The judge looked down at Thaddeus. "Counsel, you may call your next witness."

"Plaintiff calls Andrea Mounce."

Her starched military fatigues swishing as she strode up the aisle, Andrea Mounce had a stern look on her face. She looked to Thaddeus like she was studied and serious. Studied in that she had reviewed the trial transcripts he had provided her when they were flying on his Gulfstream back from Germany. "Can't believe what I'm seeing here," she muttered at one moment over the Atlantic.

She took her seat and nodded at the jury. Smiles were returned; Americans love their service members.

"State your name for the record."

She pursed her lips thoughtfully, then launched into what she had come to say. "Andrea Mounce."

"Andrea, you're deployed by the National Guard to an air base in Germany, is that correct?"

"That is correct."

"And your rank in the military?"

"I am a major."

"What is your job with the military?"

"We fly American soldiers from the U.S. Hospital there in Germany to Walter Reed Hospital."

"So you help take care of American soldiers in transit?"

"I do. In a hospital aircraft."

"Now directing your attention to July fifth, last year, what was your occupation at that time?"

"I was a nursing supervisor, responsible for several different practice areas in Hudd Family Hospital Chicago."

"And as part of those duties did you participate on the delivery team for Mrs. Latoya Staples?"

"I did."

"While you were serving as a nurse, were you in the delivery room with Latoya?"

"Delivery room and I scrubbed in for the OR part of the delivery. I'm a certified OR nurse."

"I see. Now, as part of your role that evening, were you entering nursing notes into Latoya's chart?"

"I was."

"I'm going to hand you what's been marked at trial as Defendants' Exhibit 4. Can you tell me what that is?"

"It appears to be nursing notes and appears to be connected to Latoya's delivery."

"Have you ever seen those notes before?"

She pulled a small pair of readers from a chest pocket and pored over the exhibit. "Well, they have what appears to be my initials but none of this is my handwriting."

A.W leapt to his feet. "Objection, surprise!"

Judge Moody gave the old attorney a long stare. "Surprise, counsel? I've never heard of an objection to testimony by surprise."

A.W continued. "We had no idea until just now that they would be calling this witness."

The judge turned his attention to Thaddeus. "Counsel, is Major Mounce listed on your witness list submitted to the court?"

"She is, your honor. And I told Miss Bridgman yesterday morning that I would be calling Major Mounce today."

The judge focused on Morgana. "Miss Bridgman?"

"That's correct, Your Honor. We were warned she was coming to testify."

A.W whispered angrily to Morgana, "Warned? What the hell does that mean?"

"Objection overruled," said the judge. "You may continue, Major Mounce."

Thaddeus picked up where he'd left off. "We were discussing the notes that the hospital and doctor provided me before during the discovery phase of this case. These notes they gave me are not in your own handwriting? Even where your initials are placed alongside each entry?"

She again reviewed the exhibit. After a minute or more she looked up and shrugged. "This is not my handwriting. I don't know what else to say."

"Even where it says the page for C-section was made at six thirty-five p.m.?"

"Not my handwriting."

"And even where it says Dr. Payne arrived at six fifty-three p.m.?"

"Not my handwriting."

"Do you have the original nurses' notes?"

"I do."

"Objection!" cried A.W. "The originals are already in evidence!"

"No," said Andrea, "those are not the originals."

"Let me rule, Major," said the judge. "The witness can testify to what she knows. Please proceed, Mister Murfee."

"Please give me the original nurses' notes," Thaddeus said to the Major. She arose and walked back to where she had left her overnight bag. Everyone watched as she unzipped the top of the red nylon bag and removed a sheaf of papers. She retook the witness stand. She handed the papers to Thaddeus. He reviewed them for a moment and then addressed the court.

"Let me ask the court reporter to mark an exhibit."

The court reporter marked the sheaf of papers from Thaddeus.

"Now let me show you what's been marked Plaintiffs' Exhibit 21. Can you look these over?"

"OK, I've paged through them."

"Can you tell us what these are?"

"These are nurses' notes. In my handwriting. Some of the entries are in another nurse's handwriting, as well. But I know her and know that's all her own, too."

