Bootlegger’s Daughter

A moment later, the prop room door opened and lights came on. The Chinese screen had four hinged panels, and Dwight and I both had our eyes up against the narrow cracks. We saw De

“No!” he said sharply. “Come on in here and behave yourself.”

A familiar clicking sound pattered along the hall and then, to my utter dismay, Lily trotted past him and began sniffing the air.

Dwight and I both froze.

“Good girl,” De

Lily quartered the room, poking her nose under the dust sheet, checking out the boxes under the worktables.

As De

“What’s the matter, girl?” asked De

Stiff legged, the dog slowly stalked across the room toward our hiding place. Her growl became a snarl and then she was barking fiercely and looking to De

Without waiting to see who we were, De

“Stop!” Dwight roared as the screen fell over with a crash.

Confused, Lily didn’t seem to know whether to run or attack and I used her hesitation to call out, “Good girl, Lily. Come on, you know me. Right? There’s a good girl.”

I don’t know if it was because she did remember that I’d scratched her ears earlier in the evening or because she had always been more Michael’s dog than De

It wasn’t much of a chase since Jack Jamison-ol’ Baby Bird-had blocked the pickup’s exit again.

De

“I have a right to be here. I have a key!” he stormed. “Do you? Where’s your warrant?”

He did a true double take when he saw me standing there with Lily. “Deborah? You here, too? What’s going on?”

“You want a minute alone with your client?” Dwight asked.

“He’s no client of mine,” I said. “I don’t keep clients who lie to me.”

“Lie?” cried De

“Lie,” I said coldly and gave him chapter and verse about the pitcher. “You start telling the truth right this minute or I’m outta here and you can rot in jail for all I care. In fact, jail might be your best bet right now. Hasn’t it sunk in yet that maybe it was supposed to be you lying in a closed coffin at Aldcroft’s? Your car, kiddo, sitting right where you were supposed to be.”

His head came up and his eyes widened abruptly. Clearly this was the first time such an obvious-and terrifying- possibility had occurred to him.

“You’ve jerked me around all afternoon,” I snarled. “I haven’t had any supper, and I’m tired of holding your hand while you think up more lies. Why’d you really leave word for me to come here Friday?”

De

25 it’s out of my hands

As soon as hed said it, I think De

“It feels like such a betrayal now,” he whimpered. “He said we were through. There’s someone in Durham he wanted to be with. I was hurt. And furious. All I could think of was how to hurt him back. If you’d answered the phone, Deborah, I’d have told you then and there what happened to Gayle’s mother, but it was only because I was mad then. I knew before I left Raleigh that night that I wouldn’t go through with it. That’s why I was late getting back. I hoped you would have gotten tired of waiting and already left. How could I betray him after all these years?”

“He can’t be hurt now by anything you tell us,” I said.

Dwight was less diplomatic. “Talk,” he said, plunking the tape recorder down on the table in front of De

Rattled by the emotional roller coaster he’d been on since Michael’s death, De

While Jack went off to try to find us some hamburgers or something, De

“I explained about how Michael came back to Cotton Grove eighteen years ago and tried to lead a straight life?” he asked me.

I nodded. “But you need to tell Dwight, too.”

Haltingly, De

“You don’t realize how much things have changed down here these last twenty years,” said De

“ ’Fraid so,” said Dwight, and I thought of Will. He’d still rather take a licking than have it come out about Trish.

“So Michael tells me good-bye and comes home in January. New year. New begi

He paused. “Could I have some water?”

He and Dwight both looked at me.

“Why sure,” I said. “I believe there’s a water fountain down by the men’s room. Y’all go right ahead. I’ll just wait and drink whatever Jack brings me.”

Dwight laughed. De

“Not stalling, are you?” I asked.

“Now, Deborah,” Dwight said mildly, “let the man wet his throat.”

Well, look at that, I thought to myself. I get to play Bad Cop

The table was just a hair too wide for me to kick Dwight. Besides, I had on sneakers, not some pointy-toed pumps that would do a number on his shins. But at least my sharp question got De

TRANSCRIPT of INTERROGATION CONDUCTED 15 MAY

Voices present on this tape:

DM = De

DB = Maj. Dwight Bryant, deputy sheriff, Colleton County

DK = Ms. Deborah Knott, attorney at law

DM: As I was saying, Michael tries to do it Mrs. Vickery’s way and he’s miserable. Now, at the back of their grounds, that’s where Janie Whitehead’s living with her husband and new baby. She’s nice. Friendly. Michael doesn’t think twice about her because she’s a married lady and a mother.

I told you that he was pretty conventional in a lot of ways, right?

Anyhow, on the day it happens, Michael’s been working out at the barn all morning and he drives back into town and stops at Hardee’s for a hamburger. As he gets back to his truck, it starts to rain again and about that time, Janie Whitehead pulls in beside him. She wants a Pepsi and she’s got the baby with her and Michael, always a gentleman, goes back in and gets it for her. Well, the rain’s really coming down now, and she pushes the car door open on the passenger side and tells him to get in and talk with her a minute. He eats his hamburger, she drinks her Pepsi, she asks him about how his remodeling’s coming along out at the barn.

If he’d worked ten minutes longer or quit ten minutes sooner, it never would’ve happened.