The Pact

Chris’s trial begins. McAfee wins approval for Chris to appear unhandcuffed. Barrie Delaney presents the opening statement, suggesting Chris murdered Emily out of anger at her pregnancy. McAfee maintains Emily’s death was by suicide. He insists that Chris, too, intended to die by suicide out of love for Emily.

Detective Anne-Marie Marrone is the first witness for the prosecution. Barrie questions her about the gun. Marrone says Chris’s fingerprints were found there and on the bullets. Emily’s fingerprints were found only on the gun barrel, suggesting she did not touch the butt of the gun or the trigger. Gunshot residue was found on each teen’s clothing, but not on Emily’s hands. Marrone notes that the autopsy report shows the bullet “traveled through the victim’s head at a weird angle” (293). She notes, too, that Chris signed the interview with his left hand; she insists that whoever fired the gun at Emily would have been left-handed.

McAfee cross-examines Marrone. He points out that this is only her second murder trial. He argues that the presence of two bullets is consistent with a double suicide and that the presence of Chris’s fingerprints on the gun can mean that Chris held it at any time previously.