Between the Lies Page 14

  “The only thing I heard was Uncle Earl telling them the plans hadn’t changed and that no highfalutin lawyer was gonna stop him. Then he started talking about getting rid of her and heading out to Miss Burton’s house to re-arrest Thad and that’s when I figured it’d be best to hide him and Miss Quinn away at the juke joint. I didn’t waste any time when I heard what was in Uncle Earl’s mind. I wisht now I’d stayed a little longer.”

  “But why the preachers?” Carol wondered. “What can they do?”

  “They can turn public opinion against Thad,” Hick said. “Down here a preacher is a powerful man. The public gets convinced Thad did it, and then the real culprit will be able to go about his business unmolested.” He turned to Patsy. “When are your parents supposed to be home? I assume your daddy plans on preaching this Sunday.”

  “They’ll be back Thursday or Friday.”

  “Why’d they go? Your grandma sick?”

  “No, she’s fine. Daddy said he just needed to get away.”

  “Away from what?” Royal asked.

  “I don’t know.” Tears sprung up in Patsy’s eyes. “You’re right. Something’s going on,” she finally admitted. “Everyone’s been unhappy. Daddy’s been so upset that he even yelled at me. Then he told Mama they needed to get out of town. He wanted me to go, but I didn’t want to miss school.”

  “How old are you?” Hick asked.

  “Seventeen,” Patsy mumbled.

  “You’re young, but you’re old enough to know right from wrong. Are you sure you don’t know something, anything, that might help us?”

  Patsy reached up to a class ring on a chain around her neck and absentmindedly put it to her mouth. Sighing, she let the ring drop. “Everything was normal until last Wednesday.”

  “What happened Wednesday?” Royal asked.

  She glanced at him. “It was all so strange. I woke up and Sheriff Brewster was in the kitchen talking to Daddy. It wasn’t even light yet. He told Daddy, ‘you have a stake in this, too’ and Daddy was angry. He said he wouldn’t have blood on his hands, and Brewster told him it was a little late for moralizing.” Here she looked down at the floor and a fat tear rolled down her cheek. “They started to move so I ran back to my room.” She shrugged. “I don’t know what they were talking about, honest. I don’t know anything. I just know that ever since, Daddy’s been pacing the floors and not sleeping.”

  “What could be bothering him so much he’d leave town?” Hick wondered.

  “We’ve got less than twenty-four hours to figure it out,” Royal said.

  “Shit,” Hick muttered. He scratched the back of his neck and paced around the room. “A stolen truck, a jar of moonshine, and a whole town intent on covering for someone.” He shook his head. “I don’t get it.”

  “We need to look at the facts, piece by piece,” Carol said. “We have a body and we have a weapon, in this case a truck. We know the crime was committed late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning and we assume it was an accident. Is this correct?”

  “To my way of thinking, yes,” Hick replied. “The location of the accident and the moonshine in the truck leads me to think the driver was on his way home from the juke joint and he’d been drinking.”

  “So the question becomes, who would be driving the truck. Either Sutton was driving it himself or someone stole it. If the truck was stolen, then why?”

  “Because they didn’t have a car of their own?” Royal asked.

  “That could be one reason,” Carol said.

  Hick turned to Patsy. “These kids at school … the ones you say go all the time—they all have cars?”

  “Yes,” Patsy said. “And they wouldn’t go out there alone, I’m sure of it.”

  “We don’t know they were alone,” Hick said. “You know if any of your friends were out there Tuesday night?”

  “No one said if they were. We had a big geometry test on Wednesday so I reckon most stayed home and studied.”

  “You notice any of your friends acting nervous or strange? Any have bruising on their face? Any limping around or looking like they’ve been in a fight … or an accident?”

  Patsy shook her head. “No. Everyone is fine.”

  “No one’s been sick or missed school since Wednesday?” Hick asked.

  “No,” Patsy insisted, her voice rising. “There’s nothing wrong with any of the kids at school, and if it happened late at night it couldn’t be them because they all have curfews. I don’t understand … they got the one that did it. What are you trying to prove?”

