DC By the Book

Excerpt: Tashera exited the store, turned up the volume on her iPod and took a left up the street. Her house in Barry Farms was a short five-block walk away. At the end of the first block, the car with the tinted windows began to follow her. Tashera cut through an open parking lot and the car pulled in front of her.

Excerpt: Sheila Odom stood in the corner of the holding cell in the 7th District police station. She'd been thrown into the cell after her altercation with DeCalia's mom. She looked down at her pants and noticed that the left leg of her sweat pant was torn. She looked around the cell. There were eleven other detainees in the cell. She looked over at a clock that was hanging outside the cell. It was already early evening and she hadn't talked to Tashera or Khalil all day.

Excerpt: In the District of Columbia Superior Court Building, DeCalia Thomas and Jessica Barnes sat side by side at the defense table with their lawyers on their opposite sides. Behind them sat Anita Thomas and her son, Li'l Tommy, Lenise Barnes, and a horde of spectators. On the other side of the courtroom, the prosecutor sat flanked by two others at his table. Sheila Odom, Tashera, Khalil, and Detectives Stewart and Rodriguez sat closest to the prosecutor with Mr. Ryland sitting way in the back of the courtroom.