[Er - don't for now. Charlie takes a dim view of illegal things in full generality.]

"Mm," says Charlie. "Can let the right people know that's an issue, but if there was a way to make it go away altogether we'd already be doing it. I think Roberts is a solid fellow, though. He'd most likely get the case while Lawrence is on maternity leave."

[It opens an avenue of investigation that both makes you look less like jury bait and that your dad may be tempted to neglect. It's a choice for the lawyer, later, not Charlie,] Bella explains.

"Right, I guess a little town wouldn't have that many judges in it," Bella says aloud.

"Don't have to worry about Roberts," Charlie says, confidently. "Jury might be a problem. There's procedures against jury tampering, but..."

"We might be able to block that," Bella says, "by unorthodox means you don't want details on. Or we can just catch it and after they go through a few juries, Roberts can decide the case without a jury."

Bella is magic and smart and he loves her. So much.

Alice is slowly, tentatively beginning to smile.

[Smiling's gonna look weird, right now,] Bella tells him.

"Right," says Charlie. "Well, I can make the arrest, Bells."

"He's out of town till the end of the week," Bella says.

"Flying in?" Charlie asks. "Could have him picked up at the airport if you know which one."

"Yeah," says Alice, "he's flying. Don't know the airport, though."

And he kind of doesn't care how weird he looks. If feeling overwhelming relief at this point is an abnormal reaction, it shouldn't be.

[It's not about being relieved or not, it's just about the whole thing being a serious matter. But whatever, this is just Charlie, you can pentagon acting for the witness stand.]

"Well, I can see if we can find that out," Charlie says. "With any luck he'll never set foot in your house again, Laney."

"I'll put word around first thing in the morning," Charlie said. "Can I see your list?"

Bella grimly fetches the notebooks.

"He's got an eidetic memory," she explains, as Charlie opens the first. "I wrote everything down from him, but this is straight out of his memories."

"What's the highlighter mean?"

"This color means it left marks and you can prove it - this one means 'jury bait'," Bella says.

Charlie snorts, and starts turning pages, grimmer and grimmer as he goes by.

...It is kind of amazing how that was all totally true and also totally lies.

He watches curiously as Charlie progresses through the book.

Charlie decides he doesn't need to see anymore less than ten skimmed pages in, although he does pick up the second notebook to look up the November incident. "Your mother left her lipstick in your room and - Christ."

Well, Bella did just write that it was for her lipstick "being found" there.

"Christ," repeats Charlie. "I'll handle this first thing in the morning."

"Thanks, Dad," says Bella.

"Yeah," says Alice. "Thanks."

He means it, too.