The People vs. Alex Cross (Alex Cross #25)(60)

Binx twisted uncomfortably, looking as if a lasso had been looped over her head and cinched snug beneath her rib cage.

In a dull monotone, she read, “‘Saliva tests detected the presence of methylenedioxymethamphetamine, MDMA, a hallucinatory drug also known as molly or ecstasy.’”





CHAPTER


79


ECSTASY. MOLLY.

I flashed back to that weird giddy state I was in when I entered the factory and how I’d screamed in an uncontrollable rage that I was going to kill every Soneji in sight. No wonder my emotions had been on a roller-coaster ride that entire day. No wonder I’d felt like hell for days afterward.

Anita pivoted from Binx to the jury and said, “MDMA. A euphoric, mind-altering drug. A drug that doctors say leaves the body at a fairly predictable rate based on dosage. Ms. Binx, what does line four of the summary say?”

Binx was clearly uncomfortable now but read, “‘Further tests indicate dosage of one hundred and forty milligrams or more of MDMA introduced to subject forty-two to forty-eight hours prior to the gathering of samples.’”

Anita said, “One hundred and forty milligrams of ecstasy taken forty-two to forty-eight hours before the saliva samples were taken. That is a six-hour time span that, if I’m not mistaken, includes the two hours prior to the shootings when you were with Dr. Cross, Ms. Binx.”

I expected Wills to object. His assistant, Athena Carlisle, obviously expected the same thing because she glanced at her boss. When she saw he wasn’t moving, she stood up.

Carlisle said, “Your Honor, is Ms. Marley honestly laying the foundation for an insanity plea? Saying Dr. Cross was out of his mind at the time of the shooting because of ecstasy?”

“We are not, Your Honor,” Anita said hotly. “Dr. Cross is one of the sanest people I’ve ever known. I’m just setting the context for what Dr. Cross did or did not see that day.”

“Objection,” Wills said, standing beside his assistant. “Who’s testifying here, Ms. Marley or Ms. Binx?”

“Ms. Binx,” Anita said, and she returned to the witness box. “Can you look to page five of the report, the results of tests done on saliva samples taken from you several hours after the shootings? Lines three and four?”

Binx lowered her head and then shook it. “That’s not true.”

“The FBI says it is indeed true,” Anita said, and she looked to her own copy of the files. “Line four, quote, ‘Further tests indicate a dosage of a hundred and nineteen milligrams introduced to bloodstream four to six hours prior to the gathering of sample.’”

Binx said nothing.

“Did you ingest ecstasy earlier on the day of the shootings?” Anita asked.

Binx looked around warily. “That would be illegal, wouldn’t it?”

“Answer the question.”

Binx hesitated for several moments before straightening up in her chair and saying, “I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me.”

That set off a hubbub in the courtroom. Larch gaveled for quiet.

Amused, Anita said, “You’re invoking the Fifth Amendment for taking ecstasy?”

“I didn’t say that,” Binx said.

“You kind of did.”

“Objection!” Carlisle cried.

“Sustained,” Larch said. “The jury will ignore that.”

Anita showed no reaction. “Ms. Binx, the morning of the shootings, after you came back from your run, do you remember tripping in your apartment and Dr. Cross catching you before you could fall?”

She hesitated, frowned. “No.”

“Yes, you tripped over an electrical cord. When Dr. Cross caught you, you put a piece of clear adhesive tape on the underside of his forearm, didn’t you?”

“Objection,” Wills said wearily. “Where is the foundation for this?”

Anita said, “Your Honor, Dr. Cross and his wife, DC chief of detectives Bree Stone, will testify that they found a piece of tape on the underside of Dr. Cross’s right forearm in the hours after the shootings. We believe that the ecstasy was on that tape in a gel or powdered form and that it was absorbed into Dr. Cross’s bloodstream transdermally, through the skin.”

“Where is this tainted tape?” the prosecutor said. “Render the body, Counselor.”

Anita ignored him, said to the judge, “Neither Dr. Cross nor Chief Stone thought much of it at the time, and they threw the tape out at GW Medical Center.”

Wills shook his head even more wearily. “Move to strike everything Ms. Marley has said about this phantom piece of tape, Your Honor.”

“So moved,” Larch said.

“Your Honor—” Anita started.

“No tape, no talk about tape,” the judge said sharply.

Anita sighed, said, “Ms. Binx, did you dose Dr. Cross with ecstasy?”

Binx blinked, chewed on her lip, glanced at Wills, and then said again, “I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me.”





CHAPTER


80


WHEN JUDGE LARCH called for lunch recess and left the courtroom slowly, the prosecutors weren’t looking quite as confident as they had earlier.

Anita had asked Binx several more questions about the ecstasy, including how it was that she had been given the perfect dose of MDMA for her weight and how it was that I was given the perfect dose for mine.