“I’d like to be in on it. I’m bored. My soul cries out for a little excitement.”
“Tell it to shut up.”
“Mr. Gunther,” Donnelly said, “kindly remember that Miss Foster is inclined to interpret such personal remarks as sexual harassment.”
“Have I been harassing you sexually, Foster?” Gunther said.
“No.”
“Has anyone?”
“No.”
“You wouldn’t really mind if they did, would you, Foster?”
She looked up at the two men. They both were smiling.
So was Cully.
Before the warning buzzer sounded the end of the recess, District Attorney Owen talked to his witness at the bottom of the spiral staircase leading to the clock tower.
Owen was reluctant to criticize the older man, but for the sake of his case he felt he had to.
“You weren’t very sure of yourself up there,” Owen said. “In fact, you let Donnelly push you around.”
“I did the best I could.”
“All that stuff about cold-water drowning, you never mentioned any of it to me.”
“It’s a relatively new field.”
“I think you should have told me. It would have given me a chance to be better prepared. In a case like this surprises can be disastrous...”
“It seemed unlikely that Donnelly knew about or would try to use this cold-water rescue stuff.”
“What are the chances that Mrs. Pherson died the way he suggested, after she was in the water?”
“My guess is one in a million.”
“Then it didn’t happen?”
“No.”
“Why are you so positive now when you were so hesitant on the stand?”
“I’m not under oath. And I’m not facing Donnelly.” A gust of cold air circled down the spiral staircase, and Woodbridge shivered. “It’s his righteousness that scares me. He comes riding in on a white horse to rescue an underdog, some Mexican or black or prostitute, and he doesn’t care how much shit the horse scatters or whose fan it hits.”
The fifteen-minute recess which stretched to half an hour had apparently agreed with Donnelly. He took his place at the lectern, this time without notes except for a single sheet of yellow paper from a legal pad. He watched almost benevolently as Woodbridge returned to the stand.
“Dr. Woodbridge, I would like to call your attention to people’s exhibits numbers seventeen and nineteen. Miss Foster, are those available?”
“Right here, sir.”
Number 17 was a picture of the right profile of Madeline Pherson, showing only her head. Number 19 showed the left profile.
“Did you have occasion to examine Mrs. Pherson’s ears, Dr. Woodbridge?”
“Yes.”
“Was there anything peculiar about Mrs. Pherson’s ears?”
“Not peculiar, no. I saw that they’d both been pierced for earrings.”
“Is there any tearing of the flesh such as might be caused by someone yanking earrings off during or after the commission of a crime such as robbery or murder? It’s a not uncommon injury among victims of violence. To repeat the question, was there any evidence that Mrs. Pherson’s earrings had been forcibly removed?”
“No.”
“What do you deduce from this?”
“That she took them off herself.”
Over the district attorney’s objection, Woodbridge’s answer was allowed to stand.
“To pursue an entirely different line of question, Dr. Woodbridge, can you tell us the state of your health?”
“My health?”
“Yes. Do you have good health, fair, bad?”
“Fair.”
“Are you suffering from any chronic condition which might interfere with the performance of your job?”
“I believe my job performance is satisfactory.”
“I will repeat the question and ask you to give a more responsive answer. Do you suffer from any chronic physical ailment which might impair your ability to perform your job?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You are not sure?”
“The only way I can answer that without going into detail is to say that I am qualified to do my work properly.” Donnelly approached the witness stand. “Will you take this piece of paper and hold it out two or three feet in front of you?”
“I object, Your Honor,” Owen said. “I see no purpose in this line of questioning, no relevance to this case.”
“The purpose and relevance will emerge in a moment, Your Honor,” Donnelly said. “If you will direct the witness to do as I requested—”
Before Donnelly could finish the sentence and the judge could rule on the DA’s objection, Woodbridge stretched out his hand, took the piece of paper and held it at arm’s length. Then he turned his head away as if he didn’t want to see what was happening to the paper. It was shaking, slightly at first, then increasing to the point where the paper crackled.
“Are you nervous, Dr. Woodbridge?” Donnelly said.
“No.”
“Your hand is trembling. Is there any reason for this?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell us what that reason is?”
Owen folded his arms across his chest in a gesture of self-defense, afraid something was going to happen but not knowing what it could be.
The judge knew. “Mr. Donnelly, is it necessary to pursue this line of questioning?”
“I believe that Dr. Woodbridge’s answer will have some bearing on his previous testimony. I need not remind Your Honor that the phrase ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ is of great importance in a criminal trial.”
“That’s right, Mr. Donnelly. You needn’t remind me.”
“Then may I repeat the question to Dr. Woodbridge?”
“Go ahead.”
“Dr. Woodbridge, you stated a minute ago that you were not nervous,” Donnelly said. “You have participated in many criminal prosecutions and have established a reputation for coolness and composure. Why are your hands trembling now?”
The doctor’s answer was slow and almost inaudible. “I have Parkinsonism.”
“Will you speak a little more loudly so the jurors are sure to hear you?”
“I have Parkinson’s disease.”
“Would you explain what that is?”
“It is a degenerative disease affecting motor function — that is, body movements.”
“Are these movements involuntary?”
“Yes.”
“The medical term for this is resting tremor, is it not?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have akinesia or bradykinesia — that is, slowness of movement?”
“Sometimes.”
“Do you also have an increase of rigidity?”
“Yes.”
“Speech difficulty?”
“Sometimes.”
“What causes all this?”
“They don’t know why people get Parkinsonism.”
“What I meant was: What causes the symptoms?”
“A lesion in that part of the brain that controls body movement.”
“Can this lesion of the brain cause confusion?”
“It may cause what is mistaken for confusion because it sometimes affects the ability to control speech.”
“Does this lesion of the brain impair the ability to think, to make judgments, to assess facts?”
“No.”
“Are you being medicated for your disease?”
“Yes.”
“Does the medication impair you in any way? Does it cause confusion or uncertainty?”
“No. No. I am not confused. I can think—” He crushed the sheet of paper and threw it on the floor. “I can think per — I can think perfect — perfectly. My mind... very clear.”
The district attorney’s objection and the judge’s gavel sounded simultaneously.
“Court is adjourned until tomorrow at ten o’clock,” the judge said. “The jury is admonished not to discuss this case with each other or anyone else and not to read or watch any news coverage pertaining to this trial.”