Free As Time Goes By by Mary Higgins Clark

of the prosecutor. “My immediate thought was that Betsy must have delivered that blow.”
    Robert Maynard jumped up yelling. “Objection, Your Honor, highly improper and prejudicial.”
    â€œSustained,” Judge Roth immediately responded. “The answer is stricken. The jury will disregard it.”
    â€œI’ll rephrase. Describe your father’s behavior during his last six months.”
    â€œHis behavior had been increasingly difficult during that time. The night before he died Betsy’s words ‘I can’t take it anymore’ seemed to me to be an expression of despair.”
    â€œHow would you characterize your relationship with Betsy Grant since your father’s death?”
    â€œFor the first twenty-four hours, very close. We were consoling each other and making plans for the funeral.”
    â€œAt what point did that friendly relationship with Betsy Grant cease?”
    â€œWhen I learned that my father’s skull had been crushed by a blow and that the pestle was missing from the set by the side of the bed.”
    â€œWhen did you learn that your stepmother had been seeing another man?”
    â€œI only learned that after my father’s death.”
    â€œWhat was your reaction?”
    â€œShock. Outrage. Disappointment.”
    â€œIn the months leading up to your father’s death, what was Betsy Grant’s demeanor toward him?”
    â€œVery loving. Very compassionate. It had been suggested by his doctor that she should consider putting him in a residential facility.”
    â€œWhy did the doctor suggest that?”
    â€œHe felt that my father was in danger of having a serious accident.”
    â€œCan you give me an example?”
    â€œDad would wander upstairs to the top floor and lean over the railing. He would pull things out of the drawers in the bedroom.”
    â€œWhat was Betsy Grant’s reaction to the doctor’s suggestion?”
    â€œShe fenced off the entrance to the second floor and moved downstairs to sleep in the bedroom that had been used as a maid’s quarters by the previous owner. In other words, she tried to keep him under her control.”
    â€œObjection,” Maynard shouted.
    â€œYour Honor, I would like to ask Mr. Grant what he means by ‘keep him under control,’ ” Holmes responded.
    â€œI will allow him to explain,” the judge said quietly.
    â€œSir, would you please explain your answer.”
    â€œOf course. What I meant was that she was trying to protect him from being injured.”
    â€œWas it Mrs. Grant’s decision to keep your father at home even after receiving the advice from the doctor?”
    â€œYes, it was.”
    â€œDid she give any reasons for that decision?”
    â€œShe said that my father needed her. She said that there were times when he was lucid. At those times he begged her to stay with him. She also told me that someone with my father’s diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s disease usually would not be expected to live much longer than the seven years he had already endured.”
    â€œBut then, the night your father was administered the fatal blow that took his life, didn’t Betsy Grant wail, ‘I can’t take it anymore’?”
    â€œObjection. Leading question.” This time one of Maynard’s associates spoke up.
    â€œSustained,” the judge said once again.
    Elliot Holmes turned to look at the jurors. Delaney could see that he had made the point he wanted to make. “No further questions, Your Honor,” he said quietly.
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    â€œMr. Maynard,” Judge Roth said, “you may begin your cross-examination.”
    â€œThank you, Your Honor,” Maynard replied. “Mr. Grant, how old are you?”
    â€œI’m thirty-five.”
    â€œWhen you finished college, did you go to any type of graduate school or did you go straight to