Small Sacrifices (53 page)

"What music was playing?"

"ThetapeofDuranDuran."

(Diane is staring intensely at Christie. Her face contorts--as if she is trying to convey something to her daughter.)

"Were you all laughing or talking?"

"Not talking or laughing."

"Just listening to the music?"

. "Maybe we were talking sometimes."

"Do you remember if on the way out there, you got lost at all?"

"Nope." ^.,

"Do you remember seeing in the hospital some things on the television about your mother and you and Danny and Cheryl?"

"Yeah."

"What do you remember?"

(No response.)

"Do you remember if you saw any TV programs about it?" (No response.)

"Do you feel like you know what the answer is to my question but you just can't say it, or maybe you don't know if you saw TV

or not?"

(No response.)

"Are you feeling a little tired?"

"No."

"I wouldn't mind if we had even a break at this time. I'll be asking a series of more questions, taking more time," Jagger offers to Judge Foote. "This might be an appropriate place to break. Fresh in the morning might be better."

This was what Hugi had feared. Christie had dreaded the witness stand. He didn't want her to have to go through another night of anxiety. Foote agrees. He orders only a ten-minute recess. Jagger is going on too long with the child. He asks the same questions several times—obviously trying to show that Christie. has confused the trip to the beach with the trip to Heather Plourd's. He hints that Christie has been coached until she is brainwashed by Susan Staffel, Paula Krogdahl, and Fred Hugi. But it isn't working.

Christie knows what she knows.

It is 5:05 in the afternoon. Jaggers begins again.

VERBATIM:

"Do you remember some time ago you being told by anyone—

erase that—Do you know what a suspect—do you know what the word 'suspect' means?"

"No."

"That's the reason I want to stop for a second. Do you remember ever being told by someone that some people thought your mother was the one who shot Danny and Cheryl and you?

Do you ever remember that?"

( t-lkT ; j

No.

"Do you remember Susan Staffel ever saying that to you?" 368 ANN RULE

"No."

"Or Paula Krogdahl?'

"No."

"Or your mother?"

"No."

"Do you remember some time after you got out of the hospital and before now, do you remember ever wondering if your

mother had done the shooting--kind of wondering 'Maybe she did--or maybe she didn't, I wonder?' "

"Yeah."

"Isn't the reason that you were wondering that--because you heard from someplace that some people thought she had?"

"I didn't hear."

"I couldn't hear you."

"I didn't hear."

"OK. You never remember ever thinking that--something like this--that my mother must have done it because of what other people are saying? Do you remember ever saying anything like that?"

"Nope."

"Do you remember when Paula Krogdahl would talk to you, if she ever brought you any nice presents or anything to play with?"

"No." ' ..'

"What is your name at school?"

"Christie Ann Slaven."

"It's not Downs?"

"Nope."

"How long has that been?"

(No response.)

"Do you think it's been as long as you've been in school-erase that. Has it been as long as--that you've been living with the Slavens?"

"Yeah."

"The Slavens have a nice house, don't they?"

"Yeah."

"They have a TV?"

"Yeah."

t, "And some things to play with?"

"Yeah."

"And there are some children there your age?"

"Yeah."

"You've talked to the children there about what happened when you were shot, haven't you?"

"Yeah."

"And they—your friends have talked back to you about it, haven't they?"

"Yeah."

"Danny has talked about it too, hasn't he?" .

"Yeah."

"Danny has said that his mother did it, hasn't he?"

"Yeah."

"But you know that couldn't be true because Danny was asleep, right?"

"Yeah."

"In fact, you told him that, didn't you—when he said that?"

"Whenever he's—I talked to other people about that, he listens too."

"Have you talked to a lot of people about that?"

"No."

"Do you remember Danny saying that a monster with long ears did it?"

"No." i.

"Do you remember if Danny has said that anyone else did the shooting?"

"No."

". . . Do you remember your mom—before you got shot, some days before—looking for a larger house to live in?"

