“Objection!”
“Sustained,” Saul said. Cutler put his hands up in surrender.
“Ms. Simmons, in a nine-month period, you spent more than thirty hours a week on the cold case crime forum, didn’t you?”
“I don’t think so. I told you. Sometimes I just didn’t log out. It doesn’t mean I was sitting at the computer the whole time.”
“You spent more time on the forum than you did at school. Or at your job, isn’t that right?”
“I wouldn’t say that, no.”
“You wouldn’t. But your login activity doesn’t lie, does it? Can you read the number at the end of the activity report that’s been entered as Exhibit 81?”
It was up on screen. The jury could already see it. Hayden sat back. “It says one thousand two hundred and thirty-one hours.”
“One thousand two hundred and thirty-one hours,” he repeated. “That’s the equivalent of fifty-one solid days. I’d say that sounds like an obsession, wouldn’t you?”
“Objection!” I shouted.
“Withdrawn,” Cutler said. “I have no further questions.”
“Ms. Brent?”
I was proud of her. She’d withstood Cutler’s attempts to paint her as a liar. As a troubled girl. She was neither.
“I have no more questions,” I said. I tried to lock eyes with Hayden. She did well. The hard part for her was over at least in terms of the trial. But as she left the witness box, I watched her walk through the gallery and toward the courtroom double doors. Against the back wall, George Luke sat. He looked like he was seeing a ghost. Anger filled his eyes. And for the first time, he was looking straight at Jamie Simmons.
19
“She did okay,” Sam said. “From where I sat, I think the jury believed her.”
“She has no reason to lie,” I said. We sat in my office eating Hunan takeout. It was well past eight o’clock. Will was staying over at Kat and Bree’s tonight. After the second full day of trial, I felt weary. “But Cutler got off some good rounds. He’s right that many other people had access to Jamie’s basement workshop over the years.”
“You’re thinking like a lawyer, not a juror,” Sam said. “That was just dancing. Distraction. The bottom line, Simmons has relics from Ellie’s body. Things that make it clear he knew where she was. Because he put her there. You’ll drive that point home in closing.”
“I know.” I stabbed my chopsticks into my cardboard box and fished out the last of my sesame chicken. “But he’s right about one thing. I haven’t proved murder yet.”
“Again, lawyer brain. Not common sense brain.”
“Thanks,” I said wryly, though I knew what he meant.
“What’d you make of George Luke?” he asked.
“You were watching him too?”
“I watched him pretty closely. Mara, it was a shock to him. I don’t think the man had any idea what Simmons had in that house. The earring in particular. His whole body just shook.”
“What in God’s name has Jamie been telling that man?”
“I don’t know if they’ve talked at all. Cutler’s smart enough to counsel him not to talk to anybody. He knows you’ll be able to put them on the stand.”
“True,” I said. “But he had to have told Erin something. I’d like to talk to her again.”
“Will she take your calls?”
“No. She won’t even take Hayden’s.”
“That poor kid. Jamie’s trying to make her into some kind of villain in this. And they’re buying it. Ellie’s whole family.”
