The prosecution continues its murder case against Karen Read for another week beginning on Monday, and with all of the Massachusetts State Police investigators and most of the state crime lab technicians yet to take the stand, the case could be just starting to heat up.

The already lengthy trial has slowed its pacing from four to five days of testimony per week to a mere one day of testimony last week. The week ahead will see three days of trial: Monday, Wednesday and Thursday — an abridged day that ends at noon.

The reason for the truncated scheduling is not known. A Norfolk District Attorney’s office spokesman said that scheduling has been determined between Judge Beverly Cannone and the attorneys in the case during private sidebar sessions during the trial, which are not public record.

Read, 44, of Mansfield, faces charges of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision causing the death of O’Keefe, a 16-year Boston Police officer when he died at age 46. Prosecutors say that she struck him with her SUV in the early hours of Jan. 23, 2022, following an argument and a night of heavy drinking and left him to die in a snowstorm.

While Tuesday was the only trial day of last week, prosecutor Adam Lally called seven new witnesses to the stand, making for the densest day of testimony so far in the case.

State crime lab technicians and doctors from Brockton’s Good Samaritan Medical Center testified to Read’s high blood alcohol level on the night of O’Keefe’s death and the injuries O’Keefe suffered, including failed efforts to bring his body up from 80.1 degree hypothermic state. O’Keefe was declared dead at 7:50 a.m.

The day began with the end of cross-examination of ATF Agent Brian Higgins who had been the only witness called on the previous trial day. Higgins is a central figure in the defense’s third-party killer theory. They named Higgins and two others in pretrial hearings as alternative O’Keefe killers who then worked together with local and state police to frame Read.

Higgins during his testimony read extensively from texts between himself and Read over nine-consecutive days in the lead-up to O’Keefe’s death. The texts revealed a burgeoning yet hidden romance between the pair that made its way into the physical world when Read planted a kiss on his lips outside O’Keefe’s house after a Patriots game watch party there.

The defense’s theory of the case has relied partially on evidence they say was uncovered during federal grand jury testimony in a separate federal probe of the Read murder investigation. The defense is barred from directly mentioning the federal investigation so attorneys have come up with euphemisms for it, including grand jury testimony in which “the state prosecutor was not present.”

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Any such probe is not public record, and the U.S. Attorney’s office has steadfastly refused to make any comment on the matter. Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy shot down the line of questioning during a reporter roundtable at his office on Wednesday.

“No matter how many times you ask it, I’m going to give you this answer: we don’t comment on whether or not we have open investigations. I know there’s been a lot of reporting, but we have a duty to abide by our guidelines,” Levy said. “I’m not going to comment on the Karen Read case. I certainly wouldn’t comment when there’s an active trial going on.”