Emily squeezed into the aisle. Her heels tapped on the marble floor as she approached the witness stand and was sworn in. She didn't look at Graeme, and Stride noticed that Graeme ignored her. Gale noticed, too, and Stride saw him discreetly jab his client with an elbow. Graeme had lost his wife over these false charges, and he had to display grief.
Emily settled into the chair. She took a quick glance at the jury, then looked away nervously. Her hands were folded in her lap. She was an attractive, sympathetic figure, but to Stride's eyes, she looked unstable. The events of the past few months had deepened the cracks in her soul. Stride began to wonder if the only reason she hadn't made another suicide attempt was to have this chance to testify against Graeme and see him put away. He hoped she got the chance.
"Mrs. Stoner, I know this is difficult for you," Dan began.
Emily swelled her chest with a deep breath and briefly closed her eyes. She straightened her back, steeling herself to tell her story. Her face was intense and determined. "I'm all right," she said.
"How did you meet Graeme Stoner?" Dan asked.
"I was a teller at the Range Bank. He joined the bank as an executive from New York. He was single, attractive, and wealthy, and all the women in the office were crazy about him. Me included."
"Did he show any interest in you?"
"No. Not at first. He would pass me without looking at me, like I didn't exist. It was the same with all the women. He ignored them."
"And then?" Dan asked.
"Well, one day, Rachel came to the bank. She was dressed in a tight halter and short shorts. I scolded her about it, and we got into an argument in the lobby. Graeme saw us together, but he didn't say anything. Later that day, though, he asked me out on a date."
Dan zeroed in on Emily's story, his voice rising. "The day that Graeme approached you was the day he saw Rachel with you in the bank?"
"Yes."
"After several months of ignoring you?"
"Yes."
"Had he seen Rachel with you before?" Dan asked.
"I don't see how. Rachel hardly ever came to the bank."
"Okay. So the two of you began dating. How did Rachel react to your having a man in your life again?"
"She was friendly to Graeme. She flirted with him."
"Eventually, you and Graeme were married. What did you observe about Rachel and Graeme's relationship after that?"
Emily took another deep breath. "They did things together, just the two of them. They went out on photography trips in the woods and were gone for hours. Graeme bought her gifts-clothes, compact discs, that kind of thing."
"How did you feel about this?"
"Initially, I thought it was fine. I was happy to have a family again. But I began to be concerned that Graeme was spending more and more time with Rachel and less and less time with me. He became very distant, very cold. It was like he was shutting down our relationship, and I didn't know why."
Dan took a long look at the jury, then said quietly, "Mrs. Stoner, did you ever have reason to believe that your husband was having sexual relations with your daughter?"
Emily's eyes flashed with anger. "The signs were there. I was blind to them. I didn't want to believe it. But looking back, I can point to things that should have set off warning bells in my head."
"Like what?"
"Well, one time, I was putting groceries in the back of the van. It was a Monday, and Graeme and Rachel had gone out hiking together the day before. I came across a pair of Rachel's panties in the van."
"What did you do?" Dan asked.
"I asked Graeme about it. He said Rachel had slipped while crossing a creek and fallen in. Her clothes got wet."
"Did you talk to Rachel, too?"
"No. I just washed them and put them away."
"What else did you observe?" Dan asked.
"Another time, I saw them kissing. I had already gone up to bed, and I heard Rachel and Graeme coming up the stairs. Rachel was giggling. The lights were on in the hallway, and I heard her say good night, and then I saw her put her arms around his neck and kiss him. On the lips. It wasn't a chaste kiss."
"Did you talk to Graeme or Rachel about it?"
"No. I pretended I was asleep. I couldn't face it."
Dan waited, letting Emily's story sink in. "Did this close relationship between Graeme and Rachel last?"
Emily shook her head. "No, something changed. Two summers ago, Rachel's relationship with Graeme soured. She became very cold and indifferent. I hadn't seen anything to precipitate it, no arguments, no fights. But she turned him off like a switch. Graeme tried to win her back. He was almost pathetic about it. He bought her a new car, but nothing changed. Rachel treated Graeme from that point very much the way she treated me. Like an enemy."
"Objection," Gale snapped.
"Sustained," Judge Kassel said.
"Mrs. Stoner, why didn't you tell any of this to the police when Rachel first disappeared?" Dan asked.
"I tried to tell myself it was impossible that Graeme could be involved. I was fooling myself, as if the things I had seen didn't mean anything. And I guess it was too humiliating to think that something so horrible was going on under my nose and I never saw any of it."
Gale objected again and was sustained again. But Dan had made his point. He was ready to wrap up.
"We know you had a difficult time with your daughter. After all that happened between you, did you still love her?"
Passion flowed into Emily's face. It was the first time that Stride could recall seeing any life at all in her tired eyes. "Of course! I loved her with my whole soul. I still do. I know how much pain she went through, and I would have done anything to reach her. I never could. It tore me up inside. It will always be the greatest regret of my life, that I couldn't find a way to mend the gap between us."
Dan smiled. "Thank you, Mrs. Stoner."
25
Stride assumed Gale would treat the mother of the victim with kid gloves. He was wrong. There wasn't a hint of sympathy in Gale's demeanor.
"The fact is, Mrs. Stoner, your relationship with your daughter was awful, wasn't it?" Gale began.
"It wasn't very good. That's what I said."
Gale snorted. "Not very good? Rachel regularly said she hated you, didn't she?"
"Well-she said that a few times."
"She regularly called you a bitch," Gale said.
"Sometimes."
"She would destroy things you owned, personal things, just for the hell of it."
"Sometimes."
"She would do despicable things for the sole purpose of hurting you?"
Emily nodded. "That's true." Then she lobbed an angry missile: "Like having sex with my husband."
"Or like running away and leaving your life and your marriage in ruins?" Gale demanded.
"She didn't do that."
Gale threw his beefy arms in the air. "How do you know? Wasn't she bright enough and devious enough to have staged all of this?"
"Objection," Dan said.
Gale shrugged. "I'll withdraw it. Mrs. Stoner, by your own admission, you didn't tell anyone about these so-called suspicions until after the police told you your husband was a suspect, is that right?"
"I was in denial," Emily said.
"Denial? The truth is, you really didn't think they were having an affair, did you?"
"Not then, no."
"And the only reason you think so now is because it seems to fit with Mr. Erickson's little mystery story, isn't that right?"
"No. That isn't true."