Part 38 (2/2)
He shrugged, still scowling fiercely.
”When the boys got to The Station, Daniel didn't go in with the others. He didn't have any money; he never got it. He didn't have time, and probably forgot all about it. He was seen at school sometime before seven, and even asked someone where his mother was. Then the deputy came to tell Leona that her husband was dead. Maybe it was like snapping out of a nightmare for her; maybe until that moment she didn't believe he was dead. We don't know. We do know that she deliberately headed for the most dangerous road in the county, a road that few people ever drove on, and we know that she was doing eighty-five miles an hour on it. If she thought of it at all, she would have realized her fingerprints were on the hammer, she would be charged with the murder of her husband. She effectively committed suicide.”
She tried the tea again; it had not improved. ”Later, while they were waiting at the hospital for their mother to come out of surgery, Mrs. Dufault, Leona's sister, told Daniel to go get them all something to drink. She said he was so restless, he couldn't sit still; she just wanted to give him something to do. He had no money. She gave him money for drinks.”
”Why didn't she mention the birth-control pills?” Novak demanded when Barbara came to a stop then.
”I doubt she ever saw them,” Barbara said. ”Ask her. When they got home, after their mother died in surgery, Daniel went straight up to his room, crying. Rachel was in shock, not crying. Mrs. Dufault took Rachel to the kitchen to give her a gla.s.s of milk and a tranquilizer the doctor at the hospital had provided. While she was at the refrigerator, she heard the girl give a little cry and run to the bathroom off the kitchen. I think Rachel grabbed the pills and the condoms, and it came to her that it was all her fault: she was to blame for her parents' deaths, both of them. And she's been lost ever since. Gus was right: fornication led her straight into h.e.l.l.”
A lengthy silence followed when she stopped talking. Judge Mac pulled himself from the easy chair and walked around his desk to resume his seat behind it, and Novak did not say a word, as if awaiting a reaction from the judge.
”That's the gist of my opening statement,” Barbara said then. ”I have many witnesses, including Mrs. Dufault, to confirm the statements I have made. Testimony already given confirms more statements. There is no motive for Alex Feldman. The girl's story will be discredited with the first questions, and there was never a possibility of changing the zoning laws to allow a housing development in that area. Furthermore, Alex had the option of moving at any time. There is nothing to connect him to the murder. A drawing pencil in a family with schoolchildren! No one knows when it was dropped or by whom, or even where. Daniel did not see him or anyone else by the blackberries that day; he admitted that he doesn't know what he saw, if anything. Isaac Wrigley made up the entire story about Hilde Franz, a tissue of lies from start to finish. This has been the flimsiest of all circ.u.mstantial cases, with no direct evidence, no motive, no opportunity. All it had from the start was an unfortunate young man who looks like a monster, and investigators who immediately rushed to judgment.”
She drew in a breath, then said, ”Alex Feldman is on trial for murder because through an accident of birth he has the face of a demon. And because Gus Marchand, often called a G.o.d-fearing man, was more afraid of the devil than of his G.o.d, and he equated Alex with the devil he feared. I have no doubt that he was sincere in his hatred and fear of Alex Feldman. He spread his hatred and fear throughout the community of Opal Creek. I have a stack three inches high of hate mail, posters, leaflets, all demonizing Alex Feldman. Koenig's testimony is worthless: he has no firsthand testimony to offer; he believed Gus, who believed the devil was loose in the country.
”Three people are dead; two young people are at grave risk; Isaac Wrigley will be tried for murder, and the cost to his family will prove staggering; and Alex Feldman's life is endangered, all because Gus Marchand was a zealot who was determined to impose his belief system on everyone around him.”
”If that's your case, let me tell you, it's dead on arrival!” Novak snapped. ''I'll shoot it down faster than you can raise it. No jury will accept blaming the victim-” His eyes narrowed and he subsided abruptly. ”You've been rigging this trial from day one,” he said then, as if in disbelief and even amazement.
Barbara kept her gaze on the judge, who had leaned back in his chair and, to all appearances, was engrossed in a study of the ceiling.
Finally he straightened and regarded Barbara. His gaze was distant, bleak and icy. ”That's the essence of your opening statement?”
”Yes, sir. I have evidence, witnesses, statements, and medical records to back up every a.s.sertion.”
”Your Honor,” Novak said hurriedly, ”this is blatant emotional blackmail. The counselor is placing the burden of action on the court instead of answering to the charges that have been brought against the defendant. It's not enough to say Feldman could have moved out of the area. If charges had been brought, he could have been sent to prison!”
