Page 93 of One of Us Is Guilty

‘The dispatcher recorded that conversation,’ I said, and slapped the page down on my desk. Harry was already handing me the second document. Again, I held it above my head.

‘When the police responded to your call, you spoke to Officer Garcia, and he recorded what you told him about hearing raised voices. Do you remember talking to him that night?’

‘Yes, I do,’ she said.

I slapped that down, took the next document, brandished it for the jury.

‘And during the initial investigation, you spoke to Detective Ben Larkin and he recorded your statement. Do you remember talking to him?’

‘Of course,’ she said.

I gathered all three documents, asked that they be handed to the witness.

‘Is that your signature at the bottom of that statement?’ I asked.

She gazed at the document, said, ‘Yes, that’s my signature.’

‘In total, Miss Karim, you spoke to three different people in law enforcement, the dispatcher, Officer Garcia and Detective Larkin, and they recorded everything you said. In none of those statements did you mention that the raised voices you’d heard were both female. Correct?’

She stared blankly at the pages in front of her.

‘I’m not sure. I think I did,’ she said.

‘Youthinkyou did. So, Miss Karim, are you telling this jury that all three of those officers can’t do their jobs properly, that they are all three so incompetent that they forgot to include that crucial piece of information?’

‘No, but I think I might have mentioned it.’

‘You think you might. A minute ago, you thought you had. Now you’re only speculating?’

‘I can’t recall exactly what I said.’

‘Well, you signed that witness statement as being an accurate and true account of what you told Detective Larkin. Were you lying when you made that declaration?’

‘No way. I wasn’t lying. Everything I told the police is the truth,’ she said.

‘I think that’s right. All three statements record the truth. But right now you’re lying to this jury. You’re embellishing your testimony to suit the prosecution’s case. Isn’t that right?’

‘I’m just telling the truth.’

I took a breath. Let the witness sit with her denials for a moment. A natural pause, to indicate I was moving on to another point.

Really, I was formulating the next question in my mind, making sure it was perfect.

Of course, there’s no such thing as the perfect question.

There’s only the perfect answer.

This question was bait. I knew the answer already. Miss Karim was smart, and she would give the smartest answer she could.

‘Hearing raised female voices from the victim’s apartment wasn’t the only thing you lied about. You didn’t tell the dispatch officer, or Officer Garcia, or even Detective Larkin that the defendant was having a hard time with her boss’s wife, did you?’

Even before I could finish the question, I saw the wheels turning in the witness’s mind. It was written all over her face. At first, some apprehension, then the answer came to her and she just waited to deliver it.

Harry leaned forward. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Riley gripping his pen in his fist.

‘I wasn’t lying about that. When I spoke to those officers, I didn’t think Molly having a hard time with her boss’s wife was relevant,’ she said with some satisfaction.

Having delivered her answer, she nodded and smiled.