Eyes of a Child (64 page)

For the first time, Caroline moved forward. ‘Mr Salinas,' she said quietly, ‘seemed deeply concerned with determining when you and Chris Paget became lovers. How did that happen?'

In a trial, Terri thought, there is nothing private. ‘I came to
him,'
she said simply, ‘the day after I lost custody of Elena. When Richie fooled the court into believing that I'd asked him to be the caretaking parent.

‘I was devastated. But throughout it all, Chris had been the one good thing in my life. The next day, even with all the pain, I knew I wanted him. I waited for night, and I told him that. He was wonderful to me.' However hard to say this aloud, Terri realized, it was good to remember. ‘Chris never tried to make me fall in love with him. He never tried to take me from Richie. He never offered me anything but kindness.' Terri's voice grew quiet. ‘That was enough.'

Caroline tilted her head. ‘And when you were in Italy, and worried about your future together, did Chris seem like a man who knew Ricardo Arias was dead?'

‘No.' Terri looked straight at Joseph Duarte. ‘I know Chris, and he's not that good an actor. For Chris, Richie was still alive.'

‘And during those eight days together in Italy, from the morning he picked you up until the afternoon you learned that Mr Arias had died, did you observe
any
sign that Chris Paget had been in a struggle?'

Terri found it best to look at Caroline. ‘No,' she said flatly.

‘Did you ever know Chris Paget to own a gun?'

Terri shook her head. ‘Chris despised guns. That was a lot of why he ran for the Senate, to stop the flow of guns. He thought all the violence was so senseless.'

Terri felt Joseph Duarte study her: but what about the fingerprints, she imagined him saying in the jury room, and then Caroline asked, ‘How do you feel about Chris Paget now?'

When Terri turned, there was a shadow on Chris's face. She looked directly at Caroline Masters. ‘I love him. But I'm testifying about the
reasons
that I love him, not testifying
because
I love him. There's a difference.' She turned to Luisa Marin, finishing quietly: ‘Because I could never love a man whom I believed to be a murderer.'

Luisa's gaze met hers.
Believe
me, Terri thought, please. ‘That's what I regret most,' Terri added softly. ‘That by loving Chris, I brought these troubles to his door.'

For a moment, somewhere in Marin's eyes, Terri thought she saw her answer. And then Caroline asked softly, ‘Including rug fibers?'

Terri turned to her. ‘Yes. Including rug fibers.'

At the prosecution table, Victor Salinas had suddenly tensed. ‘Is it your belief,' Caroline was asking, ‘that
you
tracked fibers from Richie's carpet into Chris's bedroom?'

‘Yes. Because that was where we stayed together.' Terri paused a moment. ‘Sometimes, after dropping Elena with Richie, I would go to Chris's. It was hard to be alone then.'

Caroline moved still closer. ‘The police
also
found carpet fibers on the driver's side of Chris's car. Can you explain that?'

‘Yes.' Terri turned to Duarte again. ‘I'd never driven a Jaguar before. So Chris let me drive his car.'

‘Often?'

‘Several times. Including after visiting Richie.'

‘And did Chris also visit your apartment?'

Salinas, Terri saw, was resting his chin on his hand, as if trying to divine where Caroline's questions were going. But unless he was much more prescient than most, he would still believe that this was all about rug fibers.

‘We were a couple,' Terri answered. ‘Chris came to my apartment quite a lot.'

At the corner of her vision, Terri saw Chris's eyes narrow, Perhaps in doubt, perhaps in understanding. As if to bewilder Salinas, Caroline switched subjects abruptly.

‘Did Mr Arias have an answering machine?'

‘Yes.' Terri made herself sound very calm. ‘That was one of the frustrations of calling from Italy – he'd switched his machine off.'

‘To your knowledge, how long had Mr Arias used this machine?'

Terri folded her hands. ‘This particular machine? About two months.'

Salinas was very still now; Terri sensed that he knew that something was awry but was not quite sure what. ‘Do you happen to know,' Caroline asked almost casually, ‘where Mr Arias acquired this machine?'

Terri nodded. ‘From me.'

‘And where did you get it?'

