Desperate Measures (39 page)

“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 scraping 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 passed 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 Coke 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.

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 hell 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.

Shelley 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 Shelley lingered in the corridor a minute after the others entered the courtroom. “Stan Harrelman,” Shelley 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 overrehearsed, 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 glass 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 glass 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 sunglasses.”

“I see. Where were the sunglasses?”

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

“Did you see the person wearing the sunglasses?”

“No, sir. Just sunglasses. 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?”