There was a local segment, and one national morning show reached out twice, and Margaret declined both times, and the reason she gave to Michael is a good one.

“Because the minute I’m a character,” she said, “the defense gets to write me.”

They tried anyway.

And in the twenty-two months before any of it reached a courtroom, something happened that Margaret had not braced for at all, because it had not occurred to her that it could.

People took his side.

Not many.