Terri turned to Salinas now; she reminded herself of the police this man had sent to question Elena, and then, softly, she answered, ‘From my apartment. I gave it to Richie when I got a new one.'

Salinas, Terri saw with satisfaction, looked as if he had been shot.

Caroline spoke in the same quiet voice. ‘And do you know, Ms Peralta, how Mr Paget's fingerprints came to be on that machine?'

‘Yes.' Terri now spoke to Salinas. ‘I'm quite sure that Chris touched the machine while it was still in my apartment. As I said, he was there all the time.'

Was that even possible? Paget wondered.

It had stunned him. On the stand, Terri stared straight at Salinas as the prosecutor walked toward her.

One thing was certain, Paget knew. He had not been there ‘all the time' but, at most, a handful of times: he could never visit Terri while Elena was with her, and when the little girl was not, Paget as Carlo's parent would not leave his son alone for the night. The pattern of single-parent romance, dictated by children.

‘You
knew
,' Paget whispered to Caroline.

She gave him a sideways look. ‘Is anything wrong?'

When Paget did not answer, Caroline picked up her pen, ready to take notes.

‘Why,'
Salinas demanded of Terri, ‘have you never said, this before? About the answering machine.'

‘No one asked me.' Terri folded her hands. ‘And everything you have asked me, Mr Salinas, has been twisted and distorted. You tore up my house, interrogated my six-year-old daughter, suppressed evidence about the money Richie had.' Her voice rose. ‘I didn't come to you, Mr Salinas, because you and your office don't care about the truth . . . .'

‘Didn't you want to clear Mr Paget's name?' Salinas asked angrily. ‘Or were you waiting to give that little speech?'

Terri looked quite composed now. ‘I didn't know what your evidence was.
If
you had told me about Chris's prints on the machine, I
might
have told you how they got there. But you never asked.'

Salinas looked rattied now. ‘Are you telling, me, Ms Peralta, that you never discussed these fingerprints with Mr Paget?'

Terri smiled. ‘Let me rephrase that for you. Not only am I
telling
you that I never discussed the prints with Chris, but it's
true
. Which is all that Chris ever said to me about testifying – to tell the truth.' Her smile faded. ‘You've made me a witness against the man I love and want to marry. We practice law together: any other case, and we'd be talking all the time. But Chris didn't want to do or say
anything
that looked like influencing my testimony. So for the last three months, while Chris went through this nightmare, we couldn't even talk about it. You can't imagine, Mr Salinas, how hard that's been. But we've stuck to it.' Her voice turned cold. ‘If you think Chris asked me to lie for him, you're mistaken. But it's not nearly as big a mistake as this whole miserable prosecution.'

Eyes narrowing, Caroline Masters put down her pen. Softly, she murmured, ‘Victor's fucked.'

Chapter
11

The next morning, Carlo Paget took the stand.

He wore a white shirt, a blue blazer, and one of his father's floral ties – he himself did not have much interest in ties, and his father's taste in clothes, he had once remarked, was much better than his taste in music. Taking the oath, he smiled uncomfortably at Paget and then stopped looking at anyone; in this formal setting, there were still traces of the awkward boy whose shirttail might come out. Circles were visible beneath his eyes; the night before, Paget had heard Carlo stirring in his room in the early-morning hours, unable to sleep. Helpless, Paget cursed himself for this moment, and then Salinas began.

After a few preliminaries, Salinas asked him abruptly, ‘Do you know Elena Arias?'

‘She's Terri's daughter.' Carlo paused, and then added, ‘She used to bring her to our house.'

It had started. Salinas would try to legitimize Richie's ‘concerns,' Paget knew, while making the possibility of molestation real enough to be Paget's motive. All that Paget could hope for was that Caroline had prepared Carlo well and that he would keep his poise.

‘And did she sometimes
leave
Elena with you?' Salinas asked.

Carlo, Paget thought, looked paler. ‘Sometimes.'

Speak up, Paget told him silently.

Salinas moved forward. ‘What did you do with her?'

Humor a child, Paget thought, while the adults gave them both a benign smile and turned their attention to each other.

