‘Imagine Marcie Calder,’ Stella said. ‘She is frightened and alone, and her doctor has just told her that she’s pregnant. ‘Marcie begins crying, not knowing what to do. Dr. Nora Cox – who has known Marcie since she was four – urges Marcie to tell her parents. But Marcie is too stricken to answer. All she can do, over and over, is shake her head. ‘In desperation, Dr. Cox mentions the possibility of an abortion. For the first time, this girl – barely out of childhood herself – finds her voice. ‘“No,” she answers. “My baby is a life.”’ As if she were Marcie, Stella delivered the words with quiet certainty. Tony caught Saul Ravin’s eye: Saul’s faint smile was of appreciation for the prosecutor, reflecting Tony’s own admiration at the skillful way that Stella Marz had slipped into the present tense, giving the jurors the moment-by-moment immediacy of each fateful step toward death. The jury looked rapt. ‘That,’ Stella Marz went on, ‘is one thing Marcie Calder knows for certain.
