Gospel According to Prissy

by Barbara Casey

  “Follow Jacowitz here.” Then looking over her head, “Next.”

  Lara moved away from the desk as an elderly woman approached clutching a handbag the size of a folded garment bag tightly against her breast.

  “You back again, Mrs. O’Hara?” Lara heard the sergeant ask.

  Lara followed Jacowitz down a hall, up a flight of stairs, and down another hall. When they got to the on-duty officer, Jacowitz handed him the slip of paper. The other officer looked at Lara. “This way,” he said, and he led Lara through several locked doors. Lara heard each door relock once they were inside. They were in the jail itself; rows of locked cells lined the walls. There wasn’t the noise that Lara had encountered downstairs, and the horrible smells had been replaced by the strong odor of disinfectant. All of the cells appeared to be occupied with one or more people. Most of the people were sleeping on cots in the cells. The ones who weren’t sleeping were simply sitting or standing and staring into space.

  Beth was sitting on her cot. Her hands covered her face. When the officer unlocked the door, Beth looked up.

  “Lara,” she cried and rushed into Lara’s arms.

  “It’s going to be all right,” Lara soothed. “Everything is going to be all right.”

  It took a great deal of coaxing and patience on Lara’s part to get Beth to tell her what happened. Beth was on the verge of hysteria. The lateness of the hour and the fact that she hadn’t had anything to eat since morning didn’t help.

  “Just start at the beginning,” Lara told Beth after Beth’s sobs finally subsided.

  “It took a lot longer to build the set than I thought it would,” she said.

  “There’s always a lot of work involved in building scenery for a play,” encouraged Lara.

  “Two other girls, Darnell and Cathy, and I practically did the whole thing by ourselves. I’d never had much to do with them before.”

  “You mean Darnell and Cathy?” interrupted Lara.

  “That’s right. You know. They had their own crowd they ran around with and all. I’ve known them both since grade school, but Darnell moved away last year – to Atlanta I think – and then came back just recently.”

  Lara nodded.

  “Well, we really had a good time building the set, and it really looked good. Everybody said so. So after we finished, Cathy and Darnell asked me to go with them to get something to eat. I felt kinda flattered that they wanted to include me. And besides, I knew Mom and Dad were having their party.” At the mention of her parents, Beth started to cry again.

  “Don’t think about that,” said Lara patting her hand. “So you went to get something to eat?”

  Beth nodded. “Cathy had her car and we were going to that hamburger place across from the college campus.”

  “Hamburger Heaven,” offered Lara.

  Beth nodded. “Well, before we got there Darnell said she wanted to stop at Schlage to see someone. She said it would only take a few minutes.”

  “Do you mean Schlage Lock Company?”

  “That’s right. Cathy drove around back and Darnell got out and went up to the door. She pushed a buzzer, and after a few minutes someone opened the door and she went in.”

  “Did you see who let her in?”

  “It was an older man, about Dad’s age. I was surprised because I thought maybe she had a boyfriend working there as a security guard or something. But it was this older guy.”

  “Go on,” encouraged Lara.

  “Cathy had left the car running and we were listening to the radio. But after a while, I started to get worried. I mean it was getting so late and I hadn’t called Mom to let her know I was going to get something to eat before coming home. Mom and Dad were already mad at me because I told them I didn’t want to go to the University of North Carolina. I didn’t want them to get any more upset with me than they already were.

  “So I told Cathy I was going to get Darnell – I had to go home. I went up to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. So I rang the buzzer the way Darnell did. When I did, I heard a scuffling sound. I thought it was some cats fighting. It was so dark. Then all of a sudden Cathy just drove off – really fast. A few seconds later Darnell came running out of the building and almost knocked me down. She shoved something in my hand and ran. I thought she was trying to run after Cathy or something. That’s when all the police showed up.”

  Lara was sitting next to Beth on the cot with her arm around her as she talked. Beth looked so young and so frightened.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” Beth said softly.

