Read Dorothy Garlock - [Dolan Brothers] Online

Authors: With Hope

Dorothy Garlock - [Dolan Brothers] (44 page)

BOOK: Dorothy Garlock - [Dolan Brothers]
4.93Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
“I knew that you were no
ordinary
bum.”
“The firm did a certain amount of
pro bono
work, and I had done my share of that. I really liked criminal law better than corporate.” Grant wanted to get the telling of his story over so he could kiss her again. “I was assigned to defend a young man charged with murdering his mother.”
“His mother? How awful!”
“I was prepared to despise him. They said it was an open-and-shut case, and all I had to do was to go through the motions of defending him. But the more I talked to him the more I came to believe that he was innocent. All the evidence against him was circumstantial. He was the only one who had a key to the house, he knew when she would be there alone, and he would benefit the most from her death.
“He wanted to take the stand and testify, but he was only nineteen, and I was afraid the district attorney, who had a flair for the dramatic and political ambitions, would trip him up. I advised him not to. He had an alibi. He was with another man . . . all night. The man was willing, even eager to testify to save the boy, even though he knew that he would never again be viewed the same by his family and friends.”
“Why was that, if he was telling the truth?”
“They were lovers and had been sleeping together for over a year.”
“Oh . . . ugh!” She shuddered. Her expression and her tone showed her revulsion.
“That was exactly the reaction of the jury. He was one of
those
—a fairy, a pansy. In their minds a man who would have sex with another man was the lowest form of humanity and capable of anything. It was easy for them to come back with a guilty verdict. Two months later, while I was trying to file an appeal, he was hanged. I dug around until I found the real killer. It was the boy’s cousin. She was next in line for the money after my client. By murdering the woman and blaming the son, she had killed two birds with one stone.
“That boy’s trusting eyes will haunt me for the rest of my life. I should have never let his friend come to court. I not only let the boy down, I ruined the life of the man who loved him. He was rejected by his family and he killed himself after they hanged the boy.”
“It was a woman who killed her?”
“Killers come in all ages, shapes, and sizes, sweetheart.” Grant gave a deep sigh. “I raised all kinds of hell with the district attorney. After I finished with him, he couldn’t have been elected dog catcher. I was kicked out of the firm for unprofessional behavior. Not a firm in Boston would take me after that. But it was all right with me. I decided that I wanted nothing more to do with courtrooms and juries and crooked politicians.
“I took to the road. It was one of the smartest decisions of my life. I’ve met all kinds of people, I’ve done all kinds of things. I’ve learned more during the past two and a half years than I learned the first twenty-six years of my life.
“And I met you. My greatest achievement so far. I doubt that anything else I do in my life will top it. I want to settle down with you and open a small law office. I felt I had to tell you this because I may have to give a hand to Mr. Phillips if it becomes necessary to defend Tom.”
“Mr. Phillips knew about you, didn’t he?”
“Yes. He’s a wily old codger. Got a memory like an elephant. He asked me right off if I was
the
Grant Gifford. My escapades in Boston were front-page stuff in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.”
“Did you punch the guy out?”
“The district attorney? I’ll just say that now he’s eating with store-bought teeth, and his smile is not so pretty anymore.”
“Good for you!”
“How about it? Are you game to take on an almost-jailed hobo lawyer who’ll have to start from the ground up?”
“I’ll have to think about it. You kiss pretty good. That’s in your favor.”
* * *
“Daddy! Daddy!”
Henry Ann was washing canning jars in a tub on the back porch when she heard Jay shriek. She went quickly through the house to see Johnny behind the wheel of Tom’s car. Tom got out on the passenger side. The two men stood beside it for a minute, then Johnny unscrewed the radiator cap and headed for the well.
Tom saw his son running toward him and bent to scoop him up in his arms. As they came toward the house, Tom’s eyes held Henry Ann’s. The growth of dark whiskers on his cheeks emphasized the tired look on his face. His shirt was ragged, and through the burnt holes in his trousers, she could see the bare flesh of his thighs. She noticed that he kept the palms of his hands turned out.
