Betrayal - Fern Michaels [53]
Kate leaned over the banister, her hand on Alex’s shoulder. She couldn’t imagine being in his place. Her heart broke a little more for him with each passing day. Her Alex. Good, salt-of-the-earth Alex.
“Are the prosecution and defense ready?” Judge Stowers asked.
Both replied that they were.
“You may begin the tape.”
A few seconds later the projection screen, at least eighty inches high, showed a huge Sara sitting on a dark green leather sofa. She wore a pale peach sundress with white sandals. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail with a white ribbon. The picture of innocence, Kate thought. Sara never wore dresses and rarely combed her hair.
“Sara, this is Mr. Wykowski. He works for the state of Florida. He’s going to see that the bad man who hurt you is punished. He is going to ask you some questions, okay?” Dr. Sheffield spoke as though she were talking to a mentally challenged two-year-old.
“I guess so,” Sara replied.
“Remember, Sara, Mr. Wykowski is one of the good guys that we talked about. You do remember us talking about good guys and bad guys, don’t you?” Sheffield asked.
“Yes, of course I do. I’m not stupid!”
Sara being her usual self.
“Of course you’re not stupid. Did anyone call you stupid, Sara? Did the bad man call you stupid?”
Kate grimaced. Now Alex was “the bad man.”
“Yes, and he called me bad words, too.” Sara smiled.
“Why don’t you let Mr. Wykowski ask his questions now.”
“What’s he waiting for, anyway? I want to hurry. I want to go home. I hate this place. I didn’t want to be here in the first place. Mommy said I had to. Hurry up, Mr. Wyk—whatever your name is.”
“Sara, I know you don’t want to be here any more than I do. It’s big, brave girls like you that put bad men in jail. Now, I want you to tell me about the first time the bad man, Mr. Rocket, touched you. Can you do that?”
“Sure, I can. I was in bed in my room, sleeping. He was visiting us like usual. I woke up and saw this scary-looking man sitting on the edge of my bed. He was smoking a cigarette. I hate smoking. Mommy smokes all the time. It stinks. But there was this man. I couldn’t really tell what his face looked like until he puffed on the cig. He was all aglow then. It was Uncle Alex.”
“Then what did you do?” the voice of the ADA asked.
“Nothing. I just pretended to go back to sleep.”
A sigh could be heard, but you couldn’t tell who it was. The video camera moved away from Sara, then back again.
Wykowski’s voice. “Why did you pretend to go back to sleep?”
“I don’t know. I think I was scared. Yes, that’s it. I was very afraid of the man, Uncle Alex, on the bed. I wanted to scream for my dad, but I knew Uncle Alex would hurt me if I tried.”
“Why did you think this? Had your uncle Alex hurt you before?”
“Lots of times. He hit me, pinched me, one time he burned me with a cigarette. I never told Mommy or Daddy ’cause he was their best friend. He never hurt Emily, though. I think he liked her more than me. Mommy said he had good reason to, but she never said what it was. He’s a very mean man.”
“Let’s get back to the night you saw him sitting on the edge of your bed. Can you think back to that night and try to remember what grade of school you were in?”
The ADA was trying to establish a time period, Kate assumed.
“I told you before that I didn’t! Why do you keep asking me the same thing over and over?”
“Your Honor, can we pause the recording for a moment?” James asked.
“Yes.”
The judge instructed the bailiff to pause the VCR.
“May I approach?” James asked.
Judge Stowers nodded in the affirmative.
“Judge Stowers, I was told the state would have one opportunity to question the child, same as the defense. It appears from what the child is saying that the state has questioned her on more than one occasion.”
“Mr. Wykowski, is this true?”
“Yes, it is, but only to the extent of allowing the child to get