A Town Like This

A Town Like This

I moved from my seat to the witness stand and was reminded that I was still under oath.

"Mister Haverty, you testified that the rabbit's foot found at the scene is yours?"

"I testified that the rabbit's foot you showed me is mine. I have no idea where it was found."

"Hmm, an interesting answer. How long have you had it?"

"Since I was a boy." I decided not to tell the story of how I got it. I was already too closely linked to Hank and didn't need to remind anyone of that fact.

"Do you always carry it?"

"I do."

"When did you see it last?"

This was a tough one because I simply couldn't remember. When was the last time you sneezed, or saw a squirrel in a tree, or stubbed your toe? These aren't things that stick in your mind "I'm not sure, Judge. I think it was Tuesday morning." That was when I made up with Hank but I didn't think it would help to mention his name.

"When did you miss it?"

This was easier. "Friday morning. I was on my way to the water hole when I noticed it was gone."

"Did you look for it?"

"Yes, but I didn't find it."

"Did you ask your wife if she had seen it?"

How do you explain to a person how Alice can ooze contempt for something she doesn't understand? She thought the foot was childish and barbaric and didn't like me pulling it out around Emily. I didn't try but told a white lie instead. "No, I didn't think of that."

"Well then, who took it, Mister Haverty?"

"I don't know, Judge. I surely wish that I did. It would certainly help my cause." There was laughter but not enough to rile the Judge.

"How did it get to the scene?"

"I don't know."

"Mister Haverty, did you kill Mizz Cavendish?"

"I did not."

"Then who did?"

This, of course, was the sixty four thousand dollar question. Stacey, the horse I had been betting on, was apparently scratched from the race. It didn't matter if I ran fast or ran slow. I was going to cross the finish line first.

"I don't know and neither do you or anyone else, Judge, except for whoever did the deed. Maybe it was a raider." I immediately regretted adding that last sentence. It was a weak answer and I knew it. I had just made a strong point and should have left it at that. I mentally kicked myself.

"Where were you that night?"

"At home sleeping."

"And you testified previously that no one can confirm that?"

"Yes, Judge, you know I did." I was starting to get angry. I knew it wouldn't help me but I just didn't care anymore. "Every person in this building knows that Alice and I sleep in separate bedrooms, or at least they do now thanks to you. No. Nobody can vouch for me."

The Judge looked at me sadly. "I'm just trying to get to the truth here, Mister Haverty. I think you have bigger problems than just a little embarrassment. So you could have gone over to Mizz Cavendish's house anytime during the night."

It wasn't technically a question so I didn't answer but it made no difference. Every soul in the room knew I killed Sylvia. Except me.

"Do you have anything to add, Mister Haverty?"

I sat in the witness chair with my eyes screwed shut, trying to think. Something the Judge said had tripped a switch in my mind but I couldn't figure out what it was. Time stretched itself out while the world, or at least this corner of it, awaited my answer.

"Well, Mister Haverty? Don't keep us in the dark."

The dark! That was it. I opened my eyes. "Yes, your honor, I do have something to add. You said I could have gone to Mizz Cavendish's house at anytime during the night, but that's not true. Thursday night was a dark night, well mostly, and it rained to boot.

"Now it was dark from last light until the moon rose. I'm not sure what time that was" — only a few people in town attempt to keep time anymore — "but Alice and I sat on the porch and watched it rise before we went to bed. I don't know when the rain started but I remember it was pitch black even though the moon — it was a waning gibbous, wasn't it? — wasn't going to set before daylight. It had to be cloudy for it to rain hard and it was still cloudy the next morning."

The Judge looked interested but perplexed. "What are you getting at, Nick?" He called me Nick! I had his attention.

"Judge, it's a fact of life These Days that nobody goes outside at night anymore. Those of us who remember electric lights have a special aversion to darkness because we never really experienced it Back Then. Heck, we could always just flip a switch whenever we wanted to see." I was being a bit disingenuous with that "those of us who remember" part — it's only been a few years since the lights went out — but I could see that I had scored a point.

