Glenn. Can you hear me?"
Amazingly, the woman's chin moved slowly downward and then back.
"Is your name Rose Glenn?"
The woman nodded again.
"Is Ronald Reagan president of the United States?"
Rose Glenn turned her head from side to side—no.
"Rose, do you know who did this to you and your husband?"
The woman's breathing became more ragged, but she tilted her chin down and then up, nodding.
"Was your attacker a stranger?" Chi asked her.
Rose Glenn shook her head no.
"Was your attacker a family member?"
She nodded yes.
Suddenly, police radios crackled and a gurney rolled noisily into the room, blocking the camera's view. Then the scene cleared once more.
A paramedic, her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, said in a raspy smoker's voice, "Holy Mother of God. She's
alive.
"
The paramedic, who had testified before this jury, was Lynn Colomello. On screen, she hurried to Anthony Glenn and felt for his pulse. Chi asked the dying woman, "Rose, was it your son? Did your son, Rudy, do this?"
Rose Glenn shook her head in agonizing slow motion—no.
The sound of footsteps overrode the questioning as Colomello was joined by two other paramedics. They talked about emergency treatment, brought out an oxygen tank, and inserted a cannula into Rose Glenn's nostrils.
Paul Chi's voice continued, saying calmly to the paramedics, "I just need another second." Then he spoke to the victim. "Rose. Rose. Was your attacker your daughter, Stacey?"
The woman's head nodded affirmatively.
"Rose, are you saying that your daughter, Stacey, did this to you?"
The woman hissed, "Yesssssss."
It was a terrible sound, the air escaping her lungs, as if the woman was using her last breath to tell Chi who'd killed her.
And then, on Colomello's count, the paramedics lifted Rose Glenn onto the gurney—and the interview was over.
Inside the courtroom, the screen went dark and the lights came on. The jurors had seen the video before, but since this tape was Yuki's pièce de résistance, she could only hope that the blunt shock of seeing it again would reinforce its power.
Yuki cleared her throat, said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Rose Glenn was asked many different questions that morning and was able to shake her head yes and no, and was even able to speak. When asked if her daughter had attacked her,
she said yes.
"At no time during this trial did Rose Glenn deny what she said to Inspector Chi. She simply can't remember.
"And why can't she remember? Because her daughter bashed her head in with a crowbar, causing trauma to the extent that her doctors had never seen anyone with such severe injuries survive.
"But Rose Glenn did survive—widowed, disfigured, and partially paralyzed for life.
"
The defendant did this to her,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
"The People ask you to find Stacey Glenn
guilty
on both counts: for the murder of her father, Anthony Glenn, and for the attempted murder of her mother, Rose. We ask you to make sure that Stacey Glenn pays for these crimes to the fullest extent of the law."
As Yuki took her seat, she felt a lot of things, all of them good: the warm glow of accomplishment, Nicky's hand patting her shoulder, and her mother's presence surrounding her like a full-body hug.
"Good job, Yuki-eh," her mother said. "You make sram dunk."
Chapter 15
P HILIP HOFFMAN had never lost his composure in this jury's presence. He'd been respectful to the defense witnesses and he'd never used a five-dollar word when a nickel word would do. He felt sure that the jury liked and trusted him, and he was counting on that good feeling rubbing off on his client.
"Folks," he said, towering over the lectern, making it seem like a toy in his shadow, "Stacey Glenn is a good girl who has never harmed a person in her life. She loves her parents, and when Rose Glenn came before you at great emotional and physical cost, she told you that Stacey hasn't got a bit of violence in her. That Stacey would never, ever attack her father or Rose
Elizabeth Amelia Barrington