  Lara got up and yanked off some brown paper towels hanging next to the wash basin. She soaked them with cold water and went back to Beth where she pressed the towels on the back of her neck.

  “It was a knife,” said Beth. “I didn’t even realize I was holding it, with all the lights flashing and the police yelling at me. I just thought maybe I had accidentally set off a burglar alarm or something when I tried to open the door. I tried to tell them about Darnell and all, but they kept yelling at me to ‘drop my weapon.’”

  Lara wrapped her arms around Beth. “We’ll get all of this straightened out. There’s just been a terrible misunderstanding.”

  “Lara, they strip-searched me.” Beth’s voice was hardly above a whisper. Her eyes were dark and sunken.

  “I know it must have been terrible for you.” Lara held Beth close to her. After a few minutes she said, “Beth, you trusted me enough to call me. Now I want you to trust me enough to do the best thing for you. Will you?”

  “You’re going to tell my folks, aren’t you?”

  “Honey, we don’t have a choice here. Your mom and dad love you more than anything in this world. They won’t let you down. Besides that, your dad is a lawyer. He’ll know what to do to get you out of this stinking place.”

  Lara stood up and pushed Beth’s hair from her face. “Sit tight.”

  It was a stupid thing to say. Like Beth could get up and leave if she wanted to. But it made Lara feel better to say it.

  Beth answered, “I will.”

  Lara used a pay phone in the receiving area back downstairs. Carole and Bob arrived a short time later still dressed in their party clothes. Within the hour Bob had his daughter released into his custody. While waiting for the paper work to be completed, Lara learned that the night watchman at Schlage Lock Company had been stabbed through the heart.

  It was almost daylight by the time Lara got back home. She took off her clothes and stood under a hot shower until she could no longer smell the stench of jail on her. After she dried off she pulled the quilt off her bed and carried it into the living room where she curled up on the couch, exhausted.

  Let me see that cut on your face. Oh, that’s not bad. You can hide it with some makeup, can’t you? Honey, you know I didn’t mean it. It’s just that I’ve been under so much stress lately with this new job. You understand, don’t you? I don’t want you to tell anyone about this. I know you won’t. I would never do anything to hurt you. I love you.

  A few minutes later Lara was asleep.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  LARA SLEPT MOST of the day and into the night, waking only to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and wash a load of clothes. Monday morning she got up and dressed, and left for work. A probable cause hearing was scheduled for later that day. There was little doubt how it would go. With Beth found at the scene holding the murder weapon, and with no witnesses to corroborate her story about Darnell and Cathy, there would have to be a trial. Bob asked a former classmate to represent his daughter. The two men had not only gone through law school together, they had worked together on several cases when they were first getting established in their careers. Later, Bob had turned more toward general law, whereas Tom Dillard had become a criminal attorney and one of the best in the field.

  Of course, everyone in town was talking about the case. Carole took a leave of absence from the real estate office, not because she was afraid of all the gossip, but because
she wanted to be with Beth. She knew Beth couldn’t do such a terrible thing as to kill someone. But she was also pragmatic enough to know that cases like these were won or lost on the evidence. And the evidence pointed to Beth’s guilt.

  As Lara drove out, she noticed that all of the pine straw had been raked into the azalea beds. Randall must have worked on Sunday while she slept. Then she remembered she still hadn’t gone to the grocery store. Maybe she could go after work today.

  Sylvia was waiting for her when Lara got to her office. Lara could tell something was up from the look on Sylvia’s face. Sylvia closed the door. There was already a cup of coffee on Lara’s desk.

