Barbara Holloway: Desperate Measures Part 28

"And when he got back, how long was it before you started to drive again?"

"I don't know, half a minute maybe." He looked very uncertain, as if he was not used to noticing time in such detail.

"Then you drove a quarter of a mile on that road to the bridge. How long do you think that took?"

"I don't know. It's slow because it's curvy, maybe another minute."

"So altogether you think you were on the old road about seven or eight minutes?"

"I guess that's about right." Clearly he had no idea if that was right or even almost right.

"The bridge is one and a tenth miles from The Station, isn't it?"

"I don't know for sure. About that."

"Did you speed going to The Station?"

"No, sir."

"So if you were driving sixty miles an hour, you'd cover that one mile and a little more in a little over one minute. Is that right?"

Poor Ben, Barbara thought; he looked more confused than confident.

"I guess so," he said.

"Then you had to park your car and walk into The Station, another few seconds. Did you spend any time in the car before you went inside?"

"No, sir. We just piled out and went in."

"Did you notice what time it was when you entered The Station?"

Ben nodded, considerably more at ease. "Yes, I did. The clock on the wall had twenty minutes to seven. I noticed because I remember thinking that was plenty of time to eat a hamburger and get to the school in time."

And so it was cinched, Barbara thought when Novak finished with Ben Hennessey and turned to her with a slight smile. "Your witness, Counselor." He had proved that during the crucial minutes, no one could have approached the Marchand house by road or by foot except through the woods from Minick's property, or by way of the forest and steep hill behind both Marchand's house and Minick's. She nodded and stood up.

She smiled at Ben Hennessey, who was regarding her warily. "Ben," she asked pleasantly, "why did you stop at that point on the road instead of driving all the way to Daniel's house?" She walked to the transparency and put her finger on the red circle.

"Daniel asked me to stop there," he said.

"Did he say why he wanted to get out there and run the rest of the way?"

"No, ma'am."

"I see. Did it strike you as odd that he didn't want to be driven all the way home?"

"No."

"Did you ever pick him up or drop him off right at his house?"

He glanced uneasily at the prosecutor's table, then out at the spectators, and finally back to Barbara, and shook his head. "No, I never did."

"Why was that?" she asked.

"He asked me not to," he said after a moment.

"He must have given you a reason at some point," she said. "What was his reason?"

"I think his father didn't want him driving around with kids," he said after a swift glance at the spectators.

"Have you ever been cited for a traffic violation?"

"Objection," Novak called out. "This is getting far afield from his direct. Irrelevant."

"It is relevant," Barbara said. "The state's case rests heavily on those minutes Daniel spent going and coming from his house. It is relevant to learn why he did that, why he didn't get a ride all the way home."

"I'll allow the question and answer," Judge Mac said. "However, if it turns out to be irrelevant, I'll reverse that decision and strike it from the record." He turned to Ben Hennessey and nodded. "You may answer the question."

"You mean have I had a ticket? No, never."

"What kind of car were you driving that day?"

"An 'eighty-seven Ford four-door."

"Is it your own car?"

"No. It's my father's. He lets me drive it."

"Stick shift?"

He said yes.

Barbara went to her table; Sh.e.l.ley handed her a model car, and she took it back to the witness stand. "Is this a model of the car you were driving?"

He grinned. "That's it, but mine is a little rusty, not shiny like that."

She smiled and nodded. "When you pulled up to stop, which side of the road were you on? The creek side, or nearer the orchard?"

"The orchard."

"Still facing east. All right. Then you started to make a turn. Will you use this model on the stand there to show the court how you maneuvered to make your turn? Let's say this line here is the edge of the road by the orchard." She pointed to a joint in the wood.

Judge Mac was leaning forward to watch, and Jase Novak had left his table to come closer in order to see.

Looking very uncomfortable, Ben Hennessey began to back up the little car and turn it. "Steve DeFrisco was back there to tell me when I got near the boulders," he said, stopping the car, then starting to move forward. He did it again, then said, "Steve said a car was coming, and I pulled back in." He returned the model car to the original position.