”That's exactly one of my points!” Barbara cried. ”Gus Marchand didn't bring charges, and he would have if he had been sure of the facts. There was plenty of time for him to take action, and he never did.”
”Koenig was sure he was committed to acting.”
”He wanted him to file charges, that's all his statement amounts to. Koenig never even spoke to Rachel about it. She was in the area for months following the murder, but she probably dodged him at every turn.”
”It is not the court's duty to a.s.sess the mental state of witnesses prior to their testimony,” Novak shot back at her.
Very softly the judge said, ”Enough, both of you. I remind you, Mr. Novak; I know what the duty of the court is. Thank you. If Rachel Marchand is well enough to testify tomorrow, will the state rest its case?”
Novak hesitated a moment, then shrugged. ”Yes. I haven't heard anything to make me change my mind about what happened.”
”Ms. Holloway, do you intend to ask for a dismissal of charges without prejudice in that event?”
”Yes, Your Honor.”
”Do you intend to cross-examine Rachel Marchand?”
”No. I'll ask that she be recalled as a hostile defense witness.”
He nodded. ”Very well. At this time this meeting is over. I charge you to remain silent concerning what has been said here, and we will resume in the morning at nine.” He had a final word for Novak, however. ”I order you not to try to question the girl before her appearance in court. You have her statement, now leave her alone.”
That evening in Frank's house Barbara told the group what had happened, what she had said. ”So we play it out for another day,” she concluded. ”I doubt that he'll rule on the motion to dismiss immediately, but he might. He could simply say no, and tell me to get on with the defense case. And I have to be prepared to do that.”
”But you won't question Rachel tomorrow?” Dr. Minick asked.
”No. If we have to defend, I'll question her later.”
”That's what's bothering my folks,” Alex said. ”She thinks you should be tearing the witnesses limb from limb, and I believe Courtney Innes agrees. He said you've missed several opportunities to discredit witnesses. He's willing to come in and take over, and let you a.s.sist, however.”
Stiffly Barbara said, ”It's your trial, Alex. You call the shots here. Not your mother or father, and not Courtney Innes.”
”I did that months ago,” Alex said. ”If you want to call in that big Texan, your onetime cousin, to come shoot his eyelashes off, I won't tell a soul.”
”That's a thought,” she said. ”But what I really want is a gla.s.s of wine, then back to the office and get my ducks lined up in case the defense opens tomorrow.”
She realized with her words that this was a defense she did not want to start; she did not want to subject Daniel to tough questions, and she did not want the blood of Rachel Marchand on her hands. What she would like to do, given the chance, was shoot Gus Marchand through the heart.
41.
When the letters on the paper Barbara was reading started to dance and even leap up into the air, she knew it was time to go home and sleep. But, she told herself wearily when she turned off the lights and walked out, she was ready for whatever happened the following day. Start her defense, make her opening statement formally, or take the afternoon off, maybe attend the rain dance planned for the Eugene mall on Friday evening.
No rain for sixty-nine days, the air heavy with forest-fire smoke, an inversion that made allergy sufferers head for the coast and had closed a few businesses, no timber operations allowed, no camping or even hiking in the forests.... Time for a rain dance.
So many pollen and dust masks were being worn day and night that Eugene looked like a town of apprentice bank robbers. And everything was permeated with woodsmoke; furniture, carpets, clothes. She fantasized about a cool, cleansing rain, about opening her apartment windows to let a cool, refres.h.i.+ng wind sweep through.
That night she woke with a start and realized she had been dreaming Alex's dream in which he had been rolled like a log and set ablaze. Her apartment smelled like woods on fire.
In court the following morning, there was not a sign that Judge Mac was going to refer in any way to the previous day's meeting. He nodded to Novak to call his first witness, and they began.
Although Rachel Marchand was thin and pale and looked ill, she was still a lovely girl. Today she appeared to be tranked to her eyes, Barbara decided, watching her walk to the witness stand and take her place. She was wearing a very simple blue dress, ankle socks and low shoes, and not a trace of makeup. Her long black hair was pulled up in a ponytail tied with a blue ribbon. Once seated, she kept her gaze lowered and did not move.
Novak led her through a few preliminary questions, then said, ”Ms. Marchand, will you tell the court in your own words what happened on Opal Creek Road as you walked home from school?”
When she spoke, her voice had the quality of one who has memorized a lesson and can recite it flawlessly without a hint of understanding.
”I was walking and I heard a noise and I thought it was a deer. I looked and saw a man. I ran, and he moved behind the trees and kept even with me until I was in my driveway.”
”Did you recognize the man?”
”Yes.”
”Is that man in court?”
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