"Miss Sebold, I believe that you testified that you were headed into Thorden Park on May eighth around midnight. Is that right?"
"Yes."
"You were coming from Westcott Street?"
"Yes."
"Did you go through an entrance through the park there, like a gateway?"
"There is a bathhouse and there is pavement in front of the house, and I went on the pavement and then it continues on a brick path by the pool and I walked on that brick path."
"So that the bathhouse, then, is at the perimeter of the pool, on the Westcott side?"
"Yes."
"The path you are talking about takes you right into the center of the park and right out on the other side, would it?"
"Yes, it would."
"You started to go down that path?"
"Yes, I did."
"You testified today that the whole area was surrounded by lights and that the lighting was quite good?"
"Yes, I did."
"Do you remember testifying in a preliminary examination on this case?"
"Yes, I did." I hated these questions. Who wouldn't remember? But I held my sarcasm in check.
"Do you remember saying that there were some lights on anyway from the bathhouse but-"
"What page?" Mastine asked.
"Page four, the preliminary exam."
"Is this the preliminary exam?" Gorman asked, holding up a group of papers.
"Yes," Paquette said.
"Line fourteen. I think there are some lights from my way to the bathhouse I could see behind. It was dark, but not black behind me.' "
I remembered my phrase "dark but not black."
"Yes, I said that."
"Isn't that a little bit different than saying you were surrounded by lights on all sides and quite good lighting?"
I knew what he was doing.
"It may sound more dramatic to say surrounded by lights. The light was there and I saw what I saw."
"My question is, was it dark but not black the way you testified in the preliminary, or was it quite good lighting, surrounded by lights, the way you testified today?"
"When I said quite good lighting, I meant quite good lighting in the dark."
"Okay. Now, you went about how far into the park before you were first accosted?"
"I went past the bathhouse and past the gate and the fence that is along the pool and about ten feet past that fence, and then I was taken by the man."
"How many feet or yards would it be from the entrance to the park until that point that you described as ten feet beyond?"
"Two hundred feet."
"About two hundred feet? You were into the park about two hundred feet when you were first accosted?"
"Yes, I was."
"Did that person come up from behind you?"
"Yes, he did."
"Grabbed you from behind?"
"Yes, he did."
"You struggled at that point?"
"Yes, I did."
"Did that struggle take a long time?"
"Yes."
"About how long?"
"About ten or fifteen minutes."
"Now, there came a point when this individual took you from where you were first accosted into another area of the park. Is that right?"
"It wasn't another area. It was just further in."
"Further into the park?"
"Not further into the park but-on and outside the-we struggled outside the tunnel and then he took me inside the tunnel."
"Could you describe this tunnel for me?"
The questions were fast and furious. I had to breathe quickly to keep up. I couldn't see anything but Paquette's lips moving and the beads of sweat above them.
"Well, I keep calling it a tunnel because somebody told me that it was a tunnel leading up to the amphitheater. From what I see, and it doesn't have-you can't go farther into it than a distance of about ten feet. It is more like a cave and an arch. It has got stonework above it and a gate in front of it."
"How deep does it go in there, from the gate to the wall?"
"I would say about ten, fifteen feet at the most."
"At the most?" he said. It felt like a sudden, unexpected parry in a fencing match. "I ask you to take a look at exhibit number four, which has been received into evidence, and I ask you, do you recognize that?"
"Yes, I do."
"What is that?"
"That is the path by which he took me to the tunnel and that is the gate in front of the tunnel, the opening of the gate."
"So if we were looking at this picture, and would he have taken you farther down that path walking, and I would call it into the picture, or am I misstating-"
"The tunnel is behind the gate, or the cave is behind the gate."
Suddenly it dawned on me what he was doing. All the gate and tunnel questions, the rapid fire on where I was coming from, going to, how many feet it was or wasn't. He was trying to wear me out.
"Could you point out to me any other spotlight or streetlights that you see in the picture?"
I sat forward on my seat and studied exhibit four closely. I was attentive; I waited to form the answers that would equal him move for move.
"I don't see any streetlights, except right up here on that tip there is alight."
"Way in the back of the picture?"
"Yes."
"Are there any lights there that weren't depicted in this photograph?"
"Yes."
"There are?" he said, again the same disbelieving tone, meant to imply that I was really a bit insane, wasn't I? "They are missing from the picture?" he said. He smiled up at the judge, bemused.
"They are not in the picture, no," I said. "That is because the picture doesn't show the whole area."
All of what wasn't said in every move of his-his insinuations, what he implied-I tried to answer by being as clear and controlled as possible.
Quickly, he pushed forward another photo. "This is exhibit number five, do you recognize that?"
"Yes, I do."
"That is the area where you were assaulted; is that right?"
"Yes, it is."
"Is there any lighting in that picture, any artificial lights?"
"No. I do not see any lighting and you could see the place, and you-there must be some light."
"The question is," he said, pressing in, "do you see any artificial lighting? Of course there are police lights flashing into the picture."
"I see no artificial lights," I said, "and it is only a picture of the stone, and there can't be lights in the stone," I said, looking up at him and at the rest of the court.
"That probably would be true." His lips curled. "About how much time would you say that you spent in that area?"
"I would say about an hour."
"About an hour?"
"A little bit more."
"I am sorry?" He cocked his hand to his ear.
"I said an hour or a little bit more."
"An hour or a little bit more? How much time did you spend on the pathway that led up to the area we are talking about in exhibit number five?"
"On the pathway about two minutes. Right outside the cave about fifteen minutes." I wanted to get it right.
"All right. So you were on the pathway for about two minutes?"
"Right."
"The area outside of the cave, as depicted in exhibit five, for about fifteen minutes?"
"Yes."
"The area actually in the cave for about a little over an hour?"