Or maybe not. The Judge rubbed his beard. "Well, yes, but you could have gone outside in darkness."

"Really, Judge? When was the last time you took a stroll at night?"

He looked nonplussed. "My behavior is not on trial here, but I see your point. Still, folks do go out at night."

"Yes, but only in town where you know where everything is, and even then, only when there is moonlight. I'm willing to call every person in this room to the stand and ask them if they walk around town at night when it's pitch dark."

"That won't be necessary. I concede your point, but there was a moon Thursday night."

"Was there? May I call a witness?"

He waved his hand in acquiescence and I searched the crowd for the face I was looking for. "Mister Francis Sandusky," I announced.

There was plenty of murmuring as a surprised Frank came forward and was sworn in. What was I up to? Another exciting turn?

"Mister Sandusky," I began, "Are you the science teacher at the middle school?"

"I was," he answered. "Now I'm a hired hand at Kowalski's."

"And did you teach physical science there?"

"Yes. Also biology and sometimes history."

"Mister Sandusky, what time is it?"

He looked startled. "Right now?" He pulled an old fashioned pocket watch from his pocket, opened it with obvious pleasure, and studied the dial. "It is four oh seven p.m." he announced.

"And how do you know that is accurate?" I asked.

He looked a little annoyed. "Mister Haverty, my watch might be a couple of minutes off, but no more than that. I set it to local noon every Saturday using the shadow of the flagpole at the fire house. Oh, sometimes I don't get there in time, or I forget, or it's cloudy, but thanks to the drought, I haven't missed setting it for weeks."

"I see," I said, as if this were news to me, or indeed to any of us. There are still nerds even during the Apocalypse. "Can you tell me, sir, what time the sun set Thursday?"

He frowned. "No, not exactly," he responded. Clearly this lack of precision irritated him. "But I have an almanac at home. I could look it up if I had to."

"That's not necessary. Just an approximation will do."

"Oh!" He brightened now that he was on firm ground again. "Well, in late July the sun sets at about seven thirty, give or take five minutes. That's local sun time, of course. I'm not sure how much that varies from standard time." He looked thoughtful. "Hmm, I guess this time of year it would be daylight savings time, wouldn't it?"

The guy really is a nerd. "Local time is all we have, Mister Sandusky. What time is full dark?"

"Oh, there's about thirty minutes of dusk in the summer, so full dark comes at eight o'clock, plus or minus. There's no good definition of full dark but usually..."

I cut him off. "And sunrise?"

"First light is about four thirty a.m. or perhaps a bit later, and sunrise is at five."

"Thank you. Now tell me about the moon."

He chewed this one over. "Well, the moon is four days past full, which makes it, as you said, a waning gibbous. It will rise tonight at...oh, you want to know about Thursday, don't you?" I nodded. "It was two days past full then so it would have risen about nine p.m. and wouldn't have set until the next morning so there was moonlight almost all night."

"What about the rain?" I prompted.

"Yes, yes, it did rain that night," he muttered, upset at himself that he had forgotten this point. "The rain started just after midnight at twelve twelve. I remember the thunder woke me up and I checked the time by the lightning flashes. It ended just before first light. Let's call it four a.m."

"Why was is so dark if there was a full moon?"

"It wasn't full," he corrected me, exasperated with my ignorance, "but solid cloud cover can block even a full moon. Yes, it was completely dark." He started to get excited. "Yes, I see what you're getting at. It was clear when I went to bed, but it rained at midnight so it must have clouded up between those times. Now it was a cold front that came through..." He stopped and laughed. "It didn't bring any cold with it, did it? Anyway, cold fronts tend to move pretty quickly so although I wasn't awake to see it, I'm willing to bet that the sky started clouding up at...oh...I don't know...maybe eleven p.m."

"Thank you, sir. Allow me to summarize. Mizz Cavendish was last seen alive just before last light, about eight o'clock. It was dark until nine p.m. when the moon rose. It clouded up about eleven, followed by rain from midnight to four a.m., during which nobody in their right mind would have been traipsing about outside. Mizz Cavendish had been dead for, and I quote Mister Morrisey, "for several hours" when she was found a little after six a.m."

