The metal chairs in the courtroom creaked as spectators turned to look at Willie Jack. A low murmuring filled the room as people began talking in low voices.
“There’s your villain, folks. Sitting right here among us. Willie Jack Kelly threw little Dodie Crumper off the cliff, and he never shed a tear.”
I knew it was a lie, and so did Mr. Jefferson Clement. The two of us looked at each other and the truth passed between us.
That didn’t stop the murmuring that grew into a sound like thunder gathering before a storm. Some people sprang to their feet, shouting and pointing at Willie Jack, who sat in his chair staring at Jefferson Clement. Others held tightly to each other, shaking their heads.
Judge Withers picked up his gavel and pounded it. “Please, everyone. This inquiry is still in session.”
“That’s all for now,” the judge told Mr. Clement, who went to sit beside his wife. She didn’t look at him, but Lucy Clement did, and her mouth twisted like she had just rinsed it with vinegar.
“We’ll take a short recess,” Judge Withers said. He stood up and walked out the side door. A lot of people stood up and stretched. Then they put their heads together and whispered. I tried to hear what was said, but their voices were too low. Mr. Clement sat in his chair, looking straight ahead. I sat in mine. It seemed like the murmurings went on and on, filling my head with sounds without meaning.
Someone touched me on my shoulder. I looked around to where Daddy was sitting behind me. Mama was beside him, and so was Eddie. But Daddy was the one who spoke to me.
“You can do this, Angie,” he said. “All you have to do is tell the jury exactly what you saw.” He gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Just tell the truth.”
I nodded, but I was thinking about that word. Truth. The truth was that Jefferson Clement didn’t actually push Dodie. But the truth was also that it was his fault she fell.
I wanted to put my hands over my ears to stop the memory of how he had yelled at her and called her terrible names. I closed my eyes, then wished I hadn’t. Because whenever I closed them, I remembered the look on his face when he put his finger to his lips, his unspoken warning coming through loud and clear.
I opened my eyes quick. I looked around the room and saw Miss Emma. I concentrated on her furs. Three little fox heads waiting to be petted. Go ahead and pet them, Miss Emma. It’s all right. That’s what I wanted to say.
But I felt my throat kind of close up and my eyes begin to burn. I didn’t want to cry. Not here. Not now. I wouldn’t!
I was just reaching behind me to take hold of Daddy’s hand when Judge Withers came back in, took his seat, and rapped on the table.
“Angelina Wallace,” he said.
I jerked a little in my chair and swallowed hard. Even though I knew I was going to have to testify, it gave me a start to hear my name called.
Reba Lu squeezed one of my hands, and Geraldine the other. Theirs were as sweaty as mine were. I stood up and wiped my palms on my skirt. I tried not to wobble as I walked to the front of the room.
Judge Withers had me swear to tell the truth, and I sat down in the witness chair. It was still warm from Mr. Clement, and I scooted forward and sat on the edge to get as far away from his heat as possible.
Willie Jack gave me a little nod that told me he felt fine about my being up there telling the whole truth and nothing but. Everything was going to be all right. That’s what the nod said. But Willie Jack didn’t know all that was going on in my head.
Not about him. I was going to tell the truth about Willie Jack. It was Mr. Clement I was worried about. Mr. Clement deserved to be punished, but I was afraid if I told the truth—the exact truth—they might let him go free.
I reminded myself to just answer the questions and to tell it the way it happened. That’s what my dad had said. Charles had said the same thing. But answering the questions might not tell the whole truth, and that was what I had promised to do. My head began to ache. I wanted a drink of water. I wanted the big light fixture in the ceiling to fall on Jefferson Clement’s head so we could all go home.
“Now, Angelina,” Judge Withers was saying, “there’s no need to be nervous.”
“Yes, sir,” I told him. “I’m not.” But I felt a twitch starting in my right eye. Then I saw that I had taken a tissue out of my pocket and torn it into narrow shreds. I wadded the torn bits up and hid them in one fist.
