Page 34 of After Anna

“Yes, I attempted to call my wife. Rather, I called her, attempting to speak with her.”

Linda smiled slightly. “You’re a precise man, aren’t you?”

Noah assumed the question was rhetorical. He was a precise man, as a pediatric allergist. He didn’t know anybody who wanted a careless doctor.

“But your wife didn’t answer your call, did she, Dr. Alderman?”

“No.”

“You didn’t leave your wife a message, did you?”

“No.”

“You weren’t living with your wife at the time, were you?”

“No.”

“You moved out at your wife’s request, isn’t that true?”

“Yes.” Noah remembered every minute, but even when it was happening, he’d thought he could turn it around. He knew Maggie loved him the way he loved her, deep inside. He knew her love was still there, hunkering down through a bad spell, the way love does in marriage. Embedded, sinking into your very bones. Changing who you are forever, reconfiguring your very DNA. Noah was a different man, after Maggie.

Linda cocked her coiffed head. “So you arrived at the gym at approximately 6:50, isn’t that correct?”

“Yes, it is.”

“And you parked in the lot behind the gym, isn’t that correct?”

“Yes.” Noah had been over this with Thomas, who had warned him it was treacherous territory.

“Dr. Alderman, let me show you an item marked Commonwealth Exhibit 42.” Linda set Noah’s iPhone in front of him, which the police had confiscated the night of Anna’s murder. He hadn’t seen it since then, and it struck him as an artifact of his former life, with its calendars, photos, pollen trackers, and playlists full of classical music.

Linda gestured at the phone. “Please examine it to make sure it’s yours. It’s fully charged.”

Noah picked up the phone and pressed the home button, which brought the screen to life with a photo of a beaming Maggie and Caleb. The speech pathologist had given Caleb a homemade certificate and graduation cap to mark his progress.

“Isn’t that your phone?”

“Yes.” Noah set it down. It was his old life, gone as the Jurassic. Extinct.

“Please scroll to your text function, while I summon Commonwealth Exhibit 43 to the screen.”

Thomas rose quickly. “Objection, Your Honor. I’m renewing my objection, made during the prosecution’s case, that the text message is inadmissible because it is not properly authenticated underCommonwealth v. Kochand is hearsay.”

Linda faced Judge Gardner. “Your Honor, as before,Kochdoes not preclude the admission of this text. The Superior Court andKochmake clear that texts can be authenticated by circumstances, such as those present, where others do not routinely use the phone and the phone was not kept in an accessible place. And it is not hearsay because it is not being admitted to prove the truth of the matter asserted.”

Judge Gardner looked down at Noah. “Dr. Alderman, did others routinely use your phone with your permission?”

“No, Your Honor.”

“Thank you.” Judge Gardner nodded. “The objection is overruled, and the text is admissible.”

Thomas sat down heavily, and Linda signaled her paralegal. Onto the screen flashed a text, grossly enlarged:

Anna, will you meet me at my house @915 tonight? I’m sorry and I want to work this out. Please don’t tell your mother.

“Dr. Alderman, isn’t this the last text on your phone?”

“Yes, it is.”