The Devil's Advocate

Two

In September 2016, Heather Kimberly Chandler was murdered by her best friend Veronica Sawyer.

Ask anybody in Sherwood, and they will tell you exactly that; no hesitation, no doubt.

As typical in any small town, the rumors spread like wildfire, the hows and the whys changing depending on who you ask. But one fact always remained the same: it was Veronica.

Cady doesn't have a lot of recollection of the events. She was only twelve when it happened, and back then, her parents would speak about it in hushed tones and grow quiet when she entered the room. But she learned most of the details through the years, by listening to the whispers in the hallways of Northshore, and to the Plastics on the rare occasions the subject was brought up by them, and eventually, Cady was able to paint a clear enough picture of what happened.

Heather and Veronica were part of the same clique in high school, alongside two other girls, Heather Duke and Heather McNamara. There was a party where Heather and Veronica fought. Veronica slept with Heather's boyfriend, Kurt Kelly, as a way to get back at her. Heather found the pictures on Kurt's phone three days later (when Cady had asked during lunchtime what kind of pictures they were, Regina just snickered at her) and posted them all over social media to shame her ex-best friend. A week later, Heather went missing.

People said Veronica did it because she wanted Heather out of the way so she could be with Kurt. Others said it was to get her revenge on Heather for humiliating her; the two girls had been playing that game, and Veronica simply wanted to win.

Cady never believed in any of it.

It was true, she didn't know Veronica very well. The girl was 5 years older than her, so obviously they didn't share a table at lunchtime or spent their Fridays watching movies together, but Cady knew her enough. Back in 2016, she was new in town, and the list of people she was familiar with (as in she could see their faces in the check-out line and not only remember their names but was actually able to carry a conversation with them withouth feeling uncomfortable and mumbling out weird sentences, like that time she meant to say and started saying cool, and ended blurting out grool to the guy at the cashier) was minuscule, but Veronica was one of them.

Heather and Regina were stepsisters. Mrs. George married the then recently widowed Dr. Gregory Chandler (M.D, F.A.C.S, A.S.P.S and a bunch of other abbreviations he makes sure to mention every single time Cady sees him) when Regina was 5 and Heather 10. 

Cady became friends with Regina in her very first year at Sherwood, and ever since then, Cady constantly found herself at Regina's house after school. On the rare occasions, Heather was home when Cady was there, she was always accompanied by her friends, who looked at Cady like her presence was insulting them.

Except Veronica. Veronica was the nicest of them all. Every time she saw Regina berating one of the other plastics, she would stand up to her. Sure, unlike the girls, Veronica was older and didn't go to the same school as them; she didn't have to worry about whether she would be allowed to sit at their table or if Regina was going to spread nasty rumors about her; she didn't have anything to lose, but she could have turned a blind eye or laugh like the other Heathers, but she never did that.

One time, Veronica encountered Cady crying in the kitchen after being the latest target of Regina's malicious comments. Veronica gave Cady a tissue and a glass of water to calm her down, and when that didn't work, she gave her a hug and told her Regina was just an insecure mean girl, and that she didn't have any real power against Cady.

To this day, Cady has a hard time believing that that same girl would be capable of doing something so cruel.

The murders aren't a subject people in Sherwood like to talk about, so every single time Cady tries to bring it up, to talk about how quickly the police closed the case, how little investigation they did, and how sketchy everything seemed, she was shut down quickly. Her parents, her friends, and the old lady at the grocery store that one time, they all said it was too heavy a subject and she needed to stop thinking about it.

So when Cady, in her first year of law school, got assigned a project in her Criminal Law class to write about a crime and the role the law enforcement played in it, she didn't think twice about what she would write about.

Her teacher tried to talk her out of it.  Professor Williams said it was a sensitive topic, and perhaps she should write about something else (maybe she could talk about the drunk burglar that broke into people's houses and only stole their flip flops, he had suggested). But Cady put her foot down (because thanks to Regina, she knows that sometimes taking no for an answer is unacceptable), and eventually Professor Willams caved in, as long as she guaranteed him she would not overstep any boundaries such as reaching out to the families of both Veronica and Heather.

Cady promised him she wouldn't. She would do anything for a chance to finally dig deeper into the case. Because Cady believes Veronica is innocent. And she's going to prove it.