  Hick turned to Royal. “Maybe you ought to go out and have a word with Grover Sutton. Just tell him you need to clarify some of his testimony before tomorrow’s hearing. See if you can trip him up or catch him in a lie.”

  “What are you getting at?” Patsy cried with a stomp of her foot. “I’ll call Daddy and tell him what ya’ll are trying to do.”

  “Tell him what?” Royal asked. “That we’re trying to get at the truth. Is that such a bad thing?” He put on his hat and started out the back door. “I’ll talk to Grover.”

  “I don’t understand you,” Patsy cried. “Why do you care?”

  Royal spun around. “I have watched the town I thought I knew and the people I thought I trusted turn into a lying, vicious mob. Thad Burton is twelve years old. Twelve! Do you know what that prison camp will do to him? Do you have any idea what it will be like?”

  “But what if it was one of my friends?” Patsy cried. “They’ll go there, won’t they? It won’t be any better for them, will it?”

  “No,” Royal admitted. “But these ‘friends’ of yours … they don’t think there’s anything wrong with letting some poor kid take the rap for something he didn’t do. They think it’s fun to go driving their cars around the colored side of town and hollering out the windows and calling people names. They go to juke joints, they get in fights. They ain’t the kind of folks you should be running around with.”

  The doorbell rang and everyone jumped at the sound. “I’ve got to get back to school,” Patsy said, glancing nervously at the door. “My lunch hour is over.”

  Hick glanced out the front window and noticed a young man in a letterman’s jacket on the porch.

  “That Billy?” Royal asked.

  Patsy nodded. The doorbell rang again and she added, “I’ve got to go, Royal. Am I just supposed to let these people stay here?”

  “Yes, and don’t tell anybody they’re in here … especially Billy.”

  “But—”

  “These people are here to help Thad. They ain’t done nothing wrong. They are here to help find the truth, not cover up for someone else’s crime. It’s the ones that are trying to cover for someone—those are the ones we need to find and if you know something you ought to tell us.”

  Patsy stuck out her lip like a child. “Even if I did know something, I couldn’t help you hurt one of my friends.”

  “Then you and your friends are helping to put an innocent boy away for six years,” Royal said. He stuck his finger in her face and said, “You hide these two. We still have a deal. You don’t say a word to nobody.” His eyes flashed anger and he turned and started to open the back door.

  “What’s wrong with you, Royal?” Patsy cried. “Why is this so important?” The doorbell rang again and her eyes flitted to the front of the house.

  Royal paused with his hand on the knob. “When you keep your mouth shut, and just shake your head behind closed doors and say, ‘what a shame’ you’re as bad as those kids shootin’ up houses.” He shook his head. “I used to love you, Patsy. I reckon I never knew just what you were.” He nodded at Hick. “I’ll be back.”

  He walked out and left Hick and Carol with Patsy. She looked at them, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. “I won’t say anything to anyone about ya’ll being here. A deal’s a deal.” With that, she turned, opened the front door, and slipped out. Hick and Carol watched her walk down the street with Billy.

  21

  Tuesday
, July 20, 1954

  Hick slammed another kitchen drawer in frustration. “Figures we’d be holed up at a preacher’s house,” he said to Carol. “Not a cigarette in sight.”

  She smiled, pulled a chair out, and sat at the kitchen table. “I could sure use one right now.” She paused, and then asked, “That deputy ... you think he’ll be okay? He was pretty upset.”

  Hick shrugged. “Hard to say. It’s rough when you get disillusioned with people you care about.”

  “Are you speaking from experience?”

  Hick turned to face Carol. “Yeah. I’m speaking from experience.”

  “When will Royal be back?” a voice from the doorway asked. They both whirled around to see Patsy wearing a worried frown.

  “I have no idea,” Hick said. “I thought you were at school.”

  She shook her head. “My head’s bustin’ open so I left.” Opening a cabinet door, she peered inside. After a moment, her shoulders sagged. “We’re out of aspirin.”

  “Why don’t you sit down?” Carol suggested.

  Patsy looked at them both and then sat across the table from Carol.

  “You’re worried about him?” Carol prodded.

