tea in China.”
“And did all these forensic teams you mentioned appear?”
“They certainly did. Took some of them a while to get out there, but they all made it.”
“And did they find anything?”
“Objection.” Ben had been taking it easy on the objections, trying not to alienate the jury. But this one he couldn’t let go. “Hearsay. Detective Cath shouldn’t be testifying about what someone else did.”
Judge Pickens shrugged. “Well, I’ll allow it.”
“Your honor,” Ben insisted, “it hasn’t been established that the witness has any expertise in these various forensic fields.”
“The prosecutor just asked if they found anything. He can answer that, if he knows, without going into any great detail about what was found. Will that make you happy, counselor?”
“Ecstatic,” Ben murmured under his breath. Christina suppressed a giggle.
“So I’ll ask you again,” Granny said. “Did the forensic teams find anything? If you know.”
“They did. They found footprints. And they also recovered a few fingerprints from a piece of the tree cutter that was thrown clear of the explosion.”
“And were they able to identify the fingerprints?”
“Objection,” Ben said. “Now the prosecutor is asking for analysis. Analysis that was not conducted by this witness and is not within his field of expertise.”
“Very well,” Judge Pickens said wearily, as if Ben were an annoying insect that he couldn’t quite swat. “We’ll save that for the fingerprint expert.”
Granny didn’t seem particularly annoyed. And why should she be? They both knew she had the proper expert waiting in the wings. “Thank you very much. No more questions.”
After the judge gave him the nod, Ben took his place behind the podium and launched into his cross- examination. He tried to adopt a tone somewhere in the middle ground-insistent, but not overbearing. He knew it was critical that he remain in control during cross or he wouldn’t get anything. On the other hand, if he came on too strong with Mr. Friendly, the jury would resent it.
“Detective Cath, how reliable is the evidence found at the crime scene?”
Cath seemed a bit taken aback, but it didn’t last long. His placid smile soon reasserted itself. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Well, the jury has to know what they can believe, what they can trust. Can they trust the crime-scene evidence?”
“Of course they can.”
“Isn’t it true that evidence is only reliable if it hasn’t been contaminated?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
“And if it has been contaminated, then all that evidence you mentioned is unreliable.”
“Right. Garbage in, garbage out. That’s why they have me on the scene.”
Ben raised a finger. “Ah, but you didn’t arrive at the crime scene till four-thirty, right?”
Cath chuckled. “Well, I can’t deny it, since I just said so myself a few minutes ago.”
Ben did not chuckle back. “No, you can’t. Who was at the crime scene when you arrived?”
“No one, really.”
“No one? Are you sure?”
“Well … except the obvious.”
“And that would be?”
“The deputy who found the body.”
“Deputy Wagner.”
“Right, that’s the one. And Sheriff Allen, of course.”
“And who else?”
“I guess some of his deputies were there.”
“Any of the forensic teams?”
“No. Well, the coroner’s squad was there. They hadn’t done anything yet.
“So, we’ve gone from ‘no one, really’ to-what? Eight or ten people?”
“But they were all members of the law enforcement team. It’s not like they were tourists or anything.”
“I understand that. But there were eight or ten people present.”
“I suppose so.”
“How many footprints did all those people leave?”
Cath paused. This was the question that tipped Ben’s hand, that told one and all where he was going. Of course it was necessary to bring the jury on board sometime. But Ben knew that from here on out, the questioning would get a lot tougher.
Cath coughed into his hand. “I’m sure I don’t know how many footprints they all left.”
“But we can surmise it was quite a few, right?”
“Well …”
“They didn’t all stand still like statues, did they?”
Cath made a sardonic smile. “No. They didn’t all stand still. But they didn’t walk around the corpse, either. They kept their distance.”
“How do you know? You didn’t get there until four-thirty.”
“Because I asked them.”
Ben gave the jury his best
“I was not. It’s standard procedure.”
Ben looked at him incredulously. “It’s standard procedure to ask the sheriff if he’s mucked up the crime scene?”
“Just a matter of protocol. Nothing to be taken personally.”
“But we know that Deputy Wagner walked near the body.”
“Well-”
“He told us so himself. He examined the body when he arrived. In fact, he approached the body not once but twice.”
Cath frowned. “I’m sure he was very careful.”
“Me too, but nonetheless, that’s a lot of footprints.”
“Then he would be the only one. And one additional set of prints could be easily distinguished.”
“What about Sheriff Allen?”
Cath looked dumbstruck. “Sheriff Allen is a trained professional. There’s no way he’d stomp around a crime scene. He kept his distance.”
Ben looked at him sternly. “Are you telling this jury that when Sheriff Allen arrived at the scene, having heard what happened, he didn’t even go over to the corpse and take a look?”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“What if the man was still alive? Wouldn’t Sheriff Allen at least go over and see if he needed to call an ambulance?”
“Your honor, I must object.” Granny was on her feet again. “Mr. Kincaid is asking the witness to speculate.”
“No,” Ben replied, “I’m examining the credibility of this witness’s statement that no one walked on the crime scene before he arrived. That’s the purpose of cross-examination.”
Judge Pickens frowned. He glanced out at the many faces in the gallery, then looked back to Granny. “I’m afraid I’ll have to overrule that objection.”
Granny retook her seat, a sour expression on her face.
“So what about it, Detective Cath?” Ben reasked. “Don’t you think Sheriff Allen at least checked to see if the victim was still alive? He’d be pretty incompetent if he didn’t.”
“I think it was obvious from the condition of the remains-”
“So he didn’t even check?”
Cath pursed his lips. “I suppose he must’ve.”
