Death Qualified Part 24

"No. I don't think it will ever fade in my memory. It made that kind of impression on me."

"Did you confide in anyone, tell anyone how bothered you were? Your husband, perhaps?"

"No."

Barbara looked out at the spectators, more today than yesterday, but still not a great crowd. She saw Lonnie among those watching. She did not turn back to Jessie, but now looked at the jury instead.

She met hostility there, and regarded them soberly as she asked her next question.

"Did you confide in your housekeeper, tell her what you felt you had to say?" From the corner of her eye she saw Lonnie sit up straighter, but she continued to gaze at the jurors.

"No. I simply worried about it by myself."

"So you thought he had told her he actually would do it this time?"

"To raise money, of course," Jessie said.

"Go on," Barbara said softly.

Jessie looked bewildered.

"When you heard that he had been shot...."

"When I heard that he had been shot up on the ledge, that made me recall what she had said."

"Mrs. Burchard, do you have a tape recorder?"

"Yes."

"You stated that you did not confide in your husband regarding your testimony here, or your housekeeper, or anyone else, and you said you did not write it down to help your memory. I ask you, did you rehea.r.s.e it with a tape recorder?"

Tony was on his feet instantly, but Jessie cried, "No, I didn't have to rehea.r.s.e it!" and his objection was drowned by her words.

Judge Lundgren said dryly, "Since the witness has chosen to answer the question, I overrule the objection."

Barbara looked at Jessie for a second, then shook her head; she glanced at the jury, and this time the hostility was gone.

"No further questions," she said, and sat down.

Chuck Gilmore testified next. Although a very large man, over six feet, and broad through the shoulders, with a deep chest, he always had appeared comfortable with himself, at ease in flannel shirts and jeans. Now in a suit and tie, he squirmed in the witness chair. To Barbara's surprise he was as reluctant as James and Tawna Gresham had been. Tony had to work at it, but in the end, Chuck Gilmore said that Nell was a natural with a rifle; he had seen her shoot at different times, and she had threatened him a few years ago when she found him on her land. "Mr. Gilmore," Barbara said in her cross-examination, "when were you on Nell Kendrick's land when she threatened you?"

He shrugged.

"Five, six years ago."

"Was it in the winter, spring, when?"

"Spring, maybe February."

"Wasn't that the spring following the death of Nell Kendricks's grandfather, Benjamin Dorcas?"

He squirmed and shrugged his shoulders, ran a finger under his shirt collar, and finally said maybe it was.

"Yes, you know it was, don't you, Mr. Gilmore? Please, just yes or no."

"Yes."

"Mrs. Kendricks found you on her land, cutting down brush one day. Is that right?"

"Yes."

"Was she alone when she came upon you?"

"Well, she-had the baby, but no one else."

"I see. Her baby was with her." Barbara faced Nell.

"You knew her grandfather, didn't you, Mr. Gilmore? Was he a friend?"

"Yes. More than twenty years he was a good friend."

"And yet, within months of his death you started to cut a trail through the property he bequeathed to his granddaughter. "

"Objection, Your Honor. Counsel is jumping to conclusions.

There is no preparation for such a question."

"Sustained. Ms. Holloway, perhaps you should lead up gradually to such a conclusion."

"Thank you, Your Honor. Mr. Gilmore, why were you on Nell Kendricks's property cutting brush?"

"I wanted to make a trail down to the beach," he said without hesitation.

Barbara very carefully did not turn to look at Tony.

"Mr.

Gilmore, if you found someone on your land cutting down brush, what would you do?"

"Objection," Tony snapped.

"That's pure conjecture."

"Sustained."

"Did Mrs. Kendricks have a gun that day?"

"No. She said she'd get it and come back and if I was still there, she'd perforate me until I'd work like a sieve."

He sounded proud of Nell. Someone on the jury chuckled, and someone else echoed it.

Barbara smiled also but became sober once more as she asked, "Did she ever threaten you again, after that day?"

"No. I never set foot on her land again, neither."

"Were you told that she had threatened you indirectly?"

"Objection," Tony said.

"Counsel knows better than to introduce hearsay and rumors."

"Your Honor," Barbara said swiftly, "if this witness received a message that included a threat, that is not hearsay, but direct testimony."