  “It must really be something bad,” Lara half-heartedly joked. And then before Sylvia said anything, Lara knew. It always amazed Lara how Sylvia could find out things going on around campus weeks and months in advance. But she could. She was the one who first told her that Peters was having an affair with the student assistant in the public relations office. She had also told Lara about the secret Board of Directors meeting that had been called to order Peters to knock it off, so to speak. Sylvia knew which boys had broken into the records office, although that was never proved. She knew when Anna in accounting got pregnant with her first child and that it was accomplished through in vitro fertilization. And she knew this morning that North Carolina Piedmont College would close its doors following May Term for the last time.

  “Are you absolutely sure?” Lara asked. “I mean, maybe it’s just gossip.” But she really didn’t doubt Sylvia. She had known what the decision would be after her presentation to the Board and Council members.

  “The Board had a closed meeting yesterday and made the decision.”

  “On Sunday?”

  Sylvia nodded. “Incidentally, I hear you made quite a hit with your presentation. Mark Caldwell, the Judge, Senator MacAlly, Carole, and that new person, Miriam Temple, all supported you.” Sylvia tried to sound comforting.

  “Apparently it wasn’t enough.” Lara sank down in her chair. “Do you know when they plan to announce it to the public?”

  “Just before the students leave for England in May on that study-abroad tour.” The England trip had always been a popular course with the students. Two weeks traveling abroad in May for four college credits. “Graduation will still take place the last Sunday in May, as scheduled. But that will be it.” Sylvia perched on the corner of Lara’s desk and watched Lara sip her coffee.

  “What will you do?” asked Lara.

  Sylvia shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about taking the boys back to Ohio and maybe staying with my mother for a while on the farm. She’s been wanting me to come back for a long time. She’s getting older now, and even though she rents out most of the land, there’s always a need for some extra help. And it would be good for the boys. All that fresh air.”

  Lara thought of the summers when she was a small child, going to visit the people she called her grandparents on a farm. Those were some of her favorite memories.

  Sylvia stopped annihilating the note pad she always carried around with her and tossed the shredded strips of paper into the trash container. “What about you?”

  Lara thought for a moment. “I don’t have any family left. At least no one I know about. I guess I’ll try to find something else around here. Maybe with one of the industries moving into the area. Now that I own my own home, I feel settled here.”

  “It’s such a shame, isn’t it?”

  Lara looked at the bulging folder still on her desk that contained her television proposal. “Yes, it is.”

  “Well, I’d better get to work.”

  Most of what Lara had been doing involved fund raising. What was the point now if the college was closing? She tried writing up some drafts of releases that would go to the local and state news media when the announcement was made. Then she wrote a letter to Jonathan Goode at WRAL TV thanking him for his support – again to be mailed at the appropriate time. She wondered when Peters would tell the administration and faculty. She didn’t have long to wonder. Peters’ secretary called to tell her a meeting of faculty and administrative staff would be held in the conference room the next afternoon. So that was it then. Once it was announced, it would be final.

  * * *

  Humming the tune to Moon River, Miriam was still thinking about the “little get together” she had attended at Carole and Bob Parker’s home over the weekend when she arrived at work on Monday morning. It had been time well spent. Not only had Senator MacAlly squeezed some arms in support of a new work program at Braden, many of the people attending the party actually volunteered to serve as mentors in the program. Miriam had been especially interested in what Lara had said about what a small college could offer disadvantaged or unmotivated students. In some ways, Braden was like a small college. It trained and prepared women to better fit into a society that proved difficult otherwise. At least that was what she hoped the work program could do. Miriam was convinced more than ever that Lara would make an exceptional administrator of such a program. But she would have to act fast. From the sound of it, the college wouldn’t be open much longer, and with Lara’s qualifications, she was bound to find other employment without any difficulty.

  Curiously, outside her office Alice and several of the night-duty guards were waiting when she got there. Miriam immediately thought about Lynda. But she hadn’t been any trouble at all since that one incident.

  “Good morning. What’s up?”

  “We’d better go into your office,” Alice said. That was what she always said whenever she had to discuss something that was particularly upsetting or if she didn’t want to be overheard by any of the inmates.

