Allie was fortunate enough to have secured a spot just behind the Royal Purdy’s table, which she recognized to have come from the library. The judge’s bench and the rest of the furniture, according to a discreet signs attached to them, were provided courtesy of the furniture display at Wickwire’s. She saw Olivia on the other side of the room, sitting behind the prosecutor’s table. She was dressed as impeccably as ever in a beautiful mint green walking dress, but her face was the color of plaster. Allie knew she was completely unaccustomed to being in a crowd this size—certainly, even Allie was. But Olivia had no one to keep her company, no one familiar to sit next to or chat with. Allie caught herself beginning to feel sorry for her before she put a stop to the idea. Olivia, with her own lies, had put herself in this position.
Farley Wright, whose henhouse Jeff had been arrested for raiding, leaned against the bar, in deep discussion with another farmer. Even Lane Smithfield and his father, Elisha, had taken the time to come into town for this big event.
Floyd Endicott sat on a bench along the wall, unshaven and in overalls—essentially, looking no different than he did on any other day.
Allie frequently intercepted a curious stare from people in the crowd. That was to be expected, she supposed, but it was still unnerving. And if Olivia had told Royal Purdy about the night Allie spent with Jeff, there was no reason to believe that others didn’t know about it now, as well.
There was not one person in this room that Allie could count as a friend, she realized. Her life had been so empty and narrow. The one person who had changed that was going on trial for his life.
Sending up a silent prayer for Jeff’s deliverance, she interlaced her fingers tightly in her lap and waited—her stomach was knotted just as tightly.
Finally, after what seemed like an interminable delay, Jeff was ushered in through the Liberal’s back door, accompanied by Will Mason. Low, wordless murmuring rolled through the crowd like the wind moaning through treetops. Allie’s heart climbed to her throat. Dear God, he looked almost as pale as Allie felt herself, and yet she’d never seen him so handsome. The suit that Will had loaned him fit fairly well, showing off his wide, lean-muscled shoulders. Underneath he wore a clean white shirt, and a dark tie was knotted at his collar. He stood straight with his head up and his shoulders back, looking neither right nor left. He had the appearance of a soldier going into battle—scared but determined to hide it. Oh, gallant Jeff, she thought, pride lifting her own chin slightly as she gazed at him.
Will seated him at the table next to Royal Purdy, and only then did Jeff catch her eye. He sent her a brief, private smile that she knew was meant for her alone.
“All rise for the Honorable John Cavanaugh,” Will said.
A general shuffling of chair legs and light stamping of shoes on the plank flooring brought everyone to their feet. The judge, a dignified, white-haired man, entered, followed by his clerk. All were seated again, and the proceedings commenced.
The charges against Jeff were read, and sitting behind him, Allie saw his shoulders rise and fall as they would if he took a deep breath. Beside him, Royal Purdy, appeared unconcerned as he scribbled notes on a piece of paper.
Following opening statements, the first witness was called.
“Yes, indeed,” Dr. Brewster said, “I examined the body of Cooper Matthews. I’d say the blow to his head killed him. The wound appeared to have been made by a slender, pointed object.”
“Such as the point of a pick?” Marshall Hastings asked, taking up a big pick and holding it up for the physician to examine.
“Yes, exactly like that.”
“Let the record show that Dr. Brewster has indicated the murder weapon. Your witness,” Hastings said to Purdy.
The pale young lawyer stood, his voice infused with more authority than Allie had heard yet. “Doctor, in your learned opinion, could the wound have been caused by another kind of tool? Say an axe?”
Allie held her breath.
The doctor shook his head. “No, not in my opinion. The weapon pierced the brain, the sphenoid bone that forms the bottom of the brain box, and continued all the way through the roof of the man’s mouth. An axe would have left a bigger hole and created a much messier injury.” A few distressed moans rippled through the spectators. “The configuration of the wound indicated it was inflicted by that kind of weapon, there.” He pointed to the pick on the evidence table.
“Again, let the record show that Dr. Brewster is referring to the pick. Thank you, Doctor. No more questions.”
