“Yes.”

“She wanted to keep her mother alive, didn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“Which would mean that you wouldn’t get any money.”

“So?”

“With Ashley dead, either you or Miles Van Meter would have been appointed as guardian, right?”

“Yes.”

“Either way, Ms. Van Meter would have been taken off life support and you would have inherited Ms. Van Meter’s millions. Only Ashley stood in your way. That gave you a pretty good motive to stab her to death in the nursing-home parking lot, didn’t it?”

“I told you, he tried to kill her,” Coleman said, pointing at Maxfield.

“Your Honor, I’d like to put a diagram of the Sunny Rest nursing home on the easel.”

“Go ahead, Mr. Swoboda.”

Maxfield’s attorney placed a large piece of poster board on an easel that sat next to the witness box. The off-white rectangle had been filled in with a diagram of the Sunny Rest parking lot. The main building was at the top. Below it were two parallel lines that designated the road that separated the building from the parking lot. Each parking space was designated by a blue square. At the bottom were two more parallel lines that represented another road. Swoboda held a red Magic Marker over a square in the second row from the building that was two in from the left side of the lot.

“This is where you were parked, isn’t it?” the lawyer asked.

“Looks right,” Coleman answered.

Swoboda wrote COLEMAN in the parking space. Then he moved the marker down two rows and over to the second square from the right to a box that was three rows from the bottom of the diagram.

“And this is where Miss Spencer parked?”

“Yeah.”

Swoboda wrote SPENCER in the box.

“You testified that you saw Miss Spencer come out of Sunny Rest and walk to her car?”

“It was more like running.”

“Okay. Where was she when you got out of your car?”

“About a row from hers.”

“What route did you take to get to Miss Spencer?”

“Uh, I went straight up to her row and across.”

“So you were moving from left to right when you reached her row?”

“Yeah.”

“Were there cars on either side of Miss Spencer’s car?”

“I’m not certain.”

Swoboda went back to counsel table and picked up a photograph. He handed it to Coleman.

“This was taken by the police shortly after Miss Spencer was attacked. It shows her car?”

“Yeah.”

“And there is a van closest to you on one side and another car on the other side of Miss Spencer’s car?”

“Yes.”

“I move to admit Defense Exhibit 79, Your Honor,” Swoboda said.

“No objection,” Delilah said.

“Mr. Coleman, you testified that your head was down as you ran because of the heavy rain. Then you looked up and saw a man attacking Miss Spencer.”

“Right.”

“You were in the row between the cars with Miss Spencer’s car to your right?”

“Yeah.”

“How far were you from Miss Spencer’s car?”

“A few down.”

“So the assailant is in front of you and Miss Spencer is between the cars in front of her assailant?”

“Yeah.”

Swoboda drew X’s for Coleman, the attacker, and Ashley. Then he stood back so the jury could see the diagram clearly.

“How was it possible for you to see Miss Spencer kick her attacker, Mr. Coleman? A kick is delivered from the waist down. From three cars away, your view would be blocked by the van that was next to Miss Spencer’s car and the attacker’s back.”

“I…I saw it,” Coleman insisted.

“Yes you did, because you’re the one she kicked when you attacked Ashley Spencer in the parking lot. It was my client who rescued her.”

“Bullshit!”

Judge Shimazu rapped his gavel. “This is a courtroom, Mr. Coleman. Watch your language.”

“Sorry, Judge,” Coleman said. “But this guy is lying.”

“No more swearing, Mr. Coleman,” Judge Shimazu admonished the witness. “You’ll restrict yourself to answering Mr. Swoboda’s questions and you will not swear.”

“Okay.”

“Mr. Swoboda,” the judge said, “you may continue.”

“You had a forty-million-dollar reason to want Casey Van Meter dead, didn’t you?”

“That’s…not true.”

“Isn’t it? Did you learn that Casey Van Meter was a rich woman before you married her?”

“Yeah. So what?”

“Then she sobered up, wised up, and decided to dump you?”

“I told you, we had problems with our relationship. We just needed some counseling.”

“When you thought about all that money flying away it made you angry, didn’t it?”

“No,” Coleman answered, his voice rising.

“So you weren’t angry when you grabbed Casey Van Meter’s wrist at the pool and called her a bitch?”

“I might have been a little angry,” Coleman conceded grudgingly. “But I never tried to kill her.”

“And I suppose that you’re also going to deny murdering Terri Spencer in the boathouse at the Oregon Academy.”

“What!” Coleman said, half standing.

“Isn’t it a fact that you followed Casey Van Meter to the boathouse on the night she was attacked?”

“No.”

“Isn’t it true that you found her with a witness, Terri Spencer, and murdered Mrs. Spencer because she could identify you?”

“No!”

“Then you attacked Ms. Van Meter, but had to flee when you heard Joshua Maxfield approaching?”

Delilah wanted to object but she didn’t, because an objection would just give more credence to Swoboda’s outrageous accusations.

“You had forty million reasons to want Casey Van Meter dead before your divorce went through, and you had a motive to kill Ashley Spencer before Ms. Van Meter came out of her coma.”

“Do I have to sit here and take this?” Coleman asked the judge.

“No further questions,” Swoboda said, as he left Coleman half standing and twisted in the witness box.

“That was something,” Jerry said to Miles Van Meter as soon as court recessed and Randy Coleman had stormed out of the room.

“Very bizarre,” Miles answered. “I hope it was also ineffective.”

Ashley was worried. Delilah was standing in front of her, gathering up the documents she’d used during Coleman’s examination. Ashley leaned across the railing and tapped the deputy DA on the arm. Delilah turned.

“You don’t think any of the jurors bought that, do you?” Ashley asked, trying to conceal her nervousness. She did not know what she’d do if Joshua Maxfield was acquitted.

“Don’t worry yourself about Mr. Swoboda’s Perry Mason act,” Delilah assured her. “He’s probably got the jurors thinking, but Casey will set them straight on who attacked her in the boathouse.”

As soon as court reconvened, Delilah Wallace had Dr. Ralph Karpinski educate the jury about comas. He also gave the opinion that Casey’s coma occurred when the back of her head collided with one of the timbered supports in the boathouse after she was struck in the face. Next, Dr. Stanley Linscott testified about Casey Van Meter’s current physical and mental state.

When Dr. Linscott was excused, the prosecutor called Casey Van Meter to the stand. Every eye in the courtroom followed “Sleeping Beauty” as she limped down the aisle, leaning on her cane. Casey looked wraith-like because she had not put back all of her lost weight, but her pale beauty was electrifying. Her dress was black, and a strand of pearls graced her neck. She reminded Ashley of Lauren Bacall in an old movie she’d watched with Terri.

“Ms. Van Meter, what was your position at the Oregon Academy when the tragedy at the boathouse occurred?” Delilah asked after a series of introductory questions.

“I was the dean of the school.”

“In your capacity as the dean, were you involved in hiring the defendant?”

“Yes.”

“Tell the jury about the hiring decision.”

“It was a hard decision for the school. On the one hand, we had the opportunity to expose the students to a world-renowned author. But Mr. Maxfield had been forced out of his last college-teaching position because he’d made inappropriate advances to a student. We were also aware that Mr. Maxfield had a drinking problem while at the college. In the end, we were persuaded to take a risk by Mr. Maxfield’s most recent employer-a high school in Idaho -and by his forthright attitude during his interviews.”