'Before he got home, his wife took a dose of Benadryl because she suffered from allergies. She helped herself to a glass or two of champagne. Sheila Dooher was forty-seven years old and she was neither senile nor dim-witted. She could make her own decisions, and did, on matters of what she ate and drank. She had been taking the menopause drug, Nardil, for over a year. Many times, in front of many witnesses, she drank alcohol within this timeframe. Several witnesses will testify that Sheila Dooher was skeptical of her doctor's recommendations to avoid certain foods and alcohol. Tragically, it looks like Mrs Dooher was equally careless about mixing drugs.'

Farrell sipped again from his water glass, slowing himself down. Jenkins hadn't objected once; all eyes were glued to him. He was rolling.

'What happened next? The Doohers had a late lunch. Nothing more sinister than that. Sheila Dooher went up to her bedroom to take a nap. She was tired, and she took a sedative, her husband's chloral-hydrate.

'Ms Jenkins has told you that Mark Dooher gave her the chloral-hydrate. Rubbish, absolute rubbish. There is not one witness, not one shred of evidence that even suggests that this is the case. Ms Jenkins says it is so because she needs it to be so to convict Mark Dooher. She cannot prove it because it never happened.'

Jenkins now did get up, objecting that Farrell was being argumentative.

Farrell supposed he was, but knew Jenkins had made the objection, as much as anything, to throw off his rhythm. It wasn't going to work. She was sustained by Thomasino and Farrell moved out from the desk now and went on, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth so the jury could see what a good guy he was – magnanimous at this silly interruption.

It also gave him his third opportunity to repeat the sequence that had led to Sheila's death.

After which: 'And what were Mr Dooher's actions after his wife had gone upstairs? Well, he did not set the burglar alarm in his house. A prosecution witness, Mr Dooher's next-door neighbor Frances Matsun, will tell you he then reached up and appeared to be doing something with the light bulb over the side door. Mr Dooher does not remember this. Perhaps there was a cobweb on it – he doesn't know.'

'Next he drove to the San Francisco Golf Club. Now you'll remember that Ms Jenkins made rather a big issue of the fact that Mr Dooher belongs to the Olympic Club and on this night chose not to go to his own club's driving range, but rather to a public range. It is going to be for you to decide how big an issue this was. But I will tell you that Mr Dooher is a personable man…'

'Objection.'

'Sustained.'

'I'm sorry. Mr Dooher has many business contacts at his club, and he didn't want to have to be…' he paused, smiling now at the jury, including them in the humor '… personally interactive. He wanted to spend the time working on his golf swing without interruption.'

'The golf pro at the driving-range shop will testify that Mr Dooher bought two buckets of balls and sometime later returned with two empty buckets. He will also testify that Mr Dooher and he discussed golf clubs and corrections to his swing and exchanged other pleasantries – in short, that Mr Dooher's actions appeared completely normal.'

Farrell shrugged in tacit apology to the jury for the time this was taking. He was on their side and all must agree that this was clearly a waste of everyone's time.

'When he got home, Mr Dooher did the dishes and drank a beer, after which he went upstairs and discovered his wife's body. Horrified, he punched up nine one one. We will play the recording of this call for you and again, you can decide if the voice you hear is believable or not.'

'But we are not finished yet. After the police came to begin their investigation, Mr Dooher cooperated fully with Inspector Glitsky' – and here Farrell stopped and theatrically gestured across the courtroom – 'who is the gentleman sitting there at the prosecution table. He gave a full and voluntary statement and answered every question until Inspector Glitsky had no more to ask.'

Farrell deemed this a reasonable moment to pause. Going back to his table, he took another drink of water, glanced at Dooher and Christina, and turned back to the jury box.

'Now, as to some of the other allegations and alleged evidence the prosecution has put in front of you – the tainted blood sample, the knife with Mr Dooher's fingerprints on it, the surgical glove found at the scene, and so on – we are at a disadvantage. We can't explain everything. That's one of the problems with being innocent – you don't know what happened. You don't know what someone else did.'

'Your honor,' Jenkins said. 'Counsel is arguing again.'

Thomasino scowled, which Farrell took to be a good sign. He had been arguing, no doubt, but Thomasino had allowed himself to get caught up in it, and resented being reminded of his lapse.

Still, he sustained Jenkins's objection and told Farrell to stick to the evidence.

Farrell met some eyes in the panel. 'I'm going to say a few words now about motive. The prosecution has told you that Mr Dooher killed his wife to collect an insurance policy worth one point six million dollars. This is their stated motive – I urge you to remember it.'

Farrell went on to explain that the defense would disclose all financial records of Mr Dooher personally and those of his eminently solvent firm. He was nearly debt-free, his 40IK money, fully vested, amounted to over $800,000, savings accounts held another $100,000. He owned his home nearly outright and it had most recently been appraised for over a million dollars. In short, while one point six million dollars was not chump change, so long as Mr Dooher continued with his regular lifestyle and did not plan to take up cruising the Aegean in a fully crewed luxury yacht, he didn't need any more money.

Farrell spread his hands. 'Ladies and gentlemen, the prosecution cannot prove that Mark Dooher had a motive to kill his wife because he had no motive. The prosecution cannot prove he poisoned his wife because he did not. They will not prove he is guilty because he is innocent. It's as simple as that.'

'At the end of this trial, when you see that the prosecution has not proven these baseless accusations, I will ask for the verdict of not guilty to which my client is entitled.'

For lunch, Dooher – mending fences – took them all to Fringale, a tiny bistro a couple of blocks from the courtroom. They were at a table in the back corner and Wes, desultorily picking at a dish of white beans with duck, didn't seem to be responding positively to the gesture.

By contrast, Dooher was in a celebratory mood, enjoying a double order of foie gras with a half-bottle of Pinot Noir all for himself. Hell, he wasn't working – he was spectating.

Christina, oblivious to the attention she was receiving from the other patrons and their waiter (her water glass had been re-filled four times), had forgotten Sam's call and the kiss and was enthusing over Farrell's performance. 'You know, Wes, I believe you could make a living at this.'

'It was a great statement,' Dooher agreed. 'You put all that in your nine nine five.' This was a motion that Farrell had earlier filed under California Penal Code section 995 that there wasn't sufficient evidence to convict Dooher. 'I can't believe Thomasino let this turkey go on.'

Farrell kept his head bowed over his food, his shoulders slumped. Anyone seeing him would have trouble identifying him as the showman who'd worked such wonders in the court less than an hour before. 'It's a long way from over, Mark. You'll notice I did gloss over a few of what, from our perspective, are non-highlights.'

Christina put her fork down. 'What do you mean?'

'I mean the hole in the fence at the driving range, blood missing from Mark's doctor's office, Mark's fingerprints on the murder weapon…'