Sally's Bones by MacKenzie Cadenhead

Gunn.”
    Sally no longer felt like laughing. Why would the D.C. call Tommy? While she knew they had had their differences, she hadn’t expected him to play for the other side. As Tommy took the stand, he kept his eyes trained on the ground. Sally heard a small cheer break out from the crowd. One of the PAD protestors was waving at Tommy. Sally shook her head in disbelief. It was his mom.
    â€œMr. Gunn, can you tell us about a particular fight you and the accused’s owner had during recess a few months back?”
    Tommy shrugged. “I wouldn’t exactly call it a fight.”
    The D.C. clarified, “Disagreement, then. When did it happen, and what was it about?”
    Tommy stared at Sally for a long time without saying a word. She glared back at him until he finally looked away.
    â€œIt was the first day back at school after Skeletor, I mean, Bones, showed up at Viola Vanderperfect’s birthday party,” Tommy explained. “I’d seen Sally arguing with you and Officer Stu earlier that morning and when I asked her about it, she freaked out.”
    â€œFreaked out?” the D.C. asked. “How exactly did she ‘freak out’?”
    â€œShe yelled at me for getting her dumb dog’s name wrong and then told me to get lost.” Tommy looked to Sally again. “I wasn’t trying to make her mad. I just wanted to be nice.” The audience aww ed. Sally began to get scared.
    â€œBut if you were just being nice, Tommy, wouldn’t you say that Miss Simplesmith’s reaction had nothing to do with your actions and must have been because she was on edge trying to cover up her companion’s crimes? Couldn’t it be that she was taking her stress out on you?”
    The audience leaned in, waiting for Tommy’s accusation. Sally glanced back at Mrs. Gunn, who was hugging her picket sign and nodding to her son encouragingly. Somehow, Tommy Gunn had become an incredibly sympathetic witness for the prosecution.
    â€œMaybe,” he finally replied. “But I wouldn’t know for sure, because when I went to find her later at the garbage shed where we sometimes hang out—”
    â€œWha-what did you say?” the D.C. asked, flummoxed.
    â€œI said I went looking for her at the garbage shed that we all know about and can go to any time we want.” Tommy glanced quickly at Sally, who could have sworn she saw him wink.
    â€œNo further questions for this witness,” the D.C. muttered quickly. “He’s dismissed.”
    Though the gathered crowd had not yet caught on, Sally understood exactly the opening Tommy had just given her.
    â€œWait, I have a question,” she said before Tommy had moved from his seat. “Tommy, you said that everyone knew about the garbage shed where Bones and I sometimes hung out, correct?”
    â€œYep,” he replied, coolly.
    â€œSo if everyone knew about it, anyone could have gone to it at any time, correct?”
    â€œYep.”
    â€œTherefore it stands to reason that anyone who knew about it and had access to it could have put the stolen bones there, thus making the D.C.’s assertion that the stolen bones found in the shed could only have belonged to Bones incorrect. Correct?”
    Tommy hit his forehead with the heel of his palm. “Gosh, I guess you’re right. I suppose anyone who knew about the shed could have been the real bone snatcher. Maybe it wasn’t Bones after all.”
    â€œThank you, Tommy,” Sally said, and she meant it. “This witness is dismissed.”
    As Tommy left the stand, the crowd heatedly discussed his testimony. Realizing he wouldn’t quiet them any time soon, Officer Stu called a ten-minute recess.
    â€œI’d like to wrap this up,” he told counsel as he headed inside the school for a bathroom break. “And I’d prefer not to have any more unreliable testimony about Bones’s guilt or reference to the pile of bones