Ed McBain - Kiss

"Miss Franceschi," he said, "am I correct in assuming that you were only fifteen years old in July of last year?”

"Almost sixteen," she said.

"Nonetheless, not yet sixteen.”

"I was sixteen in November.”

"So you were still three, four months away from your sixteenth birthday on that night of July seventeenth, is that correct?”

"Yes.”

"You were fifteen years old, and you were necking and petting in your hallway for half an hour, forty minutes, whatever it was ...”

"Yes.”

"Which excited Mr. Assanti, you say ...”

"Objection, Your Honor.”

"Overruled.”

"You've described him as becoming dizzy ...”

"Yes.”

"And agitated.”

"Yes.”

"And upset.”

"Yes.”

"Did you become any of these things?”

"No.”

"You weren't dizzy?”

"I wasn't dizzy, no.”

"Even though you were only fifteen years old, and you'd been petting for some thirty, forty minutes?”

"We weren't petting that long. First we were just necking.”

"How long had you been petting, would you say?”

"Only fifteen minutes or so.”

"Only fifteen minutes. Was this a usual thing for you? Petting in hallways?”

"No, it ...”

"Objection, Your Honor!”

"Where are you going, Mr. Lowell?”

"Directly to Miss Franceschi's state of mind at the time, Your Honor.”

"That had better be where you're going.

Proceed.”

"So petting in hallways wasn't a usual thing for you?”

"If you're trying to say ...”

"Just answer the question, please. Was petting in hallways a usual thing for you, or - wasn't it?”

"It was not. I was going steady with Dom, that's the only reason ...”

"But even though this wasn't a usual thing for you, it didn't get you as excited as it seemed to get Mr. Assanti, is that right?”

"Well ...”

"Is that right, Miss Franceschi?”

"I wasn't as excited as he seemed to be, that's right.”

"How excited were you?”

"I was excited, but I certainly knew what I was doing.”

"Were you very excited, as you testified Mr.

Assanti was?”

"I suppose you could say I was very excited.

But I still ...”

"Were you extremely excited, as you further testified Mr. Assanti was?”

"No, I wasn't extremely excited.

And, anyway, however excited I was, by the time Dom came back, I was completely in control of myself again.”

"Had you not been in control of yourself earlier?”

"Yes, I was in control of myself earlier, too.”

"Then why did you have to regain control of yourself?”

"I didn't say I ...”

"You said you were completely in control again.”

"Yes, but ...”

"Which indicates you'd earlier lost control, isn't that right?”

"Only in that I was excited.”

"Excited enough to have lost control, but not excited enough to be extremely excited.”

"I didn't know there were different levels of excitement," she said, and nodded to the jury in prim satisfaction.

"Well, apparently you think there are,”

Lowell said. "There's just plain excited, and there's very excited, and there's extremely excited, and there's also agitated and upset. Those are all your words, all of them used by you to describe different levels of excitement. I ask you now, Miss Franceschi, isn't it possible that you yourself were in such a high state of excitement that ...?was "Objection, Your Honor. Anything's possible. It's possible that the roof of this - courtroom could fall in at any moment, it's possible that ...”

"Yes, yes, Mr. Addison, sustained.”

"Miss Franceschi, were you so excited that you misunderstood what Mr. Assanti was telling you?”

"No, I understood him completely. He said he saw some guy with a gun.”

"What did you say to him when he told you that?”

"I said he should go to the police.”

"And did he?”

"I don't think so. I think they found him later. On their own.”

"After what you'd told them, isn't that right?”

"Yes.”

"About him having witnessed the aftermath of the shooting.”

"Yes.”

"Now tell me, when Detectives Wade and Bent questioned you, did you know they were looking for two men?”

"No, I didn't know that.”

"You do remember talking to them on the night of July seventeenth last year, don't you?”

"Yes, I remember talking to them.”

"Well, didn't they ask if you'd seen two black men running from the direction of the bakery shop?”

"They may have asked me that, I really don't remember.”

"Well, perhaps this will refresh your memory,”

Lowell said, and handed her a sheaf of papers.

"Could you read these please? Take your time, study them carefully." He waited while she read the papers he had handed her. When she looked up at last, he asked, "Can you tell me what it is you just read?”

"It looks like a report on my conversation with the detectives.”

"Yes, and do you now remember them asking if you'd seen two black men running from the direction of the bakery shop?”

"Yes, I suppose they asked me that.”

"Did they or didn't they?”

"They did.”

"Well, did you correct their misapprehension?”

"What misapprehension?”

"Did you tell them it wasn't two men running from the direction of the bakery shop, - it was only one?”

"No, I didn't tell them that.”

"You didn't feel it was necessary to correct them?”

"I told them what Dom told me, that's all.”

"They asked if you'd seen two men coming this way ...”

"Yes ...”

"... and you said your boyfriend told you he'd seen some guy running out of the bakery shop with a gun in his hand, isn't that right?”

"I told them what Dom told me, yes.”

"But you didn't say anything like, `By the way, it wasn't two men, it was only one.` Did you say anything like that?”

"No, I didn't.”

"Because in fact, Miss Franceschi, you really understood all along, didn't you, that you were all talking about two men, only one of whom had a gun?”

"No, I didn't understand that at all.”

"Well, did you understand them to be talking about one man?”

"Yes.”

"Even though they clearly asked you about two men?”

"I thought they were talking about the man Dom saw.”

"The man carrying the gun.”

"Yes.”

"Thank you, no further questions.”

"Let's recess till tomorrow at nine," Di Pasco said.

A cold, hard drizzle drilled the Tuesday morning streets, washing away most of what was left of the weekend's snow. Outside the courthouse The Preacher and his troops had gathered in support of today's star witness, Sonny Cole himself. The demonstrators were chanting, "Black Double Jeopardy, Black Double Jeopardy," which was not the name of a new game show, but was instead The Preacher's view of what was happening to Cole.

The Preacher's real name was Thomas Raleigh, but he had abandoned this slave-society appellation for the trendier Akbar Zaroum, - which sounded vaguely African and which served him well in a day and age of heightened awareness of one's roots. Under whichever name he chose to use, it was estimated that he'd cost the city some $1,400,000 last year alone, for extended police coverage of his various marches, protests, and demonstrations.

"Black Double Jeopardy," he kept chanting into his bullhorn, "Black Double Jeopardy," and his followers behind him echoed the chant, bellowing it into the ice-edged drizzle, "Black Double Jeopardy, Black Double Jeopardy.”

The chant had nothing whatever to do with reality.

Sonny Cole had been charged with two separate counts of first-degree murder. These murders had occurred in different locations, weeks apart. There were two different victims.