“
Again, let the record show that Dr.
Brewster is referring to the pick. Thank you, Doctor. No more
questions.”
The doctor was excused.
Next, Floyd Endicott was called to testify.
Allie stared at him while he swore on the Bible to tell the truth,
and felt such a wave of anger and revulsion for the man, she grew
lightheaded. She had disliked him ever since the day he’d demanded
payment for painting her fence, when he’d spent the afternoon
napping under her pear tree. Now, for telling this outrageous lie
about Jeff, she despised him with every ounce of her being.
He lounged negligently in the chair next to
the bench until Judge Cavanaugh barked at him to sit up and pay
proper respect to the court. Floyd, wearing the idiotic grin of one
so chastised, straightened up.
Hastings began his questioning. “Mr.
Endicott, will you tell the court how you and Cooper Matthews came
to be on the Ford property the night of the murder?”
“
Miss O-livia Ford sent Cooper a
letter. She asked him to come out and do another little job for
her. Cooper wanted me to come with him to help, so I
did.”
“
And when did you encounter Mr.
Hicks?”
Allie noted that the prosecutor neatly
avoided the issue of the trespassing and vandalism committed by the
two men.
Floyd sat up. “Oh, he come runnin’ out of the
darkness, madder’n hell, cussin’ and callin’ us all kind of names
like bastards an’—
Squeaks of offended feminine sensibility
sounded here and there.
“
That will do, Mr. Endicott,” Judge
Cavanaugh interrupted. “A recitation of any profanities won’t be
necessary.”
Floyd shrugged, and Hastings prompted, “Go
on, please.”
“
He was carryin’ that there pick with
him, and he told us we were trespassin’. Well, everyone knows
there’s been bad blood ‘tween him and Cooper for a long time, even
before Hicks killed Cooper’s boy. There was lots more more yellin’
and” —Floyd glanced at the judge— “bad words, and before I knew it,
he swung that pick down on Cooper’s head with all his might. God
a-mighty, it was horrible! It made an awful sucking noise when he
pulled it out. And blood squirted out of pore Cooper’s
skull.”
“
What did you do then?”
“
Well, hoo-ee, boy, I figured I was
next. I managed to pick up Cooper and dump him into the back of the
wagon we come in, and I made tracks outta there.”
“
How did you come into possession of
the pick?”
“
I decided I’d better take the thing
along with us so’s Hicks couldn’t poke it into my head
next!”
“
You drove the wagon back to
town?”
“
Yessirree, I didn’t stop until I got
to Sheriff Mason’s office. Cooper, he—he was dead by then.” Here
Floyd worked up a few crocodile tears and his voice quavered. “He
was the best friend I ever had—you can ask anybody. And that son of
a bitch” —he pointed at Jeff— “he killed him! If there’s any
justice, he’ll hang for crow bait!”
Allie bit back a gasp, and general murmuring
broke out among the onlookers.
Royal Purdy stood. “Objection!”
“
Sustained, and quiet in the court!”
the judge ordered, and banged his gavel. “Mr. Endicott, you will
confine your remarks to questions put to you.”
“
I have no further questions,” Hastings
said, looking rather smug. “Your witness, Mr. Purdy.”
Purdy paced slowly in front of Floyd, with
his hands clasped behind his back. First one circuit, then another.
Finally, he said, “You say that you and Mr. Matthews were on the
Ford property because Miss Olivia Ford asked you to come out.”
“
Yessir.”
“
To do another job for her, I believe
you said.”
“
Yessir, that’s right.”
“
Did you ever see a letter that Mr.
Matthews received from her?”
“
No, Cooper said he tore ’em up, just
like she wanted.”
“
What previous chores had you performed
at her request?”
“
Well, just one other. She had us come
out one night and hang a spook in the barn.”
“
A spook.”
“
Yeah, it was a dummy she made up,
stuffed with feathers and wearin’ a dress. Said she wanted to play
a joke on someone but she couldn’t reach the rafter. So me and
Cooper came out and strung it up for her.”
