The Silent Witness by Sara Bander

A Trial Against Power

A senator found dead in a locked office. A prosecutor chasing justice. A silent witness who holds the key. In a city ruled by secrets, the truth might cost them everything.

A locked room. A dead senator. A city trembling in silence.

In a city ruled by power and secrets, the truth doesn’t just hide, it is hunted.

Senator James Harding is found dead in his private office. No prints. No note. No way in, or out. It should’ve ended there.

But it didn’t.

Prosecutor Emma Carter isn’t one to back down. Fierce, brilliant, and unshakably loyal to justice, she takes on the case that could end her career, or expose everything. Her only lead? A man who hasn’t spoken a word in three years.

Jonah Reeve was once a fearless investigative journalist. Until the night a car left him broken and voiceless. But silence doesn’t mean surrender. Jonah remembers. And now, through trembling hands and American Sign Language, he’s ready to tell the story they tried to bury.

As Emma and Jonah unravel a trail of hidden files, whispered threats, and buried witnesses, they discover something more dangerous than a murder: a conspiracy stretching into the highest offices of justice itself.

But some people don’t want the truth uncovered. And they’re willing to kill, again, to keep it quiet.

A silent witness. A fearless prosecutor. A city on the edge.

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Excerpt from The Silent Witness: A Trial Against Power © Copyright 2025 Sara Bander

PROLOGUE
WHISPERS BEFORE THE STORM

There was a time when truth was strong. It lived in books, in voices, in brave people who stood up and told it. But that time is gone.

Now, the truth hides. It is covered by rules, files, and screens. It can be changed, erased, or shaped like clay. In this city, the truth is not remembered. It is controlled.

No one questions it.

No one except one man.

He was not rich. He was not powerful. But he had something the others didn’t: a memory no one could touch.

He saw something they wanted buried. And they tried to silence him.

They almost did.

But silence isn’t always empty.

Sometimes, silence remembers more than words.

A cold rain hit the windows of the tall courthouse downtown. The wind howled between the old buildings like a ghost. Inside, lights flickered in long marble halls. It was late. Most workers had gone home. But not everyone.

Behind a locked office door, a man sat alone. His name was Senator James Harding. His suit was still perfect, his silver pen shining beside him. The room was neat. Nothing seemed wrong.

Until a sound soft, sharp broke the silence.

A gunshot.

And then… nothing.

When the guards broke in later, the door was locked from the inside. No sign of a break-in. No prints. Just Harding’s lifeless body slumped over his desk. One bullet. Right through the heart.

A sealed crime.

A sealed truth.

The next morning, the news exploded: SENATOR FOUND DEAD IN LOCKED OFFICE. No one knew how. No one knew why. But whispers spread fast.

Some said it was suicide.

Some said it was revenge.

Some said… he knew too much.

And one name kept showing up in hidden files and old rumors:

Jonah Reeve.