Chương 13
Daniel lowered his eyes.
Sayer began cross-examination after lunch.
He was courteous. Mara had been warned that courtesy could be more dangerous than aggression.
“You had never met Ms. Rowan personally before that evening, correct?”
“I had served at events where she was present.”
“But you did not know her.”
“No.”
“You did not know whether she took medication.”
“No.”
“You did not know whether Mr. Mercer had asked her to add medication to his drink.”
“No.”
“You did not know what was in the vial.”
“No.”
“You did not see the liquid enter the glass with your own unaided eyes.”
“I saw it on the monitor.”
“That was not my question.”
“No.”
“You entered a restricted security office.”
“Yes.”
“You recorded confidential footage.”
“Yes.”
“You refused an order from the head of security.”
“Yes.”
“You bit him.”
“After he grabbed me.”
“You kicked him.”
“After he hit me.”
“You ran into a ballroom, seized Mr. Mercer without permission, and destroyed property.”
“A champagne flute.”
“Property.”
“Yes.”
“You then publicly accused Ms. Rowan of attempting an execution.”
“I told Daniel the drink was meant to kill him.”
“Before any laboratory test.”
“Yes.”
“Before you knew the substance.”
“Yes.”
“Before you knew whether the dose was lethal.”
“Yes.”
Sayer stepped closer.
“You were certain of a great many things you did not know.”
Mara looked at Celeste.
Celeste’s pen had stopped moving.
“No,” Mara said. “I was certain I didn’t have time.”
Sayer paused.
Then he lifted a document.
“Mercer House later paid you two hundred and forty thousand dollars.”
The number sounded obscene in the quiet courtroom.
“Yes.”
“You accepted money from the alleged victim.”
“I accepted compensation for medical costs, lost wages, security, legal fees, and being unable to live at home.”
“You signed an agreement.”
“Yes.”
“An agreement negotiated by lawyers.”
“Yes.”
“An agreement that benefited you financially.”
“Yes.”
“Did Mr. Mercer ask you to support his account of events?”
“No.”
“Did he ask you to accuse Ms. Rowan?”
“No.”
“Did his assistant visit you before the agreement was signed?”
“Yes.”
“Did Mr. Mercer visit you?”
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
“You do not remember?”
“I did not count.”
“More than five?”
“Yes.”
“More than ten?”
“Probably.”
Sayer allowed the answer to settle.
“Would you describe your relationship with Mr. Mercer as close?”
“No.”
Daniel looked up.
Sayer noticed.
“Not close?”
“We know difficult things about each other. That is not the same.”
A few jurors glanced toward Daniel.
Sayer changed direction.
He displayed a still image from the footage. Celeste stood beside the two glasses, the vial in her hand.
“The timestamp reads 9:41:08, correct?”
“Yes.”
“You did not verify that timestamp.”
“No.”
“You did not maintain the security system.”
“No.”
“You did not know whether the clock was accurate.”
“No.”
“Yet you testified that Mr. Mercer was in immediate danger based partly on the sequence shown.”
“Not partly. Entirely.”
“You trusted a monitor you had never used.”
“I trusted what it showed.”
“Because it confirmed your suspicion.”
“Because it showed her pouring from a hidden vial.”
“Ms. Quinn, you had followed my client before you saw the footage.”
“Yes.”
“You already believed she was doing something wrong.”
“I believed she was acting strangely.”
“You wanted proof.”
“I wanted to know why.”
“And when you found an ambiguous image, you interpreted it in the most dramatic possible way.”
Mara felt the trap. Deny drama, and she sounded defensive. Accept it, and she sounded reckless.
She looked again at the still image.
“No,” she said. “The dramatic way would have been to shout from across the room. I went to the person holding the glass.”
Sayer’s mouth tightened.
He returned to her earlier statement.
“You told Detective Alvarez that you knew which glass Mr. Mercer took because Ms. Rowan rotated the tray.”
“Yes.”
“How long did that take?”
“Less than two seconds.”
“And you tracked the position of two identical glasses during that movement.”
“Yes.”
“While running.”
“Yes.”
“While bleeding.”
“Yes.”
“Across a crowded ballroom.”
“Yes.”
“You expect the jury to believe that.”
Mara looked at the jurors.
“I expect them to understand that carrying identical glasses without mixing them up was my job.”
For the first time, Sayer raised his voice.
“And accusing guests of murder was not.”
“No,” Mara said. “That was unpaid.”
Someone in the back of the courtroom made a sound that might have been a laugh. The judge warned the gallery.
Sayer returned to his table.
Mara’s hands shook only after she left the witness stand.
Daniel found her near the vending machines.
“You were good,” he said.
“That isn’t what witnesses are supposed to be.”
“You were accurate.”
“That is better.”
He handed her a bottle of water.
She looked at it.
“It’s sealed.”
“I checked.”
She accepted it.
“What happens if they acquit her?” Mara asked.
Daniel leaned against the wall.
“I don’t know.”
“You have considered it.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I sell my remaining shares. I leave the company.”
“You may do that anyway.”
“Yes.”
“What about her?”
“She will still face the financial charges.”
“That is not what I meant.”
Daniel looked through the small courthouse window at the street below.
“If she is acquitted of trying to kill me, I still have to live with believing she did.”
Mara twisted the bottle cap.
“And if she is convicted?”
“The same.”
Celeste testified against Sayer’s advice.
The decision surprised everyone except Daniel.
“She cannot stand being described by other people,” he told Mara.
On the witness stand, Celeste was composed, articulate, and almost painfully believable.
She admitted concealing financial losses. She admitted panicking when she learned Daniel intended to remove her. She admitted placing a substance in his champagne.
May you like
She denied intending to kill him.
The vial, she said, contained a concentrated botanical compound she had purchased months earlier from an alternative medicine practitioner for severe migraines. She believed a small dose would cause nausea and dizziness. Her plan was to make Daniel ill enough to miss the board meeting, giving her time to persuade directors that the audit was incomplete.
