Fatal Convictions

88

“Did it take you all lunch to think that up, or did it come to you right away?” Alex asked as he rose to his feet.

“It is the truth,” Mahdi said. His gaze was level, his voice steady.

“Very convenient for you that it’s a truth hard to verify. I mean, it just so happens that the only two people who were part of these conversations were you and my client-your word against his.”

“Your client’s wife can confirm or deny this,” Mahdi said.

“When did you divorce your first wife?” Alex asked.

“In 1989.”

“So you divorced your first wife for unfaithfulness nine years after you had slept with another man’s wife?”

“I divorced her because she wanted to leave. I was simply fulfilling her wishes.”

“Let’s see-you didn’t tell the truth the first time you testified, you cheated with another man’s wife, you lied about loving your second wife, and now you expect the jury to take your word that these alleged conversations with my client took place?”

“I did love Ja’dah. What I did with Ghaniyah was wrong. Why would I make something up that is so publicly humiliating?”

“Perhaps because your hatred for Khalid Mobassar consumes you and trumps everything else,” Alex shot back.

“Objection!”

“Sustained.” Rosenthal glared at the witness. “You are to answer Mr. Madison’s questions, not ask your own.”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“I have nothing further for this witness,” Alex said.

Taj Deegan stood behind her counsel table. “The commonwealth first learned about Mr. Mahdi’s affair over the lunch break. When we did, we had the sheriff’s deputy serve a subpoena on Mrs. Mobassar, requiring her immediate attendance in court. We would request a brief recess until she arrives.”

Alex felt like he had just been run over with a bus. Ghaniyah was coming to testify? If she confirmed the affair, there was a good chance the jury would believe everything else Mahdi had just told them.

“Court will stand in recess until Mrs. Mobassar arrives,” Judge Rosenthal said. “And I’m instructing both sides not to have any contact with her prior to the time she takes the stand.”

“Yes, Your Honor,” Taj Deegan and Alex said in unison.