Catherine Takes the Stand

Chapter 334: Catherine Takes the Stand Catherine Voss reached the witness stand with both hands open, as if the court might otherwise think she was still carrying something stolen. Isabella had stepped down only moments before, but the warmth of the witness rail remained under Catherine's palm when she took the oath. Across the aisle, Hunt watched her with the calm patience he had once used to make other people's guilt useful. Diop did not let him settle into that silence. "Please state your name and your relationship to the events before this chamber," Diop said. Catherine swallowed once. The microphone caught it. "My name is Catherine Voss. I was Martha Thorne's sister. I was also a participant in Fourth Generation baby-theft operations between 1998 and 2003." A sound moved through the gallery, not loud enough to break order, but enough for the judges to look up. Isabella stood beside the prosecution table and felt Ethan shift half a step closer without touching her. Catherine kept her eyes on Diop because looking at Isabella would have made confession into apology, and apology was not evidence. "Participant in what acts?" Diop asked. "Hospital payments. Record alteration. Silence payments through Pemberton and Croft. The placement authorization that allowed Martha to present Isabella as a Thorne rescue adoption." Catherine's fingers tightened around the rail. "I helped make a murdered couple's infant disappear into a family story." Dubois rose before Diop could move to the first exhibit. "Your Honors, the defense objects to the witness's characterization. Ms. Voss is describing her own criminal exposure. That testimony may establish her motive to redirect blame." The presiding judge looked at Catherine for a long second. "The objection is noted. The chamber will weigh credibility. The witness may testify to her acts and the records that corroborate them." Diop touched the screen. A memorandum appeared with Pemberton's letterhead and a date in the corner: September 29, 2002. "Ms. Voss, do you recognize this document?" Catherine's mouth tightened. "Yes. Pemberton sent it to Martha after the Mount Sinai arrangements were confirmed." "Read the highlighted line." Catherine leaned toward the screen. "Authorize one hundred eighty-seven thousand five hundred dollars for birth, medical record destruction, and associated custodial adjustments." The number seemed to hit the room harder than the words before it. A price had a shape. It gave the theft weight. Diop asked, "Who approved the payment?" "Martha signed the Thorne-side instruction," Catherine said. "I confirmed the hospital contact and the records request. Pemberton processed the legal cover." "And above that?" Catherine finally looked toward Hunt. He did not blink. "James Hunt Senior's authorization structure made it possible. The money did not move because my sister wished it. It moved because Fourth Generation required an infant without a past and a hospital file that could not contradict the placement." Dubois stood again. "Speculation." "Sustained as to phrasing," the judge said. "Dr. Diop, connect the witness to the source of knowledge." Diop nodded. "Ms. Voss, how did you know the payment came under Hunt authorization?" "Because Pemberton's office used that phrase when they sent instructions," Catherine said. "Because Martha repeated it when she told me not to ask who had chosen the Voss child. Because the annual payments that followed were marked as protected Foundation activity, not family charity." Diop changed the exhibit. Foundation grant records spread across the screen, one line repeated for each year from 1998 to 2002. "What are these?" Catherine gripped the rail until her knuckles whitened. "Thorne Foundation approvals. Forty-five thousand dollars each year to the Voss Medical Research Foundation." "Why were those grants made?" "To keep me compliant. To keep the Voss side quiet. Pemberton and Croft presented them as support, but they were silence payments attached to Martha's custody narrative and to my cooperation." Isabella felt the words land in pieces. Not one betrayal. A yearly renewal. A calendar that had purchased silence while Elena's locket sat in a box and James Voss's name was kept out of his daughter's mouth. Diop let Catherine look at the records. "Did you understand, at the time, that those payments were connected to Isabella's false identity?" "Yes." "Say it plainly for the chamber." Catherine's face folded, but her voice held. "I accepted payments that helped bury Isabella Rose Voss under the name Isabella Thorne. I let the records lie because the lie protected Martha, protected me, and protected the people above us." Hunt turned one page on his pad. The dry scrape of paper was the only sound from the defense table. Diop brought up the next document: October 8, 2002, Pemberton memorandum regarding a safety-deposit box. "Do you recognize this?" "Yes," Catherine said. "Pemberton retrieved contents from James and Elena Voss's safety-deposit box before the crash. The memo instructed destruction of items that could let the Voss family claim the infant." The gallery reacted before the judge could stop it. A woman near the back whispered, "Before the crash," and began to cry. The gavel came down once. "Order," the judge said. "The witness will continue." Diop stepped closer. "Ms. Voss, what does that timing mean?" Catherine closed her eyes, opened them, and faced the judges. "It means the placement was not improvisation after an accident. It means the record path was being cleared before James and Elena died. It means the infant's future identity was being prepared while her parents were still alive." Dubois rose more slowly this time. "The defense objects. The witness is attempting to convert her own admission into proof of Mr. Hunt's intent." Hunt did not look at his lawyer. He looked at Catherine, and for the first time his stillness seemed less like control than calculation. Diop did not raise her voice. "Ms. Voss, did you personally authorize the murder of James and Elena Voss?" "No." "Did Martha Thorne personally fund the international coordinator network?" "No." "Did you personally create the encrypted directives used across Fourth Generation?" "No." "Then why are you naming James Hunt Senior?" Catherine turned fully toward the defense table. "Because my guilt is the part he wants this court to see. It is real. I will answer for it. But my guilt did not build thirty-one country hospital access, sixteen agency infiltration, media control, coordinator payments, or encrypted weekly directives. I was a willing piece inside a machine. He authorized the machine." For one sharp second, Isabella saw Hunt's jaw harden. That was the reward Diop had been waiting for. She clicked the screen back to the three exhibits, arranged side by side: September 29 payment memo, Foundation grants, October 8 destruction memo. "Your Honors, the prosecution submits that Ms. Voss's admissions corroborate execution of the Voss placement and connect the defense's so-called civil structure to funded acts of concealment." The presiding judge conferred with the other two judges, then made a note. "The exhibits are received for the limited purpose of execution, funding path, and witness corroboration. The defense may reserve cross-examination." Catherine let out a breath that sounded almost like pain. Isabella wanted to hate her cleanly. Instead she saw a woman who had finally stopped hiding behind the paid words of other people, and the sight did not soften the crime. It only made the crime visible. Diop closed Catherine's exhibit folder. "One final question. Ms. Voss, who next can speak to the Thorne Family Trust and shell-company funding path?" Catherine looked past Isabella to the second row, where Richard Thorne had risen before his name was called. His face was gray, but he held a trustee ledger against his chest like a sentence already written. "Richard Thorne," Catherine said. "He knows how the trust carried the money." The judge looked toward Richard. "The court will hear that testimony." Richard stepped into the aisle. Hunt's pen finally stopped moving.