Eyes of a Child (50 page)

Caroline walked forward, as if to demonstrate her persistence. ‘Mr Arias was right-handed, was he not?'

‘I believe so.'

‘Then isn't it possible that he shot himself using
only
his right hand, explaining the absence of GSR and blowback on his left hand and arm?'

Shelton frowned now.
‘That
much is possible, Ms Masters. But
not
the paucity of residue on
either
hand. Particularly when compared to the revolver itself.'

Restless, Marian Celler gazed at the clock. Move on, Paget urged Caroline. But she did not do so. ‘There was also blood, was there not, on Mr Arias's hand near his wrist. Quite a bit, in fact, and
also
Mr Arias's blood.'

‘Yes,' Shelton said. ‘But that was a
smear
of blood, completely inconsistent with the speckling caused by blowback.'

‘Oh? And what
did
cause it?'

Shelton folded her hands. ‘In my opinion,' she said evenly, ‘the smear was caused when Mr Arias wiped blood from beneath his nose.'

Caroline raised her eyebrows. ‘How did you determine
that
?'

‘It just makes sense. And, as the pictures show, there was also a smear of blood beneath Mr Arias's nose.'

Suddenly Paget saw Shelton's mistake and knew what Caroline would do next. But instead she simply asked, ‘But you're quite certain the blood on his hand was not blowback?' ‘Quite.'

‘And you never considered that it
was
blowback but that Mr Arias's hand, falling after he shot himself, smeared the blood as it crossed his face or body or even the rug?'

Shelton appraised her. ‘I found no blood, anywhere, which caused me to entertain that possibility.'

‘But is it
possible
?'

‘I wasn't there, Ms Masters. But I found no reason to believe it happened like that.'

Shelton was looking annoyed; Caroline's persistence in raising the question of blowback, Paget saw, seemed to have disguised what she meant to do. But then, abruptly, Caroline shifted subjects. ‘Mr Arias
did
leave a suicide note, correct?'

‘There was a note, yes.'

‘Do you believe he didn't write it?'

Shelton shrugged. ‘As far as I know, the fact that he
wrote
it isn't in dispute. But I would have to question the circumstances.'

Paget saw Luisa Marin clasp her hands together, her expression strained and tight. ‘In other words,' Caroline said, ‘your opinion simply ignores the letter.'

Shelton leaned back. ‘In reaching my opinion, I took its
existence
into account. But I concluded, based on the medical evidence, that this was not a suicide.'

‘All right. Then let's return to the medical evidence.' Smiling, Caroline turned to Salinas. ‘Do you think you can play Mr Arias again, Victor? You were so good the last time.'

Salinas half stood, looking surprised and a bit nettled. ‘Why can't you stage your own demonstration?'

‘Humor me, Victor. Besides, your suit's already dirty.'

There was laughter in the courtroom, a small smile from Marian Celler. ‘She has you,' Judge Lerner said to Salinas. ‘Your public demands an encore.'

There was a second wave of chuckles. Salinas opened his palms and smiled. ‘For you, Your Honor. But after this, I'm giving up acting.'

‘Oh,' Caroline said with a smile, ‘I doubt
that
. But I appreciate your help, Victor. You wouldn't mind coming over here and lying on the floor, would you? And do bring your gun.'

Paget suppressed a grin: so this was how she would do it. Walking over to Caroline, Salinas did not look happy.

She smiled again. ‘At my feet, Victor. Please.

Salinas executed a mock bow. ‘Always,' he responded with irony, and lay on the floor near Caroline.

‘My, you look natural,' she said, and turned to Liz Shelton. ‘And you, Dr Shelton, would you mind stepping down?'

Shelton gave Caroline a quick, appraising glance and then walked over to Salinas. ‘You may take the gun,' Caroline said. ‘And then if you would, could you replicate the murder scenario you staged for us earlier?'

Caroline had captured the jury now. They watched with strict attention as Shelton knelt by Salinas. ‘As I recall,' Caroline said, ‘Victor's head was slightly raised, and he looked quite uncomfortable. Please do that again, Victor, while Dr Shelton puts the gun in your mouth.'

