The Lemonade Crime Read online

  Jack walked up to the podium, and David told him to put his right hand over his heart and raise his left hand in the air.

  "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" asked David.

  "I do," said Jack, standing straight as a pole.

  "You may proceed," said David, turning to Jessie.

  Jessie walked up to Jack. "Mr. Bagdasarian," she said. "Where were you on the day of Sunday, September fifth?"

  "What do you mean?" asked Jack. "Is that the day Scott stole the money?"

  "Hey! I didn't steal the money!" yelled Scott.

  "Says you!" shouted Malik, and everybody began yelling.

  "Call for order," Jessie hissed at David, who was just standing there, watching it all, like it was a movie on television.

  David shuffled through his index cards until he found the right one. Then he banged the wooden gavel on the block of wood. "Order in the court! Order in the court! If you're not quiet, I will hold you in"—he looked more closely at his card—"contempt!" David waved the card and added, "That means you'll get sent home. And when you come to school on Monday, we won't tell you what happened, either."

  Everybody got really quiet then.

  Jessie turned to her witness again. "September fifth was the day everyone went to your house to swim," she said. "Can you tell the court what you remember about that day?"

  So Jack told the story: They'd all been playing basketball on the playground—Evan and Jack and Paul and Ryan and Kevin and Malik—but it was really hot, and they decided they wanted to swim at Jack's house. So Jack had gone home to ask his mom if it was okay, and when he came back to the playground, Scott was there, too, so then they'd all gone back to Jack's house.

  "And then what happened?" asked Jessie, pacing back and forth in front of the podium. She was holding a pencil and carrying her Writer's Notebook tucked under her arm. It made her feel more official.

  "We played pool basketball," said Jack. "I've got one of those floating hoops, so we just goofed around and stuff."

  "Did Evan swim in his own bathing suit or did he borrow one from you?" asked Jessie.

  "I think he borrowed one," said Jack. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure he did. And so did Scott."

  "So both Evan and Scott changed into borrowed bathing suits at your house. Is that correct?"

  "Yep," said Jack, bobbing his head up and down.

  "And where did they put their regular clothes when they went swimming?" asked Jessie, pointing her finger at Jack so that the jury would know she was getting to the good part.

  "In my room, I guess. That's where everyone puts their shoes and socks and stuff at my house, 'cause if you leave anything downstairs, the dog gets it."

  "So let me be clear on this point," said Jessie, standing directly in front of Jack. "Evan's shorts—and whatever was in his pockets—were in your room. And Scott's shorts—and whatever was in his pockets—were also in your room. Is that correct?"

  "Yeah. I already said that."

  Jessie turned to the jury. "I just want to make sure that everyone knows that fact. Evan's and Scott's shorts were in the same room." She turned back to Jack. "One more question for you, Mr. Bagdasarian. Did anyone get out of the pool and go inside?"

  "Well, sure," said Jack, laughing. "I mean, jeez, we were drinking like ten gallons of lemonade and eating watermelon slices. You can't hold that in forever."

  The courtroom burst into laughter, but David banged his gavel so loudly that everyone quieted right down. Nobody wanted to get sent home before there was a verdict.

  "Did Scott go into the house?" asked Jessie.

  "Uh-huh," said Jack.

  "Did he go in alone?"

  "Yeah."

  "And how long was he in the house alone?"

  "I don't know," said Jack, shrugging.

  "Long enough to run upstairs and steal an envelope filled with money out of Evan's shorts?" asked Jessie.

  "Sure," said Jack. "He was in there for a while. And I know he went into my room, because he came down dressed."

  "Dressed?" asked Jessie. "Why did he do that?"

  "He said he had to go, right away."

  "But did he say why?"

  "No. Just said he had to go."

  "Did he leave in a hurry?"

  "You should have seen him. He went tearing out of there. I don't think he even had both shoes on when he left."

  "I don't suppose you happened to check his pockets before he left, did you?"

  "Uh, no," said Jack.

  "Too bad," muttered Evan. Jessie looked over at her brother. He didn't look happy.

