Balance of Power

    With reluctance, Nolan's eyes followed Walters's to the screen. Picking up a remote control, Walters pressed a button.

    On the screen, John Bowden knelt near a baggage carousel, facing his unwitting victims. He pulled the P-2 from the Lego box, slinging it over his shoulder, his eyes vacant.

    As a bullet tore through Inez Costello's throat, Walters froze the picture.

    'That's the First Lady's mother, of course. In terms of the gun's 'design,' a lucky shot. What follows, as you will see, hews more closely to the P-2's design function.'

    Once more, the picture came to life.

    'No,' Joan Bowden screamed.

    As Sarah flinched, she heard five rapid percussive pops. Henry Serrano fell; then the young blonde student from Stanford, Laura Blanchard; then the second guard, David Walsh. Nolan's eyes became slits. 'All five shots,' Walters explained, 'were meant for his wife. Instead, Bowden killed three strangers.'

    Frozen, the picture captured Mary Costello, scrambling on the carousel. 'That,' Walters continued, 'was when he turned his attention to the plaintiff.'

    Mary Costello jerked into motion, crawling inside the mouth of the baggage tunnel as more bullets struck metal. Sarah's mouth felt dry. 'Fifteen feet,' Walters observed dispassionately. 'Three shots. And still he couldn't hit her.

    'And so he turned to his wife again.'

    Joan Bowden appeared, and then a bullet destroyed her lower face.

This time Walters's click of the remote made Sarah wince. 'Note,' he said, 'the damage done by the Eagle's Claw. Note further that Bowden now has fired ten of them, and that the score stands at two intended victims, three random deaths, and five outright misses.

    Sarah looked away. The film and Walters's eerie commentary had reduced the others to silence. 'The next death,' he opined, 'is where the design of the gun, its forty-bullet magazine, and the design of the bullet itself meet in deadly confluence.'

    With a click of the remote, Marie Costello stared in horror at her mother's ruined face. Then she turned away, eyes shut, doll clutched to her chest.

    'With a ten-bullet magazine,' Walters observed, 'this little girl lives.'

    The picture cut to Bowden. 'Stop,' a man cried out.

    The gun jerked in Bowden's hand. 'In my opinion,' Walters said blandly, 'he didn't mean to shoot. But the trigger of the P-2 can pull at the slightest twitch. As designed.'

    Marie lay amidst the shattered china pieces of her doll. Gaping in horror, Bowden put the gun to his head.

    Walters stopped the tape. 'This is the twelfth shot,' he concluded. 'A not uncommon end to a domestic violence murder. Except that four people died at random, and one intended victim escaped. The plaintiff.'

    On the screen, blood and cerebral matter spewed from Bowden's head. 'Let's take ten minutes,' Nolan said. Perhaps, Sarah thought with a certain bleak amusement, he felt the worst was over.

* * *

    'Picking up your inquiry on design,' Walters said when the break was done, 'Bowden got close because the gun was concealable. The sling enabled him to fire rapidly but randomly, resulting in accidental victims. The magazine gave him an eleventh bullet, and the hair trigger caused him to fire it at Marie. Who died because the Eagle's Claw is designed to kill.

    'Another gun, another bullet, and a ten-clip magazine—or any one of those things—and that murdered child would still be with us.' Pausing, he gave the slightest shrug. 'As for the others, Mr. Nolan, you're free to argue that three of them died at random. But in my opinion, they all died by design.'

    'By Bowden's design,' Nolan corrected tartly. 'Wouldn't you agree that the design of a gun is neutral in itself, and that the responsibility for a murder rests with the murderer, and not the manufacturer?'

    'Agree?' Once more Walters arched his eyebrows. 'No. Not even if you don't impute responsibility for designing a weapon of death.'

    'On what do you base that assertion?'

    'Lexington markets to criminals. You're aware of the SSA magazine which was found in Bowden's possession?'

    Nolan held up a hand. 'Is any part of your opinion, Dr. Walters, based on your belief that Mr. Bowden relied on that advertising in acquiring the P-2? Or even, to a certainty, that he read it?'

    Walters hesitated. 'No,' he answered. 'Not at this time. Though it's certainly reasonable to infer that Bowden saw it.'

    'Perhaps to you,' Nolan said dismissively.

    'Perhaps to me,' Walters answered agreeably. 'Certainly to Lexington. That's why they've worked so hard to place the P-2 in movies and TV crime shows, often in the hands of criminals. Which is appropriate— police don't use this gun.'

    Sarah suppressed a smile. But Nolan was doing what he must—getting Walters to detail the opinions he would render at a trial, however harmful. 'What other evidence,' Nolan persisted, 'do you have which suggests that Lexington 'markets to criminals'?'

    'The same evidence Lexington does. Start with the fact that the increase of gun violence in America coincides with the rise of the handgun. Rarely do hunting rifles show up in crimes, and even the shotgun is statistically insignificant . . .'

    'Every manufacturer in America,' Nolan interjected, 'makes handguns. Does that mean they're marketing to criminals?'

    Walters's eyes grew cold. 'If they are, Mr. Nolan, they're nowhere near as successful as your client.

    'According to the ATF, the P-2 is the number one semiautomatic handgun used in crimes. So criminals have gotten the message, and so has Lexington. Which accounts for the nature of the ad you imply that Bowden never saw.

    'That brings me to a second fact: because California has background checks, thirty percent of guns used in crimes in California come from out of state. Again, the P-2 is the number one semiautomatic crime gun in California. A disproportionate number of those guns originate with sales in Arizona and Nevada. As Lexington surely knows, it sells more guns in Nevada than the local traffic will bear—the so-called flooding phenomenon.

    'If Lexington doesn't believe some of those guns get passed to secondary buyers at gun shows in Nevada, it's because it doesn't want to. But, again, their ad suggests that they know this very well.'

    Having a good expert, Sarah reflected, is akin to driving a Rolls Royce; you can just sit back and enjoy the ride. 'And then,' Walters went on, 'there's the question of stolen guns.

    'It's an epidemic—roughly five hundred thousand thefts a year. The most prominent thieves are gun traffickers and survivalists: selling a stolen gun jacks up their profit margin to one hundred percent. And according to the ATF, the most popular stolen semiautomatic handgun is the Lexington P-2.

    'The best place for thieves and survivalists to sell weapons is at gun shows. There are potentially thousands of customers, unrestricted by any fear of background checks. In this case, Lexington chose to promote the sale of P-2s at gun shows, ostensibly by licensed dealers.' Pausing, Walters gazed keenly at John Nolan. 'But Lexington also knows, because it has to know, that gun shows are an important secondary market which keeps its product moving.'

    Nolan stared at him. 'Are you aware of any evidence,' he demanded, 'that John Bowden's gun is linked to traffickers or survivalists?'

    'No,' the expert answered. 'But that makes my point about Lexington's refusal to require background checks of gun-show promoters. Because we may never know.

    'But there's one thing we do know. If Bowden went to that gun show and the promoter had required a