Hoffman got to his feet and objected.
Yuki said, “I withdraw the comment. I have only one more question, Mr. Ashton. You say the two of you were in love. Yet Dennis Martin was in your way. Did Candace Martin ever tell you that she’d like to kill her husband?”
“Well … not that she would actually do it.”
“Yes or no, Mr. Ashton? You’re under oath. And we have your deposition.”
“Ah. Yes, she said that, but —”
“The answer is yes. That’s all, Mr. Ashton. Thank you.”
“Cross, Mr. Hoffman?” LaVan asked.
Phil Hoffman stood, buttoned his jacket, straightened his Hermès tie, and walked smartly to the witness box.
“Mr. Ashton, based on your conversations with Candace, did you think she was actually going to kill her husband?”
“Objection, Your Honor. Calls for speculation,” Yuki said.
“Overruled,” Judge LaVan said. “The witness may answer.”
“No. Candace isn’t violent.”
“Let me ask this,” Hoffman said. “You’ve known the defendant for a year. In that time, did she ever show you a gun or say that she had one?”
“No, she did not.”
“Thank you. I have no further questions.”
“The witness may step down,” said the judge.
Chapter 35
YUKI SAT ON HER INCREASING RAGE at Hoffman and focused on her witness, Cyndi Parrish, the Martins’ live-in cook.
Parrish had been a jet-engine mechanic in the Navy and was now in her fifties, a soft and billowy woman with blurry tattoos on her forearms.
“And how long have you lived in the Martin household?” Yuki asked the cook.
“It will be eleven years next month. I came to the Martins after Caitlin was born.”
“And would you say, as a member of the household, that you have an informed opinion about the Martin marriage?”
“Yes, I would say so.”
“How did they get along?”
“They didn’t get along at all.”
“Ms. Parrish, do you have a close relationship with Dr. Martin?”
The large woman looked uncomfortable. She glanced down at her hands and muttered, “Yes. She confides in me.”
Yuki lobbed the next question, a softball, but it was right across the plate.
“Was Dennis Martin seeing someone? That is, was he in a sexual relationship with someone other than his wife?”
“I can’t say.”