It was hush quiet in the building. People were listening and paying attention. "So whoever killed Mizz Cavendish couldn't have done so before she was last seen alive. He or she wouldn't have been out before nine when it was dark and they wouldn't have been out between eleven and four when it was cloudy and/or raining, and they couldn't have killed her after four because she was dead several hours before she was found. Therefore she was killed between nine and eleven p.m. Thursday night. Furthermore, since I was sitting on my front porch watching the moon come up until nine thirty or so, and my wife can confirm this, I don't need an alibi for the whole night; I just need one for nine thirty to eleven."

The Judge gave a low whistle. "Very impressive, Mister Haverty. Nicely done." His face took on a worried look. "But do you have an alibi for that hour and a half?"

Of course, I didn't. When I started down this investigative path I was just trying to ameliorate the evidence against me. I forgot it wouldn't help me unless I could account for all of my time.

**********

At this point, the Judge announced that all of the evidence that he knew about had been presented and opened the floor to whoever thought they might have evidence he didn't know about. As harshly as I felt about him at the time, I have to admit that he was trying to be fair.

I was stunned when Lily stood up and offered to testify. What the devil was she going to say? I looked over at Alice and saw the sour look she had on her face.

"Well, Mizz Rankin, what do you have to offer?" the Judge asked.

"I understand that one of the main questions is Mister Haverty's whereabouts from nine to eleven on Thursday night." The Judge nodded. "Well, I went to bed when it got dark as usual and was awakened by..." she stopped and squirmed in her seat, clearly uncomfortable.

"Go on."

"Well, I heard Mister and Mizz Haverty. They were... it was..." She was looking around everywhere except at me. Alice had her face in her hands in embarrassment. "They were being intimate."

The courtroom erupted in laughter. Oh, this was juicy. This is what they had come for. Three people embarrassed simultaneously? Priceless.

"You heard them?" his honor prompted.

"The windows were open. It was hot," she reminded him. "And... well... she was very loud." The laughter came in waves and the Judge pounded his hammer to regain control of the situation. Alice was beet red.

"And when was this?"

"I don't have a clock, sir, but the moon was up. I saw it through the window."

I appreciated Lily's attempt to help but didn't see how it did any good. If Lily had known the exact time she heard us, it might shave another half hour off of the time I needed to account for, but she didn't.

**********

The Queen Bee finally got her chance to air some dirty laundry. Her words were haphazard but the gist of it was that she knew that Sylvia and I were having an affair. She didn't have a lick of hard evidence but that didn't stop her. She pressed the point hard enough that the Judge called the ACMs and Brother Bob to see if there was anything to the allegation. The Mothers parroted their Queen but Brother Bob, while admitting that he had heard the rumors, stated flatly that he knew of no actual evidence. I was touched by his attempt to protect me, especially since I was fully guilty of that charge.

At this point, Emma volunteered and took the stand again. She gave a long and detailed account of hearing Sylvia and me go at it on Tuesday evening, the night that Hank was killed. To the intense disapproval of the spectators, the Judge stopped her when she began imitating the sounds we had made, but allowed her to state that she had seen me leaving Sylvia's house.

Ultimately the Judge brought me back for the third time.

"Mister Haverty, did you have sex with that woman, Mizz Cavendish?" I wondered if he knew where he had lifted that phrase from.

I dodged, I weaved, I evaded, but eventually he pinned me down and forced me to answer. "Yes, I did."

Alice wailed and started crying, embarrassed again by this new revelation. I looked around and didn't see a single friendly face. Even Granny avoided looking at me. I was doomed.

**********

When Alice had calmed down some, the trial resumed. The Judge intoned, "If there is no more testimony, I shall..."

Alice stood up, setting Emily down on her seat, her face still teary, and announced, "I want to testify." Voices broke out everywhere. This was just getting better and better. The gossip mills would be fed for weeks to come.

