Page 10 of The 1 Lawyer

“They were patterned abrasions and contusions of the skin of the anterior neck.”

Gordon-James tapped his laptop’s keyboard. The photo of the victim’s neck reappeared on the big screen. The DA circled parts of the image with a virtual pen. “What are these marks, Doctor?”

“They are superficially incised curvilinear abrasions. In other words, fingernail marks.”

“Whose fingernails made those marks?”

“Aurora Gates’s. In my opinion, she made the marks when struggling to pry the attacker’s hands off her neck.”

The testimony from the medical examiner was a kick in the gut. In a way, it was more powerful than the gunshot evidence, even though the bullet to the chest was the cause of Aurora Gates’s death. But the photo of the bruises and fingernail marks conjured up mental images of the attack—a man’s hands around her throat, cutting off her air as she struggled and scratched into her own flesh in a fruitless attempt to break his hold.

Anyone would be affected by such evidence.

Not my client, though. He sat like a stone.

Gordon-James displayed another photo from the autopsy. But it wasn’t an image of Aurora Gates; it was a picture of the twelve-week fetus.

I watched the jury after the image of the lifeless fetus appeared. Heads were shaking. My favorite juror, the one who had given me a nod during my opening statement, crossed her arms over her chest. So much for the hope that she would side with the defense. The fetus pushed her to the other side.

“Doctor, did you see any evidence of injury to the fetus?”

“Specific signs of injury? No. But the fetus was dead. It died in utero because the mother died.”

At that, Gordon-James enlarged the image of the fetus on the screen, perhaps to illustrate its increased significance in the case.

Because the two-and-a-half-inch fetus was not merely a footnote in the autopsy report.

It was a homicide victim in its own right.

The Mississippi statutory code states that killing an unborn child is murder. And that includes an unborn child at every stage of gestation, from conception to birth.

Gordon-James said, “Doctor, are you telling the court that two separate bodies were the subject of your autopsy?”

Dr. Ellis’s forehead puckered as he thought this over. “Yes, that is correct.”

Gordon-James made a three-quarter turn and stared coldly at Daniel Caro. He didn’t bother to frame his next words as a question.

“This is a double murder case.”

CHAPTER 9

I LEAPED out of my chair.

“Objection, Your Honor! The district attorney isn’t asking questions—he’s making statements. And he’s not under oath, not sitting on the witness stand.”

Gordon-James pierced me with a stare. “If Mr. Penney wishes, I can rephrase and put it in the form of a question.”

I stepped away from the counsel table, itching to confront the DA head-on. Gordon-James had gone too far, and he knew it.

“I request that the court order the district attorney’s words stricken from the record.”

Wearing a baffled expression, the DA looked from me to the judge and back again. “I’ll concede the point, agree to strike. But I fail to understand Mr. Penney’s vehemence. The defendant is charged with two counts of murder. That’s not a matter in dispute. It’s why we’re here in this courtroom.”

From the bench, Judge Walker nodded in agreement. Things were going from bad to worse, and I needed to steer the conversation away from the jury box.

I said, “May we approach the bench?”

With a weary gesture, Judge Walker waved us forward. When I reached the bench, I had trouble keeping my voice down.

---