went open and the clock kept on ticking.

Mark stopped it.