‘Mostly we played games,' Carlo answered. ‘Whatever she wanted. Sometimes I took her out for ice cream, and once or twice to the park.'

‘Were you ever alone?'

‘Hardly ever. My dad would be there, and Terri.' His voice became stronger. ‘Sometimes my girlfriend too.'

I'm not some pervert, Paget remembered him telling Terri – I have a girlfriend. Paget could not easily imagine the hardship for a sixteen-year-old boy, dealing with the deepening pulse of his own sexuality, accused of molesting a child. He could feel the weight of the courtroom on Carlo, the scrutiny of the jury.

‘But you
were
alone with her,' Salinas prodded.

Carlo squared his shoulders. ‘Only a few times. Maybe three or four.'

‘Did Elena ever kiss you?'

Carlo looked down. ‘Sure. Little kids do that stuff.'

‘Did you ever kiss
her
?'

Carlo seemed to wince, as if at the pounding of a headache. ‘Like you do a
kid
, maybe. On the forhead.'

Salinas, Paget noticed, was without theatrics today – his manner grave, his face and voice unchanging. Quietly, he asked, ‘Did you ever see Elena naked?'

Carlo's eyelids dropped, as if the moment he dreaded had arrived; to Paget, he looked like someone who had received a blow to the stomach. In the jury box, Joseph Duarte – the father of two girls – watched with taut vigilance. ‘Once,' Carlo said. ‘She asked me to give her a bath.'

‘Was this the
only
time she asked?'

‘Yes.'

‘And where was her mother?'

‘With my dad. At a speech he was giving.'

‘So the
only
time Elena asked for a bath was one of the
only
times you were alone with her?'

Carlo folded his arms. ‘I guess so.'

Salinas paused, as if disturbed by this coincidence. ‘Were
you
undressed?' he asked.

Carlo flushed. ‘No.'

Paget turned to Caroline; she touched his arm, gaze fixed on Carlo. ‘Not
yet
,' she whispered.

‘Did you touch
her
?' he demanded.

Carlo had begun to look drawn. ‘Only with a washcloth,' he said. ‘And maybe to help her into my dad's bathtub.'

‘Who undressed her?'

‘
She
did.'

‘Did you watch?'

‘
No
.' Carlo's voice was angry. ‘She was undressed before I even got there.'

Salinas moved forward. Softly, he asked, ‘Did you touch her genitals, Carlo?'

Paget had to keep himself from standing. ‘
No
,' Carlo answered.

‘Not even with a washcloth?'

‘
No
.' Carlo's voice was strained. ‘You can ask me that a thousand times, and the answer will always be the same. I didn't touch that kid in any way that was bad.'

‘So that if Elena told her father you'd touched her genitals, she was
lying
?'

‘
Objection
.' Caroline sprang out of her chair, turning to Salinas with a look of disgust. ‘There is no evidence,
anywhere
, that Elena ever said that. Not even
Mr Arias
made such a claim. Frankly, Mr Salinas, the biggest perversion I've heard so far is
your
effort to smear a teenage boy so that you can convict his dad of murder.'

‘That's offensive . . .'

‘Really. Then
show
it to me, Victor. Show me where there's
any
basis for the question you just asked.' Caroline stepped forward. ‘Want to take a break to look for it? Because we're all prepared to wait for you.'

Lerner's gavel cracked. ‘That's enough.' The judge turned to Salinas. ‘What's the basis for your question, Counselor?'

Salinas stepped forward. ‘It was another way of asking if the witness molested Elena Arias.'

Lerner leaned over the bench. ‘Did you hear my question, Mr Salinas?
What
is you basis?'

Salinas hesitated. Then said, calmly, ‘None, Your Honor. Other than I just explained.'

Lerner stared down at him. Softly, Caroline said, ‘I'd like an apology, Victor.'

He turned to her, angry. ‘For
what
?'

‘Not to me. To Carlo Paget.'

Watching, Paget felt his own outrage ease; Caroline was making Salinas pay. ‘I'll decide who I apologize to,' Salinas told her, ‘and for what. It's certainly not clear
what
this witness did.'