4th of July

Chapter 88

WHEN COURT RESUMED, YUKI’S eyes were sparkling. It looked to me as if she felt the butt-kicking she’d taken from the judge had been worth the points she’d scored in her opening.

Broyles put on his first witness: Betty D’Angelo, the ER nurse who’d ministered to me the night I was shot. D’Angelo reluctantly repeated what she had said during the prelim—that my blood alcohol level was .067, that there was no way she could say if I was intoxicated, but that .067 was considered “under the influence.”

Next up, Broyles called my friend Dr. Claire Washburn. He elicited her credentials as the city’s chief medical examiner, and the fact that she’d performed Sara Cabot’s autopsy.

“Dr. Washburn, were you able to ascertain the cause of Sara Cabot’s death?”

Using a line drawing of a human form, Claire pointed out where my bullets had entered Sara Cabot’s body.

“Yes. I found two gunshot wounds to the chest. Gunshot A entered on the left upper/outer chest, right here. That bullet penetrated Sara Cabot’s chest cavity between left ribs number three and four, perforated the upper lobe of the left lung, went into the pericardial sac, tore through the left ventricle, and stopped in her thoracic column on the left-hand side.

“The second gunshot wound,” Claire said, tapping the chart with a pointer, “was through the sternum, five inches below the left shoulder. It went right on through the heart, terminating in thoracic vertebra number four.”

The members of the jury were rapt as they heard about what my shots had done to Sara Cabot’s heart, but when Broyles had finished examining her, Yuki was ready for Claire on cross-examination.

“Can you tell us the angles of penetration, Dr. Washburn?” Yuki asked.

“The shots were fired upwards, from a few inches above the ground.”

“Doctor, was Sara Cabot killed instantly?”

“Yes.”

“So, you could say Sara was too dead to shoot anyone after she’d been shot?”

“Too dead, Ms. Castellano? As far as I know, there’s only dead.”

Yuki blushed. “Let me rephrase that. Given that Lieutenant Boxer was shot twice by Sara Cabot’s gun, it stands to reason that Sara Cabot fired first—because she died instantly after Lieutenant Boxer shot her.”

“Yes. Ms. Cabot died instantly when she was shot.”

“One more question,” Yuki said, sounding as if it were an afterthought. “Did you do a tox screen on Ms. Cabot’s blood?”

“Yes. A few days after the autopsy.”

“And what were your findings?”

“Sara Cabot had methamphetamine in her system.”

“She was high?”

“We don’t use high as a medical term, but yes, she had .23 milligrams of methamphetamine per liter in her blood. And in that sense, it’s high.”

“And what are the effects of methamphetamine?” Yuki asked Claire.

“Methamphetamine is a powerful central nervous system stimulant that produces a wide range of effects. The upside is a pleasurable rush, but long-term users suffer many of the downside effects, including paranoia and suicidal and homicidal thoughts.”

“How about homicidal actions?”

“Absolutely.”

“Thank you, Dr. Washburn. I’m finished with this witness, Your Honor.”