“A frame requires that the innocent party did not do the thing. What Harrison Vance built was not a frame. It was a *record.* He arranged for the true facts to be maximally damaging to you.

That is a far more difficult thing to answer than a forgery.”

Rachel started to say something. Adeyemi held up two fingers, not unkindly, and Rachel stopped.

“I have no intention of charging you,” Adeyemi said. “I want to be clear about that because I don’t play games with people’s sleep. You are my best witness.

You are also the defense’s best argument, and those are the same file, and I have to walk into a courtroom in March and explain to twelve people why the woman who built the machine is the woman testifying against the man who used it.

“So I need to know the answer to one question, and I need the real one, and I would rather have it in this room than have Vaillancourt’s face when they ask it on cross.”