“Overruled. Members of the jury, please disregard that interruption. Witness will answer. However, please make sure your line of questioning has a point, Mr. Hirsch.”
“Of course. Thank you, Your Honor. Sergeant, other than the empty bottles, what state was the apartment in? Was it clean?”
“It was untidy. There was dust on some of the surfaces.”
“I’d like to draw your attention to page four of your statement where you specifically mention the dust on the bureau in the children’s bedroom.”
“Yes, we found a film of dust on the bureau.”
Ruth scribbled furiously and pushed the paper toward Scott. I cleaned apt & BUREAU the day before!!
He patted her arm, kept his eyes on Devlin.
“Gentlemen of the jury, there was a film of dust on the bureau. Please turn to Exhibit 18, the plan of the children’s room, and note that the bureau was pushed up against the window. What was the significance of this, Sergeant? In your opinion?”
She remembered the silence and the thin, tired-looking man with the crumpled suit and the camera. She remembered the sprinkling of white dust on the bureau and Devlin’s focused expression.
She heard Devlin’s voice from that day. Low. Harsh.
“Make sure you get it all.”
He said now: “The dust eliminated the possibility that the children left the room through the window. It would have been impossible for them to do so without touching the bureau and leaving marks in the dust.”
“Objection! Witness is speculating.” Scott again.
The judge removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Overruled. Mr. Hirsch has asked the witness what his opinion is, and the witness has provided it.”
“Thank you, Your Honor.” She could hear the smirk in the DA’s voice. “And what, in your opinion, Sergeant, was the implication of this?”
“That the children must have been taken out of their bedroom through the door. By someone who was inside the apartment. They cannot have left the room by themselves as the door was latched from the outside.”
Ruth saw the white dust dancing, Devlin’s eyes like embers in smoke. She saw the camera shutter clicking, again and again.
And suddenly she was struggling to get air into her lungs. As though a rope had been slipped around her neck.
On the second day, the photographs seemed even larger when she entered the courtroom. She couldn’t stop looking at them, even when the judge arrived and the men around her began to talk about her children. About her.
The real Frankie and Cindy no longer existed; only these black-and-white cherubs with their bright frozen smiles. And even they didn’t belong to her anymore—they belonged to the court, to the newspapers, to anyone with an opinion. They weren’t Frankie and Cindy now—they were “the deceased,” they were those to whom “death has occurred.” As though death were just an idea that had come to them.
She closed her eyes for a moment against the tears that had risen, and then opened them and looked over at Frank, who was watching her. She imagined that something passed between them at that point. A shared memory of their babies.
Just before lunch, a Dr. Dunn was sworn in. He had gray hair, half-moon glasses, kind eyes. Hirsch took him through his credentials and experience, and then brought him to the findings of the autopsy he had carried out on Cindy. The doctor glanced at Ruth and she tried to swallow.
“From the temperature taken at the scene, it is possible to determine that she was killed approximately six to twelve hours before she was found.”
Ruth felt a sudden splintering pain at her temples. The room was too hot.
“She was dressed in a cotton undershirt, a pair of yellow panties . . .”
She heard a low keening sound, ragged breathing.
“The cause of death was strangulation . . .”
She saw a length of cord. A strip of cloth. A pair of hands, fingers tightening.
She saw Cindy, purple-faced, terrified, struggling to breathe.
“Dr. Dunn, please tell the court what your findings were regarding the child’s last meal.”
“We found pasta, fruit, and vegetables in her stomach. Green vegetables. And oranges.”
Hirsch gave Scott a flushed triumphant glance, and then turned to the jury.
“As you’ll hear, gentlemen, this is inconsistent with the testimony of Mrs. Malone herself, who claims that she fed the children veal on the night they died.”
“Dr. Dunn, how soon after the child digested the food was she killed?”
“Our findings in this case were consistent with a post-ingestion period of two hours, maximum.”
Hirsch was still facing the jury.
“Two hours, gentlemen. At the most.”
He let those words sink in for a moment, then spun around and addressed the courtroom.
“And yet the accused said in her statement that she fed Frank Jr. and Cindy at seven p.m., that their meal was over by seven-thirty, and that she checked on them around midnight. According to Mrs. Malone, the children were alive and well almost five hours after they finished dinner.”