Chapter 4

The objections took the rest of the afternoon to resolve. Julian's lawyer—a man whose name Clara had learned was Harold Finch—fought the introduction of the file with a ferocity that bordered on desperation. He argued hearsay. He argued relevance. He argued that Clara's decision to settle four years ago constituted a waiver of any claim. He argued that Ralph Burgess was not qualified to testify about injuries he had not personally examined.

Judge Miller listened to all of it with the same flat expression, her hands folded on the bench.

"Mr. Finch," she said, when the objections had finally exhausted themselves, "I am going to allow Detective Burgess to testify as a fact witness about the contents of his own investigation file, including the hospital records that were provided to him at the time. If you have a problem with that, you may take it up on appeal." She turned to Ralph. "Detective, you have the floor."

Ralph stepped into the witness box. He looked older than Clara remembered—the grey hair, the deep lines around his mouth, the way he kept his eyes fixed on a point just above the judge's head, as if he could not quite bear to look directly at her.

"Your Honor," he said, "in March of 2021, I was assigned to investigate a complaint filed by Ms. Clara Vasquez against Mr. Julian Marsh. The complaint alleged that Mr. Marsh had subjected Ms. Vasquez to repeated physical abuse over a period of eight months, culminating in an incident that required her to be hospitalized for three days."

"And what did you find?" Judge Miller asked.

"I found that Ms. Vasquez had been admitted to County General with approximately twenty-seven separate lacerations to her upper back and shoulders. The treating physician, a Dr. Anita Chang, noted in her report that the injuries were 'consistent with inflicted trauma, specifically the use of a sharp-edged object applied repeatedly to the same anatomical region.'" Ralph paused. "Dr. Chang also noted that Ms. Vasquez was unable to speak for the first twelve hours after admission. She wrote in the chart that she believed Ms. Vasquez was in a state of shock."

"Did you speak to Ms. Vasquez during her hospital stay?" Judge Miller asked.