After Anna(23)

‘Thanks.’ Maggie stood up, too. ‘I’m just happy that she’s back in my life.’

‘Of course you are, and she must be, too. Every girl needs a mother, doesn’t she?’





Chapter Fifteen


Noah, After

TRIAL, DAY 5

Noah braced himself as Linda strode toward him to begin her cross-examination. He hadn’t seen Maggie enter the courtroom during his direct examination, which worried him. He hated to remember her crying in the car. He had done well on direct and had testified for three hours, which they had timed in rehearsal. Thomas believed it was the perfect length for testimony, since the attention spans of most jurors were conditioned by watching movies.

Linda squared off against the witness stand. ‘Dr Alderman, my name is Linda Swain-Pettit, and I represent the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I have a few questions for you.’

‘Understood.’ Noah told himself to remain calm, that he could handle her. He and Thomas had rehearsed cross-examination, going over every possible question she could throw at him. Noah had his story down pat and he had just told it on direct, so all he had to do was not undermine himself. Thomas has drilled into him, Answer only the question. Don’t volunteer or explain.

‘Let’s begin with Commonwealth Exhibit 26.’ Linda flipped through exhibits leaning against the dais, pulled out an enlarged photo of Anna, and set it on an easel. Anna looked beautiful in the photo, which Noah had taken from the shoulders up, her long hair grazing her lovely neck, her blue eyes cool, her smile oddly sly. Now, he knew why. Too late.

‘Dr Alderman, you took this photo of Anna during a family vacation at Stone Harbor, isn’t that correct?’

‘No, not a vacation per se. We went down the shore for a day.’

‘Per se?’ Linda smirked. ‘Is that Latin?’

‘Yes. It means “as such.” ’

‘I know what it means. My question is, you took this photo, didn’t you?’

‘Yes.’ Noah felt off-balance. One of the jurors chuckled. Thomas told him he was a know-it-all, and it was true. Noah used to think he knew it all. Before.

‘Dr Alderman, please direct your attention to the screen while I show you Commonwealth Exhibit 15, and ask, you took this photograph of Anna, too, didn’t you?’

‘Yes,’ Noah answered, while the screen came to life with a picture of Anna in a flowered bikini, posing at the water’s edge. Even in the sexy bathing suit, she looked sweet, innocent, and modest. None of these were qualities she possessed, but she had everybody fooled.

‘Please keep your attention on the screen while I show you ten more photos of Anna, Commonwealth Exhibits 16 through 25, and ask, you took them as well, did you not?’

‘Yes,’ Noah answered, as the series flipped by, of Anna striking different poses in the bathing suit at the water’s edge. The jurors craned their necks, shifting in their seats.

‘Dr Alderman, your wife and son were with you at the beach that day, weren’t they?’

‘Yes.’

‘You didn’t take any pictures of your wife, did you?’

‘No.’ Noah didn’t explain because Thomas had told him not to volunteer. Maggie didn’t like to have her picture taken because she always felt fat. He disagreed, but photographs never captured the liveliness in her, the spirit or humor in her eyes. The first time he met her, he thought to himself, she has so much life in her, her eyes actually dance.

‘You didn’t take a picture of your son that day, did you?’

‘No.’ Noah thought back. Caleb had never stood still for a minute at the beach, and they’d been busy making sandcastles and finding sand crabs. The water had been cold, but Caleb had gone in anyway. Noah had wrapped him in a SpongeBob towel, his knobby shoulders shivering, his lips blue from a snow-cone. His perfect imperfect son.

‘Your wife wasn’t present when you took these photos of Anna, was she?’

‘No.’ Noah didn’t explain. The explanation would only sound worse. He could see Thomas’s eyes flare, warning him off.

‘Where was your wife while you were taking these photos?’

‘She had taken my son Caleb to get lunch.’

‘Isn’t it true that you waited until they had gone to ask Anna to pose for you in her bathing suit?’

‘No, that’s not true.’ Noah had to say something. He had taken the stand for a reason. ‘Anna asked me to take those pictures. It wasn’t my idea, it was hers. She wanted them for Facebook. She couldn’t decide which one to use, that’s why there were so many.’

Linda’s eyes flared in disbelief. ‘Dr Alderman, are you trying to tell us that Anna, a teenager, couldn’t take a selfie?’

‘No.’

‘If Anna asked you to take the photos, why didn’t she give you her phone to take them?’

Noah realized the answer, but couldn’t say it. Thomas would kill him. ‘I don’t know.’

‘But you never sent Anna the photos so she could post them, did you? I can show you your phone, if you need your recollection refreshed.’ Linda gestured at the evidence table, where exhibits were bagged and tagged.

‘No, I never did. I must have forgotten to.’ Noah got the implication. The fact that he hadn’t sent them made it look as if Anna hadn’t asked him to take them.