The Judge cautioned her that if she testified, she would have to ignore the news of my infidelity and tell the truth. She gave me a venomous look but agreed.

"Your honor, I have several things that I have to say, even though they do not reflect well on my husband and may incriminate him. I know that he..." here she broke off and started crying again, this time quietly.

Everybody waited for her to compose herself. Red eyed, she finally looked up at the Judge and began again.

"I can't do it. Judge, I hate my husband for what he did with that... that woman," she spat out, "but I can't say what I was going to say. I have to tell you the truth."

She had them spellbound. The Wronged Woman, who Despite All, still does the Right Thing. I had no idea where she was going with this but I had to admit she presented it effectively.

"Nick told you he sat on the front porch and watched the moon rise. This is true. He and I sat on the porch swing and drank some hootch. We watched the moon come up and then stayed there longer. Maybe an hour or so. Then we went to bed.

She put her face in her hands again but her words were clear enough. "Yes, he and I went to bed together. It was... I was... well, I'm not surprised that the neighbors heard me. Heard us. You know." I couldn't see her face but her ears were crimson with the shame of admitting this in public.

"When we... um... finished, I stayed with him. I stayed with him all night."

Hair rose on the back of my neck. What the hell? She most certainly did not. I was quite sure of that. Why was she saying this? Why did she lie to protect me? What was going on? Despite the hot weather, a chill started running down my back. Alice was somehow involved in this mess. But how?

Nevertheless, the Judge was unconvinced. Without bothering to recall me, he asked why I hadn't used this newly revealed information in my defense. I didn't have a clue where Alice was going with this but figured it couldn't hurt to play along. I looked him right in the eye and said levelly, "Frankly, your honor," and there was a sarcastic stress on the last two words, "I didn't think my private life was any of your business."

The Judge blinked as he mulled this over but finally shook his head. "I'm sorry, Mizz Haverty, but I just don't believe you. I think you're just covering for your husband, although I can't figure out why."

"Really, Judge?" She looked at him through those narrowed eyes that I know so well. She had something up her sleeve. That was a figure of speech; her dress was sleeveless in deference to the summer weather. "How many more witnesses would it take to convince you?"

The Judge was annoyed by her attitude but tried not to show it. "Just one will do, Miss Haverty, if he is convincing."

"She, sir," Alice corrected. Was I the only one to catch the Cheese Shoppe reference? "You must call my daughter to the stand."

The courtroom exploded. I heard shouts of "Shame!" And "Leave the child out of this!" but others wanted more gossip and so called for "All the truth!" and "Let her speak!" Mister and Mizz Booker argued with each other until she slapped him across the cheek and was removed from the room. Spitballs began flying and some kid threw a live squirrel through an open window. The poor beast frantically ran back and forth trying to escape both those who wanted to calm the situation down and those who wanted him for dinner, ultimately escaping via the main door. A chant of "String him up!" only lasted for thirty seconds or so before the Judge, without even standing up, began calling out names and assessing five egg fines. After four had been so punished, including, I am happy to report, the Queen Bee, the others got the message and order was finally restored.

The Judge glared at the crowd. "If that happens again, I'll clear everybody out. I don't have to let you watch." I thought he had them cowed. They weren't about to miss any part of the Trial of the Century. "Mizz Haverty, I'm reluctant to let a small child testify. I don't think..."

Alice interrupted him. "Now Judge," she said sweetly — there was no sweetness in her at that moment — "Just a few minutes ago you allowed Hank Junior to testify on Stacey's behalf. Is my husband not permitted the same consideration?" Oh, she was on a roll.

The Judge looked uncomfortable but succumbed to the inevitable. "Very well," he said, "but I will ask the questions."

Alice led Emily to the witness chair and got her settled, handing her Bun-Bun and admonishing her to tell the truth, no matter what. Emily nodded gravely and to my surprise, Alice found another chair and sat down next to me. I didn't know if she was doing it to support me or to stay near her daughter. I hadn't a clue what Emily could add to the trial. I didn't know much of anything at that moment and was playing the whole thing by ear.

