When Lisa was busy transferring the money to Huib, a new mail just arrived. Vaguely she recognized the sender's name, but couldn't remember who it was. She clicked on it, saw the sign of the court and knew it was from the judge who would handle her trial.

She read:

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Dear Lisa,

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Thanks to the information you gave me with your reporting for your trial, I already feel a little like I know you. What I have read and seen has touched me deeply, especially infuriated me. The hell you have gone through is beyond description. You did very well to report it.

I am happy to handle your case and hope to do so not only according to all applicable rules, but above all from my heart.

Next Thursday, all of the defendants will be arraigned. You can find the times of those hearings in the attachment.

I invite you and your lawyer Ellen Hendriks already earlier than the first hearing, namely at 9 o'clock, so that we can get to know each other sufficiently to be able to fight properly.

I suggest that you report to the court at a quarter to 9. You will find what you need in the attachment.

One of our staff members will escort you to the appropriate courtroom at 9:00 a.m. for our introductory meeting.

Anyone who would like to support you is welcome at all the meetings!

Will you let us know which people are coming with you?

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The email was signed with a digital signature and underneath it said:

Johan Simons, your judge

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Lisa stared at the email and read the contents again. It didn't say it, but somewhere she had the feeling, that the judge was already vindicating her, acknowledging that she had been through hell. Well, the screenshots spoke for themselves, of course, and Ellen had also been in touch.

Lisa looked up, saw that Sjaak was looking at her questioningly. "Would you like to read this mail too and tell me what impression you have of it?"

Sjaak took the laptop from her and read Johan's mail.

"To be honest," he said when he had finished reading, "to be wonderfully honest, Johan gives me the impression that he has already taken sides. Those defendants will still be allowed to defend themselves. I assume that they will have their lawyers present to get out of the punishment. But Johan, I think, has already sensed the fork in the road.. Extraordinary!

Bennie, Joke, have you ever heard of a judge sending a personal message to someone who has filed a reporting for trial?"

"Personal?" asked Bennie in surprise. "What do you mean? I think they just send an invitation, a subpoena and only discuss what happened in court."

Lisa slid her laptop over to Bennie and Joke. With rising astonishment they read Johan's email. Bennie checked the email address, the logo. "It really does look like it came from a judge," he said.

"At least the name is right," Lisa said.

Joke responded with moist eyes, "It touches me, it makes me feel emotional. Looks like you're going to have a great judge, Lisa. I've read subpoenas before, but I'm almost certain that most judges don't handle it this way. Very nice... yes, really very nice!"

Joke handed the laptop back to Lisa, and Lisa clicked answer. For a moment she wondered how she would email, how she would address him. Since he himself had just used his name, she decided to start with that:

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Dear Johan,

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Thank you very much for the invitation. We will do everything we can to be on time!

I also want to thank you for sending me such a personal message. I also let Sjaak, my partner, and both the security guards who are here in the house read it. We all came to the conclusion that it is probably not usual, for a judge to send such a personal message! I want to let you know that it touched all of us. It did me good, gave me hope. Thank you so much!

I will make another list of the people who will come with me. You will get that from me as soon as possible.

See you next Thursday!

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Kind regards,

Lisa Martens

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She hesitated for a moment about her last name. It was her own surname, but deep inside she already felt more like Lisa Mulder, the wife of Sjaak Mulder. For practical reasons she decided to use her own last name anyway, because that was the name she was known by at the court. She read her email again and sent it off.

Then she phoned Margreet and a little later Annerieke. She told them that the court case was already on Thursday next week and she read them Johan's personal message. They were also pleasantly surprised by the content and helped her to make a list of the people who wanted to be present at the trial.

To chapter 205. Organization for the day of the trial

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