Brainstorm (20 page)

I opened the paper and read that I’d been subpoenaed to
testify in Danny Stearns’ trial. Just holding the thing was too much and I
dropped it onto my coffee table. I’d let Jack read it to me. I’d sit next to
him on his sofa and put my head on his shoulder and let him explain the details
of the horrid missive. It was just like on TV – a ruse – flowers. I felt stupid
on top of everything else for falling for it. I should have known it was
coming. For now I would pretend it wasn’t there. I was good at that.

I went into the hallway and locked the door behind me,
stopped downstairs to order takeout, and headed next door to see if Lisa was
still at work. My anger at her for telling Jack that I was leaving had abated.
I understood why she’d done it, and I wasn’t about to lose my best friend over
something stupid. The bell tinkled when I walked in and she looked up from her
desk. Shock registered in her eyes as she stared at my hair.

“Hi,” I said.

“Oh, Audrey, is that you?” She got up and came over to
me. “Are you mad?” she asked, as she walked around me, checking out my do.

“I was, but I’m not any more. You did the right thing,
telling Jack.”

“Thank God – I was afraid you’d never speak to me again!
But I thought that if I didn’t say something...well, thank God you’re not mad,
that’s all. And you’re home.” I gave her a hug.“Sit down and we’ll take care of
that hair right now; get you back to your old self.”

“Pretty awful, huh?” I gave her the short version of what
had happened while she stirred up the color concoction and tied a cape around
my neck.

“Did Jack tell you where he was when you called him?” I
asked.

“Yes, he did,” she beamed. “Let’s see it.” I held out my
hand, and the ring flashed, as the diamonds reflected the overhead lights.
“It’s gorgeous,” she said. “I’m so happy for you.”

“It will be a small wedding, but I’m going to need a maid
of honor.”

“Me? Absolutely! Just please don’t make me wear something
awful.”

“You can wear whatever you want.”

While the color was working, I sat in the vibrating chair
and relaxed. Only one other person came in for a cut and then we were left
alone to talk. Finally she rinsed my hair and when she put me back in the front
of the mirror, I looked like myself again. “Much better,” she said. “Want me to
blow it out? Or are we in a curly mood?”

“Curly, I guess.”

She popped a diffuser onto the blow-dryer to hurry along
the process, and within a few minutes she was turning my chair around so I
could see the back of my head. “It looks great,” I said. “Now I’m going to pick
up dinner and head to Jack’s.”

“Lucky girl.” She gave me another hug, and when I opened
my purse, she said, “Don’t even think about it. This one’s on me. Call it an
act of community service.”

“All rise!”

The judge entered the courtroom from a door behind the
bench. Jack sat beside me and held my hand. “Maybe they won’t have time to call
me today,” I said, knowing full well that the subpoena had specified that I
appear on this date.

“You’re here because they
are
going to call you,” he whispered. “Just get up there and tell
what you remember. Then it’ll be over.”

I peeked around Jack to where Danny Stearns was sitting
with his lawyer. He turned in his chair and stared at me, and I felt faint. I
grabbed Jack’s arm.

The judge asked, “Are we ready? Everyone here and
accounted for?” Both sides answered in the affirmative.

The attorney for the prosecution stood. “Your Honor, I
would like to call Audrey Dory.”

Jack pried my hand off his arm and whispered, “You’re
fine, Honey, just don’t look at Stearns unless you have to. Don’t let him
intimidate you.”

I walked on wobbly legs to the stand and put my left hand
on a Bible. I promised to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth.

The attorney smiled at me. “Please state your name.”

“Audrey Dory.”
So
far, so good
, I thought.

“Miss Dory, were you in Rochester on the 9
^th
of June, in 2003?”

“Yes.”

“Where exactly were you?”

“I was waiting for a taxi on Franklin Street.”

“And what time was that?”

“Around 10 a.m.,” I said.

“Thank you. And did anything strange or unusual happen as
you waited for your taxi?”

“A man ran around the corner and crashed into me.”

“And did he knock you down?”

“No, he grabbed me by the shoulders, pushed me backwards
into the building, and then ran on.”

“Thank you. And then what happened?”