  Patsy looked down at her hands. “Royal’s never spoke to me like that,” she said in a teary voice. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “Well what did you think he’d—” Hick began, accusingly.

  “Tell us about Royal,” Carol interrupted, shooting Hick an angry glance.

  Patsy put her head in her hands. “What about him?”

  “Does Royal miss you?” Carol asked. “Does he dislike you running around with your friends because he wants to be with you?”

  “No,” Patsy said, shaking her head. “Royal and me are ancient history. He’s the one that broke it off, not me.”

  “Is he right about your friends?” Hick asked. “He seems to think they’re not the kind of people you should spend time with.”

  Patsy sighed. “Some of them can be a little wild,” she admitted.

  “What about Billy?” Hick asked.

  “Billy?” Patsy repeated, looking up. She shook her head. “Billy likes to pretend he’s tough. It’s hard being the son of the President of the School Board.”

  “I can understand that,” Hick said. “My daddy was the school principal.”

  Patsy offered him a small smile. “Then you know how it is. How hard it is when the kids call you ‘teachers’ pet’ and all.”

  “I know it’s hard, but it’s no excuse for doing things you know ain’t right. Like drinking moonshine and betting on roosters.”

  “But there’s a whole bunch that do it,” Patsy argued. “That’s what I keep trying to tell Royal. Billy ain’t any worse than the rest of the bunch.”

  “But he doesn’t sound any better either,” Carol said softly.

  Patsy looked Carol in the eye. “He is better.” She sighed. “He’s just trying to fit in.”

  Hick sat down beside Patsy. “I want you to think real hard about this, Patsy. Are you sure there’s no way any of the kids at school could have been driving Grover Sutton’s truck the night that man was run down? He was killed on the same road as the juke joint that your friends all like to go to. Are you sure one of your friends didn’t have a little too much to drink and then accidentally run that man over?”

  “I don’t know!” Patsy said in a tight voice. “I really don’t. I don’t think so because it doesn’t make sense. All the boys work on their own cars. Why take someone’s old truck when you have a perfectly good car? I’m just saying what I think. I don’t know what ya’ll want from me.”

  “But the kids at school knew about Sutton’s truck? That the keys were left inside?” Hick persisted.

  “Well, yes,” Patsy answered. “Everyone knew. It wasn’t a secret.”

  The door to the house opened and Royal burst in. His nose was bloodied and his face was smudged with dirt. He stalked across the room and threw his badge on the table. “I’m done,” he said, his voice sad and resigned. He placed his gun beside the badge and then stood, looking at them as if he might cry.

  Hick rose. “What happened?”

  Royal shrugged. “I went out to see Sutton again like you said. I had a feeling there was more to the story than he was letting on.”

  “And?”

  “And it took some ‘persuading’ but he spilled it.”

  Hick closed his eyes. “Oh, Royal. That’s not the way—”

  “Spare me.” Royal held up his hands and looked at Hick with a dark frown. “I’m through with doing things the right way and expecting folks to be decent.”

  Hick noticed Royal was pointedly avoiding looking at Patsy. “What’d Sutton say?”

  “Just what we expected. That Brewster ordered him to point the blame at Thad. Not necessarily say he done it for sure, just say enough to make it look reasonable for Brewster to bring him in.”

  “Why would Sutton do that for Brewster?” asked Carol.

  “Because, contrary to what Willie Taylor says, ol’ Deacon Sutton is a regular visitor to his still. Brewster promised Sutton that everyone in Broken Creek would know about it unless he did him this little favor.”

  Hick ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “So the moonshine jar in the truck was Sutton’s after all?”

  “I don’t think so,” Royal said. “Deacon Sutton says he never drinks outside the house. He’s afraid he might be seen.”

  “You believe him?” Hick asked.

  Royal rubbed his knuckles. “Yeah. I don’t think he was in much of a mood to lie.”

  “Do you think he will testify to this in court?” Carol asked in an eager voice. “Will he admit under oath that Brewster coerced his testimony?”

  Royal smiled a little to himself. “Yes, ma’am. I reckon he will.”

