“... Yes.”
“Then, Miss Selby, are you now prepared to tell the truth?”
“Objection, Your Honor.”
“Sustained.”
“Miss Selby, we think that you made a mistake in identifying Earl Thomson as the man who abducted and raped you. Will you now finally agree that you did make a mistake? That you were wrong in accusing Earl Thomson of such crimes? That the truth is that Earl Thomson has never harmed or molested you in any way whatsoever—?”
“Objection, Your Honor. Counsel has asked the witness a string of incriminating questions but hasn’t given her a chance to respond to even one of them.”
“Sustained.”
Davic pointed directly to Earl Thomson. “Miss Selby, is it still your testimony that this is the man who ran you down in his automobile on the sixteenth of last October?”
“Yes.”
“That he forced you into his car and drove you to a secluded house called variously during this trial Vinegar Hill and the Taggart Place?”
“Yes.”
“And that at that place, Earl Thomson committed the crimes on your person specified in the indictment?”
“Yes. Yes, he did.”
“Miss Selby.” Davic’s expression hardened now, like a disapproving, wounded parent. “You left Pyle’s Corners at about ten o’clock according to witnesses. But it was almost three hours later — three hours, Miss Selby — before you arrived at your friend’s home in Little Tennessee, which is scarcely a ten-minute walk from Pyle’s Corners. Where — and how — did you spend those three hours, Miss Selby?”
Shana hesitated. “I’ve tried to remember... I walked up Fairlee Road, it was raining. I didn’t want to get wet. I turned off the road and sat in an old car. In a kind of junkyard. The windows were broken. But it was dry. I could hear the rain on the roof.”
“You sat all alone for three hours? Listening to the rain?”
“I... was thinking.”
“What were you thinking about, Miss Selby?”
“I’m not sure. My hand hurt, it was bleeding.”
“Did any cars drive by? Were there any pedestrians or hitchhikers who might have noticed you?”
“No.”
“Then we have only your word that you were all alone in that abandoned car?”
“Maybe somebody saw me. I don’t know.”
“You didn’t go anywhere else during that time?”
“No.”
“But since you’re so vague about so many things, Miss Selby, how can you be sure? More important, how can we be sure that you didn’t go somewhere and spend time with someone else during those three hours you have no way of accounting for?”
Brett jumped to her feet, her face white.
“I object, Your Honor. I object to this entire line of inquiry. After the ordeal the plaintiff was forced to endure, it is ridiculous to ask why she didn’t behave logically and reasonably. If Shana Selby had not retreated into shock, if her senses and nerves were not numbed and unreliable, that might warrant speculation. But Mr. Davic’s present attack is both cruel and unethical—”
Judge Flood rapped his gavel, but Brett ignored it. “I will stand here, Your Honor, and object and object and object until the marshals remove me physically at each and every attempt by Mr. Davic to demand an accountability and justification from the victim which should, in fact, and in justice, be required only of the defendant.”
“Miss Brett, you will be in order, and refrain from these speeches and challenges. But you do have a point.” He then reminded Davic that in his opening statement he had stipulated the grievous nature of Shana’s injuries. “You will, therefore,” he instructed him, “bear in mind the physical condition of the witness that night.”
“Yes, Your Honor.” He was satisfied that his insinuations had gotten through to the jury. “Miss Selby, if I have upset you, I’m sorry. But truth is at the heart of Earl Thomson’s defense. And, as everybody knows”... he looked at Brett... “finding the truth can be a painful process.” He paused then, as if searching for words. “Miss Selby, if we are to believe everything you’ve told us, it’s logical to assume you were terrified of the man who attacked you that night. Correct?”
“I was. Yes.”
Davic paused a beat, studied Shana. “Would you tell the court, Miss Selby, if you had any contact with Earl Thomson after he allegedly attacked you?”
“I didn’t see him again.”
“Answer my question. Did you have any contact with him? Did you, for example, try to talk to him?”
“Yes.”
“Speak up, Miss Selby.”
“I called him, I called him on the phone.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to... meet with him.”
“Would you please tell the court what prompted you to call Earl Thomson?”
“I saw his picture in the paper. I recognized him.”
“Then you believed you had met him on some previous occasion. Is that what you’re telling us?”
“Yes, he was the one in the car. The man who... knocked me off my bicycle—”
“The very same man who abducted and assaulted you so brutally?”
“Yes.”
Davic placed his hands on the arms of the witness chair and stared into Shana’s eyes.
“If you believed Earl Thomson was the man who had done those terrible things to you, Miss Selby, why did you phone him and try to arrange a meeting with him?”
Judge Flood rapped for order as a murmur swept through the court.
Davic turned away from Shana. He studied the faces of the jurors. “Miss Selby, would you like me to repeat my question?”
“No...”
“I’m waiting for your answer then. Why did you call Earl Thomson to arrange a meeting?”
“I... I wanted help.” Shana’s breathing was more rapid, spots of color appeared on her face.
“I’m relieved that we’re finally getting at the truth, Miss Selby. How many times did you call the defendant?”
“Two times.”
“Did you call him twice on the same day? Or on successive days, or what was your schedule?”
“I called him first about a... about a week afterward.”
“A week after what, Miss Selby?”
“A week after he hurt me.”
“When did you make the second call?”
“Five or six days later.”
“Both these calls were made prior to your accusations against the defendant at Longwood Gardens?”
“Yes.”
“Would you speak up, please, Miss Selby.”
“Yes.” Shana cleared her throat. “Yes.”
“After you saw his picture in the paper, after you called and asked him to meet you, after that you went to Longwood Gardens and shouted in front of several witnesses that he had assaulted and raped you. Is that the sequence, Miss Selby?”
“Yes—”
“Did you identify yourself to Earl Thomson when you called him on the phone?”
“He knew who I was.”
“How did you know that? How could you know that?”
“I knew.”
“May I ask you once again why you called Mr. Thomson?”
“I told you... I wanted him to meet me.”
“Did you have anywhere in particular in mind?”
No answer.
“What was Mr. Thomson’s response to your invitation, Miss Selby?”
“He didn’t say anything, he just hung up.”