Written In Blood by Shelia Lowe Read Free Book Online

for prick of the month. She did her best to ignore him and not wonder what he was writing, or what it would mean for her. Lawyer jokes started buzzing in her head like a swarm of annoying gnats:
    What’s ten thousand lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? A good start.
    What’s the difference between a catfish and a lawyer? One’s a bottom-dwelling, scum-sucking scavenger, the other’s a fish.
    She forced her attention back to Stuart Parsons, who had been searching his notes for something but was now asking her a question.
    “How many of Mr. Sorensen’s actual signatures did you examine?”
    “A total of fifty-seven signatures, which were represented to me as genuine.”
    This was the easy part. She was beginning to relax, hitting her stride now. Reading through her notes, she described in detail the handwritings Paige had supplied for her examination.
    “And what did you discover regarding the way Mr. Sorensen signed his name?”
    This was her chance to give the judge a mini lesson in handwriting examination.
    “No person signs his or her name exactly alike twice, so it’s important to first establish a range of personal variation. In other words, we need to know how many different ways a writer forms his signatures by examining a large number of them. I did this with Mr. Sorensen’s signatures and found that he maintained a high degree of consistency over a long period of time. Under microscopic examination, it was clear to me that even in the signatures made after his stroke, where there was tremendous deterioration in the writing, his personal writing characteristics remained largely the same.”
    After that, Parsons got down to the nitty-gritty, asking her to demonstrate her findings. Claudia handed the exhibit books to the bailiff, who distributed them to the attorneys, their clients, and the judge. She had made a series of enlargements of the signatures, both the genuine ones and the questioned one on the will, illustrating the differences she had found with colored arrows and circles.
    She did her damnedest to keep her explanation snappy and interesting, but about ten minutes into her testimony, Judge Krieger yawned pointedly, and she could hear his stomach grumbling from behind the bench. It was no surprise when five minutes later he suggested that Parsons wrap up his direct examination. Claudia had been on the stand for the better part of an hour.
    The lawyer’s bushy brows drew together into a frown. “Well, okay, Your Honor. I do have one last thing, if I may.” He paused for a long moment, glancing over his notes and then at Claudia before asking his question.
    “Ms. Rose, did you reach a conclusion regarding Torg Sorensen’s signature on the California Statutory Will?”
    Claudia sat forward and spoke into the microphone. “Yes, I did. In my professional opinion, the signature on the will matches the standards I used for comparison. I have no doubt that the signature is genuine.”

Chapter 5
    Anyone who says they enjoy cross-examination is either a masochist or a liar.
    Claudia watched Frank Norris push back his chair and approach the lectern. It was after the lunch break and the attorney for the Sorensen clan was about to do his best to make Claudia look stupid. It was her job to not help him. A herd of butterflies in elephant boots danced the tarantella in her stomach.
    Someone had left a pitcher and a hermetically sealed glass on the table in front of her, but she didn’t touch them. She refused to let Norris see her sweat, although her mouth was as parched as the Mojave in August.
    God, I hate this part.
    She put on her game face, inhaled a calming breath, and hoped she appeared more relaxed than she felt. Paige looked like she might jump out of her skin, and who could blame her—her financial future was riding on Judge Krieger’s ruling. On Claudia’s testimony.
    Norris made a big production of gathering his notes, then strolled to the lectern as casually as if there were no place he would