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“Dr. Parker, did you prepare this chart of Mrs. Sullivan’s injuries?”
“Yes. But not even photos could represent what was done to her. Catastrophic injuries were made of that.”
“Was your patient able to tell you what had happened to her?”
“She was in no condition to speak,” said the doctor.
Yuki thanked Dr. Parker. Defense wisely had no questions. Parker stood down, walked up the aisle through the courtroom. When he passed the defense counsel table he did so without looking at Lewis Sullivan, passing him as if he didn’t exist at all.
CHAPTER 26
WHEN THE DOCTOR had left the courtroom, Yuki called Stephen Sullivan to the stand.
Defense counsel Maurice Switzer shot to his feet. “Objection, Your Honor. Stephen Sullivan is eleven years old and per the Parent-Child Privilege Act cannot be compelled to testify. May we approach?”
The judge waved them in and Yuki and Mo walked up to the bench. Mo told the judge that Stephen was present and had overheard some of the events that had brought this case to trial.
“It’s prejudicial, Your Honor.”
“Sustained. Please sit down, Counselors.”
When the attorneys were at their tables, Judge Froman asked Yuki, “Do the people have another witness?”
“We do, Your Honor. The people call Barbara James Sullivan.”
A gasp traveled across the gallery as the front doors opened.
Yuki turned in her seat and watched as a court officer pushed thirty-six-year-old Barbara Sullivan’s wheelchair intothe courtroom. Barbara’s right leg, encased in a plaster cast from foot to thigh, stuck straight out, pointing the way.
Barbara wore an eyepatch over her left eye and a full brown skirt with matching long-sleeved top that covered most of her body. Her face and hands were mottled shades of purple, yellow, and green as the bruises metamorphosed toward pink.
As every person in the courtroom watched, the court officer pushed Barbara’s chair slowly up the aisle to the witness stand. Gaines stood up, ready to assist, but the officer said, “I’ve got her.”
Did he? Barbara’s head lolled. She seemed utterly fragile and somewhat disoriented. Would she be able to withstand questioning? When they reached the stand, the officer turned Barbara Sullivan’s chair so that she was facing the counselors, the jury, the gallery. She was sworn in.
Yuki walked over to her witness and greeted her.
“Can you do this, Barbara?”
“I can try,” she said.
Yuki said, “If you need a break at any time, just tell me, okay?” Barbara nodded slowly and said, “I’m glad to be here.”
Yuki said, “Okay, good.” After asking her witness to say her full name, she said, “Barbara, please tell the court. Do you remember how you became injured?”
“I have some memories,” she said.
Yuki felt weak when she heard “some memories.” Barbara had remembered a great deal of the events when they’d last spoken, but the effects of pain drugs on top of the heavy antibiotics and other medication she was given at the rehab facility could easily have caused memory loss.
“Barbara, please tell us what you do remember.”
She said, “I see what happened in … flashes. I remember my head throbbing. It hurt so badly I couldn’t think. I heard Stephen calling for me.”
“Stephen is your son.”
“My older son. I couldn’t answer him. I couldn’t sit up. I could wiggle a little bit, but I was tied. Taped. Chained.”
Barbara Sullivan stopped speaking. Her mind was turning inward and she was not focusing her good eye on anyone. Then, “I remember waking up, lying in my blood. My hands were chained over my head. I was looking at the moon.”
