The room stayed completely silent as the last audio clip ended.

Judge Whitmore slowly took off her reading glasses and laid them next to the purple toy phone on her bench.

“Mr.

Hale,” Judge Whitmore said, her low voice filling the room.

“Does your client want to make any evidentiary challenge to these recordings?”

Hale looked down at his yellow legal pad, then at Grant, and finally turned back to the bench.

He tapped his gold pen once on his notepad, put it down, and laid his hands flat on the table.