The doctor was excused.
Next, Floyd Endicott was called to testify. Allie stared at him while he swore on the Bible to tell the truth, and felt such a wave of anger and revulsion for the man, she grew lightheaded. She had disliked him ever since the day he’d demanded payment for painting her fence, when he’d spent the afternoon napping under her pear tree. Now, for telling this outrageous lie about Jeff, she despised him with every ounce of her being.
He lounged negligently in the chair next to the bench until Judge Cavanaugh barked at him to sit up and pay proper respect to the court. Floyd, wearing the idiotic grin of one so chastised, straightened up.
Hastings began his questioning. “Mr. Endicott, will you tell the court how you and Cooper Matthews came to be on the Ford property the night of the murder?”
“Miss O-livia Ford sent Cooper a letter. She asked him to come out and do another little job for her. Cooper wanted me to come with him to help, so I did.”
“And when did you encounter Mr. Hicks?”
Allie noted that the prosecutor neatly avoided the issue of the trespassing and vandalism committed by the two men.
Floyd sat up. “Oh, he come runnin’ out of the darkness, madder’n hell, cussin’ and callin’ us all kind of names like bastards an’—
Squeaks of offended feminine sensibility sounded here and there.
“That will do, Mr. Endicott,” Judge Cavanaugh interrupted. “A recitation of any profanities won’t be necessary.”
Floyd shrugged, and Hastings prompted, “Go on, please.”
“He was carryin’ that there pick with him, and he told us we were trespassin’. Well, everyone knows there’s been bad blood ‘tween him and Cooper for a long time, even before Hicks killed Cooper’s boy. There was lots more more yellin’ and” —Floyd glanced at the judge— “bad words, and before I knew it, he swung that pick down on Cooper’s head with all his might. God a-mighty, it was horrible! It made an awful sucking noise when he pulled it out. And blood squirted out of pore Cooper’s skull.”
“What did you do then?”
“Well, hoo-ee, boy, I figured I was next. I managed to pick up Cooper and dump him into the back of the wagon we come in, and I made tracks outta there.”
“How did you come into possession of the pick?”
“I decided I’d better take the thing along with us so’s Hicks couldn’t poke it into my head next!”
“You drove the wagon back to town?”
“Yessirree, I didn’t stop until I got to Sheriff Mason’s office. Cooper, he—he was dead by then.” Here Floyd worked up a few crocodile tears and his voice quavered. “He was the best friend I ever had—you can ask anybody. And that son of a bitch” —he pointed at Jeff— “he killed him! If there’s any justice, he’ll hang for crow bait!”
Allie bit back a gasp, and general murmuring broke out among the onlookers.
Royal Purdy stood. “Objection!”
“Sustained, and quiet in the court!” the judge ordered, and banged his gavel. “Mr. Endicott, you will confine your remarks to questions put to you.”
“I have no further questions,” Hastings said, looking rather smug. “Your witness, Mr. Purdy.”
Purdy paced slowly in front of Floyd, with his hands clasped behind his back. First one circuit, then another. Finally, he said, “You say that you and Mr. Matthews were on the Ford property because Miss Olivia Ford asked you to come out.”
“Yessir.”
> “To do another job for her, I believe you said.”
“Yessir, that’s right.”
“Did you ever see a letter that Mr. Matthews received from her?”
“No, Cooper said he tore ’em up, just like she wanted.”
“What previous chores had you performed at her request?”
“Well, just one other. She had us come out one night and hang a spook in the barn.”
“A spook.”
“Yeah, it was a dummy she made up, stuffed with feathers and wearin’ a dress. Said she wanted to play a joke on someone but she couldn’t reach the rafter. So me and Cooper came out and strung it up for her.”
This time Allie did gasp. So that’s how it had come about. Olivia swore she hadn’t put that horrible thing in the barn, and in her mind, she probably believed it was close enough to the truth. She glared at her sister across the room. Olivia, keeping her eyes on the proceedings, blanched a bit, but otherwise showed no emotion.
