Knight 02.5 - If I'm Dead Read Online Free Page B

materials.”
    â€œDid you see any spots of rust or vegetable materials on the floor of the garage?”
    â€œI did see some rust spots near an old bicycle.”
    â€œAnd were those spots damp?”
    â€œNo.”
    In other words, Saul wasn’t a neat freak who liked to scrub his garage floor. He’d only scrubbed certain spots, i.e., those that were bloodstains. So far so good, on to the finale: Dorian’s findings in the car—the spot of blood on the undercarriage of the seat, which gave me the chance to show the photograph of the car again and the “new” evidence of cleanup.
    â€œDid you find the wipe marks throughout the car?” I asked.
    â€œNo. A search of the entire cabin of the car revealed wipe marks only in the backseat area, including the back of the passenger’s and driver’s seats.”
    It couldn’t have gone any better. I leaned down and asked Bailey if there was anything I’d missed. She shook her head. I sat down. Time for cross.
    Ronnie O’Bryan wisely refrained from getting into Dorian’s credentials—a losing gambit for him since it would only add to her credibility—and went after the damning inferences of the evidence she’d found.
    â€œNow, you’re not trying to say that Melissa got attacked as she pulled that suitcase down off the shelf, are you?”
    â€œCounsel, I’m not trying to say anything. I said what I saw: a suitcase that appeared to be out of place. How it got there, why it got there, is not my business.”
    â€œExactly so. I agree. And so you don’t know whether Melissa pulled down that suitcase and kicked it under the bench and left it that way herself, do you?”
    â€œOf course not—”
    â€œAnd you don’t know whether Melissa deliberately cut herself and wiped the blood on that scarf you found either, do you?”
    With any other witness, I would’ve objected. The questions called for speculation and were argumentative, intended only to broadcast the defense. But when it comes to objections, less is more. Juries hate objections; it makes them wonder what you’ve got to hide. Besides, this was Dorian. I knew fro m hard experience that she hated this kind of conjecturing.
    Dorian glared at O’Bryan. “Counsel, we can sit here all day talking about the things I don’t know. String theory, the God particle, I don’t know about ’em. I describe what I see at crime scenes. That’s what I know. You want to speculate how the suitcase got where it did, how the scarf landed on the floor by the stairs, how the blood got on it, fine. Have at it. But that’s not what I’m here for.”
    A quick glance at the jury told me they were in love with Dorian. Now most of the jurors were smiling, and a few were even chuckling. Score one for the good guys. O’Bryan thanked Dorian and tried to sound as though he meant it. Ronnie had on his poker face, but I was gratified to see that Saul looked worried . That is, until Ronnie sat down and whispered to him. I knew he was telling Saul to chill out. Sure enough, Hildegarde nodded thoughtfully and put on a neutral expression.
    I looked back at Nancy and Bennie to see how they were holding up. It hadn’t been gruesome testimony by any means—at least, not compared to what I’m used to. But Dorian’s testimony had left a clear, if inferential, picture of a violent confrontation in that garage, and somehow her understated delivery had made it even more compelling. Nancy stared straight ahead, covering her mouth with one hand and clutching Bennie’s arm with the other as though it were a life preserver. But Bennie was staring hard at Saul and with such searing intensity it wouldn’t have surprised me to see Saul’s head b urst into flame.
    We moved on. I called Kwan to talk about the blood on the scarf and in the car: it matched Melissa’s. I called a representative of the