Small Sacrifices (52 page)

"Very well."

"The Judge wants me to ask you some questions about if you understand the difference between the truth and a lie. Do you understand the difference?"

"Yeah." "If

I said this piece of paper was black, would that be the

truth or a lie?" ^p

"A lie."

"And you know that when you come in the courtroom like this, that you have to tell the truth. You understand that?"

"Yeah."

"Do you promise to do that?"

"Uh-huhh."

(Diane has not changed expression. She flips her hair from her eyes several times, watching Christie intently.)

"Do you promise to do that?"

"Yeah."

"So everything we talk about in here now has to be the truth as best you can remember. Do you understand that?"

"Yeah."

The courtroom is so very still. But now, the doors to the corridor creak open, and a young woman tiptoes in, looking for a seat.

"I lost it," Ray Broderick recalls ruefully. "It was some reporter from one of the smaller papers. I told her to either find a seat or get out, and she said, 'But I'm with the press.' And she just stood there in the aisle. If she stayed there, she'd detract from

Christie's testimony, from everything we'd done to assure she

would have the right setting up there. I still can't believe I said it, but I turned to that girl and whispered, 'Get the fuck out of here. Now!' She left."

"On the day this happened, you went to school and you came home from school. Do you recall that?" Hugi asks, his eyes never leaving Christie.

"Yeah."

"Whose house did you go to?"

"My grandparents."

"Did you eat there?"

"Yeah."

"And after you ate, where did you go then?"

"To my mom's house."

"Back to her apartment where you were living?" (Witness nods head.)

"Did you go out that night?"

"Yeah."

"Did you go for a ride?"

"Yeah."

"Who went with you?"

"My mom, Cheryl, and Danny went."

"And do you remember the car?"

"Yeah."

"What color was the car?"

"Black and red."

"Can you tell us where you went? Do you remember where you went to?"

"Yeah."

"Where?"

"My mom's friend's house."

"And was that in the city or was it in the country—were there buildings—tall buildings—or was there a lot of grass?"

| "A lot of grass."

* "Do you remember what you did when you got there?"

"Yeah."

"What did you do?"

"We went out and petted the horse."

"Did you give the horse food?"

"Yeah."

"What was your mom doing when you were petting the horse and giving it food?"

360 ANN RULE

"She was talking to her friend."

"Do you remember her friend's name?"

"Yeah—Heather."

"When you left Heather's, do you remember if it was light out or dark?"

"It was dark."

"Who was in the car when you left Heather's house?"

"My mom, Cheryl, and Danny, and me too."

"Do you remember if there was any music playing in the car?"

"Yeah."

"Was that from the radio or was it from the tape?"

"Tape."

"And do you remember there was a time when the car

stopped?"

". . . yeah."

r-""" (Christie begins to cry again, Hugi pauses, and Christie takes

?'a deep breath.)

l-•I.-'-, "When the car stopped, did you see any other people around?"

^L-"No."

"Did you see any person standing in the road?"

"No."

"When the car stopped, what did your mom do?"

(There is no sound at all in the packed courtroom, nothing beyond Fred Hugi's soft questions, and the witness's tear-choked answers. No breathing, seemingly no heartbeats from the jury or the gallery.)

"She got out and she pulled the lever that went to the trunk."

"I'm going to show you a picture here. It's called State's

#335. Is that the lever you're talking about?"

--"Yes."

t-J.'After your mom pushed the lever that went out to the trunk, were you able to see her do anything after that?"

"I didn't look at the back."

"O.K. Did you see her come back into the car?"

"Yeah."

.*• The next question was one Hugi had asked Christie only twice before.

"It was going to scare her again. Here I was putting her through the meatgrinder again—knowing what she was going

through. Her courage was amazing. Now she was going to avenge Cheryl's death, and put the killer away. The drama was more than

/was up to."

But he asked the question, for the third--and hopefully last-time.

"What did you see then?"

"She kneeled down and--"

(Christie begins to sob, burying her face in her hands. And her sobs are echoed in the courtroom as spectators break into tears too. Diane turns her head away from Christie.)

"Would you like a recess?" Fred Hugi asks his witness. (No response.)

"What did you see? You told us she leaned across the seat?"

"Yeah."

"What happened then?"

(Diane is crying. Christie puts her hand to her face as if to block out the memory.)

"She shot Cheryl."

"And you saw that happen?"

"Yeah."

"Was the music still playing?" ^UYeah." --^

"^"Can you tell us what that was?" '

(No response.) --L

(Christie's face is scarlet with the effort not to cry, to keep going. But she cannot say the title of the song that was playing on the car's tape.)

"Maybe I'll come back to that," Hugi says. "Do you remember what happened after you saw Cheryl get shot?" ""Yeah." """What happened then?"

"She leaned over to the back seat and she shot Danny."

"What happened then? What happened after Danny got shot?"

"She standed up and went to the back of the seat on the--" (Christie can no longer hold back tears. In the gallery seats, Brenda lets out a wail of anguish and Evelyn Slaven cuddles her tightly, rocking her. Brenda cannot handle Christie's testimony. The Slavens' son carries her out of the courtroom.)

(Christie is not alone. She has Mr. Hugi. And Mr. Hugi is trying to help her finish what she must say.)

"Do you remember when you got shot?"

362 ANN RULE

"Yeah."

(Her voice is thick, clotted with tears, and she holds her pink handkerchief to her face.)

"Who shot you]"'

"My mom." J

"Do you remember the music that was playing?"

(No response.)

"Can you just not think of it right now?"

"I can't think of it."

"Do you remember what happened after you got shot?"

"No."

"I'm going to put before you State's # 334. Have you seen that before?"

(Hugi picks up the golden statue from the bailiffs bench and holds it out toward Christie.)

