Disclosure_ A Novel - Michael Crichton [97]
“I most certainly did not.”
“Do you know if she locked the door?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Do you know why she would tell someone that you ordered her to lock the door?”
“No.”
“Ms. Johnson. Your meeting with Mr. Sanders was at six o’clock. Did you have any appointments later that day?”
“No. His was the last.”
“Isn’t it true that you had a seven o’clock appointment that you canceled?”
“Oh. Yes, that’s true. I had one with Stephanie Kaplan. But I canceled it because I wasn’t going to have the figures ready for her to go over. There wasn’t time to prepare.”
“Are you aware that your assistant told Ms. Kaplan that you were canceling because you had another meeting that was going to run late?”
“I don’t know what my assistant said to her,” Meredith replied, showing impatience for the first time. “We seem to be talking a great deal about my assistant. Perhaps you should be asking her these questions.”
“Perhaps we should. I’m sure it can be arranged. All right. Let’s turn to something else. Mr. Sanders said he saw a cleaning woman when he left your office. Did you also see her?”
“No. I stayed in my office after he had gone.”
“The cleaning woman, Marian Walden, says she overheard a loud argument prior to Mr. Sanders’s departure. She says she heard a man say, ‘This isn’t a good idea, I don’t want to do this,’ and she heard a woman say, “You fucking bastard, you can’t leave me like this.’ Do you recall saying anything like that?”
“No. I recall saying, ‘You can’t do this to me.’ ”
“But you don’t recall saying, ‘You can’t leave me like this.’ ”
“No, I do not.”
“Ms. Walden is quite clear that was what you said.”
“I don’t know what Ms. Walden thought she heard,” Johnson said. “The doors were closed the entire time.”
“Weren’t you speaking quite loudly?”
“I don’t know. Possibly.”
“Ms. Walden said you were shouting. And Mr. Sanders has said you were shouting.”
“I don’t know.”
“All right. Now, Ms. Johnson, you said that you informed Mr. Blackburn that you could not work with Mr. Sanders after the unfortunate Tuesday morning meeting, is that right?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
Sanders sat forward. He suddenly realized that he had overlooked that, while Meredith was making her original statement. He had been so upset, he hadn’t realized that she had lied about when she saw Blackburn. Because Sanders had gone to Blackburn’s office right after the meeting—and Blackburn already knew.
“Ms. Johnson, what time would you say you went to see Mr. Blackburn?”
“I don’t know. After the meeting.”
“About what time?”
“Ten o’clock.”
“Not earlier?”
“No.”
Sanders glanced over at Blackburn, who sat rigidly at the end of the table. He looked tense, and bit his lip.
Fernandez said, “Shall I ask Mr. Blackburn to con firm that? I imagine his assistant has a log, if he has difficulty with exact memory.”
There was a short silence. She looked over at Blackburn. “No,” Meredith said. “No. I was confused. What I meant to say was I talked to Phil after the initial meeting, and before the second meeting.”
“The initial meeting being the one at which Sanders was absent? The eight o’clock meeting.”
“Yes.”
“So Mr. Sanders’s behavior at the second meeting, where he contradicted you, could not have been relevant to your decision to speak to Mr. Blackburn. Because you had already spoken to Mr. Blackburn by the time that meeting took place.”
“As I say, I was confused.”
“I have no more questions of this witness, Your Honor.”
Judge Murphy closed her notepad. Her expression was bland and unreadable. She looked at her watch. “It’s now eleven-thirty. We will break for lunch for two hours. I’m allowing extra time so that counsel can meet to review the situation and to decide how the parties wish to proceed.” She stood up. “I am also available if counsel wish to meet with me for any reason. Otherwise, I’ll see you all back here at one-thirty sharp. Have a pleasant and productive lunch.” She turned and walked out of the room.
Blackburn stood and said, “Personally, I’d like to meet with opposing counsel,