Part 28 (1/2)
”And when he got back, how long was it before you started to drive again?”
”I don't know, half a minute maybe.” He looked very uncertain, as if he was not used to noticing time in such detail.
”Then you drove a quarter of a mile on that road to the bridge. How long do you think that took?”
”I don't know. It's slow because it's curvy, maybe another minute.”
”So altogether you think you were on the old road about seven or eight minutes?”
”I guess that's about right.” Clearly he had no idea if that was right or even almost right.
”The bridge is one and a tenth miles from The Station, isn't it?”
”I don't know for sure. About that.”
”Did you speed going to The Station?”
”No, sir.”
”So if you were driving sixty miles an hour, you'd cover that one mile and a little more in a little over one minute. Is that right?”
Poor Ben, Barbara thought; he looked more confused than confident.
”I guess so,” he said.
”Then you had to park your car and walk into The Station, another few seconds. Did you spend any time in the car before you went inside?”
”No, sir. We just piled out and went in.”
”Did you notice what time it was when you entered The Station?”
Ben nodded, considerably more at ease. ”Yes, I did. The clock on the wall had twenty minutes to seven. I noticed because I remember thinking that was plenty of time to eat a hamburger and get to the school in time.”
And so it was cinched, Barbara thought when Novak finished with Ben Hennessey and turned to her with a slight smile. ”Your witness, Counselor.” He had proved that during the crucial minutes, no one could have approached the Marchand house by road or by foot except through the woods from Minick's property, or by way of the forest and steep hill behind both Marchand's house and Minick's. She nodded and stood up.
She smiled at Ben Hennessey, who was regarding her warily. ”Ben,” she asked pleasantly, ”why did you stop at that point on the road instead of driving all the way to Daniel's house?” She walked to the transparency and put her finger on the red circle.
”Daniel asked me to stop there,” he said.
”Did he say why he wanted to get out there and run the rest of the way?”
”No, ma'am.”
”I see. Did it strike you as odd that he didn't want to be driven all the way home?”
”No.”
”Did you ever pick him up or drop him off right at his house?”
He glanced uneasily at the prosecutor's table, then out at the spectators, and finally back to Barbara, and shook his head. ”No, I never did.”
”Why was that?” she asked.
”He asked me not to,” he said after a moment.
”He must have given you a reason at some point,” she said. ”What was his reason?”
”I think his father didn't want him driving around with kids,” he said after a swift glance at the spectators.
”Have you ever been cited for a traffic violation?”
”Objection,” Novak called out. ”This is getting far afield from his direct. Irrelevant.”
”It is relevant,” Barbara said. ”The state's case rests heavily on those minutes Daniel spent going and coming from his house. It is relevant to learn why he did that, why he didn't get a ride all the way home.”
”I'll allow the question and answer,” Judge Mac said. ”However, if it turns out to be irrelevant, I'll reverse that decision and strike it from the record.” He turned to Ben Hennessey and nodded. ”You may answer the question.”
”You mean have I had a ticket? No, never.”
”What kind of car were you driving that day?”
”An 'eighty-seven Ford four-door.”
”Is it your own car?”
”No. It's my father's. He lets me drive it.”
”Stick s.h.i.+ft?”
He said yes.
Barbara went to her table; Sh.e.l.ley handed her a model car, and she took it back to the witness stand. ”Is this a model of the car you were driving?”
He grinned. ”That's it, but mine is a little rusty, not s.h.i.+ny like that.”
She smiled and nodded. ”When you pulled up to stop, which side of the road were you on? The creek side, or nearer the orchard?”
”The orchard.”
”Still facing east. All right. Then you started to make a turn. Will you use this model on the stand there to show the court how you maneuvered to make your turn? Let's say this line here is the edge of the road by the orchard.” She pointed to a joint in the wood.
Judge Mac was leaning forward to watch, and Jase Novak had left his table to come closer in order to see.
Looking very uncomfortable, Ben Hennessey began to back up the little car and turn it. ”Steve DeFrisco was back there to tell me when I got near the boulders,” he said, stopping the car, then starting to move forward. He did it again, then said, ”Steve said a car was coming, and I pulled back in.” He returned the model car to the original position.
”Whose car was coming?” Barbara asked.