The Perfect Alibi (Robin Lockwood #2)(16)

“Miss Stark,” Kellerman asked as he continued his direct examination, “did you tell the defendant that you did not want to have sexual intercourse with him?”

Randi nodded.

“You have to answer the question so the court reporter can record it,” Kellerman said gently.

“Sorry. Yes. I told him to stop.”

“And did he stop?”

“No … no, sir.”

“What did he do when you told him to stop?”

“He ripped my panties off. Then he slapped me and told me to be a good girl. Then … then he forced himself inside me.”

“What were you feeling when he penetrated you?”

Randi started to cry. “It hurt. I told him but he wouldn’t stop.”

“Did the defendant ejaculate inside you?”

“Yes.”

“What happened then?”

“I yell ‘Get off me,’ and Annie came into the room.”

“Did he leave then?”

“Only after Annie threatened to scream.”

“What did you do after the defendant left?”

“Annie took me to the hospital.”

“Thank you, Randi. I have no further questions.”

“Mr. Armstrong,” Judge Mary Redding said.

“Thank you, Your Honor. Miss Stark, you don’t like Blaine, do you?”

Randi looked stunned by the question. “He raped me. No, I don’t like him.”

“What about before the party? Isn’t it true that you hated him because in high school, your boyfriend, Ryan, attacked Blaine and was sent to jail?”

Randi glared at Armstrong. “Blaine baited Ryan. He was much bigger and stronger, and he beat him up. Then he reported Ryan to the police and lied about what happened. Ryan was never the same after he got out of juvie,” Randi said.

“You claim Blaine lied,” Doug said, “but Ryan had his day in court and he was convicted, wasn’t he?”

“That’s because he got his friends to lie at the trial.”

Blaine leaned over to his lawyer. “Object,” he said. “Ask the judge to strike the answer.”

Before Armstrong could say anything, Randi pointed at Blaine. “Because of him, Ryan killed himself. So, yeah, I hate him.”

“Objection!” Doug shouted.

“Sustained. Miss Stark, you must not volunteer that type of statement. Confine yourself to answering the questions Mr. Armstrong asks.”

The judge turned to the jury. “I am instructing you to ignore Miss Stark’s last two statements about what Mr. Hastings’s friends and Ryan may have done. They are inadmissible guesses, and you may not use them in any way in deciding Mr. Hastings’s case.”

“A lot of good that’s going to do me,” Blaine whispered. “You’re letting that little bitch say anything she wants.”

“Mr. Armstrong,” the judge asked, “do you have any more questions?”

“Yes, Your Honor. Miss Stark, I see Robin Lockwood in the spectator section. Is she an attorney?”

“Yes.”

“Have you hired her?”

“Yes.”

“And that’s because you plan to sue Blaine if he is convicted, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“And isn’t your motive for accusing my client of rape the money you hope to get in a civil suit?”

“No. I called the police because he raped me against my will. He’s an animal, and I want to protect any other woman he can rape if he’s not behind bars.”

“Move to strike that answer, Your Honor?” Doug said.

“You asked the question, Mr. Armstrong, and you’re stuck with the answer.”



* * *



“The State rests,” Rex Kellerman told the Court as soon as Randi was excused.

“All right. Let’s recess and be back in twenty minutes,” the judge said.

“Let’s talk outside,” Blaine said.

“Sure,” Doug said.

Blaine and Doug passed Senior on their way up the aisle. He looked furious, but Junior waved him down. Blaine led Doug into a deserted stairwell at the back of the fifth-floor corridor.

“Do I go on next?” Blaine asked.

“I don’t think you should testify.”

“Oh yeah? Why is that?”

“Are you going to say that you never penetrated Stark?”

“That’s the truth.”

“Kellerman will crucify you. He’ll ask you how your sperm got into Stark, and you won’t have an answer.”

“You should have given the jury an answer. I told you to hire a DNA expert who would tell the jury that isn’t my DNA.”

“I did hire an expert. I told you, he conducted his own test, but he agreed that the DNA in the rape kit was a match for your DNA.”

Hastings’s face flushed with anger and a pulse started throbbing in his temple. “Then you should have hired another expert, you fucking incompetent.” Blaine’s low growl was more frightening than if he had screamed in Doug’s face. “I never fucked that half-wit. She lied on the stand, and you didn’t do a goddamn thing.”

They were alone in the stairwell, and Doug thought Blaine might attack him.