Salinas raised his head with a look of distaste. Slowly, Shelton slid the gun between his lips. Caroline peered down at Salinas with a critical expression. ‘Eyes a little wider, please, Victor. You were much better the first time.'

Someone coughed in the courtroom, suppressing laughter. ‘All right,' Caroline said to Shelton. ‘Now, as I recall your thesis, some unknown person struck Mr Arias, who then took a pratfall over his coffee table, struck his head, rolled onto the carpet, passed out, and came to just in time to see his killer and gaze up with horror. Although
not
long enough to grab for the gun. Is that about it?'

Shelton kept looking at Salinas. ‘Approximately.'

Caroline looked puzzled. ‘Didn't you leave something out?'

‘And what would that be?'

‘The part where Victor wipes his nose.'

The startled laugh, Paget realized, was Jared Lerner's. But now Caroline was not smiling. ‘Can you answer my question, Dr Shelton? Just when did Mr Arias find time to wipe his nose?'

As Shelton gazed up, Salinas pushed the gun from his mouth. ‘Down, Victor,' Caroline said, and looked back at Shelton.

Shelton shook her head. ‘I don't know.'

Caroline stared down at her. ‘I mean, it's a little implausible, isn't it?
I
were Mr Arias, I might have gone for the gun before cleaning myself up.'

Shelton set down the gun. ‘You're assuming that's when he wiped his nose. It could have been some other time.'

‘Oh? So now your “thesis” is that he wiped his nose shortly
after
he was hit but
before
pirouetting over the coffee table?'

Salinas sat up. ‘Are we through here?' he snapped.

She looked down at him. ‘Completely,' she said, and turned to Shelton. ‘You may return to the stand, Dr Shelton.'

Shelton did so. ‘Do you have my last question in mind?' Caroline asked.

‘Completely,' Shelton responded, with a certain wry dignity. ‘And as I testified before, it's possible that I'm wrong about a detail or two. For example, the intruder may have struck Mr Arias at some earlier point. Temporizing with his potential killer, Mr Arias may have wiped his nose. And then, believing his situation hopeless, may have turned to run, striking the coffee table.' Shelton paused, her voice gathering force. ‘Whatever else, it is
not
my thesis that Mr Arias beat himself, bruised his leg, banged his head on the table, and shot himself in a weird position, covering his right hand in some inexplicable way, all in order to conceal his passionate desire to kill himself.'

It was a devastating counter. But Caroline merely smiled. ‘Assuming that your earlier string of “may”s adds up to something, let me try yet
another
theory. In a state of extreme distress, Mr Arias begins to write a suicide note but can't bring himself to finish. He starts pacing in an agitated state, holding the gun, oblivious to his surroundings. Blindly, he trips over the coffee table, hitting
both
his head
and
his nose, and lands on the floor with the gun.' Caroline paused, speaking more slowly. ‘Stunned, he wipes his nose – the kind of reflexive thing an agitated man, addled and alone, has time for. And then his thoughts clarify, and he knows what he wants to do. And does it.' Gazing at Shelton, Caroline spoke quite softly now: ‘Just as he said in the note.'

‘It's completely inconsistent,' Shelton answered promptly. ‘Because it fails to account for the lack of blowback and GSR.'

‘But it
does
account for his injuries, doesn't it, Dr Shelton?
And
for the smear of blood.' Here Caroline paused for a deadly moment. ‘Unless, of course, that
was
blowback.'

Shelton gave her a level look. ‘There was no GSR on his wrist at all. In my opinion, the only way Mr Arias could have fired that gun was if he were wearing a glove.'

‘But then,' Caroline retorted, ‘he wouldn't have that mysterious blood on his hand. Which you can't really explain, can you?'

‘Not as an isolated fact, no. But in the totality of the facts, I don't believe it matters.'

Caroline, Paget knew, was running out of points to score. He saw her pause, hoping to end on a high note. ‘But it
did
matter to your initial thesis, didn't it? In which Mr Arias is struck and plummets over the table.'

Shelton hesitated, and then nodded. ‘It did,' she conceded. ‘And in retrospect, I was a little ambitious in trying to tie everything together. But the essence of my opinion is this: the medical evidence – the lack of blowback, the absence of GSR, the injuries to Mr Arias's head and body, the position of the gun – is
all
inconsistent with suicide. Period.' Shelton paused again. ‘And there was one other thing,' she finished quietly. ‘The look on Mr Arias's face.'

