‘That’s not the point. It’s the principle. Can she just buy a car without our permission, even if she has the means? We’re a family. We should function like one.’
‘Can’t we talk about this later?’ Maggie glanced upstairs.
‘She shouldn’t get a Range Rover. I think there are used cars that are a better value, and even if she has the money, it might make sense to finance a car. The rates are low now, and it will teach her how to pay a monthly bill.’
‘We’ll see.’ Maggie reached for the tray, but Noah stopped her.
‘One more thing. Did she have a boyfriend at school?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘She must have dated, some.’
‘No, she didn’t.’ Maggie didn’t understand why he was asking. ‘It’s a girls’ school, remember? It’s not like she had a lot of opportunities.’
‘You sure? Because it seems like she would have boyfriends. She’s pretty.’
‘I know, but she didn’t date. I even talked to her therapist about it. She barely had any friends except the one. Jamie.’ Maggie leaned closer, not to be overheard. ‘I don’t think she’s had sex yet.’
Noah’s lips parted in surprise. ‘You think she’s a virgin?’
‘Shhh.’ Maggie glanced at the staircase. ‘Don’t make a big thing of it.’
‘I didn’t.’
‘Yes, you did. You looked surprised.’
‘I am, but I’m not making a big thing of it.’
‘Lower your voice, okay? And please don’t say anything to her.’
‘Of course I wouldn’t.’ Noah rolled his eyes, looking like Caleb. ‘But I don’t think she’s a virgin.’
‘Why not?’
‘I just don’t,’ Noah shot back, then seemed to catch himself.
‘What makes you say that? Do you know something I don’t?’
‘No, not at all.’
‘She’s only seventeen years old, Noah.’
‘Honey, lots of girls have sex before they’re seventeen these days. This is the age of selfies and duck lips.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I just do.’ Noah looked away again, and Maggie sensed the conversation was making him uncomfortable, which was odd. He didn’t shy away from sex talk, and if anything, he was more sexual than she was. Or maybe less tired. Or maybe a man.
‘What’s up with you?’
‘Nothing.’ Noah put the Allen wrench on the snack tray. ‘I’ll take this for you.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Not a problem.’ Noah left the kitchen with the tray, and Maggie followed, wondering why he was acting so strangely.
Chapter Twenty-five
Noah, After
TRIAL, DAY 5
Linda strode back to counsel table, picked up an exhibit, then returned to the stand, holding it close to her chest. Thomas had warned him that her holding-the-exhibit trick was intended to make him nervous, but it didn’t work because he was already nervous. He tried to see Maggie in the back of the gallery but he couldn’t. She had to be hiding from him. He didn’t blame her.
‘Dr Alderman, isn’t it true that you told the 911 dispatcher that you didn’t want to stay on the phone because you had to administer chest compressions?’
‘Yes.’
‘But isn’t it true that after you hung up with the dispatcher, you called your lawyer?’
Noah blinked. ‘Yes.’
‘So you were able to make another phone call and continue compressions, even though you told the 911 dispatcher that you could not?’
‘Uh . . . yes.’
‘Dr Alderman, I am going to show you Commonwealth Exhibit 48, which has already been introduced into evidence, and ask you, is it a copy of the phone calls you made from your phone on the night in question?’
‘It is.’ Noah looked down at the log with a sinking heart.
‘And this phone record shows that you spoke with 911 dispatch for one minute and ten seconds, isn’t that correct?’
‘Yes.’
‘The phone record also shows that one minute after you hung up with the 911 dispatcher, you called your lawyer, isn’t that correct?’
‘Yes.’ Noah had given this testimony on direct, but again, under Thomas’s questioning, it had sounded better, more reasonable.
‘Your lawyer was present counsel Thomas Owusu, isn’t that correct?’
‘Yes.’
‘Isn’t it true that the real reason you wanted to get off the phone with 911 was to call your lawyer?’
‘No.’
‘But you called your lawyer one minute after you hung up with the 911 operator, so you must have been thinking of calling your lawyer while you were talking with the 911 operator, isn’t that correct?’
‘No.’
Linda arched her eyebrow again, and Noah realized it was her tell, when she was about to tear into him. ‘So when you told the 911 dispatcher that you wanted to get off the phone, you had absolutely no idea you were going to call your lawyer next?’
‘Yes.’ Noah felt confused, and suddenly beaten. Maggie was witnessing this disaster. It would haunt her forever.
‘Dr Alderman, didn’t you lie to the 911 dispatcher so you could get off the phone and talk to your lawyer?’
‘No.’
‘Didn’t you lie to the 911 dispatcher when you told her you were doing chest compressions?’
‘No.’
‘But you did lie to her when you told her why you were hanging up, didn’t you?’
‘No.’
‘But you called your lawyer one minute later, didn’t you?’
‘I was just reacting.’
‘Right, like a doctor, as you testified?’
‘Yes.’
‘A doctor who calls his criminal lawyer?’
‘Objection, Your Honor.’ Thomas rose. ‘Is that a snide comment or a question?’
‘Your Honor, I’ll withdraw it,’ Linda said without pausing. ‘Dr Alderman, isn’t it true that you made up that bit about the compressions, lying to the 911 dispatcher, because you knew that the 911 tape would be evidence later?’
‘No.’ Noah had to help himself. ‘As you point out, if I were trying to make a fake story, I would’ve acted upset or said “oh my God” and things like that, as you said before. But I didn’t.’
Linda arched an eyebrow again. ‘Isn’t it also true that if you knew you were going to try to sell this phony-baloney story of the doctor-reacting-as-a-doctor, you wouldn’t exhibit any of those behaviors?’
‘No, no.’ Noah didn’t elaborate. He couldn’t. There was nothing more to say. He’d tried to score but it had backfired.
‘You weren’t too shocked, horrified, and grief-stricken at Anna’s murder to call your lawyer, were you?’
‘I was horrified. I had those emotions.’
Linda crossed her arms. ‘But nevertheless you carried on somehow and called your lawyer, did you not?’
Thomas shifted uncomfortably back at counsel table, and Noah took it as a signal. They had discussed how to deal with these questions. Their defense was that the prosecution’s case was circumstantial, and Noah was supposed to remember to use the term circumstances.
Noah cleared his throat. ‘As I said in my direct testimony, I called my lawyer because, given the circumstances, I knew it could look like I killed Anna even though I didn’t do it.’
‘So you admit you were thinking of yourself at that time, weren’t you?’
‘Partly, yes.’ Noah had no choice but to admit it. He and Thomas had decided that was the best strategy.
‘You weren’t concerned with Anna anymore, were you?’
‘I still was, but I had determined that she had no pulse. There was nothing I could do.’
‘But you tried chest compressions earlier, after you had determined she had no pulse, did you not?’
‘Yes.’
‘So, there was something you could do, wasn’t there?’
‘Okay, yes.’
‘I’m confused, were you or were you not administering chest compressions at the time you called your lawyer?’
‘I was, I said I was.’ Noah didn’t believe for one minute that Linda was confused.
‘Dr Alderman, when during the twelve minutes of that conversation with your lawyer did you stop administering chest compressions?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Between one and five minutes, or between five and ten minutes?’
‘Between one and five.’
‘Did you have a hard time talking with your lawyer and compressing Anna’s chest, is that why you stopped?’
Again Noah couldn’t say yes or no. ‘I stopped because it was futile. She had passed.’
‘But you said she had passed before you even called 911, didn’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘The phone record shows that you spoke with your lawyer for twelve minutes, isn’t that correct?’