“I must be a sorry sight,” he said when he reached the porch.
“You look awfully good to me.” Her voice was husky with unshed tears as she reacted to his condition. His eyes were bloodshot and he smelled of woodsmoke. “Let me take Jay. Come here, honey. Your daddy is tired.”
Tom set his son on his feet.
“Aunty cookin’ pie,” Jay announced, and wrapped his arms around Henry Ann’s legs.
“He loves you,” Tom said softly, his eyes still on her face.
“I love him, too. How are your hands?”
“They’ll be all right. Thank God for the calluses.”
“Grant will be back soon. I told him to stop and get some ointment from Doctor Hendricks.”
“I need to clean myself up a bit before I go to town to . . . make arrangements. I was hoping Emmajean’s folks would be here by now.”
“Grant is also bringing a shirt and a pair of pants. I’ve laid out Daddy’s shaving things.”
“Thank you. I’ll see that you’re paid—”
“—There’ll be no talk of pay between us. Or . . . have things changed since last night?”
“Nothing has changed except that now I have this cloud hanging over my head.”
“We’ll weather it . . . together, if that’s what you want.”
“You know it is, but I don’t want you to be hurt by any of this.”
“You mean my . . . reputation?” She smiled into his eyes.
“I didn’t realize that people were talking until the sheriff said something today.”
“It was started by that old busybody who saw us at the doctor’s office when we took Jay. Then she saw you here that Sunday afternoon. Don’t let it bother you.”
“It does. Anything that concerns you is important to me.”
“Come on in and shave. There’s a big washtub out in the barn. I’ll carry out some warm water from the cookstove.”
“You don’t need to do that—”
“—I’ll do it. You’re going to have to learn to let others help you until your hands heal.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He smiled for the first time that day.
* * *
Grant returned, and Karen was with him. He brought the clothes and the ointment Henry Ann asked him to buy for Tom.
“Doctor Hendricks says the soda paste Aunt Dozie put on the burns is as good as any ointment.” Karen was beaming even more than usual. Her smiling eyes flashed frequently to Grant and his to her.
“Tom’s bathing out in the barn, Grant. Maybe you could put some of the salve on his back when you take out the clothes.”
“We went by the house, and Daddy sent some underwear and socks,” Karen said.
“He’ll be glad to have them. He lost every stitch of clothes he had except what was on his back.”
As soon as Grant left the house Karen hurried over to Henry Ann and put her arms around her.
“Grant asked me to marry him. Oh, Henry, I’m so happy.”
“Karen . . .”
“Don’t worry. He told me about himself,” she said quickly. “He’s a good and honorable man. We talked to Daddy, and he gave us his blessing.”
“Then I’m happy for you. I like Grant and hoped that he would have a justifiable reason for . . . for . . .”
“Being a bum.” Karen laughed happily. “He had a reason, but he’ll tell you when the time is right. Where’s Jay?”
“He’s out in the barn with his daddy. What are they saying in town?”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“I’ll hear sooner or later.”
“They’re saying just what we thought they would. That Tom was in love with you, killed his wife, and set fire to the house to cover it up.”
“Good grief! Tom was here when the fire started, and when he went through the flames to rescue her, she wasn’t even in the house.”
“Gossips don’t care for the truth. It’s more exciting for them to think Tom did it for love. The story is spicing up their dull lives.”
“Does everyone think Tom is guilty?”
“Daddy, Mr. Phillips, and Doctor Hendricks don’t think so. Don’t worry, Henry Henry”—she used the pet name she’d used when they were in high school—“Grant will know what to do.”
“I hope they find the one who did it . . . soon.”
Grant and Tom were still in the barn when the sheriff and his deputy arrived. Driving into the yard behind them was a shiny, new, one-seater Packard automobile.