"Where did you get these?"

"Some man in the hallway handed them to me as I got off the elevator."

"Did he say who he was?"

She nodded. "He said he was from the hospital."

"And what is what's been marked as Exhibit 21?"

"These are my nurse's notes from the Latoya Staples delivery of her baby by C-section."

"And according to these notes, what time did you page for a C-section?"

She reviewed the exhibit, drawing a line with her finger as she read. "Let's see. I made the page for a C-section qualified OB at six thirty-five p.m., eighteen thirty-five hours."

"Did anyone answer that call?"

"Well, Gerry Springer, M.D., came to help."

"Who is Dr. Springer?"

"He was a first-year OB resident. He had only been in the rotation for three months and had never performed a C-section. He wasn't qualified."

"What did he do?"

"He told me to page Dr. Payne."

"And you did that at what time?"

"I paged Dr. Payne at six thirty-five p.m."

"What time did Dr. Payne arrive?"

"Let's see." Again reviewing the notes. "Forty-five minutes later we had the baby out. He got there at seven fourteen. Thirty-nine minutes after the page. The baby is delivered at seven nineteen. My notes, my handwriting."

"Which means Chase would have gone about fifteen minutes longer than any baby can without suffering damage from lack of oxygen?"

"That's correct."

A.W again pushed himself upright and complained to the judge. "Objection, Your Honor. She has not been qualified as an expert and does not have the knowledge or training to testify about anoxia in fetuses."

"Counsel, you're telling me that even though she's a certified OB nurse she can't testify about this baby's lack of oxygen for thirty-nine minutes?"

"Correct. That's what I'm saying."

"Overruled. Counsel, we're going to take a fifteen-minute break. My chambers, please."

The attorneys followed the judge through the doorway back behind and to the left of his lofty plateau.

Moments later they were all clumped around his desk. Judge Moody had unzipped his robe and loosened his necktie. He waved the attorneys into the ring of chairs scattered around his desk.

He took a swig out of a cold Starbucks on his desk, and said, "Someone owes me an explanation."

The attorneys looked at each other. Then they stared at the floor, all except Thaddeus, who maintained eye contact with Judge Moody.

The judge was impatient. "Well? Who wants to go first?"

A.W went first. "Your Honor, I think we're putting the cart before the horse here. We were just preparing to make a settlement offer to the plaintiff and her attorney."

Thaddeus shot back, "Rejected. We don't wish to settle, Judge."

A.W looked him in the eye and shook his head. "But you haven't even heard how much. You can't reject without knowing."

"How much?"

"Fifteen million. Take it or leave it."

"I've already spoken to my client. She's told me to reject anything less than fifty million."

A.W all but shrieked, "That's preposterous! She can't just reject fifteen million!"

The judge lifted a hand. "Apparently she can, and she did, Mr. Marentz. Now let's get down to the real deal. Months ago you came into court and told me all records had been turned over to Mister Murfee. Do you recall that?"

A.W looked at Morgana, indicating she should speak. "I do."

"I'll ask you again, were all records turned over?"

A.W chimed in. "I can answer that. We've discovered a second set of nurses' notes. We're trying to sort out which ones are real."

Thaddeus smiled a wide smile. "Give me five more minutes with my witness after the break. She's prepared to sort that out for you. She's going to save you a lot of stumbling around in the dark, Mr. Marentz. Stumbling around in the dark like you've had me doing this past six months. Yes, we're going to tell the jury about real records and phony records. Judge, can we return to the courtroom now and let me finish with my witness?"

"We can. Counsel-" He looked directly at A.W. Marentz. "We're not finished here. We will get to the bottom of record turnover before we're finished here today."

They returned to the courtroom, whereupon Thaddeus remained standing and addressed Judge Moody.

"Judge, I would like to call another witness at this moment, a witness about the nurses' notes. Then I would like to recall Major Mounce after that."

"No objection," said Morgana. She and A.W gave each other a quick look of relief to see the trial going sideways, even for a minute.

"Very well," said the Judge, "call your next witness."

Thaddeus spoke loud and clear. "Plaintiff calls A.W. Marentz to the stand."