“Are you aware of a disorder called MCADD?” Kennedy asks.
“Yes. It’s a fatty acid oxidation disorder. Basically, an infant who has it will have trouble breaking down fats, and that means the blood sugar drops to dangerously low levels. It can be managed with early detection—a careful diet, frequent feedings.”
“Let’s say it isn’t detected. What happens?”
“Well, infants who have MCADD have a significant risk of death during the first clinical episode of hypoglycemia—when that blood sugar goes south.”
“What would that look like?”
“They’d be sleepy, logy. Irritable. They wouldn’t nurse well.”
“Let’s say, hypothetically, a baby with undiagnosed, untreated MCADD was about to be circumcised. Is there anything about that procedure that might have exacerbated the disease?”
The pediatrician nods. “Normally there would be fasting after six A.M., because of the upcoming surgery. For a baby with MCADD, that would lead to low blood sugar—a potential episode of hypoglycemia. Instead, ten percent dextrose would have been given to the baby prior and afterward.”
“You drew blood from Davis Bauer during the code, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell the jury the results of his blood sugar at that time?” Kennedy asks.
“Twenty.”
“At what level is a newborn considered hypoglycemic?”
“Forty.”
“So Davis Bauer’s blood sugar was dangerously low?”
“Yes.”
“Would it have been enough to cause a child with untreated, undiagnosed MCADD to go into respiratory failure?”
“I can’t say for sure. But it’s possible.”
Kennedy lifts a file. “I’d like to enter this as exhibit forty-two,” she says. “It’s the newborn screening result of Davis Bauer, which was subpoenaed by the defense.”
Odette stands like a shot. “Your Honor, what is this stunt? Defense hasn’t shared this with the prosecution—”
“That’s because I received these results just days ago. They were conveniently missing from the discovery, however, for months,” Kennedy replies. “Which I could claim as obstruction of justice…”
“Approach.” The judge calls both lawyers to the bench. A machine is turned on so that I cannot hear what they’re saying, and neither can the jury. When they finish, though, it’s after much hand waving and a dark flush on Kennedy’s face. But the record is handed to the clerk to be entered as evidence.
“Dr. Atkins, can you tell us what you’re looking at?” Kennedy asks.
“It’s a newborn screening test result,” the pediatrician says, sifting through the pages. Then she stops. “Oh, my God.”
“Is there any particular finding of interest in the results, Dr. Atkins? The results that didn’t get processed because the state lab was closed all weekend? The results you didn’t receive until after the death of Davis Bauer?”
The pediatrician looks up. “Yes. Davis Bauer screened positive for MCADD.”
—
KENNEDY IS HIGH on herself when court is dismissed that first day. She’s talking fast, like she’s had four big cups of coffee, and she seems to feel like we won our case, even though the prosecution has only just begun and we haven’t started the defense. She tells me I should drink a big glass of wine to celebrate a phenomenal day of testimony, but honestly, all I want to do is go home and crawl into bed.
My head is aching with images of Davis Bauer, and with the look on Dr. Atkins’s face when she realized what the test results said. True, Kennedy had shared them with me two nights ago, but this was even more devastating. To see someone else from the hospital—someone I liked and trusted—silently thinking, If only…It recentered me a little.
Yes, this is a trial against me.
Yes, I was blamed for something I shouldn’t have been blamed for.
But at the end of the day, there’s still a dead baby. There’s still a mama who doesn’t get to watch him grow up. I could be acquitted; I could become a shining light for Wallace Mercy’s message; I could sue in civil court for damages and get a payout that makes my nerves about Edison’s college bills disappear—and still, I would know that nobody had really won this case.
Because you can’t erase the colossal, tragic loss of a life at its very beginning.
That’s what’s running through my mind as I wait for the hallways to clear, so that Edison and I can go home without attracting attention. He is waiting for me on a bench outside the conference room. “Where’s your aunt?”
He shrugs. “She said she wanted to get home before the snow really started.”
I glance out the window, where flakes are falling. I’ve been turned inward so much, I hadn’t even noticed an oncoming storm. “Let me just use the restroom,” I tell Edison, and I walk down the empty hall.
I go into the stall and do my business, flush, and come out to wash my hands. Standing at the sink is Odette Lawton. She glances at me in the mirror, puts the cap on her lipstick. “Your lawyer had a good first day,” she concedes.