“Who in the world?” Henry Ann exclaimed.
“I know who it is. I’ve seen him around town. His name is Conroy. He was in town buying up leases for a two-bit oil company.”
“Emmajean’s brother.”
The sheriff and the deputy got out of the car as Grant and Tom came from the barn. Jay walked proudly along beside them. When Tom leaned down and said something to his son, Jay ran toward the house.
Henry Ann had never liked the deputy. He had been all right when they were in school; but the minute he was made a deputy, the job went to his head. He liked nothing more than to flaunt his authority. Henry Ann stepped off the porch.
“Sheriff,” she called, “come on up on the porch in the shade. I’ll bring out some iced tea.”
“That’d go down right good, Miss Henry.”
“I’ll get it,” Karen said, and disappeared into the house.
“Hello, Henry Ann.” Deputy Orlan Nelson was a short man on the plump side. “Yo’re lookin’ mighty pretty. I haven’t seen ya for a spell. Been too busy to do any callin’ on the ladies.”
Henry Ann thought she heard a snort from the sheriff.
“Hello, Orlan.”
She’d be damned if she would call him “deputy.”
“Miss Henry, this is Marty Conroy, Emmajean’s brother.” Tom made the introductions.
Marty Conroy, in his fine white shirt, string tie, and dark trousers, nodded curtly as if he were a visiting dignitary and she were a servant.
“Please sit down. We’ll have cold drinks for you presently.” Henry Ann went into the house, but stood just inside the door so that she could listen. The sheriff began to speak immediately.
“We’ve got us a problem, Dolan. Conroy says he came out last week and told you that your wife’s daddy had died and she was named in his will. He thinks that you killed his sister for the money she would inherit.”
Tom stared at Marty with disbelief. His face, reddened from the fire, was stoic, but when the import of the sheriff’s words sank in, his eyes flashed with anger.
“What? You never told me that Martin was dead. You said you’d tell him to come out so that he could see what condition Emmajean was in and help me decide what to do.”
“I never said I’d have him come out,” Marty retorted staunchly.
“You’re a goddamn liar! You said you’d give him my message. You never said a word to me about Martin being dead, and you know it.”
“Why would I drive all the way out there if not to tell my sister her daddy was dead? I certainly wouldn’t have just come visitin’. She was crazy as a loon.”
“Why didn’t you tell her in time so that she could have gone to the burial? Crazy or not, Martin was her father.”
“You know why. She’d have done something stupid and shamed us all. Mother thought it best not to tell her until afterward.”
“She had a right to be told, regardless!”
“I told
you
that Daddy was dead and that she was to get a third of his estate. Outside the trust,” he added hurriedly. “Did you think to get it if she was dead? Is that why you killed my poor sister?”
“You lying son of a bitch!” Tom was on his feet. “I ought to break you in two!”
“Just sit down.” Orlan stood. His head barely came to Tom’s chin. When he made to take hold of him, Tom drew back his fist.
“Don’t touch me, you little pipsqueak.”
“Are you threatening me?” Orlan bristled.
“Lay off, Orlan,” Sheriff Watson said firmly.
Henry Ann held open the screened door, and Karen went out onto the porch with glasses of iced tea. Henry Ann stood with her back to the door, her eyes willing Tom to look at her.
Why in the world was Emmajean’s brother saying such things? He was accusing Tom of killing his sister for the money she would be getting. Surely the sheriff wouldn’t believe that.
All the men except Tom took glasses of tea. He shook his head when it was offered. When it became evident the discussion would not continue until the women left, Karen and Henry Ann went back inside to stand by the door so that they could listen.
BOOK: Dorothy Garlock - [Dolan Brothers]
4.93Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Dragon Sword and Wind Child by Noriko Ogiwara
Root of His Evil by James M. Cain
An Unfinished Score by Elise Blackwell
Free Fall by William Golding
The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock