Part 29 (2/2)
”No, sir. Just sungla.s.ses. A flash of sunlight on them. I was watching where I was going, in and out of bushes. I didn't stop to see a person.”
”Could you see if that person was wearing a cap?”
”Objection,” Barbara said. ”Leading question.”
”Sustained.”
Judge Mac had been watching Daniel closely throughout, and he didn't even glance at Novak or Barbara but kept his gaze on the boy in the witness stand.
”Could you see any other detail at all?” Novak asked then.
”A cap, like a baseball cap. That's what I thought. Then I looked at the bushes and where I was running.”
”Did you have the impression that it was a man standing there by the blackberries?”
”I guess so. I didn't think much of anything about it at the time.”
Novak nodded. ”But you surmised that sungla.s.ses and a cap had to be worn by someone, didn't you?”
”I just didn't think of it at all,” Daniel said.
”Are you acquainted with the defendant, Alexander Feldman?”
”I know who he is.”
”Do you know where he lives?”
”Yes, sir. In the house next to ours.”
”Did you see him on his own property on numerous occasions?”
”Sometimes. Yes, sir.”
”How was he dressed on those occasions?”
”He always had on a baseball cap and sungla.s.ses.”
”All right. Why did you go to the front of the house instead of using the back door?”
Daniel took another sip of water, then said, ”I heard hammering and I thought my father was on the back porch fixing the rail.”
”So you got to the house, then what?”
”I ran upstairs and got my money, then down again, just as my mother came from the kitchen with a box. I took the box and she picked up her purse on the table in the hall, and I went out to her car and put the box on the front seat. She got in and started to drive, and I began to run back to Ben's car.” His voice was steady through this, but his hands on top of the witness stand were shaking. He put them in his lap.
”Did you speak to your mother?” Novak asked in a low voice.
”Not in the house. I put my finger on my lips. Like this, and she nodded.” He held his forefinger to his lips in the universal sign for silence.
”Did she say anything to you?”
Daniel shook his head, then said, ”Not then. She stopped at the back door to tell my father that dinner was on the stove.”
”Did he say anything?”
”I don't know. I didn't hear anything. He was still hammering.”
”Did your mother speak to you before she left?”
”Yes, sir,” Daniel said in a near whisper. ”At the car she asked me if I wanted a ride. I said no, that Ben was waiting.” He picked up his gla.s.s of water, not as if he wanted to drink, but as if he had to do something with his hands.
”Do you know how long you were in the house that day?” Novak asked after a moment.
”I didn't then, but now I do.”
”Will you explain to the court how you know?”
”Yes, sir. You and a detective asked me to go through the same motions as I did then. You timed me. It was thirty-nine seconds.”
”Do you think that's about the same as it was on June ninth?”
”I think so. I did the same things, ran upstairs to my room, and back down, just like then.”
”All right. So you took a total of four minutes and thirty-two seconds to run home, get your money, and run back to the car, and thirty-nine seconds of that time you spent in your house. Is that correct?”
”Yes, sir.”
When Barbara stood up for cross-examination, she said, ”What I'd like to do is try to pinpoint when you saw the sungla.s.ses and possibly a cap, where you were and where you saw them. I believe Mr. Novak's aerial view will serve, if we remove the transparency first. Or, Your Honor, I have my own aerial view that I could use instead.”
”Is there any significant difference?” Judge Mac asked.
”No, they are basically the same.”
”Mr. Novak, do you have any objections to the defense using your exhibit?”
”None at all,” Novak said. His a.s.sistant got up and removed the transparency, leaving the aerial view on the easel.
”Mr. Marchand,” Barbara said then, ”if you will, please, I'd like to identify what we are seeing here. Is this your house?”
He said yes, and one by one she pointed to the outbuildings, the garage, then the vegetable garden, and he identified them. When she finished, she said, ”You kept an area mowed and landscaped, including the vegetable garden, for about four hundred feet by two hundred. Is that about right?”
He said yes.
”Would you step down and point to the place on the map where you thought you might have seen someone?”
He stood up and approached the map hesitantly, then looked confused by it.
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