Carson walked back to his table with a half-cocked, self-satisfied smile.
The defense was led by Lawrence Elliot, a young man who had graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law a few years earlier and was rumored to be a card carrying ACLU member. Who else but an ACLU freak would want to free a killer? Crazy Eddie had been given a couple of public defenders, but had refused to cooperate with them. Then Lawrence stepped up out the blue and took the case pro bono. He declared to the media that “a travesty of justice was happening” and he was going “to salvage what I can and make sure that Eddie Copper gets the best representation possible.” In a baffling twist, he had demanded that the trial be held in Clover instead of Paola as originally scheduled.
People in Clover initially scoffed at the twenty-seven year old upstart trying to take on a seasoned prosecutor like Carson McKinney. But when Lawrence stood for his opening argument, some women in the audience leaned forward with rapt attentiveness they neglected to give Carson. Jeremy noticed Carrie’s longing look. Lawrence was tall and handsome. His trim body was accentuated in a tailor-cut suit. Where Carson came across as salt of the earth, Lawrence had a debonair confidence unknown to Clover. Even before he opened his mouth, Jeremy hated him.
Lawrence argued that Crazy Eddie was at home fast asleep, when he was awakened by a rowdy bunch of boys looking for him. “Yes, perhaps they came from good families, unlike Eddie’s own background, but at that moment in time, those boys were drunk and hell-bent on hurting young Eddie.
“Please keep in mind that although he is large, Eddie Cooper was only fifteen years old at the time of this incident. How was he supposed to know that, according to the prosecution, those young men, whose average age was twenty-two, weren’t intending to do any harm? Alcohol was found in all the deceased bodies. If you look at the criminal records of the deceased, all except one had been charged with either drunken driving or assault and battery, and in some cases both. Yes, the acts that Mr. Cooper did may seem heinous, but take a step back and consider that Eddie was scared for his life.” He let the last word linger.
“Imagine a gang of seven drunk and rowdy adults calling out your name on your property in the middle of night. You’re in a house full of women, and your father is passed out drunk. What would you do? Seriously, ladies and gentlemen, what would you do? You would do like any proper Kansan would do and defend yourself and your property. That’s for certain. And I ask you, what was the intent of those young men who drove onto the Cooper’s
private property
? Honestly, we do not know. We can only speculate, as the prosecution has done. Randall Cochran is the only witness who knows the original intent of his colleagues. He knows the reason why they decided to antagonize Mr. Eddie Cooper on his property and what they intended to do when they encountered him. Nothing that the prosecution says can be substantiated by any eye witnesses except for Mr. Cochran, who is currently in a coma, and the Cooper family, whose house those men descended upon in the middle of the night.”
Lawrence turned and sat down. Jeremy swallowed hard. Carrie gave him a nudge.
“Are you okay? You look as white as a ghost.”
“I think I need some air. It’s stuffy in here.”
As if the judge were listening, he banged the gavel and called for an early lunch break. He said it was “too hot and humid with all these bodies in here.”
15. UNAVOIDABLE
The springtime air, while fresh, didn’t clear Jeremy’s nausea. He sat on a park bench, trembling.
“You want me to get you some water or something?” Carrie asked.
“No, I think I just need to head on home…or to school.”
“You were close to Kevin, weren’t you? I’ve seen how the massacre has affected you. You haven’t been the same.” She put her hand on his knee.
“It’s not that. I mean, I knew him from church and did some roofing jobs with him, but… I remember the party before they went after Crazy Eddie.”
“You were there!”
“Shhh. Not so loud.” Jeremy looked around at people milling around.
“Did you tell anybody?”
“I don’t have anything to add. At least nothing that would help Kevin’s family or the others.”
“What did they want to do?”
Jeremy shrugged. “They wanted to kick Crazy Eddie’s ass. They really had it in for him. Especially Trevor.”
Carrie nodded. The ex-quarterback’s could’ve-would’ve-if-not-for-Crazy-Eddie excuses were well known. “I understand why you don’t want to talk to anybody, but…” she squeezed his knee and looked into his eyes. “You should see a counselor.”
Jeremy felt panicked. Did he tell Carrie too much? He couldn’t tell anybody the whole story. Not if he wanted to keep living in Clover.
