"Anyway," she rushed on, fearing any second someone would find her there, "Matt tried to head her off, but they got there at the same time. Rudy was dead, and Emma Jean was holding the knife and covered in blood."
"But what does that have to do with Alma thinking Emma Jean shot me?"
"Somehow she got the idea you'd met her at the cemetery and told her you weren't going to get a divorce and marry her, so she went crazy, shot you, then went home and killed Rudy."
Luke felt like he'd been hit in the gut with a bowling ball. "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard of. And how come Alma was suspicious of me and Emma Jean, anyway? Had there been talk? And what about Matt? Had he heard something, too?"
Sara's smile was sad and wry. "Weren't you the one who told me nothing goes on in Hampton that everyone doesn't eventually find out about? No doubt there was gossip about you two, but there's no need in worrying about that now. What's done is done. What we've got to do is get you out of here so you can testify about Rudy beating her in the past... how he made her lose her baby."
"Hell, Sara, I can't even walk." He threw his head back on the pillow in frustration, then looked at her with troubled eyes. "What about Matt? Have you talked to him? I'm mad as hell over him not telling me about this."
"Alma made him promise not to, and he doesn't want to get involved. Neither does Kirby. Believe me, I've tried everything." She told him about talking to Mel Parker and how he'd refused to listen and chastised her for the accusations about Burch.
"So without you, she doesn't stand a prayer," Sara finished miserably. "I just wish I was strong enough to carry you out of here myself."
Again, his jaw clenched. "Well, you aren't, but I know somebody who is, and I want you to call him and repeat what you've told me. He knows about Emma Jean because I'd arranged for her to live with him and his wife if she left Rudy. Tell him to call our buddy in Mobile. He'll know what to do. Then tell Emma Jean not to worry."
Sara was not as confident as Luke. "Are you sure you can depend on him?"
Luke wished there was time to tell her just how much. Instead, with a firm nod, he said, "We were in Special Forces together in Nam."
He gestured to the blue and white striped hospital gown he was wearing. "Tell him I'll need some clothes, too."
"I'll take care of right now. Just tell me his name."
"Hey! Here she is."
An orderly in green scrubs rushed in after opening the door to discover Sara. Another was right behind him.
Luke reached for the bar and tried to pull himself up. "Get your damn hands off her. Leave her alone."
"Sorry, but she's not allowed in the hospital," one of the orderlies said as he and his partner grabbed Sara and began pulling her out of the room.
Luke let go of the bar, snatched up his water pitcher from the table next to the bed and threw it. "I said leave her alone, damn you."
"Luke, the name," Sara cried, struggling with all her might against the two men dragging her. "I need his name."
"Woody," he shouted. "Woody McElrath. He lives in West Birmingham, and his number is..."
The door closed.
* * *
"We should have you arrested," the head security guard told Sara with a scathing glare after she was taken to his office. "It'd serve you right to stay in jail a day or two, but you say you've got kids."
"Yes," she said hotly. "And I wasn't doing anything wrong, just trying to see an old friend. And he wanted to see me, too."
"I'm going to let you go." He nodded to the orderlies to release her. "But if I catch you pulling a stunt like this again, I will have you arrested for trespassing because you've been told to stay off hospital grounds."
"Maybe I'll sue your damn hospital," she said, reaching down to rub at her still-burning legs, "for having such a lazy janitor."
She rushed out of the office, leaving the three men to exchange bewildered looks.
* * *
Sara stopped at the first pay phone she came to. There was no phone book, but she dialed information and found one listing for Woody McElrath. He answered on the second ring, sounding annoyed to be awakened. But all she had to say was, "It's about Luke Ballard. He needs your help," and he was all ears.
He listened in silence, then brusquely said, "I'll take care of it," and hung up.
Somehow, Sara felt she could believe him and told herself not to worry anymore. It was out of her hands.
