He reseated himself behind his desk. “Josh, I know you’re probably dreading this, and I don’t blame you. But I’ll try to make your testimony as painless as possible and still get the relevant facts to the grand jury.”
“Mr. Clayton, please don’t worry about me. I’m fine. My goal—myonlygoal—is for Page to be put behind bars for as long as possible. You ask me whatever you have to ask me to make that happen.”
“Some of my questions may be...” Clayton hesitated, but Joshua cut him off.
“Mr. Clayton, ask anything you need to ask. I don’t care about the subject matter. I don’t care if it’s sexual in nature. Don’t hold back.”
“Please, Josh. Call me Norm,” Clayton said, then leaned back in his chair and smiled at Colin. “You been coaching this boy?”
Colin wrinkled his nose and shook his head. “This is all him.”
Clayton nodded and leaned toward Joshua. “There’ll be five people on the grand jury. They’ll hear from you and from Lieutenant Anderson, who will present all the police reports generated in response to the incident. Page and his attorney will not be present. The grand jury will hear testimony, then deliberate, and hopefully return a true bill of indictment finding.” He shot a glance at Colin. “I don’t see much chance of it going the other way.”
“True bill of indictment means they find the evidence we present adequate to justify prosecution,” Colin explained.
“I’ll ask you a few preliminary questions first,” Clayton told him. “Name, profession, title, where you work, how long you’ve worked there, stuff like that. Then I’ll question you about the night Page kidnapped you. We’ll go over it in some detail.” He nodded toward Colin. “Tomorrow I’m going to give Colin a list of the questions I plan to ask, and he can go over them with you at home.”
Joshua nodded.
“Talk about it all in as much detail as you can remember, Josh. What he said, what you said, how you felt. I’ll ask you if you were in fear for your life, and—”
Joshua scoffed out a laugh. “That’s agoodone, Norm. Every single moment I waswithhim I was convinced that he was going to kill me. I’m trained to diagnose aberrant behavior, and hisbehavior made it abundantly clear that I was adeadman. Plus, the fact that hetoldme he planned to rape and murder me.”
“He said that.”
“Hell, yes he said it! Rape me,thenkill me.” Joshua saw a smile cross Clayton’s face. “That’s agoodthing?”
“Oh, yeah,” Clayton said. “Well, not good foryou.But definitely good for our case against Page.”
“It’s not hearsay?” Joshua asked, and saw both Clayton and Colin smile.
“Nope,” Colin told him. “Hearsay exception rule 2:803, admission by a party-opponent.” He laid his hand on Joshua’s arm. “It’s allowed.”
“OK,” Clayton said, rising. “Go home, and get some rest. Tomorrow Colin will start to coach you on the questions I’ll be asking.”
“I thought we were doing that today.”
“No. Today I just wanted to talk with you.”
“You wanted toevaluateme. To find out if I’m stable enough to make a good witness,” Joshua said, rising.
Clayton pursed his lips and shrugged. “Well, it’s not like I could take Colin’s word for it.”
“Hey!” Colin protested, taking Joshua’s arm. “I’m gonna run him home,” he told his superior. “He’s not allowed to drive for another week or so. Back in a few.”
Clayton nodded and walked them to the door of his office. “You’ll do great, Josh. I’m not worried about you at all.”
Joshua blew out a quiet breath. “Thanks, Norm.”
“C’mon, baby,” Colin said, leading him down the corridor. “I’ll run you home.”
* * *
For the restof that week Colin spent part of every evening preparing Joshua for his grand jury testimony. Colin asked him the questions Norman Clayton would ask and offered advice on his responses when it seemed appropriate. He watched his husband closely. But even when he discussed the most harrowing moments of his captivity, Joshua remained composed.
“Josh, are you sure you’re OK with this?”
“Don’t I seem OK?”
