"What other comments did you hear him make about Dr. Taylor?"

The witness was reluctant to speak. "I really can't remember."

"Miss Berry, you're under oath."

"Well, once I heard him say ..." The rest of the sentence was a mumble.

"We can't hear you. Speak up, please. You heard him say what?"

"He said he ... he wouldn't let Dr. Taylor operate on his dog."

There was a collective gasp frorn the courtroom.

"But I'm sure he only meant ..."

"I think we can all assume that Dr. Barker meant what he said."

All eyes were fixed on Paige Taylor.

The prosecutor's case against Paige seemed overwhelming. Yet Alan Penn had the reputation of being a master magician in the courtroom. Now it was his turn to present the defendant's case. Could he pull another rabbit out of his hat?

Paige Taylor was on the witness stand, being questioned by Alan Penn. This was the moment everyone had been waiting for.

"John Cronin was a patient of yours, Dr. Taylor?"

"Yes, he was."

"And what were your feelings toward him?" "I liked him. He knew how ill he was, but he was very courageous. He had surgery for a cardiac tumor." "You performed the heart surgery?"

"Yes."

"And what did you find during the operation?" "When we opened up his chest, we found that he had melanoma that had metastasized."

"In other words, cancer that had spread throughout

his body."

"Yes. It had metastasized throughout the lymph glands."

"Meaning that there was no hope for him? No heroic measures that could bring him back to health?"

"None."

"John Cronin was put on life-support systems?"

"That's correct."

"Dr. Taylor, did you deliberately administer a fatal dose of insulin to end John Cronin's life?"

"I did."

There was a sudden buzz in the courtroom.

She's really a cool one, Gus Venable thought. She makes it sound as though she gave him a cup of tea.