Page 94 of The Proving Ground

“But you lied to the jury, didn’t you?”

I stood up and objected.

“Counsel is badgering the witness,” I said. “How many times and ways does she have to say she hasn’t lied?”

“Mr. Mason,” Ruhlin said. “It’s time to get to the point. Or we can recess for the day.”

“Thank you, Your Honor,” Mason said. “I will indeed get to the point.”

Ruhlin signaled for me to sit down. Mason turned his focus back to Kitchens. The bad feeling in the pit of my stomach had grown to the size of a baseball. I knew Mason had something, or at least he thought he did.

“Dr. Kitchens, I ask you,” he said, “were you not terminated from your job at Tidalwaiv by Mr. Matthews because you were involved in an improper and unethical relationship with a fellow employee you had a supervisory position over?”

There it was. Mason had his own smoking gun and I had handed it to him with the barrel pointed at my witness.

“That is not true,” Kitchens said.

“What is not true, Dr. Kitchens?” Mason pressed.

Kitchens was calm enough in the moment to turn to the jury to state her case.

“They fired me because I objected to the training,” she said. “They didn’t want to hear that, so they got rid of me. That’s all.”

“Dr. Kitchens,” Mason said, drawing her eyes back to him, “didyou or did you not engage in an unethical sexual relationship with a code writer assigned to Project Clair named Patrick May?”

I saw the hurt and disappointment come all at once in my witness’s eyes. And I knew that no matter how she answered the question, everything she had said in her previous testimony was now suspect.

“It was a relationship we had started before I ever took the job,” Kitchens said.

“So you didn’t feel an obligation to reveal this while being recruited and hired by the company?” Mason asked.

“No, I did not.”

“And was that ethical, Dr. Kitchens?”

Kitchens dropped her head. The courtroom was as silent as a grave.

“Maybe not,” she finally said. “But I—”

“I have no further questions, Your Honor,” Mason said.

35

BRUCE COLTON WASwaiting for me at the gate to the gallery. He was three inches shorter than me and came up close to stick a finger into my chest. His face was red with anger. He looked as if he’d been holding his breath the whole time he was waiting for me.

“What the fuck, Haller,” he said. “I don’t know which is worse, if you knew about her boyfriend and tried to cover it up or if you didn’t even fucking know.”

“Get out of my way, Bruce,” I said. “I have work to do.”

“Work? Are you kidding me? You talked us into giving up fifty million dollars. Fifty! And now you want to walk away from me? You better call those lawyers who just outsmarted your ass and get our fucking money.”

“I’m not doing that, Bruce. We still have a winnable case. Now, for the last time, get out of my way.”

He finally took a step back and laughed without a shred of joy. I noticed Cisco come up behind him in case I needed him.

“You know what’s going to happen?” Colton said. “You don’t winthis case, I’m going to sue you for mal-fucking-practice. I’ll get my money one way or the other.”

“Good plan,” I said. “You do that, Bruce.”