Page 40 of After Anna

“No.”

Linda threw up her arms. “How did someone send a text from your phone at the time it was locked in your car?”

Thomas rose again. “Objection, Your Honor. The prosecutor is badgering the witness. Dr. Alderman has been completely forthright—”

Linda faced the judge. “Forthright?Your Honor, the witness’s testimony is nonsensical, at best. I’m merely trying to understand it. I’m entitled to press him to explain. Did the text write and senditself?”

“Ms. Swain-Pettit, please.” Judge Gardner looked down at Noah, leaning forward. “Dr. Alderman, do you know how the text got on your phone?”

“No, I do not,” Noah answered the judge. He realized that the final time he’d hear directly from Judge Gardner was when he was sentenced to life or death, if he was convicted.

Linda cleared her throat. “Your Honor, may I proceed? I’m not sure how you ruled on the objection.”

“Overruled.”

“Thank you, Your Honor.” Linda turned to Noah, squaring her shoulders. “Dr. Alderman, do you haveany notion at allhow this text got on your phone?”

“I can speculate, but I don’t know for a fact.”

“Objection!” Thomas shot to his feet. “Your Honor! What’s the point of having the witness speculate? This is improper!”

Linda turned to Judge Gardner. “Your Honor, this text is a critical piece of Commonwealth evidence. The jury has a right to know how he believes the text got onto his phone from inside alockedcar.”

“Counsel, I’ll allow it.” Judge Gardner leaned back in his chair. “Dr. Alderman, you may answer.”

Noah didn’t hesitate. “I believe that Anna wrote the text and sent it to herself.”

“What?” Linda’s eyes rounded like marbles, and Noah heard the jurors shifting in their seats and the spectators murmuring.

“Order, order!” Judge Gardner called out, reaching for the gavel.

Linda took a deep breath. “Dr. Alderman, did you just say—”

Judge Gardner interrupted, “Counsel, we heard. Ask your next question.”

“Dr. Alderman, how in the world did Anna get inside your car to sendherselfthe text?”

“I have a second set of car keys that I keep at home, in the basket in the family room.” Noah could hear the jury shifting, but keptgoing. “She could have found out I went to the gym. She could have seen my passcode. I keep it on a pad. The text was sent after I left the car but before I got into the gym, where I swipe in. I believe she took the second set of car keys, unlocked the car, and sent the text to herself from my phone.”

“If this insane story is true, why did you notseeAnna do any of this?”

Noah swallowed hard. Thomas had begged him not to tell the story. “When I got out of the car that night, there was a young woman walking across the lot from the grocery store in the same strip mall. She dropped her bag of groceries in the parking lot, and I stopped to help her pick them up, bending over. The lemons rolled everywhere. I was facing away from my car. I couldn’t see what was going on behind me. I believe that’s when Anna unlocked the car, sent the text from my phone, and left undetected.”

Linda shook her head, incredulous. “Why in the world would Anna send that text to herself from your phone?”

“Uh, well, I don’t know why for sure. I only know that she did. I believe that she did, maybe to make me look bad or frame me.”

Linda’s eyes flared, her disbelief theatrical. “So is it your testimony that Anna knew she was about to be murdered and did nothing about it except to frame you for it?”

“Yes, well, I don’t know about all of that, but I think she sent it to make me look bad.” Noah was getting into the weeds.

“Did she alsomurder herselfand frame you for it?”

“No.” Noah heard rustling from the gallery.

“But what would be the point of her framing youfor her own murder?”

“I don’t know.” Noah blinked, fumbling.