“She just had it in her hand.”
“Was her arm at her side?”
“Yes. I mean, no. No, her arm, her right arm, was bent at the elbow. She had the knife gripped in her right fist. The blade was pointing up toward the ceiling, not down toward the floor.”
“You mean the point of the blade was aimed upward, toward the ceiling?”
“Yes. Like … uh … like how you’d hold a torch if the point of the blade were the flame.”
“Got it. That helps me envision it. Thank you. So what did you notice about the knife?”
“Just that it was bloody and it was a big blade.”
“Okay, Jenna, I’d like to direct your attention to the State’s Exhibit 19.” We had previously stipulated to the entry of certain exhibits. The photograph of the buck knife found at the scene was one of them. “Do you recognize it?”
Jenna shook her head. “Not really. I mean, I can see this knife is bloody. And it looks like the one Mrs. Loomis was holding. So then, yes. I do recognize it from that.”
“But you don’t recognize it beyond that. Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes.”
“So you’d never seen this knife before? Look very closely. Can you describe for the record what’s carved into the handle?”
“Initials,” she said. “XYZ.”
“XYZ. Do you know what those letters mean?”
“No idea.”
“You testified that among your duties, you did Tom Loomis’s laundry. Right?”
“That’s right.”
“Am I correct in assuming that also means you put his clothes away after you folded them?”
“That’s correct.”
“Where did you put them?”
“Where they belonged. Dress shirts hung in the closet. He had his suits dry-cleaned. Sometimes I’d pick up his dry cleaning forhim and put that in the closet. His tee shirts went in his dresser. Underwear. Socks. The usual.”
“So is it fair to say that you could tell me what items belonged in every drawer or cabinet of Tom Loomis’s house?”
She looked skyward. “I guess it is, yes. It wasn’t a very big house.”
“You knew what he kept in his dresser drawers. What about his nightstand?”
“Sure. He had hankies in there. He kept a watch there. His wallet. A few loose photographs.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Addison squirm in his seat. Jenna was going far beyond yes or no answers.
“His kitchen drawers and cabinets. Do you know what he kept in each of those?”
“Yes.”
“Did he have a junk drawer?”
“Yep. It was the drawer to the immediate left of the fridge.”
