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“Thank you, Your Honor,” Mrs. Lambertsen said. “I know Molly’s schedule. Even then, she kept to a schedule.”
Hilliard sat down heavily as Be
“She had been awake since her morning nap. She woke up at about six in the morning, then went right back to sleep. She woke up at about ten-thirty, in those days. She didn’t even take an afternoon nap, or if she did it lasted like an hour.”
“So on May nineteenth, she was up from about ten-thirty in the morning until when she eventually went to sleep, is that right?”
“Right.”
“Take us back a bit, to the day before May nineteenth. You said Molly was two months old at the time. If you can recall, what was her schedule then?”
Hilliard sighed audibly, but refrained from making an objection. His cranky growl got him the interruption he wanted anyway.
“Oh, God. It was hell, sheer hell,” Mrs. Lambertsen said, rolling her eyes. “She would start fussing late in the day, when she was really too tired to stay awake. She would fall asleep at about nine o’clock, then wake up at about midnight. We’d watch Jay Leno together.”
“If you remember, did Molly go right back to sleep after the Jay Leno show on the night of May eighteenth?”
“She never went right back to sleep,” Mrs. Lambertsen shot back, so flatly that the jurors laughed. “She always wanted to play after she’d nursed. She was happy, well fed, and had my attention.”
“When was the next time Molly did go back to sleep, the night of May eighteenth?”
“She didn’t go back down at all. We were both up all night.”
Be
“Not since the morning. I always napped when Molly napped or I wouldn’t have survived her first year. Somebody in my playgroup told me to do that and it was good advice.”
“So in the night before May nineteenth, you had a total of three hours sleep?”
“Yes.”
Be
“For sure. I’m one of those people who need a lot of sleep, nine hours a night. Once I took Molly to the doctor, she had an ear infection, and I couldn’t remember whether the doctor told me to put drops in her ears or mouth. Another time I bought diapers and left them on the counter.”
The jurors smiled, and Be
“Objection!” Hilliard said as he rose and reached for his crutches. He knew where Be
Judge Guthrie was caught cleaning his reading glasses. “I think not, Mr. Hilliard,” he ruled, and Hilliard took his seat heavily.
Be
“I guess I remember reading the directions on the bottle over and over. Even out loud.”
“Thinking back to the night of May nineteenth, recall that you’re trying to get Molly to calm down, you’re working on three hours of sleep and you hear a gunshot. Then you run to the door, come back, and read the clock. How can you be sure you read the clock right?”
Lambertsen looked away, apparently reconsidering. “I think I did.”
“You’re sure your perceptions were correct that night, even though you were working on three hours’ sleep?”
“I am.”
Be
“Like what?” the witness asked thoughtfully, and Be
“Well, Mrs. Lambertsen, when you looked out your front door, you didn’t perceive what Alice Co
“Uh, no.”
“And you didn’t perceive what Alice Co
“Well, no,” she answered, a tremor of doubt in her tone, and Be
“So isn’t it possible, Mrs. Lambertsen, given how tired you were and all that was going on, that you’re not exactly sure what the clock said when you read it? Police records show you didn’t call 911 until 8:07.”
Mrs. Lambertsen straightened in her chair. Be
Finally Mrs. Lambertsen said, “I guess I can’t really be sure if it said eight o’clock.”
Be
“Your Honor, I have redirect,” Hilliard said, rising and holding up a finger, but Be
Co
Be
69
It was the lunch break at trial, and Be
“How could I not know?”
“You’re incarcerated, for one thing.”
“That never stopped me before. Impressed?”
Be
“Relax.” Co
“About them, yes.”
“So you know I’m i
“You didn’t kill Della Porta. We’ll leave it at that. Did you know Lenihan or not?”
“No, I told you that.”
“You never heard anyone mention him? He almost killed me last night. What’s his co
“No idea.”
Be
“So I’ll get railroaded.”
“Why? How’s he co
“I don’t know how, I told you.”
“What about the D.A., Hilliard? What about him?”
“I don’t know what the co
“You don’t know anything that can help us out?”
“Us? I’m touched.”
“Us is me and my associates.”
Co
“Show’s over. See you in court.” Be