  "That will be all," said Jessie.

  "The witness is excused," said David in his serious judge voice, and when Jack didn't move, he added, "You may step down."

  "Step down?" asked Jack, looking at the ground.

  "You may go back to the witness area," said David, and he gave Jack a look that made Jack close his mouth and do what he was told.

  Jessie called up the witnesses one by one, and each boy said the same thing: Scott had gone into the house to use the bathroom, came out a while later dressed, and then rushed out the door. Hearing the story five times made it seem like it was the absolute truth.

  Jessie was feeling good. So good, she decided to call Evan to the stand. She hadn't planned out any questions to ask him, but that didn't matter. Everyone liked Evan, and Jessie knew it was a good strategy to put a likable witness on the stand.

  But when she said, "For my next witness, I call Evan Treski to the stand," Evan shot her a furious look. He walked up to the judge's podium like he was walking to the gallows. When he turned to face the court, he had both thumbs hooked in his back pockets, and his shoulders were hunched forward. What was wrong? thought Jessie. They were going to win!

  "Mr. Treski," Jessie began. "Can you please tell the court where you were on the afternoon of September fifth?"

  "We already know that!" shouted Taffy Morgan, who was sitting in the second row of the jury box. "Ask him something different!"

  "Yeah!" shouted Tessa James from the audience. "Ask him where he got all that money from. That's what I want to know."

  Ben Lesser shouted out the same thing: "Ask him that!" And Nina Lee echoed, "Yeah, ask him that!"

  Slowly, Jessie felt her face turning hot. That was the last question she wanted to ask Evan while he was on the stand. If the jury found out that Evan had stolen that money from her—it would be all over. Some of the kids in the jury box started to chant, "Ask him! Ask him!"

  "Order in the court!" shouted David. When everyone quieted down, he said to Jessie, "That's a good question. Why don't you ask him that?"

  "He's my witness," said Jessie, "and I get to make up the questions." Jessie knew the rules: She was the lawyer, and nobody could make her ask her witness a question she didn't want to ask. "I'll ask what I want, and I don't want to ask that."

  "What?" said Scott. "Have you got something to hide?"

  "Leave her alone," said Evan.

  "Yeah, leave me alone," said Jessie, looking from David to Scott to Evan.

  "Fine," said Scott, crossing his arms and looking smug. "Don't ask him. I'll just have my mom ask him where he got the money."

  "Your mom's not even here," said Jessie angrily. "And I bet she won't show up, either."

  Scott jumped up to his feet and looked like he was going to take a swing at Jessie. "She will, too. She's just late, that's all. 'Cause she's a real lawyer, with real work to do. Not like you! You faker!"

  "Order in this court, or I will throw you both out!" shouted David. He even stepped in front of the podium and swung his gavel over his head like he was going to bean someone with it. Then he turned to Jessie and said, "You might as well ask Evan the question, Jessie. He's going to end up answering it anyway."

  And Jessie knew he was right.

  She'd really made a mess of this. And she'd been feeling so good. So confident. So sure of herself.

  "Mr. Treski," she said, "wh
ere did you get the money—the two hundred and eight dollars—t hat you had in your pocket on that day?"

  You could have heard a pin drop—except that a pin wouldn't have made any noise at all because of the grass. But it was quiet in the court. Even the birds seemed to fall silent as if they were waiting to hear the answer.

  Evan mumbled something, and Jessie had to ask him to repeat what he said.

  "I took it from your lock box," said Evan, looking at her like he wanted to squash her like a bug.

  Nobody said a word. Everyone stared at Evan, and Evan stared at Jessie.

  "You stole it?" asked Paul, his eyes wide with surprise.

  "Man, you never told us that part of the story," said Adam, shaking his head.

  "Wow. You stole money from your little sister?" said Scott, smiling for the first time all afternoon. "That is low."

  Jessie looked down at the ground. She knew that Evan was staring at her with a look that said, I wish you'd never been born.

  "Excuse me?" said a voice from the audience. Jessie turned. It was Megan, and she was raising her hand, like she was in class.