  Miriam unlocked the door to her office and went in. “Okay. So what’s up?”

  Everyone glanced around, waiting to see who would speak up first. Finally Louise, the guard stationed at the Infirmary, stepped forward.

  “Tanya is dead.”

  No one moved. No one said anything else. Prissy’s mother was dead. That was it.

  Miriam sat down at her desk. Thoughts rushed through her mind. She had been dreading this day, knowing eventually it would come. But she had been hopeful that it wouldn’t be for a while. Only she was aware of the full ramifications of Tanya’s death. It could change everything. The dynamics of Braden – of any prison – were precarious at best. Tanya, because of her young daughter, was a significant part of those dynamics.

  “When?”

  “Late last night.”

  Miriam nodded. She knew Tanya was ill. But she had taken turns for the worst before, and always she rallied. It was the nature of the disease. Miriam had no reason to suspect that she wouldn’t rally this time. Apparently, she had been wrong.

  Someone cleared her throat. “What’s going to happen to Prissy?”

  “She’ll have to go live with a relative.”

  “She can’t…” several started speaking at once. “She belongs here. This is her home.”

  “We don’t have any choice in the matter.” Miriam shook her head still trying to understand the significance of what had happened. “It is by order of the State that a child can reside here only so long as its mother is incarcerated at this facility. If the mother leaves for any reason, and the child can no longer be with the mother, the child must be released into the custody of the nearest relative.”

  “But what if there is no other relative?” Alice asked.

  “Then the child will be put into foster care under the custody of the State.”

  By now several of the women were crying. Prissy belonged to all of them. And they belonged to her. She didn’t know anything else. To have her taken away was unthinkable.

  “Where is Prissy now?” asked Miriam. She needed to take control of the situation.

  “Roylene is with her. They have gone to Prissy’s place.” Everyone at the prison knew about Prissy’s secret place in the woods where the old oak tree grew. There had even been discussions to ma
ke it a meditation area with trails leading to it and benches. But money was scarce and there were other priorities. For now, it was just Prissy’s special place.

  Miriam took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. Why did this have to happen now? Just when she was really starting to make such important changes at Braden. She, more than anyone else, knew the full consequences of what was about to take place. Losing Prissy would be a tremendous loss to the inmates. Their already fragile and complicated existence could be harmed irrevocably.

  “You’d better go back to your duties. Let me work out what needs to be done. Alice, start preparations for a service for Tanya. The sooner, the better. Afterwards, I’ll make an announcement as to what everyone can expect. There’s no use in delaying it.”

  * * *

  The hearing had been set for 1 p.m., right after lunch. Lara skipped lunch and went directly to the courthouse to be with Carole. It went pretty much as expected. Probable cause was found. Tom Dillard, Beth’s attorney, pushed for and got an early trial date. He didn’t want public opinion to come into play which, in a small town like Rocky Mount, it could very easily happen. “These things have a way of taking on a life of their own,” he told Carole. “I’ve seen whole towns become galvanized against innocent victims, and I’ll be damned if I am going to let that happen to Beth.” He would just have to make certain he was ready. The trial was set for May 15, on a Monday. Ironically, that was also the day after graduation when NC Piedmont College would be closing its doors forever.

  Rumors were everywhere, and the newspapers were filled with stories and photographs. Reporters had now found new material; they were no longer interested in a five-year-old child who preached the gospel. Instead, they focused on the daughter of one of Rocky Mount’s most prominent attorneys charged with first degree murder. Some people said Beth had been on drugs the night the security guard was killed. Others claimed she was part of a gang that had been burglarizing offices and homes all over town. Then the phone calls started. A few were from well-wishers, but most were from people who had nothing better to do than talk about what was being blasted all over the radio and television stations. A psychic from Wisconsin even called to offer her services. She felt an alien had taken over Beth’s mind, and it needed to be exorcised. Worst of all were the anonymous threats that arrived by mail, email, and phone.