“Carrie. Jeremy.”
Carrie yanked her hand off Jeremy’s knee. Zack walked up with Michelle following behind. Zack gave a sly smile while Michelle stared sourly at Carrie, as if telegraphing “he’s mine bitch” to Carrie.
“What are you guys up to?” Zack asked. He had his thumbs hooked into the back of his faded blue jeans, like he was trying to mimic Kevin’s swagger.
“Oh, we’re just…” Carrie began.
“I think I’m coming down with the flu,” Jeremy said, standing. “I’m going home.”
“You don’t look…” Carrie started, but then read Jeremy’s pleading eyes. “Sorry I dragged you here.”
“It’s okay. I just need to rest. I’ll get over it.”
“Later, man,” Zack said. “Thanks for keeping us safe.”
Jeremy stopped, frozen. “What?”
“From germs, dude.”
Jeremy nodded and walked to his truck.
*
Jeremy lay in his bed, knowing that he should try to avoid the trial as much as he could. Why did he have to be the one who knew where the Coopers lived? His brain spun into a piercing headache.
Jeremy stayed in bed the next few days with a minor fever. He didn’t go to the trial or to school and didn’t want to hear anything about them. He wanted to be alone and have the world go on without him. But in the idle moments of silence in his mind, even if he was listening to heavy metal on his headphones, he desperately needed to know what was happening.
Carrie and other friends emailed and texted up-to-the-minute details from the courthouse. Because of the constant crowds and truancies, the judge would allow broadcasts “against his better judgment” the following week. Lawrence Eliot was being called “Lawrence from Lawrence”—home of the University of Kansas Jayhawks and where he lived. It seemed that Lawrence was more persuasive than Carson, tearing down the prosecution’s arguments, and even had the people of Clover wondering about the true intentions of the boys. When L.T. Diamond gave testimony about the pureness and unlimited potential of his son, Lawrence was able to be sympathetic and skillfully ask questions about his son’s character. Through L.T.’s testimony, Lawrence painted Kevin as a tough fighter—winning most of the scrapes during his life—and a natural leader. He even got L.T. to admit that his son would have had the guts to lead a posse after somebody like Crazy Eddie.
People speculated nonstop about what the jury members were thinking. Supposedly Lawrence made eye contact with all the women in the jury box, even making the librarian Edna White blush more than once. It was reported that the men in the box, especially Thomas Ginty and Joseph Cotton, seemed to have a look of consternation whenever Lawrence spoke.
Carson did his best to shake Lawrence’s charm by showing the jury horrific pictures of the massacre during the county coroner’s testimony. Edna reacted most visibly in horror, while Janelle Hughes reportedly smirked when she saw the photos. All of the men in the jury did their stoic best to look unaffected.
On Friday, Jeremy’s mother declared that he didn’t have a fever and had to go school, nerves or not. Jeremy found several empty chairs in his classes, and everybody only seemed to talk about the trial.
“So how’s the trial?” Mrs. Patterson asked Jeremy in his English class.
“I only saw part of it on Monday, but I’ve been sick the rest of the week.”
“Uh-huh,” the teacher said, rolling her eyes. The half-f class laughed.
In Jeremy’s third hour history class, cell phones began ringing. The teacher, baseball coach Bob Howard, turned on his radio to a news station to confirm if the rumors the students heard were true. The class waited impatiently between commercials and a national talk show jockey’s rants about the moral corruption of America when he was finally cut off by a special news report. It was true. Randy Cochran had come out of his coma.
16. RANDY
Clover was buzzing more than ever. What would Randy say? Could he remember anything at all? He had, after all, been shot twice in the chest and once in the face. It was a miracle that he even survived.
The next day, the news reported that Randy was fully conscious and remembered the shooting. Carson McKinney moved to have the trial delayed until it was known whether Randy could testify. Lawrence argued that the case should continue unheeded, but his charm wasn’t strong enough to convince the judge. The trial was put on hold for a week for doctors to determine whether Randy would be capable of testifying. After the doctors said it might be possible, the trial was delayed for another week for the prosecution and defense to depose him. Doctors and nurses watched and could stop a session at any moment.
