Only the Truth (8 page)

"Also a history of STD's - sexually transmitted diseases. She's healthy
now but she had been treated for some diseases in her past."

Mr. Dawson looked satisfied. He started towards his table and then he
stopped and looked back.

"But, to be perfectly fair, Doctor, did you do any x-rays to see if the
defendant might have been the subject of physical abuse?"

The doctor nodded.

"Yes, sir.
I did do x-rays. There are no signs
of healed broken bones in her body."

"No more questions, Your Honor."

The prosecutor looked more than satisfied now. He left the jury wondering
what Charlene had been doing to get pregnant so many times and get diseases so often.
I wanted to punch the prosecutor in his smug face.

Mr. Green stood up.

"One question, Doctor.
Did you do any CT scans
to see if Ms.
Wiggington
had suffered any brain
injury?"

The doctor looked surprised.

"No, sir, they never asked me to do that."

"Thank you, Doctor. That's all."

********************

January 7 - Day 3

I hated this day right from the start. I don't know where Mr. Dawson found
all those men from Eagle Rock but it seemed like the whole population of males from
that town came into the courtroom.

"Did you have sex with the defendant?"

"Yes, sir.
Her, over there,
in the blue dress."
He pointed at Charlene.

"Did you have sex with the defendant?"

"Yes, sir.
I gave her," he pointed at
Charlene, "twenty dollars and she gave me a blow job in my car."

"Did you have sex with the defendant?"

"Well, I sure as hell 'would' have if the bitch, sorry,
Your
Honor, if the defendant hadn't ripped me off. She took
my money, pulled down my pants behind the liquor store and when I had them
around my knees, she took off running."

I heard people stifling their laughing. I wanted to laugh myself and then I
felt bad for feeling like I wanted to.

"Did you have sex with the defendant?"

"Did you have sex with the defendant?"

"Did you have sex with the defendant?"

I left the courtroom when I couldn't listen to that question any more. I
wanted to go back to believing she was a virgin when she came to me and that we
didn't have
no one
else ever knowing what was between
us. I sat out in the hallway until lunchtime when the door opened and the
courtroom emptied for the noontime recess.

Mr. Green found me and steered me towards the cafeteria.

I looked at him and asked what else had happened since I left the courtroom.

He just shook his head and told me, "More of the same, more of the
same."

When we got to the lunch line, I didn't want
nothing
to eat. Mr. Green bought me some vegetable soup and tried to make me drink it.
I felt like throwing up. I couldn't even bring the stuff to my mouth.

We didn't talk at all during lunch. What was Mr. Green
gonna
say to me? "Sorry everyone has slept with your girl? Sorry I missed my
opportunity?" I began to wonder if he did. Maybe that's why he was trying
harder now.

I saw Mrs.
Wiggington
across the lunchroom. She
didn't look like she was eating too good herself. Her daughter was worse than
just a killer. She was the whore of whores.

Mr. Green cuffed me on the head to knock me out of my stupor.

"That was before you, Billy Ray, before you. Don't forget that."

Yeah, I guess. If one could forget she blew the jailer.

The afternoon went a bit better because Mr. Green was calling the shots. He
got some other men of Eagle Rock on the stand and they had some nicer things to
say about Charlene.

"I thought she was a sweet girl. She seemed confused. I didn't even
want to sleep with her but she insisted she needed the money."

"I don't think she had a place to sleep. She looked hungry. I gave her
five dollars and she went down on me.
Five dollars."
The man looked around at the courtroom's expressions. "Hey, it was all I
had that week."

Finally, one man said, "She didn't even seem to know her own name. I
thought she might be on drugs but I didn't see any track marks on her arms. I
thought then maybe she was crazy."

So the jury left the day knowing that Charlene was a whore but not knowing
what made her one. Mr. Green said it was a win for the defense. Charlene may
have been a whore but she was hungry, homeless, and maybe crazy. The best part
was when I heard that she didn't know her name. Maybe Charlene was telling the
truth about not remembering things.

********************

January 8 - Day Four

This morning the prosecutor destroyed all the good things Mr. Green had the
jury thinking when they went home last night.

The first man on the stand said she tried to kill him with a knife when he
asked her to leave the motel room he'd gotten himself for the whole night.

The second man said she not only stole his money, but she stole
all his
wife's jewelry from the bedside stand.

The third man said she tried to blackmail him after she found out he was on
the city council.

Finally, someone said they saw Charlene with Mr. Doe a few days before she
disappeared from Eagle Rock.

Mr. Dawson was very interested in this particular story. His face lit up and
he looked over at the jury to make sure they were awake and paying attention.

"Mr. Clemens," he asked, "You own a motel?"

"Yes, sir.
I own the Lighthouse Motel on Sandy
Avenue.”

"How much does it cost to rent a room there?"

"For the night?"

There was laughter scattered about the room and Mr. Clemens smiled out at
the audience.

"Yes, sir, for a night."

"That would be $26 if you were by yourself and $35 for two if you
didn't lie and sneak the second person in." Mr. Clemens seemed to enjoy
entertaining the people in the room.

"Did you ever rent a room to Mr. Doe?"

"Well, I don't know if he was the same man you are referring to but by
all the descriptions he is. I don't recall what he wrote down in the book and I
don't keep
no
records past the end of the month. If
the police
ain't
come calling by then, I
figger
the person
ain't
done
anything all that bad."

Mr. Dawson smiled toward the witness stand.

"And this man that looked like Mr. Doe? How long did he
stay
?"

Mr. Clemens
squinched
up his left eye and looked
up to some
far away
place off to his side.

"Well, I am thinking he stayed about four or five days. He wasn't just
there for sex. He gave me money for the week and I didn't see much of him until
I saw him with the girl. Her." Mr. Clemens pointed over at Charlene.

