Final Exam: A Legal Thriller (51 page)

Ben heard Megan inhale sharply, almost like a silent gasp, then hold her breath for a second or two before finally exhaling.
 
He sensed her go rigid.
 
He reached down and placed a reassuring hand on her right forearm and the tension seemed to ease somewhat.
 
You could now hear a pin drop in the courtroom as all eyes were fixated on Bridget Fahey.
 

“After he was dead, the Defendant wiped down the bat, hoping to obliterate all of the finger prints, and wiped off anything else she touched in the office.
 
She snuck from the room unseen and made her way back downstairs, where she left the building, probably through the back entrance, an entrance she would have known about from her days as a student.
 
What she didn’t know, is what she left behind and what she took with her.”
 
Ben saw several jurors lean forward.
 
They were listening intently.
 

“At the scene of the crime, in Professor Greenfield’s office, we found several blond hairs, which an expert will testify matched those of the Defendant.
 
Also, we found two finger prints belonging to the Defendant, from her right forefinger and right thumb, near the trademark on the bat.
 
In her haste, she had neglected to wipe the bat completely.
 
Finally, prior to her arrest and in the brownstone she shares with her husband, we found a gray cashmere scarf, one used by the Defendant and the one she was wearing on that cold winter’s day when Daniel Greenfield was killed.
 
On that scarf, we found two drops of blood, the blood of Daniel Greenfield.”

Ben could feel the tension in the room rising.
 
Fahey was reaching her crescendo.
 
“We will link the Defendant to Daniel Greenfield, first as a student, then as a lover.
 
We will link them together during the fall and winter of 2001.
 
We will link the Defendant to the law school and to Professor Greenfield’s office, the murder scene.
 
We will link her to the murder weapon.
 
We will link her to Daniel Greenfield’s blood.
 
We will prove to you that Daniel Greenfield’s blood is not only on the Defendant’s scarf, but also on her hands.
 
At the end of this trial, when all of the evidence is in, and we have linked the Defendant to Daniel Greenfield’s murder, we will ask you for the only verdict justified by the law and the evidence.
 
We will ask you to convict the Defendant.
 
We will ask you to find Megan Rand
Cavallaro
guilty of the murder of Professor Daniel Greenfield.”

47

When Court was back in session, Bridget Fahey called Professor Gordon Hyatt, who looked absolutely professorial in his tan summer suit.
 
He testified about dropping by Greenfield’s office to deliver some materials only to find him bludgeoned to death on the floor behind his desk.
 
His testimony was interesting and while it displayed his cool demeanor and gentlemanly southern drawl, it was otherwise fairly unremarkable.
 
After all, Ben thought, someone had to find the body.
 
His direct testimony took no more than thirty minutes.
 

Ben’s cross-examination was even shorter.
 
Hyatt admitted that he had been present at the law school for a little while on the date of the murder, but had not seen either Meg or Greenfield.
  
He also testified that he had never seen Meg and the Professor alone together, nor had he ever seen Meg act violently or even display any temper of any kind.
 
All in all, Ben felt good about the cross-examination.
 
He had begun to lay the groundwork for chipping away at the State’s case and Hyatt had been cooperative and had not really provided any real damage.

Bridget Fahey’s next witness was the medical examiner, Dr.
Akhter
.
 
By now, the sun had risen high enough in the sky that it no longer shone through the windows behind the defense table.
 
The odd reflections and shadows of earlier in the morning were now gone.
 
Dr.
Akhter
took the stand after the lunch recess and walked to the witness stand seeming as though he did not have a care in the world, even nodding at Ben as he passed.
 
Bridget Fahey took him through his educational background and extensive work experience with tedious detail.
 
She went on somewhat longer than she needed to, though the point was unmistakably driven home -
Akhter
knew his business.
 
Ben didn’t disagree and let the testimony drag on for as long as Fahey cared to continue.
 

In describing Greenfield’s fatal injuries,
Akhter
utilized charts, a series of carefully selected photographs agreed to by both sides after extensive argument prior to trial and even a life-sized model of a human skull.
 
The photographs of the murder scene particularly worried Ben because of the graphic and horrifying nature of the carnage displayed.
 
The murder was brutal and savage and the pictures could only serve to turn the jury against Megan, unless, of course, they concluded that a woman, or this woman in particular, could not have committed such an act.
  
In the end, Judge Wilson let them choose from a dozen and a half or so different photographs of the murder scene depicted from various angles.
 
Fahey ultimately chose to use about a dozen.
 

Doctor
Akhter
testified that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the rear of the head caused by a baseball bat found at the scene.
 
Toward the end of his testimony, Bridget Fahey displayed a thirty-four inch, thirty-three ounce Louisville slugger baseball bat autographed by Sammy Sosa.
 
“Is it your testimony, doctor, that this bat is the murder weapon?”
 
Fahey asked.
 

“Yes, Counsel, it is.
 
The indentations made on the skull match the barrel of the bat.”
 
A few minutes later, Fahey displayed a gray cashmere scarf.
 
The doctor pointed to small circular dots at one end of the scarf, about the size of a pencil eraser.
 