By the third week, doctors said that if Randy wanted to testify he could, but for limited periods of time. He did, and arrangements were made for an ambulance from the University of Kansas Hospital to drive Randy back and forth from the trial. Almost a month after he awoke, the trial was set to resume.
Jeremy had lost considerable weight during that time, and his already low grades plummeted. He could not focus, and his appetite waned. He was on edge, jumping at any noise, expecting to hear his name called out.
The morning the trial was set to resume, Jeremy and his parents sat at the breakfast table. He picked at his bacon while his parents watched the morning news from the TV on the counter. A blonde reporter stood by an ambulance outside of the Kansas City hospital.
“Randy Cochran was loaded inside this ambulance just moments ago and is expected to give testimony in Clover against Eddie Cooper for the slayings of seven young men,” she said with a plastered smile. “Randy’s recovery is miraculous and unprecedented as far as I know in the state of Kansas.”
Jeremy felt acid swirling inside his stomach. He couldn’t eat another bite.
“You look awful,” Gail said. “Aren’t you getting enough sleep?”
“I’m fine.”
“No you’re not, and you’re hardly eating. Haven’t even touched your eggs. What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing. Should I call a doctor?”
“Leave him alone,” Gary said with a concerned look in his eye. “And turn off that television. It makes me nervous.”
Jeremy was relieved, but as he walked out to his truck, his father followed him.
“Anything you need to talk about?” Gary said in a firm voice.
“No, nothing,” Jeremy said. He tried to look his dad in the eye, but he couldn’t, focusing on his chin instead.
“Maybe we should’ve talked to the sheriff. I dunno.”
“It’s okay. Probably be worse if I had.”
Gary nodded. “Well, this trial will be over eventually. Hopefully you’ll get back to normal.”
“Yeah, hopefully,” Jeremy said and got into his truck.
17. THE TESTIMONY
A TV was brought into Jeremy’s first hour classroom, and neighboring classes piled in. The class sat riveted as a large male nurse wheeled Randy, strapped to a wheelchair and equipped with a breathing apparatus, to the front of the courtroom. Jeremy felt sick. He wouldn’t have been able to recognize Randy. Diamond’s premier roofer had lost weight, looking skeletal instead of chubby. His head was shaved and the left side of his face looked pink and swollen. Randy’s left eyelid seemed permanently shut. He feebly put his hand on the bible and in a concentrated and slow raspy whisper promised to tell the entire truth.
Lawrence stood and asked for a private meeting with the judge and the prosecutor before the questions began. They left Randy sitting on the stand alone for ten minutes. The cameras stayed on him as he sat at the bench, staring forward and looking small and scared, blinking his one good eye.
Jeremy had to look away and doodled nervous circles on a notebook for three pages. His classmates were mumbling, impatient, wanting the trial to begin.
“I thought Lawrence from Lawrence was cool,” a girl spoke up.
“That douche is holding everything up,” her friend said.
“Lawrence is a tool,” a jock said.
When the trial started up again, Carson asked Randy to recall what had happened on the night of the shooting.
“Why did you go to the Coopers’ property?” the prosecutor asked.
Randy concentrated hard for a moment. The classroom was so still, like nobody was breathing, Jeremy thought.
“We just wanted to put Crazy, err, Eddie Cooper in his place because he had already been causing trouble with many of us.”
“When you say causing trouble, what do you mean?”
“Well, he uh…had broken Trevor, uh, Trevor Mc… I’m sorry, I can’t remember things too well.”
“That’s fine, you’re doing well, son.”
“Well, he’d broken last year’s quarterback’s arm, and had beat the livin’ shi…tar out another fella in Shelby.” Randy looked confused for several seconds trying to recall something. “He’d also knocked somebody out…who was there at the party…”
Jeremy’s blood chilled while Randy’s seemed to be searching fragments of memories for his name. Finally Randy shook his head.
“I forget now who it was.”
Jeremy exhaled. He couldn’t believe that Randy forgot about him, and hoped it stayed that way.
“That’s okay. We get the picture. You had said that you were going to put Eddie Cooper in his place. What did that mean?” Carson asked.
“Nothing much really… I, I’d been put in my place years ago.”
“What happened back then? When you were put in your place.”