  “That will be the second nail in the fat bastard’s coffin as far as the case against Thad is concerned,” Carol said. “Coerced testimony and fabricated evidence. Things aren’t looking too good for Brewster getting a conviction right now.”

  “I don’t think kidnapping us and locking us in a storeroom will help him much either,” Hick added, with a wry smile.

  Carol tapped her foot and said, “I need to get to my motel. I need to get that arrest warrant and witness statement.”

  “Hoyt Smith and a few other men are loitering around the jailhouse and you’re supposed to be locked inside. I think you should stay out of sight, at least until sundown,” Royal said.

  “Sundown,” Carol repeated. “What time is that?”

  “This time of year about 8:30,” Hick said.

  Carol shook her head. “I can’t wait that long. If the agents caught the 3:30 flight at the National Airport they’ll be in Memphis around 5:30 and here in Broken Creek by 7:30 or 8:00. If I’m not at the motel, they won’t know where to find me.”

  “I’m not sure I can persuade Hoyt and his friends to go on home. They’ve known me since I was a little boy. I can ask them to disperse, but they won’t. They’ll just laugh if I tell them they’re loitering,” Royal said. “I can get your briefcase for you, but I reckon you’ll need to stay here. Uncle Earl was easy to get out of town, but there ain’t much I can do to get them other fellas to move along.”

  “You got rid of Brewster? What do you mean?” Hick asked.

  “Called in the tip to get him to go off after Thad,” Royal said with a shrug.

  As Hick listened to Royal, a sudden thought occurred to him. “Royal, did you call Miss Quinn’s law firm in New York?”

  Royal seemed surprised. He looked at Carol. “Well, yeah. I thought everyone knew that.”

  Hick sank into a chair. “No. No, we did not know that. What put it in your mind?”

  “Butch Simmons, the reporter, came to the station right after you left that first night wanting to know who you was and what you was doing. When I mentioned all those points you brought up he just whistled and said it looked like Thad was getting the shaft. I asked him
what I should do and he said there wasn’t a damned thing I could do to help a colored boy down here.”

  “I didn’t like that one bit, but I knew he was right about one thing: any lawyer the local court might appoint wouldn’t be much help.” Royal shifted a little and frowned. “Next day, I was at the barber shop and picked up a LOOK magazine. I saw a story in it about some colored girls in Arizona going to the white school and figured a northern lawyer would likely be more help than a court appointed one down here. They named a law firm in the article so I drove out to Pocahontas and made a call from the sheriff’s office.” He grinned. “I’m sure there’ll be hell to pay when they see the phone bill. Honestly, I didn’t reckon anyone would answer on a Friday night, but Miss Quinn was still working. She told me she’d see what she could do.”

  Carol and Hick and Patsy all stared at Royal. “I thought you said you weren’t bright,” Hick said with a laugh.

  Royal look confused and then a smile covered his face. “Hmmm. I reckon I’m smarter than I thought.”

  “I reckon you are,” Hick agreed. “Listen, if we’re going to have to lay low for a while I need you to do a few things.”

  “What?”

  “First, I need you to get word to my wife that I’m okay, and I’ll be here longer than I thought. Maybe a day or two. Call Adam at the Cherokee station and have him tell her.”

  “I’ll go to the phone booth at the drug store. It’s pretty private.”

  “Good,” Hick said. “Also, tell the Father Grant what’s going on and to keep an eye out for Enos and Thad. Ask him to let us know if he hears any news.”

  Royal nodded and Hick continued, “Also, hang around the motel and look for any strangers … anyone from out of town. There’s some politicians and agitators coming in and I’d like to know how many and what kind of trouble they intend to make. And be watching for some men from the FBI or the Department of Justice. When they show up, bring them here.”

  Royal started to hurry out the door when Carol called, “And kid, don’t forget my brief case. It should be on the bed if Brewster left it behind.”

  “Wait.” Hick handed Royal his badge. “Put this back on. At least for now. If you see someone, just tell ’em you need to know what their business is in town. Ain’t no reason they shouldn’t be forthcoming with the law about it.”