Part 33 (1/2)
”After being in a group with more than a dozen other people discussing hospital affairs, she suddenly began to talk about herself and her diabetes. Was that a topic on the committee agenda that night?”
”No.”
”So you must have told her previously about your upcoming study, the trials. When did you tell her, Dr. Wrigley?”
”Your Honor, I object,” Novak said, more angrily than before. ”Counsel is hara.s.sing this witness for no purpose.”
”I am trying to clarify-”
Judge Mac motioned both attorneys, beckoning them to the bench. There, with his microphone turned off, he leaned forward and said to Novak, ”You and I both know as well as Ms. Holloway does that she is going to tear into every single a.s.sertion this witness made in his direct testimony. As there is no jury to impress, and I haven't been impressed for many years, you might as well can it, Mr. Novak. Let her get on with it, and if she pushes past the point of legitimacy, then you may object to some purpose.”
”Will you recognize that point?” Barbara murmured to Novak.
”You waded in, Jase,” Judge Mac said. ”Now the water's deeper. Swim with it. Or we could be here the rest of the week with this one witness.” He waved them away and said, ”Overruled.”
When Barbara turned back toward her table, she saw Alex duck his head, and she thought, Good G.o.d! He can hear every word up here!
Frank had returned to his seat, and she saw Lt. Hoggarth sitting in the back row of the spectators.
”Dr. Wrigley,” she said then, facing the witness stand once more, ”I'll repeat my question. When did you tell Ms. Franz about the diabetes study?”
”A few days before the meeting,” he said. ”My wife and I were shopping at the Fifth Street Market and she was trying on some clothes. I was having a coffee in the courtyard when Ms. Franz came from a store and saw me. She joined me and we talked a few minutes.”
Very good, Barbara wanted to say, slippery and quick.
”Did your wife meet her that day?”
”No. Ms. Franz left before my wife came out of the shops.”
”All right. So on the way to her car after the committee meeting, she filled you in with her medical history, and even though you're not a medical doctor, you were able to evaluate her condition and conclude that her diabetes was well controlled. Is that what you're telling the court?”
”Yes, it is,” he said.
She walked to her table and picked up a brochure, returned to the witness stand with it. ”Do you recognize this brochure, Dr. Wrigley?”
He said yes, it was handed out by the clinic.
”This brochure lists the various studies your group has done: heart conditions, diabetes, bipolar syndrome, autism, panic disorders, insomnia.... Are you able to evaluate prospective volunteers for all of these different conditions?”
Novak objected and was overruled.
”Some of them, yes.”
”Can you give the court the names of any other prospective volunteers whom you personally evaluated and either accepted or rejected?”
”I don't remember.”
”Ms. Franz volunteered for your study in the fall, two years ago. Is that right?”
”Yes. About then.”
”Did you attend a meeting of molecular biologists in Philadelphia that same fall?”
”Yes.”
”Did you stay at the Rutherford Hotel?”
”I don't remember.”
”Is this a copy of your bill for that stay?” she asked, handing him the bill. He said yes, and she pa.s.sed it to Judge Mac and then to Novak to examine.
”Did your wife accompany you?”
”No.”
”Dr. Wrigley, your hotel bill is made out for you and your wife. Can you explain that?”
”No, I can't. It's a mistake. I was alone.”
She produced two more hotel bills for Dr. and Mrs. Wrigley, and he said they were both mistakes.
”You seem to have a hard time with hotels,” she said. ”Did you protest at the time of the mistakes?”
”Yes, I did.”
”Were the bills corrected?”
”I a.s.sume so. I didn't check on them again. I'm not very good at keeping track of my credit cards.”
The last bill she produced was for a bed-and-breakfast inn in Astoria, Oregon. It was billed to Dr. and Mrs. Wrigley.
”My wife planned to go with me, just a weekend retreat, but at the last minute our daughter caught a cold and she decided to stay home with the child. I didn't bother to change the reservation,” he explained coolly.
”I see. And if the innkeeper recalls that a Mrs. Wrigley was present for the breakfasts, can you account for that?”
Novak objected on the grounds that it was hypothetical and improper cross-examination. He was sustained.
”Did Hilde Franz turn up at any of the conferences when you were on the program?”
”Yes. I thought it was a coincidence at first, and that's when my wife said Hilde was stalking me.”
”When was that, Dr. Wrigley? After Philadelphia, or Detroit? Or was it after Los Angeles?”
”Detroit, I think,” he said. His eyes had narrowed, and his lips had grown tighter and tighter. She wondered that he could speak at all.
”That was in January, eighteen months before Hilde Franz's death. During the following eighteen months, after you had been warned that she was stalking you, were there occasions when you were alone with her?”
”Yes,” he said. ”She asked me for a ride a few times and I agreed, simply to avoid an awkward scene in front of other people.”
”If she asked you for a ride in front of other people, do you recall who they might have been?”