Page 38 of After Anna

“You got what you wanted, huh?”

“I fished my wish!” Maggie said, borrowing a line of Caleb’s.

Laughter came from down the hall, and Maggie and Noah walked to the train room, where Noah and Caleb had built a setup for model trains, with a town surrounded by fake trees and a lake that Ralph used as a water dish.

“Anna, look!” Caleb twisted the dial on the transformer, switching the model locomotive to new track.

“Amazing!” Anna glanced back at Maggie with a grin.

“Isn’t it great?” Maggie appreciated that Anna was being so nice about Caleb’s trains. Noah had started Caleb on them to build his self-esteem, because it was a nonverbal activity.

Caleb tugged Anna’s jacket. “Want to try? I can show you how. It’s easy.”

“Thanks.” Anna accepted the box, and Maggie edged back, taking Noah with her into the hallway.

“I think he likes her, don’t you?”

“Absolutely.”

“Isn’t she pretty?” Maggie smiled.

“She’s beautiful.” Noah touched Maggie’s cheek. “Like her mom.”

Maggie nodded happily. “She has my dimples, did you see?”

“I sure did,” Noah said with a smile.

Chapter Nineteen

Noah, After

TRIAL, DAY 5

“I didn’t send Anna that text,” Noah repeated, firmly.

Linda motioned to the screen, which read,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, is it seriously your testimony that you didn’t send this text to Anna?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, are you merely beingpreciseagain? Did you write the text but not send it?”

“No. I neither wrote nor sent the text.”

Thomas jumped to his feet. “Your Honor, objection as to authenticity and hearsay. This is the problem thatKochwas intended to prevent. Dr. Alderman is testifying that he is not the author of the text.”

Linda faced Judge Gardner again. “Your Honor, these are two separate issues. It’s clear underKochand the rules of evidence that the text is authentic and it is therefore admissible. Dr. Alderman is free to claim, as he just has, that he is not its author. That does not go to its admissibility, but rather to its weight.”

Judge Gardner nodded. “The objection is overruled.”

Thomas sat down, and Linda turned to Noah, her eyes flashingdarkly. “Dr. Alderman. I remind you that you are under oath, and ask you again, did you or did you not send this text?”

“I did not.”

Linda stepped back. “If you didn’t send the text, who did?”

“I don’t know,” Noah answered, but that was a lie. But he was trying not to get into that, per Thomas’s instructions.

“Are youreallytrying to convince this jury that you did not send a text that clearly came from your own phone?”