Caroline's expression did not change, perhaps only Paget knew how much she regretted her last question. ‘Wouldn't
you
be frightened,' she asked, ‘if you were about to shoot yourself? Even if you wanted to?'

Shelton thought for a moment. ‘The circumstances are hard for me to imagine. But yes, I suppose I might.'

Slowly, Caroline nodded. ‘I suppose I might too,' she said softly. ‘Thank you, Dr Shelton. I have no further questions.'

All at once, it was over.

As Shelton stepped from the stand, staring straight ahead now, Paget looked at the jury. He knew what the television news would highlight: courtroom drawings of Caroline, standing over Victor Salinas. But in the faces of his jurors, Paget could see that Ricardo Arias had moved much closer to being a victim of murder.

Chapter
3

The next morning, Salinas set out to prove that Ricardo Arias had meant to live forever.

He began with Leslie Warner. Taking the stand, Elena's former teacher arranged her long floral skirt and fingered her bracelets, smiling at the jury.

‘What a cretin,' Paget murmured to Caroline. ‘I still can't believe she fed Elena to Charles Monk.'

Caroline nodded. ‘If I were Terri, I'd have whacked her too. But
you're
about to pay for it.'

Warner folded her hands, looking at Salinas with an air of polite expectation. After a few introductory questions, Salinas asked abruptly, ‘You were going to meet Mr Arias, were you not? The day after anyone last saw him.'

Warner looked somber. ‘Yes. To discuss Elena.'

‘Were you surprised that he didn't appear?'

‘Very much.'

Slowly, Salinas asked, ‘In your acquaintance with Mr Arias, that didn't seem normal?'

‘Not at all.' Warner glanced at the jury, as if to ensure that they were listening. ‘At our first meeting, before she even entered our school, he spoke to me about Elena for some time, how much he enjoyed her imaginative qualities and wanted to encourage them. That night, and in subsequent meetings or conversations once Elena was in my classroom, Richie – Mr Arias – seemed a very warm, very concerned father.'

Salinas nodded. ‘How often did you speak to him?'

‘Quite often.' Looking down, Warner twisted her bracelet. ‘Actually, after a particular incident involving Elena very early in September, he would drop by or call at least once a week. Or I would call him. I mean, I knew that Mr Arias was the custodial parent and quite concerned.'

Caroline's eyes narrowed. ‘I'll bet she could hardly wait for those all-important parent-teacher conferences.'

Paget smiled a little; Caroline's instincts were good, and he sensed she was onto something.

‘This early incident you mentioned,' Salinas was asking. ‘Can you describe it?'

Here it comes, Paget thought. ‘Yes,' Warner said in a flat voice. ‘I observed Elena behind a Dumpster, pulling down her panties and asking a boy to look at her genital area. When I pulled her aside and asked about it, she was too upset to talk. So I decided to call Mr Arias.'

Salinas looked disturbed. ‘Did the incident you observed raise particular concerns?'

Warner's own expression turned grave, as if mirroring Salinas. ‘Sexual acting out is fairly common; as a teacher, I see it a lot. Sometimes it's simply experimentation; at other times it may suggest deeper problems. In this case, Elena's distress when I spoke to her was
so
extreme that I decided to notify Mr Arias.' Her voice turned flat again. ‘And, of course, Elena's mother. Although the court gave
Richie
custody.'

Paget leaned his head close to Caroline's. ‘He's using this supposed meeting as a wedge. To get in stuff about Carlo and how wonderful Richie was. It's flat objectionable.'

‘Except in Jared Lerner's courtroom,' Caroline murmured. ‘But I'm about to give it a try.'

‘When you say “deeper problems,”' Salinas asked, ‘what do you have in mind?'

Abruptly, Paget felt himself tense. Warner's eyes seemed to compress. ‘Under certain circumstances, it can be a symptom of child abuse.'

Quickly, Caroline was on her feet. ‘I move to strike that answer, Your Honor. Ms Warner has not been qualified as an expert on
anything
. Including child abuse
or
Ricardo Arias.'