“Two police cars came around the same corner, obviously
in pursuit.”

Danny’s attorney stood up. “Objection Your Honor.
Speculation.”

“The witness did not say that the patrol cars were in
pursuit of the
defendant
, Your
Honor,” said the prosecutor, as he turned back to me. “Did the patrol cars have
their lights and sirens on?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then, Judge, can we agree that the patrol cars may
have been in pursuit of
someone?
”

Danny’s attorney stood again, “Or on their way to some
emergency, Your Honor. There’s no way to know where those two cars were going.”

“Sustained,” said the judge, and then, “Go on,” to the
attorney questioning me.

“What did you do then?”

“I was very upset, and I remember sitting on the
sidewalk.”

“Did anyone come to your aid?”

“No. I don’t even remember if anyone was around.”

“What happened then?”

“I saw something on the ground near me and I picked it
up.”

“And what was it?”

“A ski mask.”

From the evidence table he picked up a plastic bag and
held it out to me. “Is this the ski mask?”

“It looks like it,” I said.

“And did you get a good look at the man who ran around
the corner and bumped into you? The man who dropped this ski mask?”

“Objection!” shouted Danny’s attorney. “The witness never
said she actually saw my client drop the ski mask.”

“Your Honor, the defendants DNA, and
only
the defendants DNA was found inside the ski mask. I think we
can agree it was his.”

“The judge agreed and the attorney continued. “Did you
get a good look at the person who ran around the corner and bumped into you?”

“Yes.”
Here it
comes,
I thought,
the part where I
have to look at him and point
.

“And is that person in the courtroom?”

Pressure built in my ears and my voice sounded very far
away when I answered, “Yes.”

“Will you point him out to the court?”

Shaking, I turned and pointed to Danny Stearns. My arm
lingered in the air, held up by some unseen force, my finger extended toward
him, while I stared into those eyes. I was paralyzed, unable to lower my arm,
as before me, he appeared to be wearing the ski mask. It covered his whole head
and face, with only those dark eyes glaring out at me. Then it was gone. And
then it was back.

“Let the record show that Miss Dory pointed to the
defendant.” He turned to me, “Are you all right Miss. Dory?” The mask
disappeared once again, and I was finally able to lower my arm and tear my eyes
away. I looked at the attorney and nodded.

“And there’s no doubt in your mind that the defendant is
the man you saw running on Franklin Street that day?”

“No doubt, whatsoever. It was him.”

“No further questions,” I heard the attorney say.

The judge looked at Danny’s attorney. “Counselor? Do you
wish to cross?” I looked at Jack, who winked at me and smiled reassuringly.

Danny’s attorney, who looked like a go-to guy for the
Mob, strode across the room to me. “Miss Dory,” he said, “you testified that
you found a ski mask on the sidewalk near you?”

“Yes.”

He picked up the same plastic bag from the evidence table
and brought it to me. “Is this the ski mask?”

“I just said it looks like it.”

“And you picked up this ski mask from the sidewalk?”

“I did.”

“And what did you do with it?”

“I obviously took it with me.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I’m the one who turned it over to the police
when I heard about the robbery investigation being reopened.”

“The investigation was just recently reopened, Miss Dory.
Are you saying you have been in possession of the ski mask for a decade?”

“Yes.”

“That’s hard to believe. Why keep it? Why didn’t you call
the police the day you found it?”

“At the time I had no idea a bank had been robbed, and I
was very upset at having been shoved into the wall of the building. I took it
back to my dorm, put it in a box, and forgot about it.”

“Miss Dory, what were you doing on Franklin Street that
day?”

“Objection!” The prosecutor shouted. “Relevance!”

Danny’s attorney spoke directly to the judge. “Goes to
the reliability of the witness, Your Honor.”

“I’ll allow,” stated the judge. “Answer the question.”

“I had an appointment there.” Breathe. One…two…three…

“And with whom did you have this appointment?”

Imaginary birds, pecked at the back of my neck. My face
was hot. “I believe that’s personal.”

“We don’t do personal, here, Miss Dory. Who were you
meeting with?”

“My doctor.”

“What kind of a doctor?”

