Presumption Of Death

“That’s fine, you turn us all in. Then when Britta gets out of the hospital, who’s going to take care of her?” George said. “I got my family, you got Britta: Darryl, he’s got four little ones. Think about that before you go ru

“If we pay him off, will he go away?” Darryl had started talking now.

“If we’d paid him way back after the second fire we wouldn’t be in this fix,” George said.

“We all agreed,” Sam said. “He had no right. All he was supposed to do was set a little brushfire, scorch up the model home a little-he could have hurt somebody burnin’ down the café. That was right in the heart of town! We couldn’t pay him after that!”

“We can’t pay him now either,” David said. “It’s just piling another crime on all of us.”

“But he’ll go away if we do,” Darryl said.

“He’s only hanging around out there waiting to collect. He doesn’t want to be here, he’s hot. We’re keeping him here,” Ted said.

“We have another problem,” Darryl said. “Tory asked me why I withdrew the first twelve-fifty.” The other men groaned. “She knows something.”

George said, “So that’s what Jolene’s been up to! I thought the kids were playing with my desk. It’s her. I’ll be damned.”

“Look. We have to pay him,” Sam said. “You should have heard him on the phone. He’s not reasonable. He said forty-eight hours and that’s it.”

“But, Jolene-”

“Be quiet a second, George. I want to ask David here a question. Now, David. You could pay out the twenty thousand balance we still owe him right now, end all this, save us all. It’s the simplest way, right?”

“That’s good. That’s good,” Darryl said.

David said in a tight voice, “He hurts my wife like that and I’m supposed to pay for all of you? No. No.”

“David, listen-”

“Hey, don’t go-”

“David!”

Debbie heard a car door slam and the car peeled out of the lot.

There was a long silence. Then Darryl said in a disbelieving voice, “He had my car keys. That was my car he drove off in.”

“Great. Now we’re totally in the crapper,” Ted said.

“Ted-”

“Don’t look at me, man, Megan knows all our finances and most of it’s her money and she’d figure it out in ten seconds.”

Darryl said, “Sam, what are we go

“Keep your shirt on, Darryl, I’ll think of something. I’ll call him and tell him we need more time to get the money together.”

“He’ll do something else to us.”

“I said, I’ll take care of it. Now listen, all of you. The women can’t know about this. Don’t say anything or we’re all going to prison. Darryl, you hear me? Huh? Darryl?”

“What’d you bring that gun for anyway, Sam?”

Sam said, “I don’t know. I just feel like killing somebody.” Debbie had forgotten about the gun. She held on to a branch and closed her eyes and said a little prayer.

“Don’t scare him, you jerk,” Ted said. “I have to get home.”

“I’ll call you. Stay cool,” Sam said.

Megan said, “Is that everything, Debbie? All you can remember?” Maybe she spoke too sharply, because Debbie put the pitcher down and propped herself against the table and started blubbering again.

“Now, honey,” Jolene told her, “stitch yourself back together, because we need your help. Not a one of us can afford to have a nervous breakdown right now.”

“I’ll start,” Megan said. “They’re a bunch of selfish little boys. I checked our books. Twelve hundred fifty dollars withdrawn by Ted two months ago.”

Jolene said, “Mmm-hmm. George did the same. Tory?”

“Yes. He told me it was for something else.”

“Debbie?”

“Yeah.” A big tear fell into Debbie’s salt-rimmed glass. Her mascara was streaked all the way down to her lips.

“I think we can figure that David paid too. Serve ’em right to go to jail,” Jolene said. She looked around the table. “I know, I know. Now, George, he’ll die in jail. He’s sick.”

“I don’t know where to start. All the harm they’ve caused,” Tory said. “I decided to have the baby after all, and now this. Who’s going to buy the food for five kids?”

“None of us wants to turn them in, but what else can we do? There’s a man killing people left and right out there, it’s all their fault, and-”

“We could urge them to turn themselves in,” Tory said.

“I am not able to raise this with Sam, not alone,” Debbie said, still sniffling. “He won’t listen.”

“We could all meet with all of them-” Tory was still trying.

“They’ve already made up their minds what they want to do,” Megan said. “But they’re going to fart around until somebody else gets hurt. I could just pay the money.”

“After how he hurt Britta? How he-he sneaked up on poor Ruthie-”

The women were silent. Debbie poured them all another round.

“No way,” Tory said, and they all nodded.

“But-the kids? What about them?” Tory said. “What if-”

Jolene looked at her watch and said, “The girls get off that bus at two-thirty, and I’m going to be right there to meet them. So we better make a decision.”

“He gave the men until tomorrow,” Debbie said fearfully. “I think.”

“And then you know what he threatened to do. Take the children. I’m sure as hell not taking any chances. Now I have two more minutes, girls. Callie’s got her soccer practice after this and I’ll be right there on the field. Here’s what I think. I’m as mad at the men as anybody. But I’m not calling the police. I won’t do it to George.”

“We can’t trust the men to handle this,” Tory said.

“Call me,” Jolene said. She patted her hair and picked up her purse. “I’m so damn mad I can’t think.”

When Jolene had gone, the women kicked back for a couple of minutes. Finally, Megan said, “We need a lawyer. To advise us.”

She was thinking about the business she had built up, the clients, what would happen if Green River got a judgment against her and Ted’s community assets. She was feeling humiliated about the night before. Ted had wanted to be punished-if she had it to do all over again, she’d have punished him for real when she tied him to the bed, she’d have beat the shit out of him.

She had never felt so wounded. “My boon companion,” she said, choking up, and put her hand over her eyes.

“Not you too, Megan, we need you to stay strong,” Tory said. “I think you have a good idea. If we could get somebody right away. Because our children are in danger.”

“How about the lawyer who’s defending Da

“But-wouldn’t she have a conflict of interest? She already has a client-”

“Maybe not,” Megan said. “She could consult with us confidentially, and if she can’t help us, she’d at least have to keep her mouth shut about the consultation.”

Tory said, “I vote we call her.”

“Me too,” Debbie said. “She’s probably in court right now.”

“We’ll leave an urgent message,” Megan said. “Now, meantime, if any of us talks to the men, it’ll all blow up even worse. Capisce, Debbie?”

“I’ll just watch TV and go to bed. I can do it.”

“I’ll pretend I’m sick. I am sick. Sick of Darryl not growing up,” Tory said. “Do you want me to talk to Jolene?”

“Yeah. I’ll call the lawyer,” Megan said.

The medical examiner, Dr. Rittenhauer, took the stand after lunch on the second day of the prelim. She was young, with a pleasant face and a practical haircut, and a recent medical degree from Columbia. She gave Wish a curious look and then turned to her papers. A very well-prepared lady, Nina thought. Nina hadn’t found much wrong with the autopsy report either, but she did have a couple of subjects she couldn’t wait to explore.

After the preliminaries, Jaime asked, “Did you perform the autopsy on the decedent later identified as Daniel Cervantes?”

“I did.” Nina pulled out her copy of the autopsy report, and Dr. Rittenhauer kept a hand on her own copy.