“No.”
“Do you have any specialized training in the identification of contract killers?”
“I have a very good eye.”
“That wasn’t my question, Mr. Podesta. Do you have any specialized training in the identification of contract killers? Did you get this man’s fingerprints? Did you get his DNA? Do you have a tape recording of this assumed conversation?”
“Objection,” Yuki said. “Which question does counsel want the witness to answer?”
“I’ll withdraw all of them,” Hoffman said, “but I object to this exhibit. The quality of this photograph stinks and it proves nothing. In fact, I object to this entire testimony and move that it be stricken from the record.”
“Overruled,” said the judge. “If you’re finished questioning this witness, Mr. Hoffman, he may step down.”
Chapter 21
“THE PEOPLE CALL Ellen Lafferty,” Yuki said.
The doors opened at the back, and a pretty, auburn-haired woman in her early twenties wearing a tight blue suit and a blouse with a bow at the neck came into the courtroom and walked down the aisle. She passed through the gate to the witness stand, where she was sworn in.
“Are you employed by Candace and the late Dennis Martin?” Yuki asked her witness.
“I am.”
“In what capacity?”
“I am the children’s nanny. I work days and live out.”
“How long have you worked in the Martin house?” Yuki asked.
“Just about three years.”
Yuki nodded encouragingly. “In your opinion, what was the state of the Martin marriage?” she asked.
“In a word,” Lafferty said, “explosive.”
“Could you give us a couple more words?”
“They hated each other,” said the nanny. “Dennis wanted to divorce Candace, and she was furious about it. She once told me she thought getting a divorce would be messy. It would hurt her children as well as her standing in the medical community.”
“I see,” Yuki said. The witness was describing a marriage held together by practical considerations rather than love, and Yuki knew the jury would understand that.
“Were you in the Martin house on the day that Dennis Martin was killed?”
“Yes. I was,” Lafferty said. She had kept her eyes on Yuki until this moment, but now she swung her gaze toward the defendant and fixed it there.
“Did something remarkable happen that evening?”
“Absolutely.”
“Please go on.”
Lafferty turned back to Yuki.
“I was getting ready to leave for the day. It was six o’clock and I was going to meet a girlfriend at Dow’s Imperial Chinese at six-fifteen. We hadn’t seen each other in a while and I was really looking forward to seeing her.”
“Go on,” Yuki said.
Lafferty said, “I was putting on my lipstick when Dr. Martin came home. She had a funny look on her face. Distracted, or maybe angry. I went into her office to ask her if everything was okay, and when I got there, she was putting a handgun in her desk drawer.”