A side-by-side comparison of the deputy’s accusation table and Evelyn’s raw RT-PCR cycles. The deputy claimed the threshold cycles had been “adjusted.” Anya highlighted the lab’s standard operating procedure, which required normalization—a step the deputy had conveniently omitted.
She started typing.
Outside, the rain stopped. Somewhere in the building, Evelyn Meeks was crying with relief. And Anya Kostas, for the first time in three days, smiled at a PDF. prima facie pdf
At 4:47 PM, she walked into the judge’s chambers. He was a large man with small glasses and smaller patience. He took the tablet, scrolled through the prima facie PDF without expression, and set it down. A side-by-side comparison of the deputy’s accusation table
A string of emails. The deputy, three weeks before filing his complaint, had written to a rival lab: “I can sink her. Just need to frame the data right.” Outside, the rain stopped
“Then you know I’m not deciding who’s guilty. Just whether your client has a story worth hearing.”
“I do, Your Honor.”