“And do you understand that a baby who goes into respiratory failure might go into cardiac failure?”
“Yes.”
“And that same baby might die?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“Do you also understand, Mr. Bauer, that in none of those events would it make a difference whether or not a nurse attempted every medical intervention possible to save that baby’s life? That the baby could still possibly die?”
“Possibly,” I repeat.
“Do you realize that in that scenario, if your son was that baby, Mother Teresa herself could not have saved him?”
I fold my arms. “But thatwasn’tmy son.”
She cocks her head. “You heard the medical testimony from Dr. Atkins, which was corroborated by Dr. Binnie. Your baby did indeed have MCADD, Mr. Bauer, isn’t that true?”
“I don’t know.” I jerk my head toward Ruth Jefferson. “She killed him before he could get tested for sure.”
“You really, truly believe that?” she asks. “In the face of scientific evidence?”
“I do,” I grit out.
Her eyes spark. “You do,” she repeats, “or youhaveto?”
“What?”
“You believe in God, Mr. Bauer, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And you believe things happen for a reason?”
“Yes.”
“Mr. Bauer, do you use the Twitter handle @WhiteMight?”
“Yeah,” I say, but I have no idea what that has to do with her questions. They feel like a blast of wind that comes from a different direction every time.
She enters a computer printout into evidence. “Is this a post from your Twitter account, made last July?” I nod. “Can you read it out loud?”
“ ‘We all get what’s coming to us,’ ” I say.
“Then I guess your son got what was coming to him, right?”
My hands clench on the railing of the witness stand. “What did you say?” My voice is low, hot.
“I said your son must have gotten what he deserved,” she repeats.
“My son was innocent. An Aryan warrior.”
She ignores my response. “Come to think of it, I guess you got what you deserved, too…”
“Shut your mouth.”
“That’s why you’re accusing an innocent woman of a death that was completely and utterly arbitrary, isn’t it? Because if you believe instead what’sreallytrue—namely that your son carried a genetic disease—”
I stand up, fuming. “Shut up—”
