Barbara Holloway: Desperate Measures Part 29

She shook her head. "It can wait until court recesses later. But I'll need you then."

"There's a perfectly private back entrance to the Hilton," Dolly said. "We'll meet you there." With a triumphant glance at Barbara, she turned and left with her husband, who had not said a word and simply looked resigned and thoughtful.

As soon as they were out of hearing range, Barbara said, "Alex, you don't have to go. You should try to relax during the recesses. She probably doesn't realize what a strain this is."

"It's okay," Alex said. "As she said, she's my mother after all. She'll try to talk me into hiring a new lawyer or skipping town, or both. Remember, I lived with her for fourteen years, and in our own way we get along. Now, let's build a little wall around Alex and get the h.e.l.l out of here."

Reluctantly Barbara nodded, then she said, "Be ready to leave by fifteen minutes after one. We'll pick you up at the back entrance."

A few minutes later they watched Alex and Will join Dolly and Arnold Feldman and walk into the Hilton Hotel.

"My office for me," Barbara said then. "There's something I have to look up."

"We can all go there and order some lunch," Frank said, aware that she might forget to order anything until too late.

Bailey drove the van to her office, and they all went inside.

Maria was there, and if she was surprised to see them all, she did not show it. "Lunch for five?" she asked.

"Six," Barbara said. "You have to eat, too. Bailey, did you get someone on finding out if Daniel went into The Station?"

"Yep. Alan and Chris both."

"Good." She followed Bailey into her office, leaving Frank to consult with Maria.

Sh.e.l.ley tagged along after Barbara. "What can I do?"

"Go back through your notes and see when the first mention of Daniel's being at the middle school comes up, or if it does." She thought for a moment, then said, "Nola Hernandez, the school secretary, mentioned a dinner Hilde always treated her teachers to. See if and when it happened."

Bailey headed for the little bar, and she thought irritably that he really did think of it as his; he never asked her permission to help himself the way he always did at her father's office. She opened her safe and brought out a box of files, then began to look for her notes of the conversation she had had with Ruth Dufault many months ago.

At one-fifteen, Alex and Will were waiting at the Hilton, Alex with his back turned, as if reading a poster on the wall near the door. They hurried to get inside the van, and Bailey drove to the courthouse.

Barbara and Sh.e.l.ley lingered in the corridor a minute after the others entered the courtroom. "Stan Harrelman," Sh.e.l.ley said. "He was hall monitor that evening, trying to keep the kids in line, keep the big kids out of the kitchen, whatever monitors do. He said he had to run off a couple of high-school kids. I should go pin that down."

"Go," Barbara said. "Daniel will be on the stand most of the afternoon. I'll fill you in and, as we all know," she added, "Dad will tape everything."

That afternoon the courtroom was filled to capacity for the first time; word had gotten out that the Marchand boy was to testify, and now the media were present in force. How did you feel, Daniel, losing your mother and father both so tragically in just a matter of hours? She shook herself as Judge Mac entered, and they all rose.

Jase Novak called Daniel Marchand. He was an athletic boy, with good muscles, a lithe body that moved with confidence and grace. His hair was black, short and thick, and his eyelashes were beautiful, long and black, the kind girls his age would kill for. With regular features, no distinguishing marks, no glaring flaws and yet no real beauty, either, except his eyelashes, his face was forgettable. He was calm and composed, soft-spoken and to the point. Attentive, with a studious look, he listened to the questions and responded without hesitation. Although he did not sound as if he had been overrehea.r.s.ed, it was apparent that he had covered this same ground many times. He glanced once at Alex, then averted his gaze and did not look in that direction again.

Novak's voice was weighted with sadness, his expression lugubrious. He sounded like a funeral director, Barbara thought. He led Daniel through his brief history of schooling, his scholarship for track at Oregon State University. This was a good boy who had done well in school and was active in his church, without a blemish to shame him.

Finally Novak got to the day of the murder. "What was the atmosphere in your house on the morning of June ninth?"

"Really happy," Daniel said. "We were all sort of hyper."

"Did you discuss plans at breakfast?"

"Yes, sir."

"Please tell the court what was planned for that day."

"I had to go to school for half a day and then help clean the locker room, check lockers, stuff like that. We were having a pizza party for the track team later on. Then I was going to The Station and from there on to the middle school. Rachel was going to go home with Tiffany Ecklund and have dinner at her house, and walk to school later. My mother was running around getting things ready for the graduation at the middle school." His voice broke and he took a sip of water; then, looking at the gla.s.s in his hand, he continued. "She said she would make dinner that morning and be home in time to heat it up later. We were planning on driving home together, all of us, after the graduation party."

"Did your father have any specific plans for the day?"

Daniel shook his head. "I don't think so. He said he'd fix the porch rail that was loose. He was going to eat and then walk to the school." He took another drink of water.

"You're doing fine, Daniel," Novak said kindly. "Take your time."

Daniel set the gla.s.s down and nodded at him.

"That day your plans changed, didn't they?" Novak said. "Will you tell us how that came about?"

"Yes, sir. Sometime in the afternoon I realized I had left my money in my other jeans, and I would have to go home and get it before going to The Station. But our party lasted too late for me to catch the bus and get home and then on to the middle school on time. So I got a ride with Ben Hennessey."