The Judge put on his best talking-to-little-girls voice and addressed the witness. "Good afternoon, Mizz Haverty."

She looked at him as if he were cockroach. "Worsham," she corrected.

He blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Mizz Worsham. My name is Emily Madison Worsham. Mama married Nick but he's not my daddy."

This was more words than I had heard her string together since I've known her. The spectators laughed at his honor's discomfort until he moved his hand to the ball peen hammer.

"I apologize, Mizz Worsham. May I call you Emily?"

She looked at her mother, who nodded back. "I guess so," she conceded reluctantly.

"Emily," he began, but got no further as this was the moment that his dog chose to wake up. How in the world had she managed to sleep through all of the noise and tumult was beyond me. She sat up on his lap, stretched, and gave forth with an enormous yawn that displayed her bicuspids to great advantage. The spectators laughed but Emily jumped down from her chair, spilling Bun-Bun to the floor, and shouted, "Its a puppy!"

The Judge smiled and said, "Well, she's hardly a puppy anymore, but if you like, you can hold her while we talk. Would you like that?"

She nodded her head violently and climbed back into the witness chair. The miniature dachshund wound herself up and sprang into the girl's lap, rolled over, and presented her belly. Emily started stroking the soft fur and you could hear the dog's tail thumping her leg. I realized sadly that she had never held a dog before. What kind of world are we bringing up our children in?

"All right, Emily, did anybody tell you that you would be talking to me?" She shook her head, completely absorbed with the dog who was completely absorbed with her.

"Why don't you tell me what happened last night?" Alice started to protest that the events in question happened two nights ago but the Judge waved her to silence.

Emily considered the question. "I was at Comfrey's house. We ate supper," she finally replied. "I had squash and grits. Mama let me sleep with Comfrey in her bed. She wiggles in her sleep, but at least the moon didn't scare me."

"What do you mean? The moon scares you?"

She didn't answer so he turned to Alice, who said, "Anytime the moon shines in her window, it wakes her up and scares her. Comfrey's bedroom faces north so she didn't see it last night."

The Judge nodded understanding. "Ok, Emily, do you remember the night before that?" When she didn't answer, he added, "That was the night it rained."

Emily's face brightened as she figured out what he meant. "I mebember," she said. "I had gumbo and cornbread for supper. I like gumbo."

"Yum," said the Judge, but his expression made it clear that he didn't care much for it. Of course, he eats what's available, just like the rest of us. "What did you do after that?"

"Mama took me out back. Then she gave me a bath." That was a generous description. All Alice does is wash her hands and face and wipe down any sweat producing area, but it's amazing how much water we go through anyway. "Then she put my nightgown on. She says the lace makes me look pretty."

"I'll bet it does. What did you do next?"

"I got in bed. Mama helped me say my prayers. Then she told me a story. Cinderella married the prince and was never hungry again."

Dear God, what kind of world do our children have to look forward to when a happy ending means not being hungry?

"What happened next?"

"The moon saw me. She was looking in my window. I was scared. I woke up."

"Did you go back to sleep?" the Judge prompted.

"No, I was scared. I got up but Mama wasn't in her bed. I heard her in Nick's room. He was hurting her."

She looked around in confusion at the resulting laughter. "She was really loud." The laughter was redoubled and she set her jaw. "She was!"

Alice's face was bright red yet again and she hid it in shame. I was embarrassed too, but it never hurts a guy too much to be known as successful with the ladies.

"Don't listen to them," the Judge told her, casting a stern look at the still chuckling spectators. "Never listen to rude people." That shut them up and I admired his handling of a delicate witness. "Did you go back to sleep?"

She nodded and resumed the canine belly rub. "But Mama woked me up. She said, 'Emily, its going to rain. You need to go out back.' I didn't have to go but she said, 'You don't want to get wet!' I don't like to get wet."

"Did you get wet?"

