The Pact Read online

  "I was her best girlfriend," Heather admitted. "But Chris knew her better than anyone else."

  "Did you see Chris and Emily together?"

  "Yes."

  "What was their relationship like?"

  Heather's eyes clouded. "I used to think it was really romantic," she said. "I mean, they'd been together forever, and it was sometimes like they couldn't hear anything but each other's voices or see anything but each other's faces." She bit her lip. "I used to think that Emily had what all of us wanted."

  Jordan nodded gravely. "And Heather, based on the relationship you saw between Chris and Emily, can you picture him ever hurting her?"

  "Objection," Barrie called.

  "Overruled."

  At Jordan's nod, Heather looked directly at Chris, her eyes wide and liquid. "No," she whispered. "I can't."

  MELANIE GOLD WAS WEARING BLACK. On the witness stand, with her hair pulled back severely and the padded shoulders of her suit jacket stretched wide, she looked like an implacable mother superior, or maybe even an archangel. "Mrs. Gold," Barrie said, laying a hand over her witness's. "Thank you for being here. I'm so sorry to put you through this formality, but I need a few facts for the record. Could you state your name?"

  "Melanie Gold."

  "What was your relationship to the victim?"

  Melanie stared directly at the jury. "I was her mother," she said softly.

  "Can you tell us about your relationship with your daughter?"

  Melanie nodded. "We spent a lot of time together." She began to talk, her words brush strokes, bringing Emily back to life with the same artistic elegance that Emily had possessed. She would spend time with me after school, when I was at the library working. We'd go shopping together on the weekends. She knew she could turn to me.

  "What sorts of things did Emily talk to you about?"

  Melanie started, and directed her attention back to the prosecutor. "We'd been discussing college a lot. She was getting ready to apply."

  "What were her feelings about going to college?"

  "She was very excited," Melanie said. "She was a wonderful student, and an even better artist. As a matter of fact, she was applying at the Sorbonne."

  "Wow," Barrie said, "that's impressive."

  "So was Emily," Melanie said.

  "When did you first find out that something had happened to Emily?"

  Melanie wilted in the chair. "We were called in the middle of the night and told to come down to the hospital right away. All we knew was that Emily had gone on a date with Chris. By the time we got there, Emily had died."

  "What were you told about the death?"

  "Not very much. My husband went in to identify ... Emily. I ... " She looked up at the jury. "I couldn't. And then Michael came back out and told me that she'd been shot in the head."

  "What did you think, Mrs. Gold?" Barrie asked gently.

  "I thought, Oh, my God--who did this to my baby?"

  The stillness that comes on the heels of true grief settled over the courtroom, so that the jury could hear the scratch of Jordan's pen, the tick of the bailiff's watch, Chris's labored breathing. "Did you ever think for a moment, Mrs. Gold, that it might have been a suicide?"

  "No," Melanie said, her voice firm. "My daughter was not suicidal."

  "How do you know?"

  "How wouldn't I know? I'm her mother. She wasn't sad; she wasn't depressed; she wasn't crying. She was the same wonderful young woman we'd always known. And she'd never used a gun in her life; she didn't know anything about them. Why would she have tried to shoot herself with one?"

  "Did a jeweler start calling you after Emily's death?"

  "Yes," Melanie said. "At first I didn't know who it was. The woman just kept asking for Emily, and it seemed like a bad joke. But then she finally told me about a watch that Emily had bought for Chris and I went down to pick it up. It was a five-hundred-dollar watch--fifty dollars more than she'd made the entire summer working at a camp. Emily knew we would have been very upset to find out that she'd spent that amount of money on a surprise birthday gift for Chris; it was far too extravagant, and we would have made her return it." She took a deep breath, then continued. "After I went to the jeweler's, I took that watch home and I realized it was Emily's way of telling me to look more closely at what happened." She stared at the jury. "Why would Emily have bought a watch to give to Chris at the end of November, if she knew they were going to kill themselves before then?"

  Barrie walked toward the defense table. "As you know, Mrs. Gold, the only other person at the carousel that night was Christopher Harte."

  Melanie's eyes flicked over him. "I know."

  "Do you know the defendant well?"

  "Yes," Melanie said. "Chris and Emily grew up together. We've lived next door to his family for eighteen years." Her voice thickened, and she glanced away. "He was always welcome in our house. He was like a son to us."

  "And you know that he's here because he's charged with murder? The murder of your daughter?"

  "Yes."

  "Do you believe that Chris could have been violent toward your daughter?"

  "Objection," Jordan said. "This witness is biased."

  "Biased!" Barrie sputtered. "The woman's child is dead and buried. She can have any bias she pleases."

  Puckett rubbed his temples. "The prosecution has the right to put on any witness it wishes. We'll give Mrs. Gold the benefit of the doubt."

  Barrie turned back toward Melanie. "Do you believe," she repeated, "that Chris could have been violent toward your daughter?"

  Melanie cleared her throat. "I think he killed her."

  "Objection!" Jordan yelled.

  "Overruled."

  "You think he killed her," Barrie restated, letting Melanie's words settle, a gauntlet thrown. "Why?"

  For a moment, Melanie stared at Chris. "Because my daughter was pregnant," she spat out, forgetting the prosecutor's warning to stay calm. "Chris was going off to college. He didn't want his career and his education and his swimming future ruined by some baby and a hometown girl." Melanie saw Chris startle, then begin to shake. "Chris was the one who knew about guns," she said tightly. "His father had his own arsenal. They were hunting all the time." She pinned Chris with her gaze, her words solely for him. "You put two bullets in the gun."

  Jordan leaped to his feet. "Objection!"

  "You thought the whole thing out. But you couldn't keep her from bruising when she fought you--"

  "Objection, Your Honor! This is inappropriate!"

  Melanie stared at Chris, unstoppable. "You couldn't guarantee the angle of the bullet. And you couldn't do a thing about the watch, because you didn't even know about it." Her hands flexed on the railing of the witness stand, knuckles white.

  "Mrs. Gold," the judge interrupted.

  "You killed her," Melanie shouted. "You killed my baby, and you killed your baby."

  "Mrs. Gold, you will cease immediately!" Puckett yelled, banging his gavel. "Ms. Delaney, control your client!"

  The tips of Chris's ears were flame red. He shrank down beside Jordan. "Your witness," Barrie said, offering up the sobbing, heartsick woman.

  "Your Honor," Jordan said tightly. "Perhaps we should take a short recess."

  Puckett glared at the prosecutor. "Perhaps we should," he said.

  WHEN MELANIE TOOK THE STAND AGAIN, her eyes were red and high flags of color rose on her cheekbones, but for all intents and purposes she was again composed. "It sounds like Emily was quite a daughter, Mrs. Gold," Jordan said, still seated at the defense table, as casual as if he'd invited the woman over for lunch. "Talented, beautiful, and she confided in you. What else could you possibly want in a child?"

  "Life," Melanie said coldly.

  Momentarily flustered--Jordan hadn't expected her to be quite so sharp--he mentally took a step back. "How many hours a week did you spend with Emily, Mrs. Gold?"

  "Well, I work three days a week, and Emily was in school."

  "So ... ?"