Hardy inclined his head. 'Thank you, your honor. Let me withdraw the question about how Mr Alsop learned of Elaine Wager's murder for the moment and ask another.' He went back to his table. Freeman was ready for him, and handed him what he wanted, the transcript of the Ridley Banks interrogation of Cullen Alsop. Hardy had it marked as an exhibit, then returned to his witness. 'Mr Feeney, at the time of your visit to Mr Alsop, had you read any part of Defense Exhibit A?'

'No.'

'And why was that?'

Feeney frowned. Hardy knew, of course, that the assistant DA hadn't even received the transcript before his own interview took place, but if Hardy could somehow make him feel as though he'd done something wrong, he might get defensive, and that would be to the good. 'Because Inspector Banks had only talked to Mr Alsop the night before. It hadn't even been typed yet.'

'So you hadn't gotten around to reading it?' Pratt objected, as Hardy knew she would. 'Asked and answered.' Hill sustained her.

But Feeney wore a cloud on his brow. He was paying close attention now, on his guard. The gallery was producing a low-level hum. 'Had you heard about Inspector Banks's interrogation at all?'

Feeney threw a glance over at Pratt, then came back to Hardy. 'Yes?' he answered.

'I'm asking you, Mr Feeney. You said yes, but it sounded like a question.'

'I'm sorry. Yes. I had heard about it.'

'But you didn't hear the tape itself?'

'No.'

'Or talk to Inspector Banks? Or read a transcript?'

Pratt slapped the table in anger. 'How many times are we going to hear this question, your honor?'

Hardy made an apologetic gesture to the judge. 'I want it to be clear, your honor, that Mr Feeney didn't know anything about the talk between Inspector Banks and Cullen Alsop, other than that it had occurred.'

'You've succeeded there, Mr Hardy. Move along.'

'Mr Feeney, didn't you testify that you hadn't spoken to Mr Alsop in connection with this case until your meeting with him on Tuesday, February ninth?'

'Yes.'

'And you were the first and only DA, to your knowledge, to have talked to him up to this time?'

'Yes.'

'And wasn't it also your testimony that, after talking with him, you left him to discuss his information with Mr Torrey?'

'Yes, that's true.'

'During your discussion with Mr Alsop on February ninth, did you offer him any deal in connection with the information he was providing?'

'No.'

'Did you suggest any deal might be in the works?'

'No.'

'No?' Hardy expressed surprise. He raised his voice over the background din. 'Mr Feeney, didn't you in fact offer him release on his own recognizance in exchange for his testimony about this gun in the Elaine Wager case?'

Now he'd riled Feeney up good and proper, as had been his intention. 'Absolutely not! I offered him nothing. We have procedures about this kind of thing and I followed them exactly. I took his information, that's all! Then we analyzed and discussed it upstairs and came to a decision. We didn't offer him any deal of any kind until the next day.'

'February tenth? The day he was released?'

'Absolutely.'

Hardy lifted the exhibit and handed it to the witness. 'Mr Feeney, would you be so kind as to read aloud the first few lines of this transcript after Inspector Banks's introduction.'

It didn't go very far. Feeney got to the words, 'I got a deal going here with the DA,' and Hardy stopped him cold. 'How do you explain that, Mr Feeney? On the night before you saw Cullen Alsop, he told Inspector Banks that he already had a deal with the DA?' A pause. 'What was that deal? Who did Mr Alsop have it with?'

The witness tried to figure it out, then gave it up. 'I can't explain it. He must have been mistaken, or bluffing.'

Hardy knew he'd be rebuked for it, but he had to get it on the boards. 'Or somebody else with the DA had already cut him a deal.'

Pratt exploded up again, and the gallery noise reached a level where Hill, for the first time, slapped his gavel and called for order. Sternly, he told Hardy that he should know better. He was to refrain from that type of editorial comment.

'I'm sorry, your honor,' he said. 'But this does lead back to the question I asked earlier. I'd like now to revisit that issue if the reporter would read back the question.'

After only a small hesitation, the judge so directed, and the reporter found the spot. 'Did Mr Alsop tell you how he had learned of Elaine Wager's murder?'

Hardy added, 'Or my client's arrest?'

Pratt's voice behind him was firm. 'Your honor, I still object. The question remains irrelevant.'

But something had sparked Hill's curiosity. 'Overruled,' he said simply, and directed the witness to answer.

Feeney, wrung out, shook his head. 'I have no idea. He didn't say.'

'Did you ask him?'

Another accusation of oversight. Feeney sighed at the burden of it. 'Mr Hardy, as you know, San Francisco has newspapers and the jail's got a grapevine. Somebody like Elaine Wager dies, it gets around.'

'Perhaps it does. But you didn't answer my question. Did you ask Cullen how he knew that Elaine Wager had been killed by Cole Burgess using his gun?'

'No.'

'Did you wonder how he could have put all that information together?'

Feeney shrugged. 'Maybe he read a newspaper, saw it on television, I don't know.'

'All right,' Hardy conceded. 'Maybe he did.' He walked back to the defense table and, stalling, took a drink of water. He needed a last connection, and didn't know where he was going to get it. The first rule of questioning witnesses is never ask a question for which you don't know the answer. But Hardy had Feeney on the ropes now, defensive and doubtful. He might let something slip. It might be a knife that would come back and stab Hardy, but he felt he had to take the risk. 'Mr Feeney, just a few more questions. You've told the court that you knew Cullen Alsop from previous arrests and prosecutions, isn't that true?'

'Yes it is. Three to be precise.'

'But you had never spoken to him personally, correct?'

'Yes, correct.'

'But you'd seen him in court before many times? Perhaps a dozen or more?'

Weary, wanting to get it over with, Feeney was bobbing his head with resignation. The gallery was a tomb behind Hardy. 'Yeah, sure, something like that.'

'And in those cases, before last Tuesday, did Mr Alsop ever appear with a co-defendant?'

The bobbing stopped. At the prosecution table, Torrey was leaning forward, his elbows on his knees, shoulders hunched, and he raised his head. 'In two or three of the narcotics offenses, he had a co-defendant,' Feeney answered.

'And who would that have been?'

Feeney didn't like it. The defendant, Cole Burgess.'

'So they were friends,' Hardy said, 'or at least knew each other well. Now, Mr Feeney, please try to remember. This is important. When you heard about the arrest of Cole Burgess, did you recall his friendship with Cullen Alsop?'

'Your honor, please. What is this about?'

Hill raised his glance and directed it behind Hardy. 'Is that an objection, Ms Pratt?'

'Yes, your honor. Relevance?'

'Overruled.'

But this time, Pratt wasn't going to let it go. 'Your honor, if it please the court…'

'Well, it doesn't, Ms Pratt. I've ruled on your objection. We're not under the same strictures as a formal trial here, and this is a capital case. I see an argument that Mr Hardy is trying to complete here, and I'm inclined to let him keep trying.'

Still, Pratt couldn't sit down. 'It's taking him a very long time, your honor.'

'Not as long as the appeals if I get it wrong, counselor. Now, please.' He turned to the court reporter again and had her read back the last question. When Feeney had heard about the arrest of Cole Burgess, did he have occasion to recall the name in connection with Cullen Alsop?