Free The Last Judgment by Craig Parshall

reconstruct the information you then put in your formal report. Isn’t that the way it’s done?”
    The deputy paused for a moment and smiled.
    â€œYes. I do have a logbook. If that’s what you mean.”
    â€œAnd you made entries that day—the day of the incident where you encountered Gilead Amahn at the Islamic Center?”
    â€œI’m not sure.”
    â€œDo you have that logbook with you today?”
    â€œYes, I do.”
    â€œPlease pull it out, Deputy,” Will said.
    The deputy reached down into the small briefcase he had with him at the stand and retrieved a spiral-bound memo book. He flipped through the pages, glanced at a few of them for a moment, and then resumed his testimony.
    â€œI do have a few entries here, if that’s what you mean,” the deputy replied.
    Will asked that the deputy hand the memo book to him, and the officer reluctantly complied. As Will walked back to the counsel table, the Commonwealth attorney swept up to his position and stared over his shoulder, reading the pages as Will examined them.
    After a few moments, the other man shook his head a little, smiled, and resumed his position at the prosecution table.
    But Will continued staring at the memo book, absorbed in something that he was reading there.
    â€œAll right, Mr. Chambers, let’s get this show on the road,” Judge Hadfeld remarked.
    Unperturbed, Will smiled, nodded, and resumed his cross-examination.
    â€œDeputy, let’s take the first of Gilead’s statements—the statement ‘I knew they would react.’ ”
    Will was holding up the memo book in his right hand for emphasis.
    â€œWould you agree with me,” Will continued, “that, according to your notes in your memo book, you asked Gilead Amahn this question: ‘You knew the audience would react’? And when you asked Mr. Amahn that, he simply replied that he knew there was a chance that the audience might react to what he had to say. Right?”
    The deputy shrugged and said he couldn’t say for sure without reading his notes again. So Will handed the memo book back, open to the appropriate page, to the deputy. After a moment he replied.
    â€œI suppose that’s one way to interpret my notes…they’re a little sketchy…”
    â€œYou would agree that what I just said is the most reasonable interpretation of your notes? The most accurate interpretation of your notes?”
    â€œI suppose so.”
    â€œAnd as to the second statement by Gilead Amahn—the statement ‘I was not afraid of violence.’ That was a statement prompted by your question, as indicated in your memo book. You asked Gilead Amahn this: ‘When the riot broke out, were you afraid of the violence occurring around you?’ To which Mr. Amahn replied, ‘No, I was not afraid of the violence directed at me as I was being beaten and then chased out of the building.’ ”
    The deputy paused for a moment and then answered.
    â€œMr. Amahn told me he was not afraid of violence. That’s what he said, and that’s what I put in my report.”
    â€œPrompted by a question, put to Mr. Amahn by you, as to whether he was afraid of the violence that was directed at him after the riot had already broken out.”
    â€œAccording to my memo book…that’s correct.”
    â€œAnd your memo book contains your notes written at the time of the arrest, at the time of your encounter with Mr. Amahn, when the matters you’re testifying about today were the freshest in your memory, correct?”
    The deputy paused one last time before answering.
    â€œI’ve testified to what I recall happened that day. Not everything I observed or heard was recorded in my memo book.”
    â€œBut the fact is,” Will said, his voice rising now with a sense of finality, “that Gilead Amahn’s statement about not being afraid of violence was not in response to any questions