I keep a number in my phone that most people do not have.

It is a hard thing to earn, that number, and I earned it over nine years of doing this work correctly, of never crying wolf, of showing up in court prepared and never wasting the court’s time, and I have used it perhaps four times in my career.

I used it that night.

“Judge Thorne,” I said, when the line connected, keeping my voice low under the running water.

“It’s Elena Vance.