Purdy nodded, and kept pacing. “Miss Olivia paid you to do this.”
“She paid Cooper ten dollars. He gave me four.”
Allie swallowed and swallowed, but her throat was as dry as chalk.
“And what job were you doing out there the night Mr. Matthews was killed?”
“We were salting the field that Hicks had planted.”
“Destroying the Ford vegetable garden, wasn’t it?”
“Uh, yeah.” Then more emphatically, “That’s what Cooper said she wanted!”
“And how much did she pay you to do this?”
“At first Cooper told me it was ten dollars, and that I’d get four, same as the other time. But then when we were working, she came out to pay us and I found out she was givin’ him twenty, and he was still gonna give me four.”
Sitting behind him, Allie couldn’t see Jeff’s face. She could only judge his reactions by the way his back stiffened or relaxed. Right now, he sat bolt upright.
“So Mr. Matthews—your best friend—lied to you. He knew it was twenty dollars all along.”
“Yeah—”
Marshall Hastings came to his feet, plainly displeased with the direction of Purdy’s questioning. “Your honor, I fail to see what any of this has to do with the matter in question. None of it pertains to the crime or the charges.”
“I would like to hear this, Mr. Hastings.” Judge Cavanaugh fixed the prosecutor with a hard look, and Hastings sat down.
“How big would you say that field is, Mr. Endicott?” Purdy continued.
“’Bout an acre, I guess.”
“An acre—that’s a lot of salt to spread in the dead of night when most people are sleeping. Especially for four dollars. Did you consider that?”
Floyd shifted in his chair. “It crossed my mind.”
“I imagine it did.” Purdy gazed at him for a long moment, as if considering something the man had said. Then, “I have no other questions.”
“Does that mean I can go?” Floyd asked the judge. From where she sat, Allie could see a thin sheen of perspiration on Floyd’s face.
“It does not. It means you can return to your seat.”
He shambled back to his chair, looking none too pleased.
Next, Olivia was called to the stand. Allie stared at her, feeling as if she were watching a stranger.
Marshall Hastings was especially solicitous to her, and led her through a testimony in which she repeated the same story she’d told Will Mason. It differed somewhat from Floyd’s version. She didn’t look nearly as confident as she had before, though.
When Royal Purdy was called to cross-examine, he was every bit as polite and mild.
“I understand that you are of delicate health, Miss Ford, so we’ll try to move things along as quickly as possible.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
Allie gritted her teeth.
“You testified, under oath, that you never sent any letters to Cooper Matthews?”
“Oh, my, no. I’d never seen him or Mr. Endicott until this whole sorry business came about.”
“So you didn’t pay either one of them to perform chores on your property.”
“No, my sister, Althea, has been in charge of those things since our father died.”
“How is it that you happened to see Mr. Hicks out in the field the night of the murder?”
“Well, sometimes I have trouble sleeping, and I sit on our back porch. The night air helps clear my head. There was a half moon that night and I saw Mr. Hicks leave the shed—that’s where my sister had given him a place to sleep. He was carrying a pick.”
“Did he see you?”
“No, he never looked at me. He didn’t know I was there.”
“Where did he go?”
“He headed off toward the field he’d planted. I couldn’t imagine what he’d be doing outside in the middle of the night with a tool like that. And he was gone for the longest time. Finally, I decided I’d better go and have a look myself.” She turned wide, innocent eyes on Purdy. “After all, a person wandering around in the dark by himself could get hurt. I had to check.”
Allie heard a faint snort come from Jeff. She herself closed her hands into fists in her lap.
“You said he was gone for a long time. How long would you say?”
“Oh, it must have been an hour or better. You can see why I was worried.”
“Do you know what time it was?”
“I think—yes, I’m sure it was about two o’clock. I heard the clock chime on the mantle in the house. It wasn’t until after three that I went looking for him.”
Liar, liar, liar! Allie screamed in her heart. Jeff wasn’t outside at two o’clock, and he wasn’t gone for over an hour. He wasn’t! The muscles in her back and legs began to flex, as if fighting her will to remain seated. She clenched her back teeth, every muscle in her body as tight as an overwound mainspring.