"Whose car was coming?" Barbara asked.

"Mrs. Marchand."

"Was she coming fast?"

"No, ma'am. And she stopped when she saw me in the road. Then she drove past us."

"Did you wave to her?"

"Yes."

"Did she wave back?"

"No. I think she was concentrating on not sc.r.a.ping her car on mine."

"All right. Then what did you do?"

He described the same maneuver she had demonstrated to her father, pulled back to the side again, and said Ms. Franz drove past.

"Did you wave to her?"

"Yes. She stopped and yelled out her window to see if we were having car trouble. I said no, and she drove on."

"Then what?"

He finished turning the car and parked it at the orchard side of the road.

"Why didn't you simply pull out onto the road, then across the little ditch, and back up again to turn?" She moved the car as she spoke. "It would have been much simpler, wouldn't it?"

"I guess, but I didn't want to leave car tracks in the orchard. Mr. Marchand was pretty particular about things like that."

"Were you afraid you might get in trouble with him?"

"Not me. But Daniel might have. He said not to go up into the orchard, and I didn't."

"All right. Then what?"

"Then Steve got back in the car, and we talked about what we would do if Daniel didn't make it back by five minutes."

Barbara smiled. "What was the decision?"

"To take off," he said sheepishly. "That's what we said. I don't know if we would have. He came back in time."

"You said earlier that he was puffing and sweating and you waited a minute for him to catch his breath. Were you concerned about him?"

"Worried? No. He was just out of breath. He got in the backseat with his feet out and his head kind of down, the way we do when we need to get our breath, and I waited for him to pull his feet inside."

"Did he say anything?"

"No. Steve was talking about the track-team party. If there had been more pizza, we wouldn't have to spend our money on hamburgers, like that."

"Did Daniel say anything on the way to The Station?"

"I don't remember anything."

"When you arrived at The Station, you said you all went right in. Is that right?"

"We all got out of the car right away, but we sort of separated. I had a date, and Steve wanted to go to the bathroom and wash his hands."

"Did you see Daniel after you left the car?"

He shook his head. "I didn't notice him again."

"Did he go inside The Station?"

"I don't know," he said. "I wasn't paying any attention to him."

When Barbara sat down again, while Novak was reinforcing the points he wanted to make, she wrote a note and pa.s.sed it to Frank. Bailey work. Did Daniel go in, did he eat, what did he do at The Station?

Novak called Peter Navarro next, but only to confirm the story Ben Hennessey had already told, and to attest to the high quality and accuracy of his stopwatch. He had not noticed what time they arrived at the old road or what time they left. Novak finished quickly.

Barbara did not belabor the time details. Instead, she asked, "At The Station, did you stay with Daniel?"

"No. I got a c.o.ke and went around back to the picnic table with some guys I knew."

"Did you see where Daniel went when you arrived at The Station?"

He shook his head. "He knelt down, tying his shoe or something, and I went on in."

When Petey Navarro was excused, Judge Mac decided it was time for the luncheon break. They would resume at one-thirty, he said as if in warning, hardly necessary. This had been an exemplary trial, Barbara thought, watching him stride from the courtroom. No yelling, no scenes, very polite on all sides, and fast. A model trial, so far.

34.

"I want to talk to you," Dolly Feldman said icily to Barbara. "And I want to talk to my son." They were still in the courtroom, preparing to leave for lunch.

"I'm sorry," Barbara said. "I have to work."

"And we have to consult with Alex," Frank said. "Perhaps after court recesses for the day would be a better time."

Dolly's lips tightened. "I insist on talking to my son. Alexander, we have a suite at the Hilton. You can have lunch there just as well as anywhere else."

"Mrs. Feldman," Will Thaxton said, "some of us are under court orders to guarantee the safe arrival of Alex in court every day-"

"I don't care about court orders! I'm his mother! You can come, too, if you insist."

Suddenly Alex said, "She's right. We should talk. Is there anything you need me for right now?" he asked Barbara.