"And what was he doing with the defendant?"

"He wasn't doing anything with her. She was slapping him all over his
head and he was just ducking there against the wall trying to protect
hisself
. Then she
run
off and I
never saw her at my motel again. He left before the rent for the week ran
out."

"Thank you, Mr. Clemens." He nodded toward Mr. Green.
"Your witness, Counselor."

Mr. Green got up and stared at Mr. Clemens until he started squirming in the
chair. I thought he was going to make Mr. Clemens say he didn't know if he had
really seen Mr. Doe at his motel with Charlene. But, he surprised me.

"Mr. Clemens, Mr. Doe came to your hotel in the day or at night?"

"Daytime, sir.
I remember because he came up
in the middle of the afternoon. Most of my clients don't show up until they
done enough drinking and found their pigeon for the night." Clemens
grinned again.

Mr. Green smiled graciously back at him.

"So you were clearheaded yourself when Mr. Doe showed up?"

Mr. Clemens looked flustered and a little angry.

"I don't drink when I work, Mr. Green."

"I am not accusing you of drinking on the job, Mr. Clemens. I am just
clarifying to the jury that you were completely sober and the observations you
made that day would not be clouded by any kind of alcoholic beverages."

Mr. Clemens sat up in his chair.

"Yes, sir, Mr. Green, the jury can depend on what I saw that day as
being exactly what I saw that day."

"He checked in during the afternoon?"

"Yes, sir.
Middle of the
afternoon.
I thought he might have come off the 2 pm Greyhound bus
seeing as he had no car and he looked too old to be walking any distance."

"So he didn't have a car with a lot of stuff packed in it like he was
moving from here to there."

"No, sir, no car.
Just
hisself
and his bag.

"One bag?"

"Yes, sir.
A duffel
."

"So he came off a bus…."

"Objection."

"Sustained."

Mr. Green nodded. "I will rephrase that. Mr. Doe arrived at your motel
at around 3 pm in the afternoon with one duffel bag in his possession."

"Yes, sir, that would be correct."

"And he paid you a week's rent?"

"Yeah, well, sort of. He wasn't all too pleasant about the rate I told
him. He complained I was overcharging him and didn't I think Vets deserved a
break and how he was an old man and he could drop dead tonight if I didn't give
him a place to stay for the money he had."

"So did you give him a break?"

"Yes, sir.
I felt kind of sorry for him. He
looked damned pitiful. He needed a haircut, and a shower, and his clothes
looked like they were glued on him. I asked him how much money he had and he
pulled out a wad of bills from his pocket and we counted them together."

"How much did he have?"

"He had seventy-five dollars all together, so I told him he could stay
for the week for fifty. I wasn't filling up the rooms anyway."

"So, he moved in for the week?"

Mr. Clemens nodded. "Yeah, I walked him over to his room and he was a
lot more pleasant once he knew he had a place to stay. He even
chatted
me up while he dumped his bag all over the floor of
the motel room."

"All his worldly possessions?"

"If you could call them that," he laughed.

"Objection!"

"What's your objection, Counselor?"

"Well, Your Honor, where the hell is the defense going with this happy
trot down memory lane?"

The judge looked over at Mr. Green.
"Counselor?"

"Your Honor, the prosecution has opened up the door by bringing this
witness in to testify about the relationship between Mr. Doe and Ms.
Wiggington
. I allowed without objection to let the witness
describe an alleged fight that occurred between the two of them on the premises
of his motel. It should be clear to the court that the entire purpose of the
prosecution in bringing this particular witness to the stand is to establish
motive for the later killing of Mr. Doe by the defendant. I am only trying to
assist in establishing that motive."

A smile played on the judge's lips for a moment and then he told Mr. Green
to proceed.

Mr. Green turned back to the witness.

"Mr. Dawson, uh, sorry, Mr. Clemens, you were describing your time with
Mr. Doe in his room. You were saying he dumped the contents of his duffel bag
on the floor of the room in your presence."

"Yeah, he did, but you know, he did it like he didn't even realize I
was still standing there."

"Can you describe the contents of the bag?"

Mr. Clemens shrugged.

"Well, it was a lot of clothing like you would expect. That's
all."

"Did you see anything other than clothing?"

"Nope."

"Just clothing."

"Yep.
Then he started rattling on about the
government not paying his disability and I left him alone."

Mr. Green stroked his chin and reviewed what Mr. Clemens had told him.

"So, Mr. Doe gave you fifty dollars for the room of the seventy-five he
had. How many days passed before you saw him with Ms.
Wiggington
?"

"I guess it would be that weekend. He came in on a Wednesday.
So, probably three or four."

"So I guess he would have had to spend some of that money on food
before the weekend came?"

"Objection!
Asking the
witness for a conclusion."

"Sustained."

Mr. Green nodded.

"Just one last question, Mr. Clemens.
When you
saw Ms.
Wiggington
slapping Mr. Doe on the head in
the hallway and run away, did you see her with any money in her hands or any
other article of value?"

"No, sir."

"Thank you, Mr. Clemens." He looked at the judge. "I'm
finished with this witness."

Mr. Dawson stood up.
"One question."

The judge nodded.

"Did you check her pockets, Mr. Clemens?" The courtroom laughed.

Mr. Clemens shook his head. "No, sir, she didn't give me the
opportunity!"

"No further questions."

********************

When I got to the lunch table, Mr. Green was smiling. I felt angry that he
was feeling so good after what that next group of men said about Charlene.

"They said she was a criminal, Mr. Green. They said she was a thief and
a blackmailer and she'd tried to hurt them. They made her look worse than just
a whore."