“Can you identify what these discolorations are?”

“Yes.
 
They are blood.”

“Were you able to determine whose blood?”

“Yes.
 
The blood belongs to the deceased, Daniel Greenfield.”
 
A murmur ran through the courtroom and Bridget Fahey sat down.
 

“I have nothing further, your Honor,” she said.
  

Ben briefly took the medical examiner through some of his collection methods, then turned his attention to Professor Greenfield’s blood.
 
The witness testified that he had found a small amount of alcohol in the deceased’s blood, probably from a drink at lunch on the date of his death.
 
He also identified trace amounts of a common over-the-counter antihistamine.
 
Ben walked back and picked up a document off the table.
 
He looked at it for a few seconds and then gestured with it in the direction of the witness.
 
“I’ve got your report here, Doctor.
 
It appears from this report that you found some other things in Professor Greenfield’s blood as well, didn’t you.”

“We did, yes.”
 

Ben walked a couple of steps closer to the witness and paused as if reviewing the document carefully.
 
The courtroom grew very still.
 
“You also found marijuana in Professor Greenfield’s system, didn’t you?”

“Yes, we did.
 
Trace elements of marijuana, yes.”

“From your knowledge and experience, how many days before his death would Professor Greenfield have ingested that marijuana?”

“Approximately seven to ten days, given the levels in his blood.”

“You also found traces of cocaine in Professor Greenfield’s system didn’t you?”
 
Now the crowd murmured again.
 
The doctor looked at him.
 
“Doctor?
 
Isn’t that correct?”

“Yes, yes, it is.”

“Based on the levels of cocaine found in the deceased’s system, when would he have ingested same?”

“Roughly the same time frame, perhaps a week before his death.”

Ben let the moment and the realization that Professor Greenfield was
a drug user sink
in to the members of the jury and the gallery, then turned and placed the report back on the counsel table, where Mark picked it up and put it in a pile.
 
He turned back to the witness.
 
“Doctor, you testified at some length about the nature and description of the wounds suffered by Professor Greenfield.
 
In fact, you had diagrams, charts and photographs, as well as that model of a human skull.”
 
Ben shrugged.
 
“Would it be fair to say that his wounds were confined to the rear quarter of his skull from approximately the left ear back around the rear of the skull?”

“Yes.
 
I don’t know whether I would call it the rear quarter, but the rear of the skull to roughly the section above the left ear would be about correct.”

“Did he suffer any wounds to his face or the front part of his skull?”

“Only bruising associated with striking the floor and contact with the floor as a result of being struck in the rear of the head by the murder weapon, the baseball bat.”

“So it is your testimony that Professor Greenfield was not struck in the face by the baseball bat, correct?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“And the source of the blood in the photographs, that blood came from the myriad of head wounds, isn’t that right?”

“Yes, although some blood flow also came from his ears and his mouth as well.”
 

Ben nodded and moved a little closer.
 
“We’ve all seen the photographs of the murder scene,” Ben said as he moved a little closer, his head down, his left hand on his chin as though in thought.
 
His voice was low.
 
“This was a pretty bloody scene, wasn’t it, Doctor?”
 

“Yes, it was.”

“There was blood on the carpeting?”

“Yes, there was.”

“Blood on the wall behind the desk?”

“Yes.”

“Blood on the credenza behind the desk?”

“Yes.”

“Blood on the desk chair?”

“Yes, there was.”

“Blood on the filing cabinet?”
 
The witness nodded.
 
“I need a verbal answer, Doctor.”

“Yes, there was blood on the filing cabinet.”

“There was also tissue from the skull and brain matter at these locations, isn’t that right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“And even bits of bone were scattered throughout the area?”

“Yes, that’s true.”
 

Ben moved even closer.
 
He was standing directly in front of the witness now.
 

“Now Doctor, you testified about that gray scarf with the blood on it, two drops of blood, I believe you said.”

“That’s correct.”

“And this blood matched the blood of the deceased, Daniel Greenfield, isn’t that right?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s assume for the sake of my questions, that the person who committed this murder was wearing that scarf at the time of the murder.”

“Okay.”
 

Ben walked over to the bench and picked up one of the photographs showing Professor Greenfield and the bloody scene surrounding his body.
 
He held it up in the general direction of the witness.
 
“Given this bloody scene, wouldn’t you have expected to find more than two small drops of blood on a scarf being worn by the killer?”

Doctor
Akhter
paused for a long time as if considering how best to phrase his answer.
 
Bridget Fahey rose.
 
“Objection, your Honor, the question calls for speculation.”
 

Judge Wilson turned to Ben who was shaking his head.
 
“Your Honor, this is a medical examiner with a vast amount of experience in crime scenes.
 
He has more than enough experience and expertise to answer this question.”

“I agree,” Wilson said.
 
“Objection overruled.
 
You may answer.”
 

Ben figured that Fahey knew the objection wasn’t particularly well-founded, yet she made it anyway in an effort to give the witness more time to prepare an answer and perhaps hint at the answer desired.
 

The witness cleared his throat.
 
“Perhaps,” he said, “but it’s hard to say for sure.”