After Dark Read Free

fail to see the relevance of this question."
    "Miss Harwood does," Griffen answered.
    Tracy studied the witness. Harwood looked upset. When Tracy looked over at Reynolds, he was smiling, as if he had just figured out an in joke that only he and Griffen understood.
    "This is cross-examination, Mr. Knapp," Judge Dial said. "I'm going to give Ms. Griffen some latitude."
    "Can you please answer the question?" Griffen asked the witness. "What is your favorite movie?"
    "I . . . I don't know."
    The prosecutor took a letter-size sheet of paper out of a file.
    "How about Honeymoon Beach? Have you seen that one?"
    "Yeah," Harwood answered cautiously.
    "Tell the jury what it's about."
    "Your Honor, this has gone too far," Knapp shouted as his client shifted nervously in the witness box. "This is not the Siskel and Ebert show."
    "I promise I will show relevance," Griffen told the judge, her eyes never leaving Marie Harwood.
    "Overruled. You may continue, Ms. Griffen."
    "Is Honeymoon Beach a comedy?" Griffen asked.
    "Yeah."
    "About two honeymoon couples who swap mates at a resort?"
    "Yeah."
    "Where did you see it, Miss Harwood?"
    "In the movies.
    Griffen walked over to Harwood. "Then you saw it twice," she said, handing the paper she was holding to the witness.
    "What's this?" Harwood asked.
    "It's a billing record of all the movies ordered on Pay-per-View from Vince Phillips's phone. Honeymoon Beach showed from five-thirty to seven on the day you killed him. Someone ordered it at four-fifty using Mr. Phillips's phone. Did you watch the movie before or after you slit his throat?"
    "I didn't watch any movie," Harwood insisted.
    Reynolds stood up quietly and slipped out of the courtroom just as Griffen said, "Someone watched Honeymoon Beach, Ms. Harwood. According to your testimony, only you and Vince were in the house and the only Pay-per-View converter is in the bedroom. Did Vince order the movie while he was raping you or while he was beating you?"
    "Never," Harwood shouted. "I told you we didn't watch that movie."
    "Or was it you who watched it while John John was torturing Mr. Phillips to find out where he hid the money?" Harwood glared at Griffen.
    "Did you arrange to meet Vince after John John found out about the money? Did you get him in bed and slash his throat while he was watching Honeymoon Beach?"
    "That's a lie!" Harwood shouted, her face scarlet with rage. "I never watched no movie."
    "Someone did, Marie, and someone ordered it by phone. Who do you think that was?"
    The day after Marie Harwood's conviction, Abbie Griffen Was looking through a stack of police reports when Multnomah County district attorney Jack Stamm stepped into her office. The weather had unexpectedly turned from mild to torrid in twenty-four hours and the courthouse air conditioner was on the fritz.
    Stamm had taken off the jacket of his tan tropical-weight suit, pulled down his tie and rolled up his shirtsleeves, but he still looked damp and uncomfortable.
    The district attorney was five feet eleven, rail thin and a bachelor, whose only passions were the law and distance running.
    Stamm's wavy brown hair was starting to thin on the top, but his kind blue eyes and ready smile made him look younger than thirty-eight. '
    "Congratulations on nailing Harwood," Stamm said. "That was good work."
    "Why, thank you," Abbie answered with a big smile.
    "I hear Knapp is making noises about reporting you to the Bar."
    "Oh?"
    "He says you didn't tell him about the Pay-per-View bill before trial."
    Abbie grinned at her boss. "I sent that arrogant creep a copy of the bill in discovery. He was just too stupid to understand its significance, assuming he even read it. I don't know what I enjoyed more, convicting Knapp's client or humiliating him in public."
    "Well, you did both and you deserve to enjoy your triumph.
    That's why I'm sorry to be the bearer of sad tidings."
    "What's up?"
    "I just got this."
    Stamm handed Abbie the Oregon Supreme Court's slip-sheet opinion in State