“I’m going to ask you some questions,” Judge Withers told me, “but you can feel free to add any details that might help us understand what happened.”
I nodded.
“Mr. Kelly has said that you were in a hurry last Tuesday morning. Why was that?”
“I was meeting Dodie,” I said. “I mean, I was supposed to meet her, but I slept late, and she’d already left her house when I got there.”
“Why didn’t she wait for you?”
“She said her house wasn’t the kind of place you’d want to wait around in.”
The words came out before I thought about how they would sound. A few people tittered, but Judge Withers gave them a look that quieted them down.
“We were meeting to save the fish.”
The judge looked confused. I guessed he wasn’t at the service when Reverend Adams told that story, so I told it again. All about finding the minnows and needing to move them to deeper water.
Judge Withers drummed his fingertips on the table. His nails made a steady clicking sound. He never stopped looking at me. “According to Mr. Clement, he and Mr. Kelly were the only ones there when Dodie Crumper fell.”
“That’s not right,” I said. “Willie Jack wasn’t there at all. Not then. He came afterwards.”
“After Dodie fell?”
“That’s right. He sent me to get help, just like he said.”
Judge Withers leaned forward. “Do you have any idea why Mr. Clement would be at the cliff with Dodie Crumper?”
“He … he was …” I glanced at Mr. Clement. He was staring at me. Staring hard. He put one finger to his lips, kind of casual like, then reached up to scratch his nose. But I knew what he meant.
I hesitated, and Judge Withers said, “What was her relationship to him? How were they acquainted?”
I felt a surge of relief. I could answer that one. “She did his laundry,” I said.
“Did Dodie like Mr. Clement?”
“At first she did. He gave her money, and sometimes he helped her hang the clothes on the line. But after a while she didn’t want him around her anymore.”
People put their heads together and whispered. The judge gave the table a couple of taps with his gavel. The talking stopped, but everybody was looking at me. Especially Jefferson Clement. And I saw the warning in his eyes. A little cat’s smile played at the edges of his mouth. The same smile he had worn when he sat up here and told his lies. I wondered if he had smiled like that when he’d found Dodie alone at the top of the cliff.
I tried to swallow, but I didn’t have any spit. I kept thinking about how maybe if I had been there with her—if I hadn’t slept late—if I hadn’t taken time to sweep up the broken glass from the Crumper floor—then maybe he wouldn’t have …
My eyes started to burn, but I wasn’t going to cry. I wouldn’t. Even so, I felt a tear form in the corner of one eye. It trickled down my cheek, and another one tried to follow it. I started to wipe them away with my tissue, but it was torn all to pieces and already wet from my sweaty hands. I looked away from Mr. Clement and saw Reba Lu and Geraldine watching me. Charles was sitting next to Reba Lu, and I remembered him saying earlier that day, “Tell it just the way it happened.”
Could I?
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Judge Withers looked at me and smiled. “Do you need a short recess before we continue?” he asked.
I shook my head. I wished I had a glass of water, but I didn’t ask for it. I kept my hands on my knees, holding tight to keep them from shaking.
There was a hush in the courtroom, as if all the clocks had s
topped and time wasn’t ticking by.
Then Judge Withers said, “Tell us what happened at the cliff, Angie. Tell it exactly the way you remember it.”
I looked out across the room and saw Miss Emma watching me. She sat up straight and gave me a little nod. She seemed to be saying, That’s right, Angie. You go ahead and tell everybody the truth. Tell them what really happened.
I pictured the scene in my mind. The fear and anger in Dodie’s eyes. The way she had tried to get away from Jefferson Clement. I remembered the warning look Mr. Clement had given me just before he climbed over the cliff’s edge.
I glanced at him now. He wore the same expression he had then. A look as cold as ice. Dry ice. I remembered how dry ice could burn. I looked away from him and began.
“Dodie and Mr. Clement were standing near the edge of the cliff. They were talking loud, and I could hear everything they said. Dodie told Mr. Clement to leave her alone. She said, ‘If you don’t, I’ll tell everybody what you’ve been trying to do to me.’”