Emily shook her head. "I listened to the rain when I got back in bed. Mama sad, 'Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite.'"

"You had a busy night," the Judged commiserated. "Did you sleep late? Did your mama have to wake you up?"

Emily stopped rubbing the dog, who had fallen asleep again. You could hear her snoring. "No, silly, I'm a big girl. I wake up all by myselft."

The Judge appeared to be ready to release her and I noticed Alice was tense for some reason, but Emily continued. "Mama wasn't in her room when I woked up. I saw her come out of Nick's room." She switched to a stage whisper loud enough to be heard over at the watering hole. "She was naked!"

The courtroom once again burst into laughter and Alice again hid her face but I experienced a chill quite at odds with the stifling heat of the church building. Alice had waited for Emily to wake up before ditching her nightgown and ensuring that Emily saw her naked. She wanted it to be memorable. She had wakened Emily in the middle of the night for an unwanted bathroom break. She had stalled going to bed until the moon was up and would be sure to wake Emily and had been uncharacteristically loud during sex so Emily would hear and remember it. In short, she had deliberately fashioned an elaborate alibi for me.

Why had she done it? Why was she so anxious to save me? Because she loves me? Because she and Emily depend on me for survival? Because she thought I killed Sylvia and was glad to have her gone?

The chill transformed into a twisting of my stomach that was literally gut wrenching. Alice didn't create the alibi after the fact; she had known in advance that I would need it and had planned each facet of it before anyone knew that Sylvia was dead, even before Sylvia had been killed.

I grabbed the edge of the table in front of me to keep myself from falling out of my chair from the dizziness that swam through my head. If Alice had created my alibi before Sylvia was even dead, she must have known that Sylvia was going to be killed. How could she have known that unless she was the killer?

I looked over at Alice sitting next to me. She was staring at me with a look I had never seen in her before and it took me a minute to recognize it. Her eyes were wide open rather than her usual narrow gaze. Her head was tilted to one side. There was the slightest hint of a smile on her tightly compressed lips. The look was victory. She had won. She had beaten me.

I realized the trial was still going on. Emily had apparently relinquished both the dog and the witness chair and returned to her original seat, Bun-Bun dangling from one hand.

"...evidence clearly points to, but does not actually confirm that the defendant was home during the night. However, his alibi, backed by two others, is certainly stronger than anyone else's, including Mizz O'Brien. There will be a recess while I deliberate."

**********

The courtroom was abuzz with conversation as the Judge stood up and, carrying his dog on one arm, left the improvised courtroom. There was a lot of information to process and the gossip factory was going to run three shifts a day for the foreseeable future.

I turned back to Alice sitting beside me and kept my voice low enough that only she could hear it.

"You killed her. You snuck out before it rained while there was still moonlight. Oh my god, you..."

She cut me off, whispering savagely. "Keep quiet, Nick. If you tell anybody, I'll retract my testimony. I'll tell them you threatened me if I didn't protect you. Emily won't help. I'll tie her up in knots on cross examination. She'll be so confused nobody will believe her anymore. You'll be executed, do you understand? Just keep quiet and you'll survive."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "But, why? Why did you kill her?"

Alice's face was twisted. Dear God, she was mad! "Let me tell you what I left out before. You remember the antibiotics that Dan brought back from Perrinsburg and Sylvia hid so Franklin could use them if he got sick? Well, after Emily recovered without them, Franklin did come down with cholera, despite all of our precautions. He was never strong physically. Sylvia retrieved the medicine from where she had hidden it but it was ruined. She hadn't stored it properly. Oh, Dan gave it to Franklin anyway. What choice did he have? But Franklin just got sicker and sicker. You know what cholera is like."

I certainly do. She continued. "As he got weaker, Sylvia went crazy. She blamed me for bringing cholera to the town. That's ridiculous; it's not communicable. She somehow blamed Dan for ruining the antibiotics and she blamed Emily for, I don't know, just being there.