"What was the mood in the car as you rode home?"

"We were laughing, joking, having fun."

"Why did you stop where you did that day?" Novak asked then, as if he had never asked that question before.

Daniel answered it in the same way, as if it were a brand new question. "I was supposed to go to The Station on the bus. My father didn't approve of me taking rides with other kids, so I didn't want to go all the way to the house."

"If he had seen you that day and asked any questions about how you got home, what would you have told him?"

"The truth," Daniel said promptly. "That's why I didn't want to see him."

"All right. About your run, did you have a stopwatch?"

"No, sir."

"So you didn't know at any time how many minutes you were taking? Is that correct?"

"Yes, sir. I just knew I had to hustle, or they'd leave without me."

"At any time during your run to your house and from it later, did you see another person on the property?"

"I think so," Daniel said hesitantly.

"Can you explain what you mean by that?"

"I saw sun reflecting off what I thought were sungla.s.ses."

"I see. Where were the sungla.s.ses?"

"Back near the blackberries. Then I was running behind bushes and I didn't look again."

"Did you see the person wearing the sungla.s.ses?"

"No, sir. Just sungla.s.ses. A flash of sunlight on them. I was watching where I was going, in and out of bushes. I didn't stop to see a person."

"Could you see if that person was wearing a cap?"

"Objection," Barbara said. "Leading question."

"Sustained."

Judge Mac had been watching Daniel closely throughout, and he didn't even glance at Novak or Barbara but kept his gaze on the boy in the witness stand.

"Could you see any other detail at all?" Novak asked then.

"A cap, like a baseball cap. That's what I thought. Then I looked at the bushes and where I was running."

"Did you have the impression that it was a man standing there by the blackberries?"

"I guess so. I didn't think much of anything about it at the time."

Novak nodded. "But you surmised that sungla.s.ses and a cap had to be worn by someone, didn't you?"

"I just didn't think of it at all," Daniel said.

"Are you acquainted with the defendant, Alexander Feldman?"

"I know who he is."

"Do you know where he lives?"

"Yes, sir. In the house next to ours."

"Did you see him on his own property on numerous occasions?"

"Sometimes. Yes, sir."

"How was he dressed on those occasions?"

"He always had on a baseball cap and sungla.s.ses."

"All right. Why did you go to the front of the house instead of using the back door?"

Daniel took another sip of water, then said, "I heard hammering and I thought my father was on the back porch fixing the rail."

"So you got to the house, then what?"

"I ran upstairs and got my money, then down again, just as my mother came from the kitchen with a box. I took the box and she picked up her purse on the table in the hall, and I went out to her car and put the box on the front seat. She got in and started to drive, and I began to run back to Ben's car." His voice was steady through this, but his hands on top of the witness stand were shaking. He put them in his lap.

"Did you speak to your mother?" Novak asked in a low voice.

"Not in the house. I put my finger on my lips. Like this, and she nodded." He held his forefinger to his lips in the universal sign for silence.

"Did she say anything to you?"

Daniel shook his head, then said, "Not then. She stopped at the back door to tell my father that dinner was on the stove."

"Did he say anything?"

"I don't know. I didn't hear anything. He was still hammering."

"Did your mother speak to you before she left?"

"Yes, sir," Daniel said in a near whisper. "At the car she asked me if I wanted a ride. I said no, that Ben was waiting." He picked up his gla.s.s of water, not as if he wanted to drink, but as if he had to do something with his hands.

"Do you know how long you were in the house that day?" Novak asked after a moment.

"I didn't then, but now I do."

"Will you explain to the court how you know?"

"Yes, sir. You and a detective asked me to go through the same motions as I did then. You timed me. It was thirty-nine seconds."

"Do you think that's about the same as it was on June ninth?"

"I think so. I did the same things, ran upstairs to my room, and back down, just like then."

"All right. So you took a total of four minutes and thirty-two seconds to run home, get your money, and run back to the car, and thirty-nine seconds of that time you spent in your house. Is that correct?"

"Yes, sir."

When Barbara stood up for cross-examination, she said, "What I'd like to do is try to pinpoint when you saw the sungla.s.ses and possibly a cap, where you were and where you saw them. I believe Mr. Novak's aerial view will serve, if we remove the transparency first. Or, Your Honor, I have my own aerial view that I could use instead."

"Is there any significant difference?" Judge Mac asked.

"No, they are basically the same."

"Mr. Novak, do you have any objections to the defense using your exhibit?"

"None at all," Novak said. His a.s.sistant got up and removed the transparency, leaving the aerial view on the easel.

"Mr. Marchand," Barbara said then, "if you will, please, I'd like to identify what we are seeing here. Is this your house?"

He said yes, and one by one she pointed to the outbuildings, the garage, then the vegetable garden, and he identified them. When she finished, she said, "You kept an area mowed and landscaped, including the vegetable garden, for about four hundred feet by two hundred. Is that about right?"

He said yes.

"Would you step down and point to the place on the map where you thought you might have seen someone?"

He stood up and approached the map hesitantly, then looked confused by it.