‘Mrs. Stride, while you were driving Dr. Snow home from the party on January 28, did you stop the car at any point?’

‘Yes. Janine wasn’t feeling well. I stopped, and she got out and threw up.’

‘So she was a mess?’ Gale asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Mrs. Stride, if you threw up on the side of the road, what would you do when you got home?’

Cindy smiled. ‘I’d take a shower.’

‘And what would you do with your clothes?’

‘I’d put them in the washing machine.’

‘Thank you. Now when you arrived at Dr. Snow’s residence and you saw Jay Ferris, did he have a gun?’

‘No.’

‘He wasn’t waving one in the air?’

Another smile. She saw the jurors smiling, too. ‘No.’

‘What about Dr. Snow? Did she have a gun at the party?’

‘No, not that I saw. I mean, she had a purse, but it was tiny. It would have been noticeable if something as big as a gun were inside.’

‘Okay. And you say you left Dr. Snow’s house at approximately 9:45 p.m., is that about right?’

‘Yes, that would be about right. A couple minutes on either side of that.’

‘You have no idea what happened at the house after you left, do you?’

‘No.’

‘If a car drove up to the house thirty seconds after you turned onto Skyline Parkway, you would have no way of knowing that, is that right?’

‘That’s true.’

‘Thank you. Mrs. Stride, did Dr. Snow ever threaten her husband in your presence?’

‘No.’

‘Did she ever tell you that she wished she could kill him? Or that she wished he was dead?’

‘No, nothing like that.’

‘Did she ever seem desperate to you about her marital situation?’

‘Janine? Desperate? No.’

‘Thank you, Mrs. Stride,’ Gale said. He began to sit down, but then he stopped. ‘Oh, I’m very sorry, could you tell the jury – did you have a frightening experience at Miller Hill Mall this spring?’

Dan stood up immediately. ‘Objection, your honor. This line of questioning is outside the scope of direct examination, and it’s not relevant to the case.’

Judge Edblad waited. ‘Mr. Gale?’

‘Your honor, the incident I’m asking about arose because of the witness’s relationship with Lieutenant Stride of the Duluth Police – a relationship that Mr. Erickson inquired about under direct examination. In addition, the incident arose because of Lieutenant Stride’s investigation into this specific case, which certainly makes it relevant.’

‘I’m overruling the objection,’ the judge replied.

Gale continued to Cindy: ‘You can answer the question.’

‘I – yes, I did,’ Cindy said.

‘Please tell us what happened.’

‘I followed a man at the mall, and he confronted and threatened me. He had a gun.’

‘What was the nature of his threat?’

‘He said I shouldn’t stick my nose into his business. He said bad things happened to people who did that. And then he showed me a gun.’