The judge held both of them for trial, and revoked Lars’s release when the prosecutor produced his corridor settlement offer — a man trying to buy his way out of a criminal charge with a stolen house.

Sigrid was barred from any contact with me.

Months later, rather than face a trial, they took their pleas: Lars to aggravated assault, coercion, and evidence tampering, twelve years; Sigrid to conspiracy, evidence tampering, and failure to summon aid, four years and probation.

Their pleas spared me from telling the story again in open court.

They did not spare them the consequences.

I want to say something about the pleas, because there is a version of this story that treats a guilty plea as an anticlimax — the drama of a trial traded away for a deal in a back room.