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THREE HOURS AFTER MY EXCHANGE WITH UT’S TOP legal eagle, a hawkish young prosecutor-Constance Creed was her nalasses, and took a step toward the witness box where I sat “Isn’t it true, Dr Brockton, that there had been conflict between yourself and Dr Hamilton for quite some time?”

“I’m not sure I would characterize it as conflict,” I said

“Hoould you characterize it, then?”

“I disagreed with the conclusions of one of his autopsy reports,” I said She waited, see reements”

She closed the distance between us and leaned forward, her face no ht-backed chair and wished I could not slasses, the lenses round and a quarter inch thick at the edges; instead ofher eyes, the concave lenses reehted as she esture was purely for effect, and I wondered how blurrya face at her, to see if she’d even notice, but decided that the outcoet unpleasant if she did notice Creed’s eyes were an icy blue, and even without the distortion of the lenses her pupils were barely the size of buckshot “Wouldn’t it be more accurate, sir, to say you destroyed Dr Hamilton’s reputation as a medical examiner?”

“No, I don’t think-”

“Did you or did you not testify against Dr Hamilton in the case of Billy Ray Ledbetter?”

“No, I didn’t testify against Dr Hamilton”

“No? I have a copy of the hearing transcript, and it quotes you at length Was that another forensic anthropologist named Dr William Brockton?”

“No, that was e to ainst Dr Ha an experiment I tried to reproduce what Dr Hamilton had described as a stab wound that killed Billy Ray Ledbetter It wasn’t possible to reproduce it-a rigid knife blade couldn’t make the wound he described” As I spoke, I used one hand to des that Hamilton’s theory would have required “My testi hi my research results”

“Just ‘reporting your research results,’” she said sarcastically

“And were you also just ‘reporting your research results’ when you told the state board of medical examiners that Dr Hamilton’s conclusions ‘violated the laws of physics and y’? Would you call that objective, scientific reporting?”

“I probably wouldn’t use that phrase in a peer-reviewed journal article, but the fact remains-”

“The fact I’m interested in,” she interrupted, “is who initiated the contact between you and the board of medical examiners-the board or you?”

I felt myself redden “I think maybe I did”

“You think? Maybe? Do you consider it a trivial matter to call a physician’s co?”

“No, I-”

“I’ll ask you once more, then Who initiated the contact, the board or you?”

“I did”

“So you could ‘report your research results’ to theer to report their research results?”

So in me snapped then “Damn it,” I said, “Dr Hauy didn’t commit A murder no one committed, because it wasn’t a murder That-that-is not a trivialJess Carter”