This time Allie did gasp. So that’s how it
had come about. Olivia swore she hadn’t put that horrible thing in
the barn, and in her mind, she probably believed it was close
enough to the truth. She glared at her sister across the room.
Olivia, keeping her eyes on the proceedings, blanched a bit, but
otherwise showed no emotion.
Purdy nodded, and kept pacing. “Miss Olivia
paid you to do this.”
“
She paid Cooper ten dollars. He gave
me four.”
Allie swallowed and swallowed, but her throat
was as dry as chalk.
“
And what job were you doing out there
the night Mr. Matthews was killed?”
“
We were salting the field that Hicks
had planted.”
“
Destroying the Ford vegetable garden,
wasn’t it?”
“
Uh, yeah.” Then more emphatically,
“That’s what Cooper said she wanted!”
“
And how much did she pay you to do
this?”
“
At first Cooper told me it was ten
dollars, and that I’d get four, same as the other time. But then
when we were working, she came out to pay us and I found out she
was givin’ him twenty, and he was still gonna give me
four.”
Sitting behind him, Allie couldn’t see Jeff’s
face. She could only judge his reactions by the way his back
stiffened or relaxed. Right now, he sat bolt upright.
“
So Mr. Matthews—your best friend—lied
to you. He knew it was twenty dollars all along.”
“
Yeah—”
Marshall Hastings came to his feet, plainly
displeased with the direction of Purdy’s questioning. “Your honor,
I fail to see what any of this has to do with the matter in
question. None of it pertains to the crime or the charges.”
“
I would like to hear this, Mr.
Hastings.” Judge Cavanaugh fixed the prosecutor with a hard look,
and Hastings sat down.
“
How big would you say that field is,
Mr. Endicott?” Purdy continued.
“’
Bout an acre, I guess.”
“
An acre—that’s a lot of salt to spread
in the dead of night when most people are sleeping. Especially for
four dollars. Did you consider that?”
Floyd shifted in his chair. “It crossed my
mind.”
“
I imagine it did.” Purdy gazed at him
for a long moment, as if considering something the man had said.
Then, “I have no other questions.”
“
Does that mean I can go?” Floyd asked
the judge. From where she sat, Allie could see a thin sheen of
perspiration on Floyd’s face.
“
It does not. It means you can return
to your seat.”
He shambled back to his chair, looking none
too pleased.
Next, Olivia was called to the stand. Allie
stared at her, feeling as if she were watching a stranger.
Marshall Hastings was especially solicitous
to her, and led her through a testimony in which she repeated the
same story she’d told Will Mason. It differed somewhat from Floyd’s
version. She didn’t look nearly as confident as she had before,
though.
When Royal Purdy was called to cross-examine,
he was every bit as polite and mild.
“
I understand that you are of delicate
health, Miss Ford, so we’ll try to move things along as quickly as
possible.”
“
Thank you. I appreciate
that.”
Allie gritted her teeth.
“
You testified, under oath, that you
never sent any letters to Cooper Matthews?”
“
Oh, my, no. I’d never seen him or Mr.
Endicott until this whole sorry business came about.”
“
So you didn’t pay either one of them
to perform chores on your property.”
“
No, my sister, Althea, has been in
charge of those things since our father died.”
“
How is it that you happened to see Mr.
Hicks out in the field the night of the murder?”
“
Well, sometimes I have trouble
sleeping, and I sit on our back porch. The night air helps clear my
head. There was a half moon that night and I saw Mr. Hicks leave
the shed—that’s where my sister had given him a place to sleep. He
was carrying a pick.”
“
Did he see you?”
“
No, he never looked at me. He didn’t
know I was there.”
“
Where did he go?”
“
He headed off toward the field he’d
planted. I couldn’t imagine what he’d be doing outside in the
middle of the night with a tool like that. And he was gone for the
longest time. Finally, I decided I’d better go and have a look
myself.” She turned wide, innocent eyes on Purdy. “After all, a
person wandering around in the dark by himself could get hurt. I
had to check.”