* * *
Friday passed with agonizing slowness. She had to wait until dark to sneak and see Emma Jean again. Finally, supper was over, the kitchen cleaned up, and Tim left for his weekly poker game. Sara put the children to bed, waited till they were asleep, then left. She didn't like leaving them alone but didn't plan on being gone very long. When she got to the basement entrance of the courthouse, it was locked. She jiggled the handle, then peered through the glass and knocked. She was about to give up when she saw someone coming down the hall toward her and recognized Mel Parker.
He opened the door. "Sara, what are you doing here so late?We've had to start locking the doors at night. There have been some threats against Emma Jean."
"Isn't that against the law?" she asked irately. "Shouldn't you make some arrests instead of merely locking doors?"
"We have no proof who they are," he said, likewise annoyed.
"Well, I'm here to see Emma Jean."
"Well, you can't. She doesn't want any visitors."
"Yes, she does. Burch is lying when he says she doesn't."
"Sara, you can see her in court Monday morning. Now I've got to get home, and you'd best leave before you get in trouble."
He stepped out of the courthouse, pointedly closing the door behind him. Sara heard it lock. "Damn you, Mel. You're as big a skunk as Burch Cleghorn."
"Hey, now, that's no way to talk about me."
Burch Cleghorn walked up, smiling and looking at peace with himself and everyone else. He glanced at them in turn, then focused on Sara. "What is your problem?"
It was all she could do to keep from screaming. "You know darn well I want to see Emma Jean, and you won't let me."
He gave Mel a helpless shrug. Mel nodded as though he understood. Then Burch said, "Sara, I'd love for you to see Emma Jean. I've encouraged her to have visitors, but she refuses, and I have to honor that. I can't let you go up there when it will only upset her."
Dismissing her, he focused on Mel. "I hope things go smoothly. I'm real sorry about the Veazey family being so stirred up, but maybe, once this is over, the healing can begin."
"Well, I appreciate your not wanting to drag it out, Burch," Mel said with a tip of his hat. "See you Monday morning."
"Oh, you might see me on the golf course tomorrow," Burch gaily called after him. "I'm playing with Buddy and Hardy."
"Sure thing. Maybe for a drink after."
Sara stood her ground, ready to fight her way in when Burch opened the door. "I'm going in, and you'd better not try to stop me."
She expected him to respond with his usual angry threats, but he surprised by maintaining his calm. "Now, Sara. I know you're angry with me, but I can't help what Dewey asked me to do. He just wanted to make sure you didn't hurt his family, and it's a shame he didn't have time to execute the paper saying so. I hadn't planned to show it to them, but if you don't stop saying bad things about me, you leave me no choice."
For a few seconds, she could only stare at him, wondering what he was talking about, if she had even heard him right.
He continued, "As I told you before, he came to me only a month before he died and wanted it made clear you would have no claim on his estate, even though the two of you had an illicit, and what some folks might consider incestuous, relationship for many years."
"You are mad," Sara whispered in horror, thinking that this was his plan to see everyone knew about her and Dewey... by making up the most dastardly lie possible.
His smile made her flesh crawl as he dared to embellish, "You do remember we talked about this i
n my office when you inquired about his will. You said you expected him to leave you something."
"I've never been to your office, and you know it. You're making every bit of this up, and you won't get away with it, just like you won't get away with making Emma Jean plead guilty when it was self-defense."
He was holding his briefcase but tucked it under his arm so he could spread his hands in a feigned gesture of concession. "She can plead anything she wants. I do whatever she tells me to. I don't know where you got the ridiculous idea that I was out to see she gets the death sentence. I have only her best interests at heart.
"And, yes," he added, eyes glittering, "Mel Parker told me how you went to him with your slanderous lies. I could sue you for that. But perhaps when all this is over, you'll come to your senses and apologize. I'm sure we can work something out and become good friends." He winked.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to visit my client," he finished. He hadn't seen Emma Jean in a few weeks and needed to tell her the trial was about to start, not that it would make any difference. She was like a vegetable with no more personality than a carrot.
He reached for the door. Sara was right behind him.
