"Thirty or forty feet, thank you. That's about the distance from where you're sitting to the back of this courtroom, is that right?"
Hardy turned around to check and saw that Brandt wasn't far off.
"Something like," Mrs. Salarco said. "Yes."
"And you and your husband live on the second floor of your building, do you not?"
"Yes."
"So you were looking down at the person you saw?"
"Yes."
"And he was wearing a cowl?" At her confused expression, he mimicked with his hands, and added, "A sweatshirt with a hood over his head?"
"Sí. Yes."
"Did it cover his whole head?"
Again, she looked at Hardy, and again he nodded. What else could he do? He had to let her tell her story and hope it came out as credible.
She nodded back at Brandt. "Yes. But not his whole face."
"Did it cover part of his face, then?"
She paused. "Yes." Then added. "He looked up."
God bless her, Hardy thought.
But Brandt came right back at her. "What do you mean by that, Mrs. Salarco? That he looked up? Do you mean-"
Hardy stalled to let the witness get composed. "Objection."
"Sustained."
Brandt was ready, though. "At any time, did the hood come off the man's head?"
"No."
"It covered the top of his head and part of his face?"
Hardy stood again, objecting.
"Sustained."
"All right. Let me ask you this, Mrs. Salarco? Was it dark outside at this time? Nighttime?"
"Yes, but-"
"Yes is sufficient, thank you," Brandt said, cutting her off. He must have decided that he'd made enough of his point, and switched gears. "Mrs. Salarco, were you present at the police lineup where your husband identified the person who'd been downstairs at Mr. Mooney's apartment that night?"
"Yes."
"Did you take part in that lineup, too?"
"Yes."
"And you failed to identify anyone in the lineup as the person you saw that night, is that right?"
"Yes."
"You were given a form, and then signed the form, saying you didn't recognize anyone in the lineup, is that right?"
"Yes."
"And Mr. Bartlett, sitting at that table over there"- he turned and pointed-"you did not recognize him?"
"Your honor." Hardy was up again.
"I'm getting to something here, your honor," Brandt said.
"All right." Johnson nodded. "Objection overruled, but get to it."
"Mrs. Salarco, when you did not positively identify anyone in the lineup as the man below your window, did you mean that you didn't know whether it was one of the people in the lineup or not? It might have been or it might not have been. Or did you mean to say that none of those people in the lineup was the man you saw? That is, you could not definitely say that it was Andrew?"
Her eyes by now filled with fear, Anna Salarco looked to Hardy for support, but there was nothing he could do. She came back to Brandt. "I'm sorry. I don't understand."
"Your honor," Brandt said. "May I rephrase?"
"Go ahead."
Brandt gave her a warm smile and stepped a bit closer to her. "Mrs. Salarco," he said, "we are trying to understand exactly what it is that you want to tell the court. At the lineup, you said you could not identify anyone, is that correct?"
"Yes."
"All right. Did you mean that it could not have been Andrew? That it was impossible that it was Andrew down below you thirty or forty feet away, with a hood over his head on a dark night?"
"No. Maybe not impossible, but-"
Brandt rushed her with the follow-up. "So your testimony now is that what you meant to say was that you couldn't positively identify the person as Andrew? Is that right? That you weren't sure enough to swear to it."
"Sí," she said. "I could not swear to it that it was him."
"Ah." Brandt rewarded her with a beaming smile. "Thank you, Mrs. Salarco." He whirled to Hardy. "Redirect."
He wanted to take a short recess, perhaps confer with Wu and give Anna a few minutes to collect herself and perhaps realize what she'd said. But he didn't think he could afford to wait. "Mrs. Salarco," he began. "Is there a streetlight in front of your house?"
"Yes."
"Was it on- that is, lit up- when you saw the man come from the downstairs apartment, turn, and look up at you?"
"Yes."
"And could you see the man's face?"
"Yes."
"And was it Andrew's face?"
She stopped, looked for a long time at the defense table, then finally shook her head. "No," she said. "Was not that boy."
During the lunch recess, Hardy stood out in the back lobby making phone calls, to Glitsky, to his wife, to the office. As he was finishing up the last one, he noticed Wu and Brandt sitting on a bench next to the walkway that led up to the cabins. From his vantage, they appeared to be arguing, but there was something about their body language that set Hardy's alarms jangling. Since there wasn't a jury that might be influenced by seeing the opposing attorneys schmoozing during lunch, their tête-à-tête wasn't the breach in trial decorum it might otherwise have been. But still, especially given the Norths' presence just up the hill in the cabins having lunch with their son, Hardy did not think it presented a picture that would be particularly comforting to the clients.
He put away his cellphone, walked out the back door, and started to approach them. When he got close, he noticed the silent signal pass from Brandt to Wu, and they both shut up and put on different faces. Hardy gave them both a polite hello.
"Any word from Glitsky?" Wu asked him.
"He's not answering, so I'm assuming he's too busy. I left a message that we want to know the second he's got anything firm. Meanwhile, I'm going up to have a word with Andrew and his folks. If I'm not interrupting anything here, you want to come along?"
Coming from her boss, this wasn't really a request. Wu hesitated, then stood up and fell in next to him as he continued walking. "He's not going to call Juan Salarco," she said.
Hardy nodded, believing that the decision was the proper one. Though Juan's testimony might have undercut his wife's credibility somewhat, in the end his identification of Andrew in the lineup was already on the record, and the differences in the stories and interpretations of the husband and wife were what juries were for. Further, once he got on the stand, Hardy or Wu would have a chance to cross-examine him and perhaps expose other weaknesses that they could later exploit at the trial. "So that's it for witnesses then?"
"It looks like."
"Then it's over. We get the ruling when we go back in." Hardy took a few more steps, then asked, "What were you two arguing about? It wasn't that he isn't calling Salarco."
"No, it's that he won't call Jackman."
"Why should he? As his honor was kind enough to point out, if they get anything, Jackman will call him. Mr. Brandt is just playing it out."
"A game, right."
"Well, in some ways it is a game, Wu. You know that."
"Not for Andrew," she said.
"No, though it was when you started with him, wasn't it?"
Her shoulders fell with the truth of that. "It's just that keeping track of when it's a game and when it's not"- she broke a weary smile-"it can wear a girl out." They hadn't yet reached the gate that enclosed the cabins, and Wu stopped walking. "But this is just so clearly wrong, don't you think? Andrew didn't kill anybody."
"No. I don't believe he did either."
"That's what I asked Jason, whether or not he believed it. He said that wasn't the point. He didn't want to go there."