"Yeah—but not a couple days."

"Do you remember if Cheryl—when the shots were being fired—did Cheryl ever get out of the car?"

"No."

"Do you remember if the person who shot Cheryl and Danny and you, if that person got in through the driver's—the side where the steering wheel is—or the other side?"

| "The driver's seat."

"And which side were you sitting on—the driver's seat or the other seat?"

"Behind the driver's seat."

"You remember seeing your mom through the back window of the car, don't you?"

"I didn't look at the back of the window."

"Do you remember seeing—the back window of the car—do you know what I mean by 'the back window'?"

370 ANN RULE

"Yeah."

"One you'd look at as you drive straight ahead, and the other one is the back window. Do you remember before the shooting took place—do you remember seeing your mother through that back window?"

"No."

"Isn't that because you were lying down?"

"No."

"Were you sitting up or standing up?"

"I was sitting down, but I didn't look at the back window." (Jagger asks the bailiff to show her pictures of guns—pictures Christie has seen before in Dr. Peterson's office. They look to her like guns Diane had.)

"You've seen her with those two before?"

(Witness nods head.)

"See, there's a long one and a shorter one, right?"

"Yeah."

"Do you remember seeing the shorter one in the trunk of your car when you were going to the beach or coming back from the beach?"

(No response.)

"We'll make it two questions. OK? The first one is this: Do you remember before you went to the beach if you saw that short gun in the trunk of the car?"

"Yeah."

"Was that while you were getting some clothes and things in the trunk of the car?"

(No response.)

"Is it hard to remember back then?"

"It was in the trunk of the car."

"Do you remember seeing it there when you got back from the beach?"

"Yeah."

"... There was just one in the trunk of the car that size, wasn't there—the smaller one?"

"Yeah."

"Do you remember talking to Dr. Peterson about whether or not you could be safe with your mom?"

^ (No response.)

"Is it that you don't remember talking about being safe with Dr. Peterson?"

"With my mom? I was safe with my mom?"

"Yes.'

(No response.)

"I'll ask you again later, or were you going to--" (Witness shakes head. Jim Jagger's questions are impossible to follow, and Christie is tired.)

"... Did you go ahead and draw a picture of who shot Danny and Cheryl and you?"

"I was trying to draw."

"And do you remember if you actually did draw it or not?"

"I was not finished."

(The bailiff starts to hand Exhibit G--her unfinished drawing of the "Killer"--to Christie.)

"I'll ask you--before you do it--when I--when I have a picture shown to you, I'll ask you if that's the picture you drew of who hurt you. OK?"

(Witness nods head.)

"That's the one that you drew of who hurt you, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"... and that was the--even though maybe it wasn't finished, it was the best job you could do on drawing that, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"... Do you remember anything on the drive to the hospital?"

"No."

"Things happened very fast, didn't they?"

"Yeah."

"Has anybody ever told you that your mom saw a person there who shot Danny and Cheryl and you?"

"No."

"Has anybody ever told you that somebody out there within--a little while before this happened--saw someone who looked like the person your mom said did the bad things to you? Has anybody ever told you that?"

"No."

"When Mr. Hugi asked you if the person who hurt you was kneeling and leaning across, I think he motioned across the seat to the shelf, and that's what you remember?"

"Yeah."

"Now the car seat in the front seat of the car--is that a seat that goes all the way across from one side of the car to the other, or is there a hole in the middle?"

"It was a hole in the middle."

372 ANN RULE

"Was the person—" (Jim Jagger seems suddenly to realize that he has alienated the jury.) ". . . are you getting tired?"

"Yeah."

"Do you still wonder sometimes if your mother did it or not?"

"No."

"Have you thought about it so much now you think she did?"

"Yeah."

"It would be nice to know—it would be nice to know that she didn't, wouldn't it? That would make you feel better if she didn't do it, huh?"

(Witness nods head.)

