Yuki’s heart thudded almost audibly. The judge was listening in earnest.
“Keep talking,” he said.
Giftos went on.
“We called her office number and accessed the voice mail system. It still retained her undeleted new messages. There were three messages from Mr. Christopher, none longer than six seconds. The first two messages were essentially, ‘Call me or else.’ The last one was another coded threat.
“I’ve transcribed these messages by hand,” said James Giftos. “We also recorded the time-stamped audio. Of course, we preserved the original messages on her voice mail at the agency.”
Giftos handed his pen-and-ink transcript of the three phone messages and a pocket tape recorder to Judge Rathburn.
Judge Rathburn passed the transcript to Yuki and asked Giftos to play the recorder.
He did it.
As Giftos had said, the calls had all been made within a week of the incident. And the technical quality was good.
Yuki said, “Your Honor, these calls are vague and ambiguous.”
“I’m allowing them in,” said Rathburn.
Yuki felt a vortex opening under her feet, but she steadied herself, dragged herself back from the terrible sinking feeling. She wouldn’t go down. She couldn’t go down.
She followed Judge Rathburn back to the courtroom.
Back at their table, Art said so quietly only she could hear him, “Don’t worry. Don’t worry. You’ve got this.”
If only she could be sure. There were two opposing stories. Only one of them was true. Which one? And whom would the jury believe?
CHAPTER 76
MARC CHRISTOPHER WAS fidgeting in the witness box, staring out over the heads of the court officers, looking to where his parents sat in the gallery.
Judge Rathburn pulled his chair up to the bench, appearing to Yuki as if he’d crossed his maximum irritation threshold. Even the jurors looked like they were ready to scream—Come on, already.
As for James Giftos, Yuki knew that he was on his mark, all set, and good to go.
Giftos stood and, holding notes and sheets of paper in his hand, walked across the floor and addressed the witness.
He said, “Mr. Christopher, I have here a transcript of your deposition with my associates and myself on March 1. Could you please read the highlighted section aloud?”
Giftos handed the papers to Marc, who skimmed the transcript and then began to read:
“‘J. Giftos: What did you and Briana talk about in the restaurant bar before going back to your apartment?’ I answered, ‘I don’t really remember. I was getting pretty drunk. I just wanted to go to sleep.’”
Giftos thanked Marc and took back the paper.
“Mr. Christopher, you just testified to something very different from what you swore to in your deposition. You told this court that you broke off your relationship with Ms. Hill during dinner. That she was c
lingy and hysterical, and that she insisted on spending the night so you could revisit the issue in the morning.
“Is that still your testimony?”
“That’s what happened. I mean, yes.”
“How so, Mr. Christopher? You’ve made two opposing sworn statements; one in my office and one in this courtroom, isn’t that right?”
Marc said, “You do realize that this is a complicated issue, Mr. Giftos. I was raped by a woman I had feelings for. This is not a linear situation. I’m still trying to understand how she got over on me. I could work on this in therapy for the rest of my life …”