16th Seduction (Women's Murder Club 16)

“Ms. Shaw, what is your occupation?”

“I’m a graduate student, going for my doctorate in literature.”

“Have you met me before?”

“Yes.”

Grant asked, “Were we together the evening of August between 6:00 p.m. and 7:30?”

Parisi said, “Objection. Leading the witness, Your Honor.”

“Overruled. I’m going to allow it.”

Grant repeated his question, and the witness said, “That is correct.”

“Why do you remember the exact time?”

“Because,” Ms. Shaw said quietly, “you hired me for an hour and a half starting at four.”

The judge asked Shaw to speak up, and after she repeated her answer, Grant asked his next question.

“We spent this time together in the Hotel Slocum on Battery Street, a few minutes’ walk from Sci-Tron, is that correct?”

“

Yes.”

“Was I carrying a bag of any kind?”

“No, nothing.”

“How did I seem to you?” Grant asked.

“When we were together?”

“Let me be more specific. During the time we spent together, did I have an attitude that would suggest to you that I was going to blow up Sci-Tron? Was I nervous? Or agitated?”

Parisi rose ponderously to his feet.

“Objection. Mr. Grant is asking the witness to speculate.”

The judge sustained the objection, and Grant said, “I asked for her interpretation of my behavior. But I’ll rephrase. Ms. Shaw, did I tell you anything that would lead you to believe that I had plans to blow something up?”

“No.”

“Thank you. I have no other questions.”

Parisi got up, scraping his chair legs loudly against the floor, and approached the witness.

“Ms. Shaw, how do you know Mr. Grant?”

“A friend gave him my name.”

“I see. For what purpose?”

Shaw said, “It was … transactional. I needed to buy books. Connor gave me five hundred dollars.”

“I see. Do you have any knowledge of the defendant’s whereabouts before he met you at the hotel at four o’clock?”