“And you’re sure he was carrying that pick over there when you saw him.” Again, Purdy indicated the murder weapon on the evidence table.
“Yes, definitely.”
“You don’t think the moonlight could have played tricks on your eyes.”
Olivia lifted her chin a bit haughtily. “I know what I saw, Mr. Purdy. There is nothing wrong with my eyesight.”
Royal Purdy stepped over to the bar and reached behind it, producing an axe. “You didn’t see this axe in his hands?”
Olivia couldn’t hide the surprise on her face upon seeing the axe. “N-no! He had a pick.”
As Purdy turned he caught Allie’s eye and shrugged slightly. They’d gone out to the farm yesterday and after some searching, they’d found the axe exactly where Jeff had told her he’d left it—in the blackberries.
“And he was gone a long time,” Olivia re-emphasized. “Long enough to have killed Cooper Matthews!”
Allie had sat quivering in her chair, listening to the lies Floyd and Olivia told. Fear and anger raged within her. She would not stand by and let them help convict Jeff of this horrible crime in order save their own worthless hides. She had a furious desire to run up to the front and knock everyone’s heads together. Couldn’t they see what Olivia and Floyd were doing? Then, as if some power other than her own had willed it, she found herself shooting to her feet. “She’s lying!”
The room erupted in a buzz of murmurs, and Judge Cavanaugh pounded his gavel. “Order!”
All eyes were turned on Allie, but she felt Jeff’s flinty look boring into her like a physical thing.
“Allie! For God’s sake, don’t do this.”
But she continued, heedless of the judge’s command or Jeff’s appeal.
“I was with Jeff Hicks that night, all night, and I will swear to it under oath.”
“Damn it, Allie, I told you I wouldn’t let you say—”
“Order in this courtroom!”
Jeff jumped up as well. “I was not with her. Miss Ford is lying to protect me.”
Yes, she was, and even though it was a small lie, it didn’t
come easily to her. But Allie had vowed to do whatever it took to protect Jeff. And if lying under oath and in the face of God would help, she’d do it. She knew Jeff was innocent. God knew it, too.
Judge Cavanaugh continued to pound his gavel.
Eli Wickwire’s discreet furniture advertisement fell off the desk and was trampled by the clerk.
Chatter swirled through the crowd.
“What did she say?”
“Jesus, those Ford sisters really are crazy.”
“This is an outrage. Do young people have no decency at all anymore?”
“I will have order in this courtroom or find everyone here in contempt!” the judge said, now on his feet as well, his face the color of a rooster’s comb. He pointed his gavel handle at Allie. “Young woman, who are you?”
Though Allie’s insides were shaking like her best raspberry jelly, she forced herself to speak up. “I am Althea Ford, Olivia’s sister.” She glared at Olivia. “I can vouch for Mr. Hicks’ whereabouts, and I will.”
“Allie, honey, no,” Jeff whispered, his feelings for her plain on his face. But she would not heed him. Her love for him was stronger than any lie, stronger than her fear. She wouldn’t sacrifice Jeff without a fight.
“I was . . . I kept company with him the night that Cooper Matthews was killed. The whole night.”
Judge Cavanaugh commented sourly, “Two witnesses have been sworn in this morning, and I have the feeling that no one has told the truth yet. Mr. Hicks, you sit down right now. This isn’t a free-for-all, it’s a court of law. We’ll get to the bottom of this if it takes us till kingdom come!” Then turning to Allie, he ordered, “Miss Ford, you come up here and be sworn in.”
He excused Olivia, who left the stand without sparing her a glance. Terror made Allie feel as if she were running a gauntlet to reach the chair next to the judge. All eyes in the room were turned upon her, assessing her. They stared at her as if they would stone her for fornication, but she also sensed their hunger for salacious detail. Shame flooded her cheeks with hot blood. She felt no shame for what had passed between her and Jeff. But it had been private, to be shared with only him, not a roomful of people.
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