Allie heard a faint snort come from Jeff. She
herself closed her hands into fists in her lap.
“
You said he was gone for a long time.
How long would you say?”
“
Oh, it must have been an hour or
better. You can see why I was worried.”
“
Do you know what time it
was?”
“
I think—yes, I’m sure it was about two
o’clock. I heard the clock chime on the mantle in the house. It
wasn’t until after three that I went looking for him.”
Liar, liar, liar! Allie screamed in her
heart. Jeff wasn’t outside at two o’clock, and he wasn’t gone for
over an hour. He wasn’t! The muscles in her back and legs began to
flex, as if fighting her will to remain seated. She clenched her
back teeth, every muscle in her body as tight as an overwound
mainspring.
“
And you’re sure he was carrying that
pick over there when you saw him.” Again, Purdy indicated the
murder weapon on the evidence table.
“
Yes, definitely.”
“
You don’t think the moonlight could
have played tricks on your eyes.”
Olivia lifted her chin a bit haughtily. “I
know what I saw, Mr. Purdy. There is nothing wrong with my
eyesight.”
Royal Purdy stepped over to the bar and
reached behind it, producing an axe. “You didn’t see this axe in
his hands?”
Olivia couldn’t hide the surprise on her face
upon seeing the axe. “N-no! He had a pick.”
As Purdy turned he caught Allie’s eye and
shrugged slightly. They’d gone out to the farm yesterday and after
some searching, they’d found the axe exactly where Jeff had told
her he’d left it—in the blackberries.
“
And he was gone a long time,” Olivia
re-emphasized. “Long enough to have killed Cooper
Matthews!”
Allie had sat quivering in her chair,
listening to the lies Floyd and Olivia told. Fear and anger raged
within her. She would not stand by and let them help convict Jeff
of this horrible crime in order save their own worthless hides. She
had a furious desire to run up to the front and knock everyone’s
heads together. Couldn’t they see what Olivia and Floyd were doing?
Then, as if some power other than her own had willed it, she found
herself shooting to her feet. “She’s lying!”
The room erupted in a buzz of murmurs, and
Judge Cavanaugh pounded his gavel. “Order!”
All eyes were turned on Allie, but she felt
Jeff’s flinty look boring into her like a physical thing.
“
Allie! For God’s sake, don’t do
this.”
But she continued, heedless of the judge’s
command or Jeff’s appeal.
“
I was with Jeff Hicks that night, all
night, and I will swear to it under oath.”
“
Damn it, Allie, I told you I wouldn’t
let you say—”
“
Order in this courtroom!”
Jeff jumped up as well. “I was not with her.
Miss Ford is lying to protect me.”
Yes, she was, and even though it was a small
lie, it didn’t come easily to her. But Allie had vowed to do
whatever it took to protect Jeff. And if lying under oath and in
the face of God would help, she’d do it. She knew Jeff was
innocent. God knew it, too.
Judge Cavanaugh continued to pound his
gavel.
Eli Wickwire’s discreet furniture
advertisement fell off the desk and was trampled by the clerk.
Chatter swirled through the crowd.
“
What did she say?”
“
Jesus, those Ford sisters really are
crazy.”
“
This is an outrage. Do young people
have no decency at all anymore?”
“
I will have order in this courtroom or
find everyone here in contempt!” the judge said, now on his feet as
well, his face the color of a rooster’s comb. He pointed his gavel
handle at Allie. “Young woman, who are you?”
Though Allie’s insides were shaking like her
best raspberry jelly, she forced herself to speak up. “I am Althea
Ford, Olivia’s sister.” She glared at Olivia. “I can vouch for Mr.
Hicks’ whereabouts, and I will.”
“
Allie, honey, no,” Jeff whispered, his
feelings for her plain on his face. But she would not heed him. Her
love for him was stronger than any lie, stronger than her fear. She
wouldn’t sacrifice Jeff without a fight.
“
I was . . . I kept
company with him the night that Cooper Matthews was killed. The
whole night.”