Judge Lundgren nodded to Chuck Gilmore.

"Overruled.

You may answer the question."

"No," he said after a slight pause.

"There were rumors, like he said." He looked at Tony.

"But no one told me anything to my face."

"You heard such rumors when, Mr. Gilmore?"

Tony objected and was sustained.

Suddenly Barbara realized that she was doing exactly what Tony expected. She walked to the defense table thinking, remembering what Nell had said about that afternoon at Tamer's Point. Chuck had not been in the store, and now she believed he had not been in Tamer's Point at all. No matter how sheA approached the matter of the two men who had claimed to be tree cutters. Tony would object and be sustained, because this witness knew nothing about it except what he had been told after the fact.

Abruptly she turned and said, "No more questions, Mr.

Gilmore. Thank you."

And that surprised Tony enough that he was not instantly prepared to have his witness repeat his most d.a.m.ning statements. Barbara took little satisfaction in knowing she had judged correctly this time. She felt like a quarry being run in tighter and tighter circles; no matter how clever her maneuvers, they were delaying tactics only.

"I'll have to testify!" Nell cried that evening.

"I have to tell my side."

They were in a dim restaurant; it was not yet dinner time, and they were the only customers. They had agreed on meeting here at the Swiss Chalet for a drink, for a conference, for relaxation before Nell and John and Amy Kendricks returned to her place, and Frank to his. Barbara was staying in town, she had announced, things she had to look up.

Now she regarded Nell soberly. She shook her head and nudged her father with an elbow.

"You do it." He looked as tired as she was feeling, as discouraged.

"Right," he said, and cleared his throat.

"Why did you get the rifle out of the gun cabinet a second time? Why did you leave it on the couch that day? Why did you send your children packing the day before their father was due?

Did you ever let them go away without you before? In fact, didn't your father-in-law warn you that Lucas was coming by noon Sat.u.r.day? Why did you call the doctor who lived a few minutes away instead of James Gresham, who was already at hand? Did you need a few minutes in order to try to wipe the gun clean? Didn't you take the gun up to the ledge and, when your husband appeared, shoot him?

Weren't you afraid that you would not be able to resist him if he said he was moving in again? Why didn't you divorce your husband after he abandoned you and your children?

Did he tell you that this time he fully intended to harvest the trees, claim his share?"

He had done this so rapidly that no one had reacted, but abruptly John Kendricks reached out and put his arm around Nell's shoulders.

"My G.o.d," he said.

"My G.o.d!"

Amy Kendricks picked up her gla.s.s and drank most of the bourbon and water in it. Nell was wooden.

"That's for openers," Barbara murmured.

"It would get worse. Are you prepared to say exactly what happened on the ledge?"

"I told you," Nell said faintly.

"You told us something, but there's something else, isn't there?"

"I don't know," Nell said.

"I've tried and tried to make myself remember every second, but.... I don't know."

"Exactly," Barbara said.

"Tomorrow, Mr. Kendricks, it will be your turn, and then, if Tony thinks he's made enough of a case, if he blocks my every move to get that girl's murder included, he'll probably rest."

"But you can bring up things like that when you do the defense, can't you?" Amy asked.

"They can't keep the whole story out like that, can they?"

Barbara glanced at her father. He had been brusque, his questions so fast they had been staccato, but now he said very gently, "Mrs. Kendricks, the problem is that the prosecutor may convince the judge, and the jury, that it doesn't matter where your son was all those years, what he was involved in, where he was that last week of his life even. They may take the position that since Nell didn't know any of those things, they are immaterial to the state's case. All they need do is prove to the satisfaction of the jury that she was the only one who could have shot him."

"There has to be a way to get at the truth!" Amy Kendricks cried.

"They can't just pretend nothing else happened to Lucas. Nell didn't shoot him, but someone did!

They have to let you find whoever was chasing him, who it was who wrecked his car, and our house! They can't pretend it didn't happen."

Nell glanced at her watch and said they had to go; the kids would be anxious }f she was late.

"All this is pretty upsetting for them," she added. She sounded defeated, her voice was dull, and her eyes were filled with tears that she kept blinking back. What will happen to them, if ... if.. . ? she had asked early on. She had not brought it up again, but the question hung around her like an aura.