Disclosure

"Yes. Again, in hindsight."

"I see. All right. Ms. Fernandez?"

"Thank you, Your Honor." Fernandez turned in her chair to face Johnson. "Ms. Johnson, in a situation like this, when private behavior occurs behind closed doors, we need to look at surrounding events where we can. So I’ll ask you a few questions about surrounding events."

"Fine."

"You’ve said that when you made the appointment with Mr. Sanders, he requested wine."

"Yes." "Where did the wine come from, that you drank that night?" "I asked my assistant to get it." "This is Ms. Ross?" "Yes." "She’s been with you a long time?" "Yes." "She came up with you from Cupertino?" "Yes."

"She is a trusted employee?" "Yes."

"How many bottles did you ask Ms. Ross to buy?" "I don’t remember if I specified a particular number." "All right. How many bottles did she get?" "Three, I think." "Three. And did you ask your assistant to buy anything else?" "Like what?" "Did you ask her to buy condoms?"

"No."

"Do you know if she bought condoms?"

"No, I don’t."

"In fact, she did. She bought condoms from the Second Avenue Drugstore."

"Well, if she bought condoms," Johnson said, "it must have been for herself."

"Do you know of any reason why your assistant would say she bought the condoms for you?"

"No," Johnson said, speaking slowly. She was thinking it over. "I can’t imagine she would do that."

"Just a moment," Murphy said, interrupting. "Ms. Fernandez, are you alleging that the assistant did say that she bought the condoms for Ms. Johnson?"

"Yes, Your Honor. We are."

"You have a witness to that effect?" Yes, we do."

Sitting beside Johnson, Heller rubbed the bottom of his lip with one finger. Johnson showed no reaction at all. She didn’t even blink. She just continued to gaze calmly at Fernandez, waiting for the next question.

"Ms. Johnson, did you instruct your assistant to lock the door to your office when Mr. Sanders was with you?" "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 confirm 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."