The Life We Bury

Joe takes home the transcripts he’s received from Berthel. They will call him when the remaining material is ready. He stops at Lila’s apartment, and she answers the door wearing an oversized jersey of the Minnesota Twins—Joe’s favorite baseball team. He tells her he has the files, and she suggests they read the opening statement of the trial.

The prosecution’s statement paints the following picture: Crystal was a happy, normal adolescent girl. She was a cheerleader and had a high school boyfriend, Andy Fisher. Days before her murder, she and Andy were “experimenting…sexually” in his car when Carl saw them. Crystal’s stepfather, Douglas, was strict. If he found out about her and Andy, he would ban her from cheerleading and send her to a private, religious school. Shortly after Carl saw Andy and Crystal, Crystal wrote in her diary about a man who was threatening her and forcing her to perform sexual acts against her will. The prosecution suggests this was Carl, using the sighting of Crystal and Andy to blackmail Crystal. On the day of Crystals’ murder, Andy dropped her off at her home. She ended up at Carl’s home; perhaps she went there to confront him and Carl then killed her.