“That’s correct. He had three or four scotches and a glass of wine. Maybe two.”

Ella has prepared Gabriel well. I couldn’t have crafted the answer any better. Admit the point so as not to seem argumentative, and then reduce the ambiguity. Of course, in doing so, Gabriel has acknowledged that Richard did consume quite a bit of alcohol, which is what we needed to establish. Drunks sometimes kill people.

“So he consumed somewhere between four and seven drinks, more than half of them hard alcohol, during your, what . . . hour or so dinner?”

“Dinner was longer than an hour, but your math is correct about the amount of alcohol.”

“Thank you for your clarification. Second, when Ms. Broden was questioning you, I believe you said that you sensed marital discord during that dinner.”

“No, I didn’t say that.”

“But you did think that Richard Trofino and his wife had been fighting, correct?”

“I didn’t know if they had or they hadn’t.”

“Is that right? Did you think that theirs was the kind of marriage where the wife rolls her eyes at her husband as a matter of course in the company of someone she’d never met before socially?”

“Sometimes an eye roll is just that. I didn’t come to any conclusions regarding the state of their marriage based on it.”

“Fair enough, Lieutenant. By the way, I assume that you met with your girlfriend, the prosecutor, Ms. Broden, to prepare for your testimony. Am I correct in that assumption?”

“Yes.”

“And am I also correct that Ms. Broden told you to tell the truth.”

“Yes.”

“But, still, she practiced how to present the truth with you a little bit, right?”

I half expect Ella to object. She’s smart to hold her fire. This line of inquiry always sounds more sinister than it actually is. All lawyers prep their witnesses. Few suborn perjury, however. I’m certain that neither Ella nor Gabriel got even close to that line, but LeMarcus’s questioning puts that possibility front and center to the jury.

“We did discuss my testimony. And that included her asking me the kinds of questions that she planned to ask me on direct, and also the types of questions I could expect you to ask during cross-examination. But she didn’t suggest any answers. Those are all mine.”

“But you did share with her the answers you planned to give ahead of time, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

LeMarcus lets this sink in for the jury, but does so in the guise of not being sure what question to ask next. He walks back to the defense table, picks up a piece of paper, and then returns to the podium without once looking at me.

“You found the murder weapon, did you not?”

“We did.”

“And where was it? Near Ms. Goodwin’s home?

“No. In a sewer on Park and Seventy-Sixth Street.”

“Where does Mr. Trofino live?”

“Park and Seventy-Fourth Street.”