Chapter 22 #2
“I don’t know. I remember thinking I hope he doesn’t overstep. I hope he’s bringing them comfort and not expecting them to take care of him. But I did recall thinking it was weird.”
“Weird? Why weird?”
“Well, just … I knew Ellie wasn’t super close with Jamie in those last months. I knew she was actually trying to avoid his calls. I saw her do that. So it was another kind of eye roll for me. Like Jamie was glomming on to this poor family and I didn’t think Ellie would have liked it.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I have no further questions.”
“Your witness, Mr. Cutler,” the judge said.
Cutler stormed up to the lectern. “Ms. Wharton-Brent, you have no real idea how Ellie Luke felt about Jamie Simmons, do you?”
“I think I’ve answered that. I saw her annoyance when Jamie kept calling her. I saw her specifically not answer the calls.”
“You never went to the police about any concerns you had about Jamie Simmons when Ellie disappeared, did you?”
“No.”
“You were questioned for nearly two hours by Detective Ritter, isn’t that right?”
“I don’t recall the time, but if you have some record that it was two hours, I wouldn’t dispute that.”
“And at no point in your interview did you raise a single concern about Jamie Simmons? In fact, you didn’t even mention his name to Detective Ritter as being part of your school friend group, did you?”
“Because he wasn’t part of it at that point.”
“But again, you have no idea what Jamie’s relationship with Ellie Luke was, do you?”
“I think I explained what I knew based on what I saw. I don’t have another answer to give you, Mr. Cutler.”
“Did you and your friends talk about Ellie Luke after she disappeared?”
“What? Of course we did. We were all pretty shook up and worried about her. As the weeks went on and we knew the worst had probably happened … it devastated us. We leaned on each other for support as best we could.”
“Leaned on each other … but none of you said a word about Jamie Simmons, did you?”
“I don’t recall.”
“Nobody said … huh … we should talk to the police about Jamie Simmons, did you?”
“No.”
“You weren’t suspicious of him.”
“For having something to do with what happened to Ellie? At that time, no. It was more that I thought it was weird he was so involved with her family after the fact.”
“You don’t know anyone from Ellie’s family, do you?”
“Socially? No. I saw them at her funeral later. I knew who her parents were, but no, I didn’t know them.”
“So you’re up there spewing theories about Jamie’s involvement with them that have no basis in fact, isn’t that right?”
“Objection to the characterization,” I said.
“Sustained. Let’s be civil, Mr. Cutler.”
“Civil,” he said. “Certainly. I just want to make sure I have this right, Ms. Wharton-Brent. You, in fact, hadn’t spoken to Ellie Luke in over two weeks before she disappeared, isn’t that right?”
“I don’t remember.”
“But that’s what you told Detective Ritter in your interview twenty-two years ago. Do you remember that? Would it help if you reread your statement?”
He handed it to her. Bree looked it over.
“It says I said I hadn’t talked to Ellie on the phone in over two weeks.
That we hadn’t talked during spring break.
Ellie went missing right after spring break.
So yes. It makes sense that I would have said we hadn’t talked much in those two weeks prior to her going missing. ”
“Right. So you really don’t know what was going on in Ellie’s life in those two weeks.”
“That’s not true. I knew where she was working. She was my friend. We may not have talked every single day when school was on break.”
“Ms. Wharton-Brent, you were subjected to a background check when you got your nursing license and your job at U of M Hospital, weren’t you?”
I looked up. Bree’s eyes went wide.
“What? Yes.”
“You had to fill out extensive forms detailing your work, education, and personal history. Isn’t that right?”
“I’m sure I did,” she said.
“Do you recognize this document?” Cutler handed a copy to me, then one to Bree. It was a standard form from the Ohio Board of Nursing. It was dated twenty years ago.
“Sort of,” Bree said. “I filled it out when I applied for my nursing license.”
“I’d like to draw your attention to item seven. It asks whether you’ve ever been convicted of a crime. What did you write?”
“I said no,” she said.
“You said no,” Cutler repeated. “But you weren’t being truthful, were you?”
“Objection,” I said. “May we approach?”
Saul waved us forward.
“This is ridiculous,” I said. “How far do you want me to go down the list? There’s absolutely nothing relevant about this witness’s twenty-year-old nursing license application.”
“There is if she lied on it,” Cutler said. “Her credibility is an issue. I’m within my rights to explore it.”
“If she lied on the form,” Judge Saul said, “I agree this is some straw grasping, but it’s relevant to Mr. Cutler’s point. Let’s not turn this into something it doesn’t need to be, okay?”
Cutler nodded. “I’ll be brief.”
With a pit in my stomach, I walked back to my table.
“What did you write on the form, Ms. Wharton-Brent?” Cutler asked.
“I said I hadn’t been convicted of a crime because I haven’t.”
“You haven’t. You realize you’re under oath now?”
“Of course.”
“Isn’t it true that you were convicted of using and being in possession of a controlled substance twenty-seven years ago?”
Bree lost a little color. “That was … I was a minor. That was expunged.”
My blood heated.
“I asked you,” Cutler said, “and the OBN asked you if you’d been convicted of a crime. Twice under oath now, you’ve lied. You were convicted of being a minor in possession of alcohol as well as possession of a controlled substance, isn’t that right?”
“I was sixteen years old and got caught drinking and smoking pot at a party. I went to a diversion class like the judge told me. Two years later, when I turned eighteen, the thing was expunged.”
“But you were convicted and you lied about it to me. And you lied about it to the nursing board.”
“Objection,” I said. “This has been asked and answered at least twice now.”
“I agree,” Saul said. “Move on, Mr. Cutler.”
“Fine. Ms. Wharton-Brent, you didn’t suspect Jamie Simmons of any involvement in what happened to Ellie Luke twenty-two years ago, did you?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know. Exactly. But you never saw fit to bring up any of this to the police all those years ago because it was nothing. It’s a fabrication. An exaggeration that you’re only now bringing up because your sister-in-law wants you to.”
“Objection!” I shouted. “I don’t even know where to start. To the extent that Mr. Cutler is now accusing me of anything improper …”
“Cool it,” Judge Saul said. “Mr. Cutler? I’m warning you.”
“Why didn’t you bring Jamie Simmons’s name up to the police when Ellie went missing?” he asked.
“Because it never occurred to me that I should,” Bree said.
“Didn’t occur to you. And you didn’t bring it up seven months later when Ellie’s body was found either, did you?”
“No.”
“Because you didn’t think of it?”
“Yes. No. I don’t … I thought they had the guy. Everyone was saying it was some cousin of Ellie’s. That he’d threatened her for saying he stole from her parents. I just assumed that’s who did it. I didn’t know the police got it wrong.”
“Thank you,” Cutler said, smiling. “I have no further questions.”
I wanted to smack the guy. And to be fair, I wanted to throttle Bree. All Cutler had really succeeded in doing was upsetting Bree. But she’d said what I needed her to say. I just hoped the jury was smart enough to see past Cutler’s stunt.