"Do you know what made you change from wondering to then thinking she did? Do you really know?"

(No response.)

"Has talking to Dr. Peterson helped you? Is that what you think?"

(No response.)

"You don't really know what has made you change from wondering to now thinking that's what happened. Right? Is that right?"

"Yeah."

"Have you had dreams about this?"

"No."

"You don't remember—strike that—another erase, OK? I don't have any more questions for you."

Christie is limp with exhaustion.

Fred Hugi approaches Christie on re-direct. He wants to let her go with no more questions. But he cannot. She has been on the •

stand for such a long time, and it's almost 6:00 p.m. I

VERBATIM:

"Do you know who shot Cheryl?" (He asks gently.)

"Yeah."

"Who was that?"

"My mom."

"How do you know that?"

»• "I watched." ;tf

B"Were there any strangers there, anybody that you didn't know?"

"No."

"How about with Danny--was there any stranger there when Danny was shot?"

"No."

"Who shot him?"

"My mom."

"How about you--when you got shot--were there any strangers there?"

"No."

"Who shot you?"

"My mom."

"Do you know that because you saw her do it?"

"Yeah."

"Was she close to you when that happened?"

"Not close."

"In the same car--was she in the same car or standing outside?"

(No response.)

"Do you remember when the shooting happened, do you remember when Cheryl got shot?"

"Yeah."

"Was your mom inside the car then?"

(No response.)

"Was part of her outside the car and part inside the car?" (No response.)

"Are you pretty tired now?"

(No response.)

"I don't have any other questions."

Nor does Jim Jagger. Judge Foote leans over and says, "Thank you, Christie, you can go now."

Hugi watches Christie step down.

She has done it. By God, she has done it.

"Hey, those people took cuts--hey! Get those people--they're shoving and pushing."

"How unfair. That little boy could sit on your lap and we could get one more in there."

After Christie's testimony, the crowds are even bigger. The State has leapt far ahead, and the followers in Diane's camp are fewer. The bailiff opens the door at ten on May 16 and a hundred people surge in and somehow squeeze into eighty seats.

Dr. Carl Peterson is the first witness of the day.

"I never really doubted that she had a memory." Peterson explains that when Christie heard the tape of "Hungry Like the Wolf," memories flooded back. But she was afraid to tell him what they were.

"I told Christie that it was OK to feel happiness, sadness, anger, fear."

Christie had drawn a number of pictures--of Cheryl and

Danny, of their car, of the pistol and the rifle. She had drawn the Plourd trailer. And she had drawn a picture of the shooter. Drawn March 4, 1984, it is not a picture of a male. It is a female with short hair and bangs, whose eyes have pupils afloat in white, whose mouth is turned down angrily. The gun is an excellent rendering of a .22 Ruger. The shooter holds the gun in her left hand--not her right, as Diane would have, but then Christie herself is left-handed. It is not a major discrepancy. The picture is incomplete; it shows the figure from the waist up only--the part of the body Christie would have seen from her position in the back seat.

Peterson recalls some of the things Christie said--testing the waters. "If my mom shot me, Cheryl, and Danny, I'd want to go

back with her--'cause she was probably really, really angry and it wouldn' t happen again."

Jagger accuses Peterson of planting a conditioned response in Christie's mind to implicate Diane.

No. Christie tested him, Peterson explains, to see if it was safe for her to remember. "She said, 'Now my mom can't be with her boyfriend because he thinks she done it--It almost seems like she done it.' "

Dr. Peterson hadn't commented. But on December 19, he'd

asked her once again if she wanted to write the name of the person who had shot them on the slips of paper and put them in the envelopes.

Yes.

And this time, she had not burned the envelopes; she had told him he could save them--if he promised not to open them until she said so.

After a counseling session on January 16, Carl Peterson asked Christie if she feared she might be shot again. Christie thought about it for a long time. "Maybe--if I lived with her again--but maybe she wouldn't."