4th of July (Women's Murder Club 4)

“After the crash, when you saw that Sara and Sam Cabot were in medical distress, were you afraid of them?”

“No. They were kids. I figured they’d stolen the car or made some other bad decision. Happens every day.”

“So what did you do?”

“Inspector Jacobi and I put away our guns and tried to render aid.”

“At what point did you pull out your gun again?”

“After Inspector Jacobi and I had both been shot and after warning the suspects to drop their weapons.”

“Thank you, Lindsay. I have no further questions.”

I reviewe

d my testimony and gave myself a passing grade. I looked across the room and saw Joe smile and nod even as Mickey turned away from me.

“Your witness,” he said to Mason Broyles.

Chapter 20

A SILENCE STRETCHED BETWEEN me and Broyles, who sat staring at me for so long I wanted to scream. It was an old interrogator’s trick and he had perfected it. Voices rippled across the small gray room until the judge banged her gavel and jolted Broyles into action.

I looked straight into his eyes as he approached.

“Tell us, Lieutenant Boxer, what are the proper police procedures for a felony stop?”

“Approach with guns drawn, get the suspects out of their car, disarm them, cuff them, get the situation safely under control.”

“And is that what you did, Lieutenant?”

“We did approach with guns drawn, but the occupants couldn’t get out of the car without assistance. We put our guns away in order to free them from the vehicle.”

“You violated police procedures, didn’t you?”

“We had an obligation to render aid.”

“Yes, I know. You were trying to be kind to the ‘kids.’ But you’re admitting that you didn’t follow police procedures, correct?”

“Look, I made a mistake,” I blurted. “But those kids were bleeding and vomiting. The car could’ve caught fire —”

“Your Honor?”

“Please limit your answers to the question, Lieutenant Boxer.”

I sat back hard in the chair. I’d seen Broyles operate many times before in the courtroom and recognized his genius for finding his opponent’s pressure point.

He’d just fingered mine.

I was still blaming myself for not cuffing those kids, and Jacobi, with more than twenty years on the force, had been suckered, too. But Christ, you can only do what you can do.

“I’ll rephrase that,” Broyles said offhandedly. “Do you always try to follow police procedures?”

“Yes.”

“So what’s the police policy about being intoxicated on the job?”

“Objection,” Mickey shouted, leaping to his feet. “There’s evidence that the witness had been drinking, but there’s no evidence that she was intoxicated.”