After Anna(41)

‘Yes.’

‘The phone record also shows that one minute after you hung up with the 911 dispatcher, you called your lawyer, isn’t that correct?’

‘Yes.’ Noah had given this testimony on direct, but again, under Thomas’s questioning, it had sounded better, more reasonable.

‘Your lawyer was present counsel Thomas Owusu, isn’t that correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘Isn’t it true that the real reason you wanted to get off the phone with 911 was to call your lawyer?’

‘No.’

‘But you called your lawyer one minute after you hung up with the 911 operator, so you must have been thinking of calling your lawyer while you were talking with the 911 operator, isn’t that correct?’

‘No.’

Linda arched her eyebrow again, and Noah realized it was her tell, when she was about to tear into him. ‘So when you told the 911 dispatcher that you wanted to get off the phone, you had absolutely no idea you were going to call your lawyer next?’

‘Yes.’ Noah felt confused, and suddenly beaten. Maggie was witnessing this disaster. It would haunt her forever.

‘Dr Alderman, didn’t you lie to the 911 dispatcher so you could get off the phone and talk to your lawyer?’

‘No.’

‘Didn’t you lie to the 911 dispatcher when you told her you were doing chest compressions?’

‘No.’

‘But you did lie to her when you told her why you were hanging up, didn’t you?’

‘No.’

‘But you called your lawyer one minute later, didn’t you?’

‘I was just reacting.’

‘Right, like a doctor, as you testified?’

‘Yes.’

‘A doctor who calls his criminal lawyer?’

‘Objection, Your Honor.’ Thomas rose. ‘Is that a snide comment or a question?’

‘Your Honor, I’ll withdraw it,’ Linda said without pausing. ‘Dr Alderman, isn’t it true that you made up that bit about the compressions, lying to the 911 dispatcher, because you knew that the 911 tape would be evidence later?’

‘No.’ Noah had to help himself. ‘As you point out, if I were trying to make a fake story, I would’ve acted upset or said “oh my God” and things like that, as you said before. But I didn’t.’

Linda arched an eyebrow again. ‘Isn’t it also true that if you knew you were going to try to sell this phony-baloney story of the doctor-reacting-as-a-doctor, you wouldn’t exhibit any of those behaviors?’

‘No, no.’ Noah didn’t elaborate. He couldn’t. There was nothing more to say. He’d tried to score but it had backfired.

‘You weren’t too shocked, horrified, and grief-stricken at Anna’s murder to call your lawyer, were you?’

‘I was horrified. I had those emotions.’

Linda crossed her arms. ‘But nevertheless you carried on somehow and called your lawyer, did you not?’

Thomas shifted uncomfortably back at counsel table, and Noah took it as a signal. They had discussed how to deal with these questions. Their defense was that the prosecution’s case was circumstantial, and Noah was supposed to remember to use the term circumstances.

Noah cleared his throat. ‘As I said in my direct testimony, I called my lawyer because, given the circumstances, I knew it could look like I killed Anna even though I didn’t do it.’

‘So you admit you were thinking of yourself at that time, weren’t you?’

‘Partly, yes.’ Noah had no choice but to admit it. He and Thomas had decided that was the best strategy.

‘You weren’t concerned with Anna anymore, were you?’

‘I still was, but I had determined that she had no pulse. There was nothing I could do.’

‘But you tried chest compressions earlier, after you had determined she had no pulse, did you not?’

‘Yes.’

‘So, there was something you could do, wasn’t there?’

‘Okay, yes.’

‘I’m confused, were you or were you not administering chest compressions at the time you called your lawyer?’

‘I was, I said I was.’ Noah didn’t believe for one minute that Linda was confused.

‘Dr Alderman, when during the twelve minutes of that conversation with your lawyer did you stop administering chest compressions?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Between one and five minutes, or between five and ten minutes?’

‘Between one and five.’

‘Did you have a hard time talking with your lawyer and compressing Anna’s chest, is that why you stopped?’

Again Noah couldn’t say yes or no. ‘I stopped because it was futile. She had passed.’

‘But you said she had passed before you even called 911, didn’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘The phone record shows that you spoke with your lawyer for twelve minutes, isn’t that correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘So your conversation with your lawyer was twelve times as long as your conversation with the 911 dispatcher, isn’t that correct?’

‘Yes.’ Noah got the implication, and so did the jury. He could hear them shifting. He had to fight back.