Caroline explained the preparation process. The prosecutor's team needed his recollection, not a script he would memorize. He would distinguish what he saw from what he later learned, acknowledge uncertainty, and answer the questions actually asked. The video could support him without becoming his memory of every second.
They arranged breaks. Harold almost refused, then remembered the nausea that came when he first heard Cross ask what money.
He accepted the breaks.
The coordinator asked whether a particular part of the room made viewing easier. Harold chose the chair nearest the window and felt foolish until he realized nobody was judging the choice. For weeks, other people had used small preferences as evidence of age or weakness. Being allowed to select a chair without explanation helped him pay attention to what the recording actually showed.
On the screen, he looked ordinary. An older man in a clean jacket, one hand near a coffee cup, listening while a deputy leaned down. He did not look heroic. He looked like someone trying to understand why the rules of a normal afternoon kept changing.
Cross's arm entered. The wallet opened. The money appeared.
Harold asked to pause.
“What do you need?” the witness coordinator asked.
“A minute.”
Nobody filled it with instructions to be strong. He drank water and looked at the wall until the room became the room again.
The recording continued. Harold heard his own polite explanations and wanted to interrupt himself. He wanted to say there was no correct explanation that would make Cross stop wanting the money. The thought frightened him because it meant the failure had not been his to repair with better manners.
The prosecutor asked about the amount. Harold described the withdrawal, estimate, discount, and planned receipt. The bank records and Ada's testimony could establish the surrounding transaction. He did not claim to recognize serial numbers he never wrote down.
They discussed his shoulder discomfort and assessment. He would say what he experienced and what the clinician documented. He did not need to inflate the injury to make the theft serious.
The most difficult question concerned the second deputy.
“Did you believe he could help you?”
Harold looked at the frozen image of Garner beside the cruiser.
“Yes.”
“What made you believe that?”
“The uniform. The fact that he was there. I thought the point of having another person present was that somebody could say no.”
He had not prepared the answer. It emerged with a grief he had not expected to feel for an assumption.
Garner's cooperation would be presented honestly, including the timing, possible interests, and conduct he admitted. Harold was not asked to become comfortable with that before the court could use relevant testimony.
Later, the defense filed arguments challenging aspects of the evidence and the inferences drawn from the records. The court heard them through the proper process. Cross had rights Harold's anger did not cancel. Stroud had counsel and the ability to contest allegations about his knowledge.
Harold understood the principle. He also discovered understanding a principle did not make waiting through its procedures easy.
At home, Ethan asked whether he wanted company the evening before testimony. Harold said yes, then called Mateo to join them for dinner. They ordered food from a place June disliked because the portions made leftovers impossible to organize.
Mateo brought pie. Ethan said three men did not need an entire pie after dinner. Harold asked whether nearly four years away had made his son forget the household's standards.
They laughed, and the laughter did not erase tomorrow. It made room beside it.
Before leaving, Mateo handed Harold a small notebook. It was new, with no investigative notes inside.
“For the fishing,” he said. “You keep claiming the same fish gets bigger every year. We need a record.”
Harold opened it and wrote a date on the first page. Underneath, he noted that Mateo lost a lure before anybody caught anything last time.
His friend protested the relevance. Ethan said records needed context.
The joke followed them to the door.
Afterward, Harold laid out his clothes and checked the appointment details once. He did not rehearse the denial again. The recording had preserved it. Tonight, he wanted to sleep without giving Cross the last voice in the room.
The trial concerned Cross's conduct and the charged official account. Related proceedings would address Stroud's alleged role. The court managed the overlapping evidence carefully so the jury would assess the defendant and charges before it rather than convict everyone who appeared in the same department photograph.