Chapter 7 - THE CASSEROLE
Why the casserole?
That question bothered me.
Judith could have shoved me anywhere.
Why construct a reason to send me downstairs carrying something hot and heavy?
Police searched texts.
Found:
Judith to Graham, 4:12 p.m.
I’ll send Nora down with casserole after dinner. She always insists on helping when people are watching.
Graham:
Mom don’t be insane.
Judith:
You wanted her scared.
Graham:
Not hurt.
Judith:
Same difference with Nora.
Then:
Graham:
If she falls, we say she missed a step.
Judith:
Exactly.
There.
The central answer seemed already there.
But one question remained.
Was “if she falls” anticipation of a shove, or fear that Judith’s intimidation might cause one?
Graham could still argue he did not authorize physical contact.
Then recovered from Judith’s deleted notes app:
Sunday:
- cellar stairs
- casserole
- no railing side?
- scare her
- papers Monday
My skin crawled.
“No railing side?”
I had fallen toward the lower steps where railing was on opposite side.
Did she plan positioning?
It looked like it.
Still, notes are not full confession.
Then one more text.
Judith to Graham:
One shove won’t kill her.
Time:
5:48 p.m.
Dinner at six.
Graham replied six minutes later.
Don’t say things like that.
Not:
Do not shove her.
Don’t say things like that.
Prosecutors charged both.
Judith:
Aggravated assault? Depending injury level, perhaps assault and battery with dangerous conduct on stairs; felony assault due risk of serious injury.
Witness intimidation/coercion connected to financial document.
Graham:
Conspiracy to commit assault/coercion.
Attempted obstruction for planned false accident account.
False statement to lender? Under review.
No attempted murder.
Important.
“One shove won’t kill her” was ugly but did not establish intent to kill.
They expected me alive.
They needed me signing Monday.
That actually argued against murder.
Truth can make one charge smaller while making another motive clearer.
Then my own misdemeanor charge.
The prosecutor reviewing my slap offered diversion.
One count simple assault/battery.
No jail recommendation.
Conditions:
Anger-management course.
Community service.
No contact with Judith.
Dismissal after completion if no new offense.
I accepted.
Some friends were outraged.
“She pushed you down stairs!”
“Yes.”
“You slapped her!”
“Yes.”
“She deserved it.”
“Deserving is not a legal defense.”
I hated sounding like Naomi.
Still true.
The shove of Graham was not charged because video supported immediate effort to break his grasp and create distance; table damage accidental.
Separate actions.
Precision.
Then Judith’s family spread story:
Nora criminally charged too.
True-ish.
Diversion pending.
They used equivalence.
She pushed me down stairs.
I slapped her after.
Both unlawful force can exist without being morally identical.
I did not need to pretend otherwise.
Then Arthur attended one of my physical therapy sessions waiting room. He brought coffee.
I asked:
“Why did you finally speak?”
He looked at his hands.
“Because when Graham said tell them you slipped, I heard myself thirty years earlier.”
“What?”
Judith had once shoved their mother during an argument.
Not down stairs.
Their mother lied:
“I tripped.”
Arthur did nothing.
Was that relevant evidence?
Probably not.
Old uncharged family history.
I asked him not to turn it into mythology.
He nodded.
“I’m trying to stop making cowardice sound inherited.”
May you like
Good.
That was his own work.
