"Briefly, the man, Peter Kellogg, is a Type B negative, with a Pe factor. Cecily Kellogg is a Type B positive with a C factor, and Patricia Kellogg is a Type 0 negative with a Pa factor."
"You make a point of the difference in the additional factors?" asked the judge.
"Yes, I do, sir. We are able to type blood in more detail now than just A, AB, B, and 0, These additional 'factors,' as we call them, are every bit as important as the different types."
"I see. And what type were the children you examined?" asked Jasper.
"Both of them were Type B positive."
"Well, then, from her blood type, would Miss Kellogg possibly be the mother of the two children she delivered?" asked Jasper.
"I'm afraid to say it - but she couldn't be their mother," answered the serologist, puzzled by Iris own conclusion.
"Do you mean to tell me that the children could be Mrs. Kellogg's?" asked the judge, sitting bolt upright.
"I couldn't swear to that," the man admitted. "But I do most emphatically know that Miss Kellogg, that one, the defendant, could not be the mother of those children in spite of what I've heard today."
"How do you arrive at that conclusion?"
"Without getting too technical, although there are several substantiating factors besides the prime one, all children of a C and Pe blood factor must be Rh positive or heterozygous. All children of Pa and Pe factors must be Rh negative, which is homozygous, a recessive trait. So that Miss Kellogg, who is Pa, could not have had children with a positive Rh factor from Mr. Kellogg, who is Pe. So, while the blood types don't prove that Mrs. Kellogg is the mother from a serological standpoint, they prove that it is absolutely impossible for the babies' mother to have been Miss Kellogg. But that, of course, is itself impossible."
"Is there any chance the blood types were mixed, or that the infants differed from those in question?" asked the judge.
Instead of taking offense, Dr. Parker sighed.
"No, Your Honor. I checked my findings thoroughly - the children's footprints, everything involved. I had my assistant and one of the lab technicians check my findings and run two more complete serologies. Our results were identical."
"You may retire."
"Your Honor," said Jasper in the silence that ensued while the bench pondered the evidence, "I admit, that the scientific proof is perhaps indigestible to the court. I would like to present one final piece of incontrovertible, and easily accepted, proof." Judge Forsyth gave a curt wave of his hand to indicate permission. "Bailiff, will you call Mrs. Louise Baxter to the stand?"
Cecily gasped and clutched at me. I could only stare at the unperturbed Jasper. None of us had had any notion that he'd call her as a witness for us.
Louise Baxter walked down the center aisle, staring straight in front of us, two angry spots of red on her cheeks, her mouth firmly closed, her eyes flashing with suppressed emotion, and every inch of her trim, elegantly attired body protesting the indignity. When she took the stand, she refused to look at anyone. Her voice when she gave the oath and her name trembled with anger and was so low the judge asked her to repeat her name.
"You have one child, Mrs. Baxter, a daughter named Cecily Baxter Kellogg, is that correct?"
Her lips pursed firmly as if she were about to repudiate Cecily.
"Answer the counselor, if you please, Mrs. Baxter," said the judge.
"Yes!" One tight word, and she spat it.
"Bailiff, please direct the attendants to bring in the persons of Carla and Anne Kellogg."
Cecily half rose as a nun (and I now remembered Dr. Dickson's enigmatic reference to the church's help) and the woman warden brought in the babies. Jasper had got around Dr. Dickson's kidnapping by saying that the parents, when they realized what a furor was being caused, had arranged for the girls to be placed in an institution, where they were being anonymously cared for by qualified people. This was the first time Cecily had seen her children in almost three weeks, and she was perilously close to a complete emotional breakdown. "Easy," I told her, putting my arm about her. "It's only a few moments more."
As the attendants reached the front of the chamber, Wizard rose and placed himself between the babies and Mrs. Baxter. I hadn't seen a hand signal from Peter. Fortunately, the judge was too preoccupied to notice the dog's insubordination.
"Your Honor," said Jasper, "it has been said by wise men that all the scientific proof in the world on paper is not worth one second's visual proof. Will you and Mr. Hasbrough please take a careful look at the two infants, and then at Mrs. Baxter?"
The judge peered over the high bench at the babies, who were held up toward him. They were just beginning to rouse from sleep. He glanced at Mrs. Baxter, sitting rigid on the witness stand. He looked quickly back at the twins, muttering something inaudible to me, although the startled bailiff and Hasbrough both stepped closer to the babies. I craned my neck to try to see what they could be looking at.
"Oh, what is it?" breathed Cecily. "Why did Jasper bring Mother here?"
"Your Honor, I renew my motion for a directed verdict," said Jasper, with none of the inner satisfaction he must have been feeling.
The judge leaned back, staring with considerable respect at Jasper's tall, lean figure.
"You have made your point. Counselor, and your motion is granted. As a matter of law, I hold that the evidence adduced by the defense is admirably sufficient to dismiss any hint of incestuous fornication or adultery, or consanguinity, that may have risen from the evidence produced by the prosecution. Therefore, there is in fact no issue for determination. The defendants are not guilty as charged!"
He banged his gavel. Wizard barked twice, and we were all on our feet, yelling and crying, and I wasn't the only one weeping for joy.
Cecily scrambled to the babies. She all but grabbed Carla from the nun's arms and then turned with astonishment toward her mother. By that time, Chuck, Esther, and I were beside her. And we all saw what the judge had seen.
Dr. Dickson's mutterings hadn't registered with me on that frantic day, and I realized now that he had immediately seen that the twins were the spit and image of their maternal grandmother. From eyebrow tilt to the slight cleft in their little chins, they were miniatures of Louise Baxter. All the scientific documentation in the world was unnecessary in the face (I should say, faces) of such a strong familial resemblance. What a trick of fate!
Cecily suddenly moved forward toward her mother, sitting motionless on the stand.
"Look well, Mrs. Baxter," she said in a low voice, rich with the accumulated bitterness and uncertainty of the past weeks. "So help me God, it is the only time you will ever look on your granddaughters."
The only indication Mrs. Baxter gave that she had heard her daughter was to turn her head away.
Pat took Anne from the arms of the warden, and it was a measure of her acquitted innocence that she received a warm smile from the woman. The nun was assuring Cecily that the children had gained weight at a most satisfactory rate and she'd be glad to discuss their "vacation," as she sweetly put it, with Cecily at any time.
Chuck gave up pounding Jasper on the back and started shooing us all toward the door. "Back home where we belong," he said.
No one had left the courtroom, so I don't know how word had reached the reporters, but when the officer at the door opened it, the hall outside was crowded, and the flashbulbs and the noise woke the startled babies. "Miss Kellogg, will you do this again - for your brother and his wife?"
"Will you be a proxy mother for other deserving childless women?"
"Mr. Kellogg, how do you feel about…"
Jasper pushed his way to the front as Chuck protectingly put himself between Pat and the surging crowd.
"Now, now, boys," Jasper said, loudly but amiably. "We got some small girls here who need to get fed. Just let us through."