Part 43 (1/2)
”And then, that night, after you'd cooked up your story, Neil called the Jacksonville Beach police, a good twenty minutes after Victor Gambrel had arrived, and Gambrel called his friend Floyd Nickerson at JSO Homicide. Isn't that what happened? If you know.”
”I don't know.”
”And the reason Nickerson sent Carmen Tanagra down to the cabanas to see what happened to the dog was so that he'd have the time to listen to an offer from Gambrel on behalf of Neil. Isn't that what happened? If you know.”
”I don't know.”
”And to your surprise, after Nickerson and Carmen Tanagra picked up Morgan and Smith at the Lil' Champ food store, you found out that Darryl Morgan worked for you as a handyman, isn't that so?”
”I don't know.”
”You had no idea he and Smith would be caught, did you?”
”No.”
”You didn't want Darryl Morgan to be blamed for the murder of your husband, did you?”
”No.”
”Because he hadn't murdered him, isn't that the reason?”
”No, that's not why.”
”When you were in Baptist Hospital, the police showed you Morgan's photograph, didn't they?”
”Yes.”
”You had to identify the man in that photograph, didn't you?”
”Yes, I think so.”
”Because Neil told you that Nickerson had captured a man who admitted trying to burgle your house-Darryl Morgan, a man who worked for you-and the police were going to show you a photograph of him, and you had no choice: you had to identify him. Isn't that what happened?”
”No.”
”Neil told you Morgan was violent, a career criminal, right?”
”No, I don't remember that.”
”And by then it was too late to back out, wasn't it?”
”I don't understand.”
”In the end, what did it matter if Morgan was blamed for a murder he didn't commit? He'd do the time anyway, for one crime or another-isn't that what your son, Neil, and Victor Gambrel, told you in Baptist Hospital?”
”No.”
”And so it was a choice between Darryl Morgan, an uneducated, violent black criminal who wasn't fit to do more than pick up your dog droppings, taking a fall on a first-degree murder charge, or you taking a fall on a manslaughter charge that might easily turn into murder if they found out how you hated Solly ... and that was hardly a choice, was it?”
”It's not true,” Connie said.
”But you didn't want Morgan to die in the electric chair, did you?”
”I didn't want that at all, Ted.”
”You wanted me to go easy on him in the trial, didn't you?”
”Yes.” She brightened suddenly; she saw a glimmer of salvation. ”I did. You knew that. You remember.”
”During the jury selection, we went for a walk along the river, and you told me you didn't want Morgan to die, isn't that right?”
”Yes, darling.”
I felt a terrible chill, and my heart fluttered like a torn wing. Toba was there in the courtroom. Toba had heard.
But I had to go on. ”You knew Morgan wasn't guilty, didn't you, Mrs. Zide?”
”No, Ted.”
”Wasn't that why you begged me the way you did?”
”No, Ted.”
I switched gears again, as much to save myself as to trap her. ”The argument with Solly, before he died-that final argument-that was about Neil, wasn't it?”
”No, Ted.”
”And then Neil came in at two o'clock in the morning while it was taking place, didn't he, Mrs. Zide?”
”He came in, yes.”
”Solly was violent, wasn't he, Mrs. Zide?”
”Please, my sweet, don't call me that. You know my name.”
My wife was hearing all this. I wanted to turn and look at her, to say, ”Toba, it was then, not now. It's you I love and cherish.” But I didn't dare. I remembered Beldon's hard warnings to me last spring in his office ... something makes me feel you shouldn't be involved... . He had known. He had tried to stop me from moving too far into the past, where dragons lived.
But for Darryl's sake I had to go back. And then go on.
”Solly threatened you, Connie, didn't he?”
”Yes.”
”Somehow, in this argument, you enraged him to the point where you feared he'd do you bodily harm, isn't that true?”
”He hit me, Ted.”
”In the face?”
”Yes. In the face. He cut my cheek.”