"After Franklin died, Dan was plagued with guilt for failing to give Emily the antibiotics and failing to keep them viable and for Kevin's death and for Franklin's death. He stopped doing anything and just slowly willed himself to die. He was probably already past the point of no return when he went out behind the tool shed and shot himself.

"Sylvia now had something else to blame me for. We fought constantly. I know she was involved somehow in Kevin's death. I know it. She killed him when he pressed her for the antibiotics. The woman was crazy!"

Alice looked like a mad woman herself. Sweat ran down her face. Her hair was askew. One eye was twitching and she was breathing heavily. I had no idea which one of the two woman was crazier than the other.

I was so thunderstruck by these revelations that my mind was slow to catch on to other details, but eventually I made the connection.

"Wait, then you must have killed Hank too! Why did you do that? He was my best friend."

"Hank!" she snorted. "Hank was just like you. Lazy, and not too bright, and like you, he couldn't keep it zipped up. He was a small town rube, just like you."

She giggled and I seriously questioned her sanity. "I went out to the Boardroom to kill you, Nick. You were slipping it to the Cavendouche and I couldn't stand that. I figured you were meeting her out there, so I went there to kill you. It was getting dark but I saw your cart sitting outside so I knew you were in there. I just walked in and stabbed you while you were asleep in the bed. Only it wasn't you, was it? It was Hank, sleeping at the Boardroom because Stacey had kicked him out."

She thought for a second, twisting a bit of hair around her finger. "Well, he deserved it. He was doing her too." I was pretty sure she was wrong about that, but I kept quiet. "Anyway, after that I decided maybe I shouldn't kill you. I don't want Emily going hungry and besides, I'd rather get rid of Sylvia. And I did." The triumph was bright in her eyes.

I thought this through. She killed Hank on Tuesday thinking it was me, so she already knew that I was involved with Sylvia. Her surprise at hearing that news today was therefore faked, so how did she find out? I asked her.

"Your friends are simpletons, Nick. I ran into Orville on Tuesday afternoon. I asked him questions to see if he would back up your little story about meeting him at the Boardroom. He was clueless. It turns out he was off with some woman that evening. He didn't even realize he was ratting you out. When I found out Sylvia was in town and Emma told me what she testified to, that she heard Sylvia's noise and saw you coming out, I put two and two together."

I realized I should have met with Orv to keep our stories straight, but at the time it didn't seem important. "Oh, that's why you were so loud with me that night. It's not like you."

She grinned, but there was no humor in it. "I can be anyone and do anything — anything — if I have to. Don't you ever forget it."

I believed her. "And that's why you were so jumpy when I found you on the front porch. You thought I was dead."

"Yeah, that rattled me but good. That was the only time I thought I might get caught. But I didn't, did I?"

The Judge chose this moment to return, sans dog. He sat down and hammered the place into silence. "I have serious reservations about some of the testimony," he announced, "but the child's testimony is compelling and I am forced to accept it. I cannot find the defendant guilty, nor can I find him not guilty. I release him for lack of evidence. If further evidence comes to light, he might be tried again. This court is adjourned."

The hammer came down for the last time and the place exploded with an amalgam of talking, shouting, laughing, and so help me, I heard somebody singing. Alice left immediately with Emily. Almost everybody stared at me but not many came up to me afterwards. Dempsey actually shook my hand — yes you heard that right — and said he was happy for me, but the look in his eyes showed enough doubt that I wondered if we would ever have the same relationship again.

When Dempsey departed, Orville came to my table, pulling Shontay Brown with him by the hand. Now that I was apparently going to survive the day, my powers of deduction finally reasserted themselves and a big light bulb came on.

"Why, Orv, you dirty dawg. You're not hanging with Maizie at all. You're the mystery man who's seeing Shontay!"

Orv grinned and put his arm around her waist, pulling her closer. "Shoot, Nick, Dempsey figured it out days ago. What took you so long?"

I punched him on the arm. "I've been busy, you rapscallion." I congratulated Shontay politely and they went off, arm in arm. I realized that I had at least one friend left, even though he might be too busy to see me for a while.

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A Town Like This