Kendrick turned to him then. His voice was very quiet. "Mr. Hanson, my mother died waiting for a court to do the right thing." A beat. "Don't talk to me about clean wins."
Hanson swallowed. He didn't say anything else; he walked away.
Behind him, Kendrick opened the briefcase, pulled out the index card, read it once, closed his eyes for a long moment, opened them, and put the card back.
Lunch ended.
When the courtroom reconvened, the gallery was fuller than before. The hallway was packed with bodies who couldn't get a seat. Somebody had propped open the door so the people standing in the corridor could hear.
Kendrick called Howard Pritchard to the stand. Hanson started to object, hesitated, and sat back down without finishing the sentence. Blackwood overruled the objection that hadn't been completed. She had no choice.
Howard Pritchard was a heavy-set man in his 50s, receding hairline, sweat already beginning at his temples before any question was asked. He sat down in the witness chair and adjusted the microphone with hands that were already a little shaky. He had performed 42 surveys for Belmont over the last six years. He'd never been cross-examined about a single one.
Kendrick started gentle. "Mr. Pritchard, how long have you been a licensed surveyor?"
"Twenty-eight years."
"And you did the survey in this case?"
"I did."
"Can you explain how you decided where to start measuring from?"
Pritchard relaxed. This was his sandbox. He explained the process: reference monuments, GPS coordinates, county benchmarks, standard stuff. He used technical language, spoke a little too long, and showed off. Kendrick let him. The longer he talked, the more committed he became to his version of the story.
When Pritchard finally stopped, Kendrick reached into the briefcase, pulled out two transparent sheets, and walked to the witness stand. He had to reach up to place them on the rail.
"Mr. Pritchard, these are two maps: the original boundary map for this parcel drawn in 2002, and your map drawn last year. They have different starting points, about 16 feet apart." He looked up at the witness. "Can you explain why?"