  "The bench recognizes Megan Moriarty," said David.

  "The bench can't recognize someone from the audience," said Jessie. "The audience isn't allowed to talk during a trial. This is all wrong."

  "Well," said David. "I'm the judge, so I get to decide. Megan!"

  "Was that my money, too?" Megan asked. She looked straight at Evan. "Was half of that two hundred and eight dollars mine from the lemonade stand?"

  Jessie's mouth fell open, but no sound came out. Evan dropped his head into his hands.

  Things were coming out in this trial that Jessie had never expected to come out. Like the fact that Evan had stolen the money from Jessie before Scott stole the money from Evan. Or the fact that half the money he'd lost had been Megan's money. And just because Evan had planned to return the money to Jessie a day later—and she'd forgiven him for taking it in the first place—and just because Jessie and Evan had worked really hard to earn back all of Megan's money so that she'd never know she lost it—those facts didn't seem to matter much at all. In the eyes of everyone, it looked like Evan was a thief. A lying thief.

  All of a sudden, words started to fly out of Jessie's mouth. "He didn't steal it," she said. "I told him to take the money. I gave it to him for safekeeping. He didn't steal it." Jessie turned to Megan. "It's my fault your money got stolen."

  Evan looked at her. Megan looked at her. Scott looked at her. Everyone in the courtroom stared at Jessie. And all Jessie could think was that she had just told a lie in court. And everyone knew it.

  Chapter 12

  Sixth Amendment

  Sixth Amendment (), n. The part of the U.S. Constitution that explains the rights of anyone who is accused of a crime and brought to trial, including the right to legal counsel.

  Jessie whispered, "The prosecution rests," and she and Evan went back to their seats. Evan kept his eyes nailed to the ground. He didn't trust himself to look at Jessie. If he did, he knew that all his anger was going to spill over like lava pouring out of a crack in the earth's crust. He'd been humiliated—in front of the entire fourth grade. And even though he knew that Jessie hadn't done it on purpose, it was still all her fault. If she hadn't called him as a witness. If she hadn't made David the judge. If she hadn't given Scott Spencer that stupid arrest warrant in the first place, none of this would have happened.

  David banged his gavel three times. "Will the lawyer for the defense please step forward?"

  Evan saw Scott twist his head around and look at the parking lot. "We gotta wait a couple more minutes," said Scott, matter-of-factly. "My mom's not here yet."

  "If she doesn't come," said Paul, "does Scott have to forfeit?"

  David flipped through his cards. "Jessie? Does Scott forfeit if his mom doesn't come?"

  "Here she is!" shouted Scott, jumping up from his ball. "I told you! I told you!" He turned to Jessie. "Now you're going to see how it's done by a real lawyer. She's going to make you look like a fool!" Scott ran off to the parking lot, where a large gray SUV was pulling up to the curb.

  Evan watched as Scott ran up to the car and leaned in at the open window, talking with his mom. Scott turned around and pointed at all the kids, sitting in the courtroom. Evan could just barely see Mrs. Spencer, her hands on the wheel, the engine of the car still running. Then Scott stepped back from the car, and it drove away.

  Scott came walking back and sat down on his basketball. He shrugged, but Evan could tell it was an act. "She can't stay," said Scott. "She's got a big meeting. Real stuff, not kids' stuff." He shrugged again and looked straight ahead at David, avoiding everyone else's eyes.

  "So...?" said David. "What do we do now?" Everyone in the courtroom turned to Jessie, who had been keeping quiet ever since she sat down.

  Evan looked at Jessie. She wasn't smiling, and that surprised him. After all, this meant they won, right? At least, that's how it worked in basketball. If the other team didn't show up or didn't have enough players, then they forfeited the game, and that meant your team won automatically. Usually, Evan hated forfeit games, even if it meant winning. He'd rather play and lose than win by forfeit. But this time, Evan would take a win any way he could get it. The image that had been haunting him for days—of standing up at Morning Meeting and apologizing to Scott—began to fade, and a new one took its place: Evan playing with his new Xbox 20/20—with all his friends over at his house.

