"Isn't it?" Gale asked, his voice dripping with disbelief. "Everything you've told us, it's all about you and Rachel, isn't it? Not about Graeme. It was about Rachel playing games with you. Tormenting you. Trying to hurt you."
"It was difficult," Emily said.
"So difficult you beat up your own daughter once, didn't you?"
Emily cringed. She began to withdraw, staring into her lap. "Yes," she murmured.
"Speak up! You were angry, and you beat the hell out of her, didn't you?"
"It was just once."
Gale shook his head. "Oh, so you only abused your daughter once. That's all right, is it?"
"No! I'm so sorry!"
"Your daughter pushed you until you viciously assaulted her, right?"
Dan stood up. "Mr. Gale is badgering the witness, Your Honor."
The judge nodded. "Back off, Mr. Gale."
Gale changed direction. "If she pushed you far enough, you'd do it again, wouldn't you?"
"No."
Gale lowered his voice and continued with a wicked calm. "In fact, weren't you the one with the motive to kill Rachel?"
Emily's eyes flew open. "No!"
"No? After she humiliated you for years?"
"I would never hurt her."
"You just told us you did."
"That was a long time ago," Emily pleaded. "It happened once and never happened again."
"Didn't it?" Gale asked. "Didn't you finally have it out with Rachel once and for all on that last weekend?"
"No-no, of course not! I wasn't even there!"
Gale was patient. "Where were you?"
"With my sister in St. Louis."
"On Friday night?" Gale asked. "The night Rachel disappeared?"
"Yes."
Alarm bells began to go off in Stride's head.
"But not on Saturday," Gale said. "You weren't in St. Louis on Saturday night, were you?"
Emily shook her head. "No. I stayed at a hotel in the Cities. I was tired. I had been driving all day."
"Where did you stay?" Gale asked.
"I don't remember. Somewhere on the Bloomington strip."
"Could it have been the Airport Lakes Hotel?"
"Possibly. I really don't remember."
Gale retrieved a piece of paper from the counsel's table. "In fact, isn't this a copy of your receipt from the Airport Lakes Hotel in Bloomington for that weekend?"
Emily paled. "Yes."
"Well, then," Gale said, frowning. "We have a problem, don't we?"
Emily was silent.
Gale held up the paper. "Because this receipt shows you checking in on Friday night, not Saturday, doesn't it?"
Stride murmured, "Son of a bitch."
Maggie leaned over and whispered, "Goddamn it, the sister covered for her. She swore Emily was there on Friday night."
In the witness stand, Emily hadn't spoken. Gale spread his arms, the receipt held high in his left hand. "Well, Mrs. Stoner?"
"It must be a mistake," Emily said in a ghastly voice.
"A mistake?" Gale was scornful. "They billed you for two nights, and you didn't notice? Shall we call the desk clerk who checked you in?"
Emily's eyes darted frantically, looking for cover. As Stride watched, she seemed to look repeatedly in one place, at the man seated a few feet down the row. At Dayton Tenby.
Stride glanced at the minister and saw a look of panic in Dayton 's eyes, too.
Emily crumbled. "All right, yes, I was there on Friday night. I did some shopping at the Mall of America on Saturday. Graeme wouldn't have liked it, and that's why I lied. It didn't seem like a big thing."
"How convenient," Gale said. "But the fact is, you could easily have driven to Duluth and back on that Friday night, couldn't you?"
"I didn't do that," Emily insisted.
"You check in, you head north. You would have arrived just after ten, right? Just when Rachel was getting home?"
"No. That's not what happened."
Gale smiled. "No? Tell us, Mrs. Stoner, what did Rachel do that night? What did she say? Did she push one button too many?"
"No, no, no."
Dayton Tenby leaned forward, and Stride saw him whispering furiously to Dan.
"You knew about the barn, right?" Gale persisted.
Emily didn't answer.
"I need a yes or no. Did you know what the barn was and where it was?"
"Yes."
"You'd been there yourself, hadn't you?"
"Not in years."
"But you had been there? You knew all about it?"
"Yes." Her voice was a lifeless echo.
"You had the real motive and opportunity to kill Rachel, didn't you? You had a history of violence toward her. She treated you like dirt."
Emily stared at him. "I didn't kill my daughter."
"You lied to the police. You lied to your husband. You lied to the jury. How do we know you're not lying now?"
Tears rolled in streaks down Emily's face. "I'm not lying."
Gale shrugged.
"That's all, Mrs. Stoner. I have nothing further."
Dan stood up on redirect.
"Mrs. Stoner, tell us again what you were doing on Friday night, when you claimed you were at your sister's house."
"I was shopping," Emily repeated.
Dan caught Emily's reluctant eyes. His voice softened. "You can't hide it anymore. It's time for the truth to come out. Now please, tell us. Where were you on Friday night?"
Stride saw Emily stare, stricken, at Tenby. He saw the minister nod his head gently. Emily took a deep breath and turned to the jury. She seemed composed again.
"I was at the hotel in Bloomington, just like the receipt says. I was having an affair. I didn't want my husband or anyone in the community finding out."
Dan nodded. "Who were you seeing in Minneapolis?"
"It was-I mean, I was meeting- Dayton. Dayton Tenby. He's been my pastor for years." Her words galloped out of her mouth as she tried to explain. "We didn't meet with the intention of having an affair. He was in Minneapolis for a conference. I wanted to talk to him, so I came back early. We had dinner, and then, well, one thing just led to another. We ended up spending the weekend together. It was beautiful. But I felt guilty and ashamed, and I didn't want to endanger Dayton 's career. Even though it was my fault, I knew he could be hurt."
"Were you with him the whole time?" Dan asked.
"Yes."
"Did you have any opportunity to sneak up to Duluth?"
Emily shook her head. "Of course not. That's ridiculous. There's only one person who was at home with Rachel that night. And that's Graeme."
26
"I watched the news tonight," Andrea said, taking a large swallow from a glass of Chardonnay, which they were gulping like cold beer. "You know how they are, all the experts handicapping who's winning and who's losing. But this time, they didn't sound like they knew. Even Bird wasn't ready to call the trial one way or another."
"Nice to know something can render Bird speechless," Stride said.
"What does Dan think?" Andrea asked.
"He thinks we're winning."
"What do you think Gale thinks?"
"I think he thinks he's winning."
"So who's winning?"
Stride laughed. "Us, I think. Then again, I'm an optimist."
Andrea, who was already more than a little drunk, shook her head. "An optimist? You? I don't think so."
"Even better. We must really be winning, then."
"Does Maggie think so, too?"
"Maggie?" Stride asked. "Maggie hates Dan so much, I think she would be content to have Stoner go free just to have Dan fall on his ass. However, she calls it a draw so far, and she's probably right."
Andrea was silent. Then she said, "I don't think Maggie likes me too much."