Antonelli - 03 - The Judgment by D. W. Buffa Read Free Book Online Page B

attacked. ‘You never saw your wife do anything with your son, did you?’ I asked before I was halfway out of my chair.
    “He was unflappable. ‘No,’ he said without expression.
    ” ‘Your wife never admitted to you that she had ever done anything improper with your son, did she?’
    ” ‘No.’
    ” ‘You never saw or heard anything from anyone that led you to believe that anything improper was going on, did you?’
    ” ‘No.’
    “I stood in front of the counsel table and let my gaze wander from the witness to the bench. ‘And despite what was suggested earlier, your wife, Janet Larkin, never said or did anything that made you think she had any suspicions at all about what you were doing with your daughter, did she?’
    “His head down, Jeffries pretended to be busy, though he knew full well that my eye was on him and not the witness.
    ” ‘So any suggestions about what your wife must have known, about what your wife must have been hiding, are nothing more than speculation. Isn’t that right?’
    “Jeffries snapped his head up, an angry expression on his face.
    Before he could say anything, I took a step toward the witness and asked, ‘Isn’t it true, Mr. Larkin, that your son never said anything about any of this until he came to live with you?’
    “He started to answer, but I talked right over him as I moved another step closer. ‘And isn’t it true, Mr. Larkin, that your daughter isn’t the only child of yours with whom you wanted to have a sexual relationship?’
    “Jeffries raised his gavel; Goldman shot out of his chair; the noise from the crowd was deafening. I never heard what Goldman said or the sound the gavel must have made. The jurors, who by hearing it so often had almost forgotten what Larkin had done with his daughter, were stunned by the enormity of what they had now been told he had wanted to do with his son. The only one who seemed unaffected by what I had charged was Edward Larkin himself. He sat on the witness chair, hands folded together, waiting impassively, as if all this commotion had nothing to do with him.
    “Jeffries did not know any better than I did the objection Goldman had made. It did not matter. Over the dying tumult, he struck his gavel and shouted, ‘Sustained.’
    ” ‘Do you deny that you told your daughter that you had fantasies about your son?’ I asked so rapidly one word ran into the other.
    ” ‘Objection.’ Goldman was on his feet again, waving his arms like someone trying to stop a train.
    ” ‘Sustained,’ Jeffries ruled, beside himself.
    ” ‘Do you deny having fantasies—sexual fantasies—about your son?’
    “Jeffries sustained the objection before Goldman could finish making it. I spun away from the witness. ‘Grounds?’ I demanded to know as if it was my right. For an instant, Jeffries was at a loss for words. He was not used to anyone, much less a young lawyer, talking back.
    ” ‘Relevance, your honor,’ Goldman managed to interject.
    ” ‘But it is relevant, your honor. It goes to the credibility of the witness.’
    “Glowering, Jeffries told me to move on to something else.
    ‘The objection has been sustained.’
    ” ‘Tell me, Mr. Larkin,’ I said, turning back to the witness, ‘when you testified that your son told you that his mother had forced him to have sexual intercourse with her, did he explain why he had never said a word of this until he started living with you?’
    “Larkin shook his head. ‘It only came out after he started therapy.’
    ” ‘Then tell us this, Mr. Larkin. Until your son told this story, you never once suspected anything like this was going on, did you?’
    ” ‘No, I didn’t.’
    ” ‘And wouldn’t you of all people have been alert to any sign that something like this was going on?’
    “Goldman objected, and Goldman’s objections now practically sustained themselves. Without so much as a glance in Jeffries’s direction, I waved my hand, as if to signal how boring they had