"Yeah."

"What is that?"

"It's a unicorn."

"Where did that come from?"

"My mom bought it for us."

"That was before you got shot?"

"Yeah."

"If I said the name of that song that was playing, do you think you'd remember it?"

"Yeah."

"Is it 'Hungry Like the Wolf?' "

"Yeah."

"No doubt about that?"

"No."

"Christie, has anyone ever told you to lie about this?"

"No."

"What you've said here is the truth?"

"Yeah."

"Christie, do you still love your mom?"

"Yeah."

(Almost everyone in the courtroom is crying—from the burly deputy beside Chris Rosage to the reporters in the front row and the jurors.)

"I'm going to offer the two exhibits that were identified by the witness at this time," Hugi says quietly.

The Court: "Show them to counsel, please."

as * * *

Jim Jagger has no objection to the admission of the unicorn and the picture of the car's trunk-release lever. He now has to crossexamine a little girl whose face is streaked with tears.

VERBATIM:

(He begins)

"Do you know who I am?"

"No."

"Do you recognize me?"

"No."

"I'm an attorney just like Mr. Hugi, and I'll be asking some questions for your mom. OK?" , .,

"OK."

"You know Mr. Hugi, don't you?" y^

"Yeah."

"And you think he's nice, don't you?"

"Yeah."

'"Do you know when the last time was that you talked with him?"

"Today." — f

"About testifying here today?"

"Yeah."

"You believe very much that what you've said today is the truth, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"And that hurts and makes you feel really kind of bad, doesn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know when you first started to think that this is what happened back then? Do you remember at all?"

"Yeah."

"When was that?" ^'

"In the hospital I remembered."

"Do you remember if you told anybody—"

"Yeah."

"—about it? Who did you tell?"

"My caseworker."

"And you remembered back then who shot you and Danny and Cheryl?"

"Yeah."

"Do you remember her name?"

364 ANN RULE

"Yeah."

"What was her name?"

(No response.)

"Would it be like a Paula or Susan?"

"Yeah, I telled Paula and Susan first."

"And you remember telling both of them about who shot your brother and sister and you?"

(Witness nods head.)

"When the car pulled over to stop, do you remember if you were--do you remember if you were lying down or standing up or sitting up?"

"I was sitting up."

"And what was Danny doing?"

"He was sleeping and his head was on the--"

"Was he in the--were you in the front seat or the back seat?"

"I was in the back seat."

"And was Danny in the back seat or the front seat?"

"Back seat."

"Was his head closer to you, or away from you?"

"Away from me."

"The back seat--the back has a part that you can put your back against?"

"Yeah."

"Was his back--was Danny's back to the back seat or on the bottom of the seat or towards the front of the car, or was he lying on his stomach?"

(Judge Foote leans toward Christie, his body language protective. The gallery is impatient with Jagger. He is trying to

confuse the child. Christie is hanging in there, fielding questions.)

"He was lying on his side."

"Do you remember where Cheryl was?"

"Yeah."

"Where was she?"

"She was sitting up."

"She was sitting up?"

"Uh-huh."

"And where was she sitting up?"

».|R "In the front seat." "-" "She wasn't asleep?"

"No."

"Do you remember what she was wearing?"

"No."

"And you remember that--do you remember if Cheryl was awake or asleep?"

"She was awake."

"Can you tell me which way she was facing--front or side or back?"

"Front."

(Jagger confers with Diane, and they nod their heads. He walks back to Christie. Clearly, Diane has suggested that Christie is confusing the fatal night with the other car trip--the trip they'd taken to the beach a week earlier.)

"Do you remember going to the beach with your mother and Danny and Cheryl?"

"Yeah."

"Do you remember the drive to the beach being a long ways or a short ways?"

"It was long."

"Do you remember Danny sleeping--Well--forget that question. I'll ask you again. Do you remember where Cheryl was

sitting on the ride to the beach?"

(No response.)

"Do you remember if she would have been sitting in the front seat or the back seat?"

"She was in the back seat."

"Do you remember about coming home if he [Danny] was in the back seat?"

(No response.)

"We can go back to that in a minute. Do you remember Danny sleeping on that trip to and back from the beach while in the car driving?"

(No response.)

(Jagger's questions jump around. He starts one, drops the core of it, and asks something else. Christie begins simply not to answer.)

"We can come back to that--or do you want to think about it more--or do you want me to ask you another question?"

"All right."

"I'm sorry?"

"It's all right. You can ask me another question."

"Do you remember helping your mother at all--taking things from the trunk of the car or putting anything into the trunk of the car?"

366 ANN RULE

"No--only our clothes." ,.

(The defense attorney shows pictures to Christie--the composites of the bushy-haired man. She has never seen him.)

"Have you talked with Mr. Hugi about testifying here? Can you tell me about how many times you've talked to Mr. Hugi about what you would say here in court or about testifying here?" (No response.)

"Have you been talking to him each week, or do you

remember?"

(No response.)

"Do you want me to ask another question?"

(Brenda returns to the courtroom, her face puffed from crying.)

"It's all right," Christie tells Jim Jagger. "If you want to." (Diane smiles faintly.)

"... Have you practiced being a witness in a courtroom before?"

"Yeah."

"... Did you practice being a judge? Do you remember that at all? Did you do that too?"

(Witness nods head.)

(Christie laughs, her eyes turn down shyly--then she glances up at Judge Foote. He smiles at her. The gallery is getting restless and antsy. A woman in the second row mutters under her breath,

"Come on! That's enough.")

"OK. Did you practice sitting where the attorneys sit?"

"No."

"Have you had some--when you were driving to your mom's friend that night, were you and Danny and Cheryl--what were you doing on the drive out to her place?"

"Listening to the music."