The 6th Target (Women's Murder Club 6)

“Yes. But he took aim and shot us all. Shot Mr. Ng’s brains right onto the deck.”

“Thank you, Doctor. Your witness,” Yuki said.

Chapter 76

MICKEY SHERMAN HAD KNOWN CLAIRE WASHBURN for many years, liked her very much, and was glad she’d survived her ordeal on the Del Norte.

But she was a dangerous threat to his client.

“Dr. Washburn, what’s your profession?”

“I’m the chief medical examiner of San Francisco.”

“Unlike the coroner, you’re a medical doctor, isn’t that right?”

“Yes.”

“When you were doing your internship, did you do rotations at a teaching hospital?”

“I did.”

“And you rotated through the psychiatric ward?”

“Yes.”

“Ever see any patients walking around with a blank stare in the psych ward?”

“Objection. Relevance, Your Honor,” Yuki said.

“Overruled. The witness may answer the question.”

“I really don’t remember any of my psych patients, Mr. Sherman. All the patients I have now have blank stares.”

“All right,” Sherman said, smiling, hands in pockets, pacing a little bit in front of the jury box, turning back to Claire, saying, “Well, Doctor, you’ve had a chance to observe Mr. Brinkley, isn’t that right?”

“Big stretch of the word ‘observe.’ ”

“Yes or no, Dr. Washburn?”

“Yes. I ‘observed’ him on the ferry, and I see him right now.”

“Let’s just talk about what happened on the ferry. You just testified that my client said something like, ‘This is your fault.’ And ‘You should have stopped me.’ ”

“That’s right.”

“Were the shootings your fault?”

“No.”

“What did you think Fred Brinkley meant?”

“I have no idea.”

“Did Mr. Brinkley appear to be of sound mind at that time? Did he appear to know right from wrong?”

“I really can’t say. I’m not a psychiatrist.”

“Well, did he deliberately try to kill you?”