“And what was that?” Judge Withers wanted to know.
I looked down at my lap. Then I looked up at Miss Emma. Her eyes were moist around the edges, but she gave me the tiniest little nod. When I started to answer, my voice was so low that Judge Withers had to tell me to speak up.
“Mr. Clement wanted to … to … put his hands where he oughtn’t.”
A murmuring rose in the room. It got louder and louder. I felt my face heat up. I stopped and looked over at the judge. Then I looked at the sea of faces in the room. Everyone was watching me.
I wanted to close my eyes, but I didn’t. I kept my head up while he rapped on the table with his gavel. He had to rap quite a while to get people calmed down.
“If there are any more disturbances like that, I will clear this room,” he said. Then he looked at me. “Are you feeling all right, Angie?” he asked.
I looked at him. I thought he had kind eyes. I nodded my head. “I want to tell what really happened.”
He nodded. “Go on then.”
“Dodie tried to get away from him. But Mr. Clement wouldn’t let her go. He reached out and tried to grab her. I yelled at her to watch out, and that’s when he saw that I was standing there watching. He told me to get away from there, and he called me a meddlesome brat. He started coming toward me, but his foot slipped. He was standing right at the edge of the cliff, and he lost his balance.”
“Mr. Clement lost his balance?”
“That’s right. He almost fell, but Dodie grabbed his shirt. She might be kind of skinny, but she’s strong. He would have fallen right over the edge if she hadn’t pulled him back up. That’s the way his shirt got ripped, not from getting caught on thornbushes.”
I heard a kind of murmuring from the audience. Good, I thought. They were paying attention.
“When Mr. Clement straightened up and stepped away from the cliff, he never said a word to her about saving his life. He just hollered at her and shook his fist in her face. He called her stupid and said it was her fault he almost fell.”
The room hushed. It seemed that everyone had inhaled and couldn’t let their breath out. Then I heard a low murmuring as folks nudged each other and put their heads close together. Mr. Clement looked straight ahead, without any expression on his face, as if I had been talking about a stranger.
Judge Withers gave me a nod, so I went on with my story. “Dodie started to walk toward me, and when Mr. Clement saw that, he put his foot right out and tripped her. I know he did it on purpose.
“Dodie put out her arm to break her fall, but her wrist hit the ground hard. I wanted to help her up, but I was scared of what he might do to me.”
I looked down at my lap and was surprised to see blood on my finger where I’d been tearing at a hangnail.
“What happened next, Angie?”
Judge Withers’s voice was soft and gentle, the way I talked to Buster when I petted him.
“It’s important for you to tell us exactly what happened next,” he told me. “Take your time. Tell us what you saw.”
Jefferson Clement leaned forward in his seat, staring straight at me. He had lied and tried to make people think Willie Jack shoved Dodie off the cliff. Lying in court was a crime, wasn’t it? Would they put him in jail for that? Jail was where I wanted him to go.
Tell the truth, Angie. Tell it just the way it happened.
All I had to say was that Jefferson Clement put out his hand and gave Dodie a shove. That’s all it would take to get him out of our lives forever. I looked straight into his face and saw the fear in his eyes. I looked away from Mr. Clement and faced the judge.
“Dodie got up. She was holding her arm up against her chest. She started walking backward to get away from Mr. Clement and she backed right up to the edge of the cliff.
“When she started to fall I yelled at Mr. Clement to help her. But he never moved. Even when she screamed, he just watched her. Then she was gone.”
I couldn’t talk for a minute. I clenched my hands until my nails bit into my palms. When I finally said something, it didn’t sound like me at all, but like a voice somewhere outside myself.
“I’m telling the truth,” I said. “Mr. Clement never reached out to help Dodie. He put his hands down at his sides and watched her fall.” I swallowed hard and forced out the rest, the bitter-tasting words that would set Jefferson Clement free.
“But he didn’t … he didn’t push her … off the cliff.”
