I See You by Patricia MacDonald

deliberate.
    ‘Very well. Let’s proceed. Mr Castor, will you call your first witness.’
    The D.A. called the first officer at the grisly scene at Troy Petty’s bungalow after the explosion. ‘Part of the front of the house and the roof blew off. The victim’s body was mangled and charred.’
    ‘How did the explosion occur?’
    ‘As far as we can tell, gas was escaping from the propane stove, and there were lit candles in the house. When the flame from the candles ignited the gas, it caused an explosion like a bomb going off.’
    The spectators in the courtroom murmured.
    ‘No one else was in the house at the time?’
    ‘We did not find any other victims,’ said the officer.
    Marjorie rose to question the witness. ‘Could someone have left the gas on accidentally so that it filled the room?’
    ‘Sure you could,’ said the officer. ‘The pilot light can go out. It could happen. But the only way you wouldn’t notice the smell was if you were not in the house at the time. Or unconscious. Otherwise you would have smelled it.’
    Next, D.A. Castor called the coroner, Dr James Evans, to the stand. He was an old man, a no-nonsense type with wire-rimmed glasses, and a well-tailored but ancient suit. The coroner took his oath, recited his credentials and proceeded to describe, in sickening, clinical detail, the corpse of Troy Petty which he had examined.
    ‘In your opinion,’ asked the D.A., ‘what was the cause of death?’
    ‘The deceased died of injuries sustained in an explosion.’
    ‘Were there any injuries on the body not related to the explosion?’ asked the D.A.
    ‘The victim had a head wound which he may have incurred before the explosion. He appeared to have been struck on the back of his head by a blunt object. He was, most likely, unconscious at the time of the explosion.’
    ‘Was there a weapon found in the house?’
    ‘Yes,’ said the coroner. ‘A brass desk lamp with a heavy base was found near the body. There was blood and tissue on the base, which belonged to the deceased.’
    Hannah’s shoulders hunched; she closed her eyes and shook her head slightly at the vivid image created by the plainspoken coroner. The testimony was damning. At the same time, it did not prove that Lisa had done anything. How could anyone think that Lisa could ever have hit a man as burly as Troy Petty with that much force? Adam gripped her chilly fingers with his own.
    Castor turned to the defense table. ‘Your witness.’
    Marjorie Fox arose and approached the witness in the box. ‘You referred to that lamp as a weapon and you said that Mr Petty was unconscious when the explosion occurred. Could he not have sustained that head wound, and been knocked unconscious by debris falling on him?’
    ‘Possible. But unlikely. The head injury was caused by a direct blow to the skull.’
    ‘Could the lamp have been pulled out of the socket by the force of the blast? Could it have flown up and whacked Mr Petty in the head?’
    ‘He could have been hit by debris, but a direct hit like that would be highly unlikely.’
    ‘But it’s not impossible that his head injury was incurred during the blast.’
    ‘Not likely. But not impossible,’ Evans conceded.
    ‘Dr Evans, what if Mr Petty had been outside, doing some nighttime fishing on his dock? What if he had walked back into the house at the moment of combustion?
    ‘He would have been blown back out the door,’ said the coroner.
    ‘And if he came in, smelled the gas, and approached the propane stove to turn it off? Would his body have remained in the house during the blast?’
    ‘It might have,’ the coroner conceded.
    ‘Did you do a toxicology test on Mr Petty’s remains?’ Marjorie asked.
    The coroner nodded. ‘I did.’
    Marjorie looked at him innocently. ‘Did you find any traces of alcohol in his system?’
    The coroner nodded. ‘Yes, I did find traces.’
    ‘Enough to determine if he was intoxicated?’
    ‘I determined that his blood alcohol was at