"Sara, if you insist on making a scene, you leave me no choice but to show Dewey's poor widow that paper."
"There is no paper," she said, not realizing how much she truly hated him till that moment.
"Why, of course, there is," he smiled. "All typed up and ready to be signed. But when she reads it, she won't care about that. She'll believe every word of it.
"Now run along," he added, eyes hooding with malice, "or I'll do it, so help me."
Sara had no choice but to concede. Burch had won the battle, but not the war. Luke would see to that.
At least she prayed that's how it would be.
* * *
When Emma Jean saw Burch, she rushed to wrap her fingers around the bars and cry, "I'm going to plead not guilty. I killed Rudy in self-defense."
"Did you now?" Very calmly, he pulled up a bench in the walkway between the cells and sat down. "What makes you think the jury will believe you?"
"Because it's the truth, and because it's time I took up for myself." Her eyes were cold with accusation. "Sara Speight came to see me and made me realize that."
Burch frowned. "When was that?"
"It doesn't matter. What does matter is that I know you lied and said I didn't want any visitors, just like you lied about Luke. He's not going to die. He's out of his coma. He's going to live, and he's going to help me."
"Is he now?" Carrot, indeed, he thought, annoyed. She was spunky as an unbroken colt.
"Yes, because he can back me up about Rudy's beatings. He's seen the bruises. He can also testify Rudy beat me so bad I had a miscarriage because he took me to the hospital. I'll tell the jury what happened that night, how Rudy came home and threatened to kill me. He's the one who got the butcher knife and brought it into the bedroom. Then he raped me, and I just couldn't take it any more.
"Luke is going to say it wasn't me that shot him, too," she added with a lift of her chin. "Sara told me how folks have been saying I did."
Burch crossed his legs, folded his hands on his knees and sighed. "Oh, Emma Jean, Sara did a cruel thing by getting you all stirred up like this because if you change your plea you'll likely die in the electric chair."
Emma Jean's knuckles turned white as she gripped the bars tighter. "How can that be? If I say I'm guilty I don't stand a prayer."
"Yes, you do, because all you'll be doing is admitting you killed Rudy and you're throwing yourself on the mercy of the court. The jury will then be lenient and give you a prison sentence. You'll be out on parole in a few years. If you plead not guilty, that means a long, drawn-out trial. I'll have to ask the court to have you evaluated by a psychiatrist in hopes that he'd testify you were genuinely in fear for your life when you committed murder. On the other hand, if he doesn't think so, and there's a chance he might not, then the court will show no mercy, and you'll go to the electric chair."
She was swept with terror. "But I have to try. And Luke will help me. I know he will."
"How can he help you when they're saying he has brain damage?" Burch had not heard that, but what difference did it make? Any means to justify the end, by damn.
"No, that can't be..."
"But it can be, my dear. After all, a bullet went in his brain. He probably won't ever be completely normal. He might not remember everything—everyone—in his life, including you."
Slowly, her hands slipped down the bars as her knees began to buckle. Sinking to the floor, she rolled into a fetal position and began to weep.
Burch knelt beside the bars, and, making his voice sound husky with compassion, said, "I'm your friend, Emma Jean. You must believe that. Why else would I have offered my services for free to defend you? Everybody else in town hates you for what you did, but I care about you. I want to take care of you, and I will, if you'll trust me and do as I say: plead guilty and throw yourself on the mercy of the court."
He reached through the cell bars to slowly run his fingers down her arm. "Emma Jean, will you let me help you? There's no one else. Sara might care, but she can't really do anything for you. She can't be a witness because she wasn't there. Luke won't be able to do anything because he's an idiot. I hear he babbles and drools and can't control his bowels or his bladder and has to wear a diaper, and..."
"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" She screamed and covered her ears with her hands. "Don't talk about him like that. Don't say things like that. If Luke won't be like he was before, then I don't care what happens to me. I don't care, do you hear me? So do what you will. I don't care..."
Her cries became hysterical as she seemed to melt into the floor in her hopelessness.