The spectators seemed to let out one breath in a big whoosh. Mr. Clement gave me a thin little smile that made him look as satisfied as a cat that’s cornered a mouse.
Judge Withers closed the notebook he had been writing in and stood up. I stood up, too. “I’m not finished,” I said.
Judge Withers sat back down, but I didn’t. I glanced around the courtroom and fastened my eyes on Miss Emma. She was patting her furs and watching me.
“Mr. Clement did bad things,” I said. “Dodie showed me the bruises on her arm that he made when she wouldn’t let him touch her anymore. He’s the one who tried to sneak into our tent when we were camping out in the minister’s backyard. He’s got my dog’s teeth marks in his backside if you need proof. He used his binoculars to look at us in our bathing suits, too.”
People began talking right out loud. Some of the ladies pressed their fingers against their mouths like I’d seen people do when they could hardly believe what they’d heard. Judge Withers had to pound the table with his gavel to get the room quiet enough for me to continue.
“I told the truth when I said he didn’t push Dodie over the cliff, but I’m also telling the truth when I say that it was his fault that she fell.
“Mr. Clement knew I heard Dodie say she would tell the whole town what he tried to do to her. He saw me standing there. He knew I had heard everything.”
Jefferson Clement jumped up so fast his chair tipped over. “Nobody will believe you, you lying little brat.” He was breathing hard, and his face was as red and swollen as an overripe tomato. “I never did any of those things. It was an accident. Nothing but an accident.”
He spoke as though Dodie’s injuries were no more important than a broken dish or a stubbed toe.
Judge Withers raised his voice. “You are out of order, Mr. Clement. Another outburst like that, and you will be removed from this room in the custody of the sheriff.”
Mr. Clement sat down. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.
I looked at Judge Withers. “I’ve been wondering,” I said, “why it is that people can know that a person has been doing bad things, but they just look the other way and try not to think about it.”
He looked at me for what seemed like a long time. Then he turned to the people in the courtroom. Some of them lowered their eyes, and others began to fidget as if their clothes were too tight. Judge Withers shook his head. “I wish I had an answer for you,” he said.
The courtroom was silent except for the sound of his nails tap-tapping once again on the wooden table
.
Finally he said, “Thank you, Angelina. You may be excused.”
I walked back to my seat. I was hardly aware of Geraldine or Reba Lu until they each took one of my hands and held them tight. There wasn’t a sound in the courtroom until Mr. Clement got up and turned to leave the room. But Judge Withers stopped him.
“Just a minute there,” he said. “You’re saying now that Dodie Crumper’s injury was an accident. But you testified that Willie Jack Kelly pushed her off the cliff. Are you saying that you want to change your statement?”
Mr. Clement didn’t answer. He glared at his wife with a look that told her the whole thing was her fault.
The judge waited for him to say something. But he didn’t. Judge Withers cleared his throat. It was so quiet in the room, I thought I could hear people breathing.
“A jury will have to make a decision about the cause of Dodie Crumper’s injuries. In the meantime, Mr. Clement, you have just convicted yourself of perjury. Lying to an officer of the court is a serious offense. You and I have a few things to talk about.” Judge Withers nodded toward the uniformed man who was standing by the door.
The rest of us stood to go, but the man at the door stopped Mr. Clement as he tried to leave the room.
I looked at Reba Lu and Geraldine. They were grinning. Charles held a fist in the air and mouthed the word YES.
Outside, the heat struck me like an oven suddenly opened wide. It felt good. It helped take away the coldness deep in my bones.
Mama and Daddy both put their arms around me, and Eddie gave me one of his crooked smiles. Reba Lu and Geraldine were talking excitedly about what was going to happen to Jefferson Clement now.
I wondered what Judge Withers was saying to him right that minute. Would he eventually be able to go home and live across the street from us again? Would I have to look into his face and see his little cat’s smile? I had a feeling that I hadn’t done anything to stop him … I had just slowed him down.
When the Crickets Stopped Singing Page 19