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As L.J. ran from the room, Jonah turned to me. “This town was crazy long before tonight,” he said.
I was sorry to say that I had to agree.
Chapter 111
JONAH AND I watched from the rear balcony as L.J.’s carriage clattered down the back drive and onto the Old Laurel Road. The crowd in front continued chanting for another half hour or so, but then the rain picked up and extinguished their torches, and their anger, at least for tonight.
Before long I was seated in the ground-floor parlor with a snifter of brandy and a pot of coffee. Two of L.J.’s house-men were sweeping up the broken glass and bringing in planks to nail over the windows. Quite the sight. And quite the night.
A knock came at the door. I looked up to see Nelson, one of the houseboys.
“There’s a Miz Begley here to see you, sir,” he said.
I went and met Elizabeth in the front alcove. Her bo
She reached out and took my hand. “Oh, Ben, I was in the courtroom today,” she said. “It’s awful, just awful. We all see what’s happening. How can I help?”
I led her to L.J.’s study, toward a green damask sofa, where we sat. Elizabeth untied the bow of her bo
“I want to help you Ben. Please let me in. These hangings, all of it, has got to stop. Most of us in town want it to stop.”
“I don’t know what to say, Elizabeth. L.J. just took Allegra and their kids out of town.”
“Don’t push me away again. Please. I live here. I have more to gain, and to lose, than you do. Ben?”
After a brief silence, I told her about a plan that had been forming in my head. It was quite a daring one, and I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off.
“ Elizabeth,” I said. “You already are a help to me. Just knowing that I have your support and trust means everything to me.”
Chapter 112
SINCE THE NIGHT we had convinced Phineas to arrest the White Raiders, I’d known that if this trial ever came about, wi
I couldn’t think of a way to combat all the lies, the false testimony, the faked documents, the bigoted jurors-and, of course, the overwhelming and nearly laughable prejudice of the presiding judge.
Jonah Curtis, on the other hand, seemed to be clinging to his little tiny ray of hope. He kept urging me to have the courage to stand by him; he intended to fight Loophole Lewis to the bitter end.
So it was that Jonah went after every scrap of evidence with passion, intelligence, and no little amount of cu
The next day Jonah put an emotional Conrad Cosgrove on the stand.
“That’s right, Mr. Curtis,” Conrad said, “they was at least eight of ’em coming from all directions. They never said a word, they just started shootin’ everything and everybody in sight.”
And later: “Yes, sir, Mr. Curtis, I seen my brother Luther take that man’s boot to his head at least six, seven times. Hard enough and long enough to kill him. I was standing closer to him than I am right now to you.”
But then Maxwell Hayes Lewis always got his chance at rebuttal.
“Now, Mr. Cosgrove, my dear Mr. Cosgrove, would you say that your opinion of what happened that night is influenced at all by your sorrow at the death of your brother?”
Conrad pondered the question, then shook his head. “No, sir. I do feel sad that Luther is dead, but that doesn’t have a thing to do with my opinion about what happened that night.”
It was a small trap, but Conrad had walked right into it.
Loophole Lewis pounced. “So the testimony you gave to Mr. Curtis just now was your opinion, not fact?”
“Well, sir,” Conrad said slowly, “it is my opinion, like you said, but it’s based on what I saw. And that’s just a fact.”
“But you’re not absolutely certain of those facts, are you? How could you be?”
Jonah climbed to his feet again. “Your Honor, Mr. Lewis is purposely trying to confuse this witness.”
Judge Corbett looked over his spectacles. “If the witness is so easily confused,” he said, “then perhaps you made a mistake calling Mr. Cosgrove to testify in the first place.”
And so it went. In that steamy courtroom, ripe with the smell of sweat and Rose of Sharon eau de toilette, the good people of the Eudora Quarters took the stand and swore to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. And they did. And then Maxwell Lewis ripped them apart.
One by one, Loophole Lewis plowed his way through our witness list. Whether defiant or docile when they took the stand, every one of those witnesses eventually stepped down looking foolish, stupid, or wrong.
It happened every single time.
At last Jonah stood up.
“If it please the court, the people call Miss Moody Cross to the stand.”
Chapter 113
MY GOD. She was dressed like a grown-up.
I had never seen her wearing anything but one of the three identical white jumpers she rotated through the laundry basket so that she always appeared to be wearing the same spotlessly clean dress. Today she looked like a grown woman: a formal blue skirt, a neat white blouse. On her feet were lace-up boots polished to a high shine. She wore white gloves and a straw hat.
Last night we had gone over and over the questions we would ask. “Just tell the truth,” Jonah kept saying, “and everything will be fine.”
“What are you talking about?” she scoffed. “In that courtroom the truth ain’t worth a bucket of piss.”
“Charming,” I said. “Try not to say that.”
Jonah said, “The truth is the only weapon we have, Moody. So we have to use it.”
“Maybe so,” she said.
I should have listened more carefully to that phrase of hers.
Under Jonah’s patient questioning, Moody told the same story her grandfather had told. The same story Cosgrove told. The same story every one of the witnesses from the Quarters had told.
By the time Jonah turned to Maxwell Lewis and said, “Your witness,” the gentlemen of the jury looked about ready for some di
Lewis said, “Miss Cross, are you a permanent resident of the house where your grandfather lives, over there in the Quarters?”
“Yes, sir, that’s right. I live with him and take care of him.”
All morning I had been noticing that Moody sounded more mature. She had managed to hide the edge of anger that so often came into her voice. She was speaking carefully, politely.
“I wouldn’t really call it a house, though,” she added. “It’s more like a shack. But we do all right.”
“Now, would you say your first notice of the alleged intruders on that night was when they rode up, supposedly shooting their weapons and yelling?”
“Oh, no, sir,” she said in a very clear voice. “I would say my first notice was when Mr. North there, and Mr. Stephens, knocked on the door and showed me their search warrant.”
Chapter 114
SWEET JESUS IN heaven! Jonah and I had never discussed this with her. We had certainly never pla
“… and showed me their search warrant.”
With those words Moody changed the whole atmosphere of the courtroom and the direction of this entire murder trial.