  Jessie said, "David, you say, 'Will the lawyer for the defense please step forward,' and then Scott says—well, whatever he wants to say in his own defense, and then he says, 'The defense rests,' and that's it."

  "And then the verdict!" said Salley Knight, who was in the jury box. "Then we vote and give the verdict!"

  "Right," said Jessie, glumly.

  What was her problem? wondered Evan. They were sure to win if Scott had no defense lawyer.

  "Ahem." David cleared his voice. "Will the lawyer for the defense please step forward?"

  Everyone turned to look at Scott, but it was a voice from the back of the courtroom that broke the silence.

  "That would be me." Megan stood up from the audience and walked to the front of the courtroom.

  What?

  At first Evan thought he must have heard wrong.

  Did Megan Moriarty just say that she was going to defend Scott Spencer?

  "You can't do that," said Evan, jumping up from his seat. "You're ... you're..." He wanted to shout, You're supposed to be on my side, not his!, but he couldn't say that. Not in front of the whole fourth grade.

  "Hey!" shouted David, banging his gavel once. "Order in the court. Plaintiff, sit down. If you keep making a disturbance, I'll have you thrown out of court!"

  "Oh, right! Like you could!" said Evan, but he sat down on his basketball anyway.

  "Jessie," said David, holding up his watch. "It's three-thirty. I've got to go in ten minutes. Is this allowed?"

  Jessie nodded her head. "Yes. It's ... fair."

  Evan couldn't believe it. Was this really happening? Was the girl he was in love with about to destroy his one and only chance for revenge against his sworn enemy?

  Megan turned to Scott. "Do you still not want a girl lawyer?"

  Once again, Scott shrugged. "You're all I got. I guess it's okay."

  "All right," said Megan. "This won't take long. Can I call my first witness?"

  David nodded, and Megan moved to the front of the courtroom.

  Chapter 13

  Circumstantial Evidence

  circumstantial evidence ( ), n. Indirect evidence that makes a person seem guilty. For example, if a suspect is seen running away from the scene of a crime, a jury might assume that he's guilty of the crime, even though no one saw him commit it.

  Megan started with Jack. She asked him three simple questions and told him to answer with just one word:yes or no.

  "Jack, did you ever see the money in Evan's shorts pocket?"


  "No."

  "Did you see Scott Spencer take anything out of Evan's pocket?"

  "No."

  "Since that day, have you ever seen Scott Spencer carrying around two hundred and eight dollars?"

  "No."

  Then, one by one, she called Kevin, Malik, Ryan, and Paul to the witness stand and asked the same three questions. Their answers were all the same—no.

  Listening, Jessie felt miserable—but she was impressed. In less than five minutes, Megan had unraveled her whole case against Scott Spencer. The truth was, nobody had actually seen anything that day at the pool. It was all just guessing about what had happened to Evan's money.

  The whole time Megan was asking the witnesses questions, Jessie worried that Megan was going to call Evan to the stand for cross-examining. She knew that Evan would rather pull his hair out, one strand at a time, than get back up on that witness stand. But instead Megan called a different witness—one that even Jessie didn't expect.

  "My last witness," Megan said to the jury, "is Scott Spencer."

  Scott Spencer had been slouching forward, sitting on his ball, his elbows resting on his knees, his eyes on the ground. Now he straightened up and squared his shoulders. He looked as surprised as anyone to hear his name called out in court.

  "I don't want to," he said. He looked defiantly at Megan and then at David, as if he was going to challenge both of them to a fight.

  David pointed his gavel at him. "Well, you have to. You've got to do what your lawyer says."

  Jessie was fairly certain that this wasn't true. She thought she remembered a rule that said you didn't have to testify against yourself in court, but she wasn't positive, so she didn't say anything.

  Scott stood up, shoving his basketball with his heel so that it rolled a few feet toward the back of the courtroom. He walked to the podium and put his right hand over his heart and raised his left.

  "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" asked the judge.

  "Yeah," said Scott, but he said it long and low, like the word was being pulled out of his mouth on a rope.