Burch stood, feeling quite satisfied with himself. "Well, I care about you, Emma Jean. Now get hold of yourself and try to get a good night's sleep. You're in good hands."
Whistling under his breath, head high, and feeling better than he had in too long to remember, he merrily went his way.
Chapter 31
The courtroom was packed; the atmosphere was tense. Some of Rudy Veazey's kin had camped out on the lawn the night before so they could rush inside the second the doors were unlocked. Then they stretched out on the hard wooden benches to save seats for the rest of their clan, which left little room for anyone else. Just about everyone in the hills surrounding Hampton was related to the Veazeys in some way, and they had banded together wanting revenge for the death of one of their own.
Sara was able to find a seat only by pushing and shoving her way in but wound up on the back row. At least she was next to the aisle, where she could watch for Luke. She also intended to run down to the front of the courtroom when Emma Jean entered to give her his message. She had tried to call Woody McElrath the day before, but his wife sounded strange when she said he was out of town. Sara began to fret that maybe he hadn't found a way to help and didn't want to admit it and wouldn't come to the phone.
Alma walked in, saw Sara, and leaned to hiss furiously in her ear, "I heard about you sneaking in the hospital Friday night, you little hussy. Do it again, and I swear I'll have you arrested."
Sara swept her with a flash of contempt. "We both know why you tried to keep me out, Alma, but it won't work. He loves Emma Jean, and he'll be here to help her. Just wait and see."
Alma's hands shook, itching to slap her. "If we were anywhere else I'd claw your eyes out. And you're crazy if you think he'll be here. He can't walk, you fool."
She proceeded down the aisle. Emma Jean craned her neck to watch as Alma sat down with the Veazey family directly behind the railing next to the prosecutor's table and Mel Parker.
The woman sitting next to Sara opened a bag and took out a banana and began to peel it. She saw Sara watching and politely offered, "Want one? I got pig's feet and pickled eggs, too. When they break for lunch, I don't intend to give up my seat."
"No, thanks," Sara mumbled. She
'd never seen her before and figured her to be distant Veazey kin.
"Wonder if the murderin' hussy will stand trial for shooting the sheriff, too."
"She didn't shoot him," Sara curtly said.
The woman looked her up and down. "How come you know so much? Everybody says she did."
"Everybody is wrong." Sara turned away, and the woman gave a haughty sniff but didn't say anything else.
Suddenly a stirring rippled through the room as the door behind the Judge's bench opened and Matt walked in with Emma Jean. She was wearing orange button-up coveralls, jail-issue. Her hair had been combed but obviously needed washing.
Bertha Veazey leaped to her feet and screamed, "Murdering bitch. You killed my boy."
Wilbur Veazey joined in. "You better hope they fry your ass before I get my hands on you."
Matt warned, "I've told you the judge isn't going to put up with that. He will clear the courtroom."
They sat back down, grumbling.
Emma Jean kept her head down as Matt led her to the chair behind the table where Burch Cleghorn was already seated. Matt unfastened the handcuffs, then took his place behind her. Sara's heart sank. Where was the spirit she had witnessed in Emma Jean when she had seen her before? What had Burch said to make her so cowed?
Rudy's Aunt Pinella was sitting directly in front of Sara and said to no one in particular, "That Burch Cleghorn is a fine man. He knows she's guilty, and he ain't gonna waste taxpayers' money by trying to prove she ain't. When this is all over, I'm going to make him one of my pecan pies."
Sara could not resist blurting, "And I hope he chokes on every bite."
The woman next to Sara poked her in the side with a banana. "You better stick this in your mouth or you're gonna start a riot."
Sara was not about to be quiet. She started down the aisle, intent on telling Emma Jean not to worry, that Luke would be there. But she had not gone far when Kirby grabbed her arm. "Don't make me have to run out of here, Sara," he said quietly. "Now get in your seat and stay there, please."
"I need to speak to Emma Jean."
Final Justice Page 35