“A psychologist.” He was trying to make me out to be a
nut case. I looked over at the men and women sitting in the jury box. It seemed
they were all staring at me, some with looks of pity.

“And for how long had you been under the care of this
psychologist?”

“Two years.”

“Is this psychologist the only one you’ve ever seen?”

“Yes.”

“Who is Dr. Karol Steele?” I was shocked to hear her name
come out of his mouth, and shaken to know that he had been digging into my
life.

“My psychiatrist.” It had to be two hundred degrees in
the courtroom. I looked at Jack. He wasn’t smiling any more. Instead, he was
looking at me with sympathy.
Please, no
.

“So you went from seeing a psychologist to a
psychiatrist?”

“Dr. Collins recommended her to me. I was moving and–”

“And from what do you suffer? What is your mental
affliction?”

“Objection! Calls for the witness to wave her HIPAA
rights and she is not on trial, Your Honor.”

I knew what that was – the Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act, which would keep Dr. Collins or Dr. Steele from talking
to Jack, or anyone else, about my diagnosis without my permission. And at the
moment, it would keep me from having to explain my GAD to this ape.

“Sustained. Move along, counselor.”

“Miss Dory, are you on any prescribed medication today?”
Tears stung my eyes.

“Objection again, Your Honor. HIPAA.”

“Sustained. Don’t go there again, counselor.”

But the attorney turned to the jury and smiled. “Or any
other
kind of medication?”

“Objection!”

“I’ll withdraw that last question, Your Honor. But if the
witness has a mental affliction, and had it when she was bumped into by some
man ten years ago, an affliction she refuses to explain to the court, how are
we to know she wasn’t on medication at the time of the incident? How do we know
her state of mind at the time? Who knows how accurate her recollection of the
person could possibly be this many years later? I move that the witness’s
testimony be stricken from the record because it cannot be relied upon.”

“I’ll take it under consideration. Anything else?”

“I move that the ski mask be removed from evidence, as
Miss Dory admits she has been in possession of it for the past decade, and
there can be no chain of custody established.”

The judge asked, “Anything else?”

“Nothing further, Your Honor.”

“The judge turned to me. “You can go.”

I made my way back to where Jack was waiting. “Do you
want to stay and listen?” he asked.

“Are you kidding? Get me out of here.” Outside, I took a
deep breath of fresh air. “Oh my God,” I said, “that was awful. The jury thinks
I’m crazy and now they may not even be able to consider my testimony? Or the
mask?”

“There’s nothing you can do about what goes on in this
trial. The facts are the facts and the law is the law and you did your best.
Stearns won’t get away with anything, Audrey. His DNA is in that hat. You said
he was there. The jury heard that.”
 
I
leaned against him, hoping to absorb some of his strength, somehow. “Today was
the hardest part,” he said, wrapping his arms around me, “what you feared the
most, right? And you did it. I’m proud of you. But you’re the hero here. You’re
the reason we know who robbed the bank and how they did it. If it wasn’t for
you, they never would have identified Ferdy in the first place, and none of the
four would be cooling their backsides in jail right now! Think about all you’ve
accomplished almost singlehandedly. You even located the money in California –
at least the part they recovered.”

“And I may still be called to testify against Ferdy.”

“If you are, you’ll take the stand and tell what you know.
This whole saga has had so many layers. When I think of the first time I saw
you at his house, how could any of us have known that it was just the beginning
of so much? I don’t know how you’re still standing.”

“I just want my life back. Or at least be able to get on
with a new one.”

“We can start by heading back home.”

“I need to do something before I come to your house,” I
said. “I want to take another look for that check – the one Harley had to have
written to whoever put down the carpet in that bedroom.”

“Why?”

“Because I assumed she used the company I’d hired to do
the downstairs; I’d left her their card. But they had no record of doing any
work in the building after that first installation. I want to know who she
hired.”

“Because?”

“Because she wouldn’t tell me when I asked her, and
because I know there’s more to it. It’s a piece to this puzzle I don’t have.
And I want it.”

He took my hand. “Find something on the radio and enjoy
the ride.” We headed back to Camillus as the sky darkened and thunder rumbled
ahead.