“Right.”
“How long?”
The lieutenant scratched his head. “About two feet.”
Roz raised her eyebrows as if the information were a significant surprise. She hoped it would give the jury a clue that it should be. “Two feet? Not two inches. Two whole feet?” She held her hands about two feet apart. “Like that?”
He nodded and said, “Yes.”
People whispered behind her. She heard a couple of titters. Those were good signs. She was planting doubt.
“Thank you.” As she returned to her seat, she said, “That’s all.”
The witness was excused.
The DA called his next witness. As soon as the man was sworn in and seated, the DA wasted no time. “Where do you work?”
“I work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in the DNA testing lab.”
“Very good. And do you recognize this evidence?” He held up the small plastic bag and walked it over to the witness.
“Yes. It appears those are hair strands I tested.”
The DA held the bag aloft again. “Let the record show this is the same evidence identified by the Boston police detective that he testified had been gathered at the crime scene.” He laid the bag back down and paced with his hands behind his back. “Now tell me. After testing the evidence, did you find a match?”
“Not an exact match, no.”
Roz held her breath. She hoped the witness would leave a large enough hole to poke through.
“How close a match did you get?”
The witness leaned back in his seat, as if feeling confident. “Ninety-nine point nine percent.”
The DA raised his eyebrows as if impressed. “My, that’s very close. Can you explain to whom the close match belonged and why it might be so close but not exact?”
The witness cleared his throat and sat a little straighter. “The closest match was to a Boston police officer named Nicholas Wolfensen.”
“I see. And can you surmise why it would be a close match, but not exact?”
The witness matter-of-factly said, “If the hair belonged to an identical twin, it would test that close.”
“There’s no other way two people could be so close a match?”
“None that I’ve heard of.”
“Thank you. That’s all.”
The judge offered Roz the opportunity to cross-examine the witness.
Should I? What can he say that will make any difference? Even if the man doesn’t know about Konrad’s twin, the DA will just prove it later.
She stood. “No questions at this time, your honor.”
“Roz, this is looking bad.”
She took in a deep breath.Have patience.
The witness was excused, and the prosecutor called his next witness. The name snapped Konrad out of his telepathy with Roz.
