William Bernhardt - Capitol offence

"I'm so sorry," Ben said. It was an almost impossible situation, trying to calm his witness down without seeming as if he was calming his witness down, because why would this nice temper-free man need to be calmed down? "That must have been horrifying. Were you there at the crash site?"

"Oh, yes. I stayed with them every step of the way. It was a dirt road, so there were no skid marks, but one of the other officers finally detected an unnatural depression, just at the lip of a sharp declivity leading to a ravine. Two officers went down. Her car had plowed through some thick brush. Blackberry bushes, I think. That's why her car wasn't visible from the road."

"And your wife was down there?"

"Yes."

"And she was still alive?"

"Barely. She was trapped in the car, bleeding and gashed-"

"Objection," Guillerman said, but Ben noticed he was very quiet about it. "We've already heard expert medical testimony about Dr. Thomas's injuries."

"Overruled. The witness may proceed."

"The police officers and the medics did everything they could for her. They had to rip the roof off the car to get to her. That took some time. Once she was out, the medics injected her with something-epinephrine, I think. They stopped the bleeding and treated all the major lacerations. But in only a few minutes, they came to me shaking their heads."

"What did they say?"

Dennis's head bowed. He trembled a bit the first time he tried to speak. When he lifted his head again, there was a tear in his eye. "They-they said she would never make it back to a hospital alive. And they asked if I wanted to see her."

Ben's voice grew quiet. "What did you say?"

"Of course I wanted to see her. I ran to her. I put my arms around her, as much as was possible. I told her that I had been looking for her and I apologized for not finding her sooner. I–I cried."

Ben found it difficult to hold back tears himself. "Was there anything else?"

"She told me not to worry. She-she could see how this was affecting me. She told me to be strong and not to mourn for her. That was so like Joslyn, always thinking about others, even as she was dying. And-and just before she died-"

His voice broke. He turned his head away.

Ben cleared his throat. "We could take a break…"

"No. I can continue." Dennis sat up straight and wiped his face dry. "She told me to outwit the stars. It was a phrase she knew from a famous teacher, a yogi. Part of her ongoing search for meaning, for peace of mind. I'm no expert, but I think it means, Don't let yourself be controlled by outside forces. Or other people. Chart your own course. Your own destiny." Dennis pressed his fingers against his forehead. "She wanted the best life possible for me. Even… even without her." He covered his face. His shoulders heaved.

"Your honor…"

Ben didn't have to finish his sentence. "Let's take a fifteen-minute break, shall we?" McPartland rapped the gavel. "We'll pick this up right where we left off."

Ben took Dennis into a nearby deliberation room and left him there so he could collect himself in private. While he did, Ben and Christina conferred.

"How do you think it's going?" Ben asked, knotting his fingers together.

"I think it's going well. Hard to be sure."

"That's supposed to be your specialty."

"This is a tough case. Too many nuances. I think they are genuinely moved by his loss. And that's good. But I'm not sure they blame the police, certainly not enough to justify a murder. I think they like Dennis and believe him so far, but we really haven't gotten into the tricky stuff yet."

Ben ducked his head, hoping that the reporters in the corridor would leave him alone. "Bottom-line this for me, Christina. I don't have much time."

"They like and believe him, but that doesn't mean they believe he was temporarily insane. And we need that. Without it, all we have is jury nullification. Dennis's situation was horrible, but to impel the jury to let him go unpunished, we would have to also show that the police were unreasonable. If we could show that Detective Sentz had some deliberate reason for not investigating, some ulterior motive, that would be good."

"But we don't have that," Ben replied. "And the mystery man in the police station isn't going to be enough."

"No," Christina said sadly. "I don't think it is."

"So that leaves us with making the jury like him so much they want to let him off, or making the jury think he was temporarily crazy, which are rather contradictory goals."

"Don't I know it. And that contradiction is playing out big-time right now, inside the heads of each and every member of that jury."

Ben stepped into the deliberation room. Dennis seemed to have recovered himself with surprising speed. Or perhaps he shouldn't be surprised.

"I just talked to my investigator," Ben said. "Did you know that the late Officer Sentz had a brother who worked at St. Benedict's? With your wife?"

Dennis blinked rapidly several times, as if he was having a hard time processing the information. "No, I had no idea."

"Surely she mentioned the name."

"Not that I recall. But the name didn't mean anything to me-until after she disappeared. And she was always careful to observe patient confidentiality."

"It's a heck of a coincidence," Ben said, frowning.

"Does he know anything about the case? About what his brother was doing?"

"I don't know. Yet. My investigator is looking into it. Unfortunately, I have to take you back into the courtroom and finish the direct. I'm beginning to wish we hadn't moved to trial so quickly."

"Could you get the judge to delay the trial?"

"A reasonable judge, maybe. This judge, no. But I'll try." • •

The hearing in the judge's chamber took fewer than five minutes. Ben had said he was ready for trial and now he was going to have to stand by his word. Justice would not be delayed because "some investigator had a hunch of no apparent significance." And so the direct examination of Dennis would proceed.

"Dennis, if you're ready to continue, I have a few more questions," Ben said.

"Of course." He seemed a little steadier. His voice was almost back to normal, though his face was flushed.

"What did you do after they found Joslyn?"

"I kind of lost control at the scene of the accident. Detective Sentz finally showed up and he was angry and bellowing because Torres had initiated the search. The search that found her, if too late. That was just the last straw. I'm embarrassed to say I got in his face and he grabbed me and threw me to the ground. That's when my face was scraped up. He later made it sound as if he had to take precautions to protect himself. That was a crock. He was covering his rear, once he saw how much attention the case got."

"You had been through a horrifying experience," Ben said. "Were there any further incidents?"

"Yes. After Joslyn died. I attacked him and I managed to get one good punch in before his buddies pulled me away. He had me arrested. I spent the weekend in jail. By the time I was released, Joslyn had been cremated. I never got to see her again. Never really got to say goodbye."

"That must have been heartbreaking." Ben was having to fight back tears, as were many in the gallery. "What about later? After you got home?"

"For days, I did nothing. I pretty much fell apart. Let myself go. I felt so bad. So… guilty. As if there were something I should have done. Something more. Beating myself up night and day."

"I can understand that."

"And I was angry at Detective Sentz. I will admit that. Thought about him all the time. But please realize-this man had the power to save my wife's life. I didn't! I couldn't save her. But he could. He could and he chose not to. That was… that was a very hard truth to deal with."