Page 18 of After Anna

At counsel table, Thomas shifted in his seat, but didn’t object. Noah’s heart began to sink. Linda appeared to mull it over, but he knew she already had a plan.

Weissberg hesitated. “It was about our relationship.”

“Was it a calm or emotional conversation?”

“Emotional.”

“Were either of you raising your voices?”

“Yes.”

“Were either of you crying?”

Weissberg blinked. “She was.”

Linda cocked her coiffed head. “So you’re walking down the street at night, your dog is panting and pulling, and you’re on the phone having an emotional conversation with your girlfriend, who iscrying, and the televisions are playing in the houses, isn’t that correct?”

“Yes.”

“In fact, weren’t yousodistracted that you dropped the dog’s leash, isn’t that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Yet despiteallof these distractions, the dog pulling and panting, your girlfriend crying, the TVs playing through the windows that could have been open, you feelpositivethat you heard the sound coming from the defendant’s house at exactly 9:28?”

“I did notice the time on my phone screen,” Weissberg answered, newly defensive.

“Mr. Weissberg.” Linda looked at him like he was nuts. “You saw thoselittle tiny numberson the top of the screen in the dark, with all of those distractions?”

“The, uh, screen was lit.”

“You saw them exactly at the very moment your beloved dog ran away, your girlfriend cried, and you were distracted, isthatyour testimony?”

“I thought… I had, but maybe I didn’t,” Weissberg answered, faltering.

“So isn’t itpossiblethat you were wrong?”

“I guess it’s possible.” Weissberg swallowed hard.

“I have no further questions, Your Honor.” Linda turned on her heel.

Chapter Ten

Maggie, Before

“Anna, tell me what it’s like at Congreve,” Maggie asked, trying to recover from the revelation that Anna had been lied to about being abused. It had thrown Maggie off-balance, but she couldn’t let that ruin their dinner. She would set the record as straight as she could, but it was hard to prove a negative. She worried Anna would always wonder whether Maggie was telling her the truth.

“Before that, I have bad news.” Anna pursed her lips, looking down and pushing her salad away. “I didn’t want to tell you over the phone. Dad died, in a plane crash.”

“I’m so sorry, I did know that.” Maggie felt a pang, seeing the change come over Anna’s face, as her lovely features fell into grief-stricken lines.

“It’s horrible.” Anna’s big eyes glistened. “I don’t know how it happened. He was a good pilot. He loved flying, but they think he had, like, a heart attack. He wasn’t even that old.”

“I’m so very sorry, truly.” Maggie patted her hand. “I saw an article about it online, after you called.”

“So then you know. They were all killed, my stepmom and my stepbrothers.”

“I know, it’s so awful.” Maggie could see Anna’s pain at losing the entire family.