"Do you want me to give the opening statement?" "Certainly not,"

Hewitt replied, looking around the courtroom. He rose to his feet and bowed to the bench, then, ignoring the gallery, turned his full attention to the jury. "Good morning, gentlemen," he said pleasantly.

Two or three of them nodded in-response. "I trust Sir

Winston has not clouded your minds," he said with a chuckle. "The defense has quite a different view of his so-called evidence, as you might imagine, and as you will come to see during the course of this trial."

He indicated Allison with a warm smile. "Here we have a young woman who, with her much-loved husband, set off on the adventure of a lifetime, sailing across the Atlantic from America to Europe, just the two of them. This is not the act of two people who do not love each other--to be confined for weeks at a time at sea with only each other for company. This was a positive act, showing that these two people were happy together. You will hear from her own lips how they enjoyed their adventure and how, on the voyage back to the Americas, her husband suddenly fl ill and died, struck with an illness about which he had been warned by his doctors, but which he had taken none of the prescribed steps to prevent. You will hear how his death endangered the life of his young wife and how with courage and fortitude she managed to sail a large yacht alone across the sea, to make landfall on our island."

Sir Leslie cleared his throat and rearranged his robes. "Finally," he said, "when this trial has been concluded, you will see how this charge of murder is spurious and should never have been brought." He gestured toward Sir Winston. "You will wonder at the motives of the prosecution in bringing it. And you will have the opportunity to set things right, to return this dear young woman to freedom and her native country, to live out her life as best she can without the sorely missed companionship of her beloved husband." With a flourish he

to the bench, returned to the defense table, and down.

Not bad, Stone thought, for a periodically senile old who had recently been asleep in the courtroom.

V'while it may not have been all he had wished, Hewitt's opening was at least the equal of Sir Winston's, maybe a little better. He was relieved that Sir Winston not mentioned any witnesses or evidence in his opening stfitement that the defense didn't know about. The playing field was level, and that was as much as he

:ould wish for at this point.

The judge turned to the prosecution table. "Sir Winston, call your first witness."

Sir Winston rose and spoke. "Call Mr? Frank Stendahl," he said.

Stone sat up straight. "What the hell?" he-said aloud.

The judge looked at him sharply.

Stone tried to look ashamed of his outburst. He turned to look at the gallery as Stendahl left his seat and walked toward the witness box. He caught a glimpse of Hilary Kramer and Jim Forrester watching him, looking as puzzled as Stone was.

Stendahl stood in the witness box.

"Take the book," the bailiff said, offering a Bible and a card, "and read from the card."

Stendahl grasped the Bible and read, "I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give in this court will be the truth."

The bailiff relieved him of the Bible and the card.

Sir Winston turned to the witness box. "State your name, address, and occupation for the record," he said.

"Frank Stendahl, 1202 Old Brook Road, Lynn, Massachusetts, U.S.A. I am the chief claims investigator for the Boston Mutual insurance company."

"Oh, Christ," Stone whispered to himself, earning a rebuking glance from Sir Leslie. He hadn't seen this coming.

"Mr. Stendahl, did your company, Boston Mutual,

insure the life of Paul Manning?"

"Yes, we did."

"In what amount?"

"In the amount of twelve million dollars."

There was a stir in the jury box and raised eyebrows among the men who sat there.

"Is this, in your experience, a large sum of life insurance?"

"Indeed it is," Stendahl replied. "In fact, it is the largest policy my company has ever written on an indiv/dual life."

"And how old is your company? Was it recently formed?"

"Boston Mutual was founded in 1798."

"And in the nearly two hundred years since its founding, it has never written a policy as large as this?"

"Not on an individual life, when the individual was himself paying the premiums. We have had corporate policies that were larger, when a company was insuring the life of, say, its chief executive."

"What steps did your company take before insuring the life of a person for such a large sum?

"We did what we do for any large policy, that is, we investigate the background, the reputation, and the net worth of the applicant, and we have him examined by a

)ur choosing. I personally conducted the back-investigation of Mr.

Manning."

"And what did you learn about Paul Manning during your investigations?"

"I learned that Mr. Manning was an important with a large income; that he had an excellent credit record; and that he was known to be a person of good reputation in his community."

"And what did the medical evaluation of Mr. i Manning reveal about his health?"

"May I consult notes?"

"Yes."

Stendahl took a sheet of paper from his inside pocket and read from it.

"I quote from the report: "Paul Manning is a forty-year-old writer who is in excellent health and who does not have any history of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or any other serious illness. Neither is there any history of serious disease in either of his parents, both of whom died accidentally in their sixties, in an automobile accident."

"What was Mr. Manning's height and weight?"

He consulted his notes. "Six feet, two inches, two hundred and nineteen pounds."

"Did the examination include a test for serum blood cholesterol and triglycerides?"

"Yes, it did."

"What was the result?"

Stendahl checked his notes again. "His cholesterol count was one hundred ninety-nine, and his triglycerides were one hundred forty-seven."

"Did your company consider these to be within the normal range for a man of Mr. Manning's size?"

"Yes. We would expect the cholesterol count to be under two hundred and twenty, and the triglycerides to be under one hundred and fifty, in order to be insurable. Mr. Manning qualified on both counts." "Did your company's medical examiner think of Mr.