Bloodville (27 page)

CHAPTER VII

Parker Pratt phoned Don Wilcoxson on the morning of Tuesday, October 1st.
―Good to hear from you, Parker,‖ Wilcoxson lied. ―I hear Tackett appointed you to defend White. I just wonder why you accepted it.‖
―If for no other reason than I don't want to be on the wrong side of Judge Tackett. He may well have a seat on the Supreme Court right after the first of the year.‖
―Good reason, but I'll goddamn guarantee that you'll lose this one, Park. We got this asshole seven ways from Sunday.‖

―At this point I'm in no position to argue the merits of the case, Don. I just got the appointment yesterday morning. I spoke briefly with the defendant in the afternoon. He swears he's innocent.‖

―He's about as goddamn innocent as Charlie Starkweather. What in particular can I do for you?‖
―For one thing, you can arrange for me to have a private consultation with my client. They made me talk to him through an opening in a steel cell door, with a jail guard standing there.‖
―No.‖
―No, what? You mean to tell me that I can't have a private meeting with my client?‖
―Not as long as I have anything to say about it. The man is a killer and he's been a fugitive for almost a year. I‘m not cuttin‘ him any slack at all. You want a private meeting, get a court order.‖
―I'll do that very thing. Now, my client tells me that he's expected to appear in a lineup. I object to it.‖
―On what grounds, might I ask?‖
―Come on, Don. You know that I haven't had a chance to even begin formulating a defense. I haven't seen a scrap of paper from your office. I don‘t even have the arrest warrant affidavit. How can I represent the needs of my client? There could be half a dozen reasons to object to a lineup.‖
―The State has the right to take every damn step possible to positively identify the suspect. That's what we'll be doing.‖
―No it isn't. If you haven't already positively identified Billy Ray as your suspect, you are in deep trouble for having the man arrested in far-off Illinois, for killing his friend and for holding him without bond here in New Mexico. I suspect you‘re taking this opportunity to begin prepping your witnesses for the trial.‖
―And just how in hell would I go about doing that?‖
―I assume that the lineup will be viewed by Flossie Rice and Nettie Buckley. I can't imagine that you'd want all those other mistaken witnesses to have the opportunity to be mistaken again. I think you just want Flossie and Nettie to get comfortable with Billy Ray's appearance so that when you ask them in court to identify the man who shot and killed Bud Rice and Blanche Brown, they'll point at Billy Ray without hesitation. Besides, you know as well as I do that Flossie and Nettie have both seen photographs of Billy Ray, so any identification made from the lineup could scarcely be objective.‖
―I never will understand you, Park. You bein‘ a good Mormon and all, I'd think you'd favor an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and want trash like White removed from the society of law abiding men. That's what I intend to accomplish here.‖
―Does that mean you're going for the death penalty?‖
―You bet your ass it does. The gas chamber hasn't been used for seven or eight years. Billy Ray White's got a date with it.‖
―I see. As far as being a Mormon, Don, there is not one thing about due process of law that is at odds with my religious convictions and I'd appreciate it if you'd not make reference to it again. It has no relevance here. I renew my objection to your hurry-up lineup. It violates my client's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.‖
―Tell you what you do, Park. You draw up a Motion for Injunction to stop me and you submit the son-of-a-bitch to Paul Tackett. Him signing off on it is the only goddamn way you'll stop the lineup. Otherwise it's at nine o'clock in the morning.‖
―I'll have a motion on his desk this afternoon.‖
―You do that Park. You do that.‖ The Chief Assistant District Attorney slammed the phone into its cradle. Next thing, Wilcoxson thought, he'll start challenging judges just to see how long he can delay the trial.
Judge Paul Tackett‘s office received the Motion for Injunction at four o'clock Tuesday afternoon but politics and running for New Mexico Supreme Court occupied the jurist all afternoon and evening. At eight-thirty Wednesday morning, Pratt called the Judge's office.
―What can I do for you on this fine fall morning, Parker?‖
―Morning Judge. I sent over a Motion for Injunction yesterday afternoon. I was wondering if you'd had a chance to look it over.‖
―Expecting a lot there aren't you? Service one day to the next.‖
―The problem is, your honor, the injunctive relief I seek is meant to stop a lineup scheduled for about thirty minutes from now.‖
―You hold on to the line, Parker. Let me see if I can find the thing here.‖ Pratt heard a CLUNK as the judge laid the phone on the desk and then the shuffling of papers and conversation between Tackett and his secretary. ―I found it, Park.‖ A solid minute of silence on the line. ―Your motion looks like a good job to me but I need more than five minutes to rule on it. You say the lineup is scheduled for this morning?‖
―Nine o'clock, your honor.‖
―I'll grant your motion for twenty-four hours and rule on making it permanent this afternoon. I'll call Wilcoxson and tell him.‖
―I appreciate it, Judge. While I have you on the line, your honor, I was wondering if you've given any thought as to whether you'll preside in this case, or not.‖
―It does not appear, Parker, that you have a great deal of faith in me and my future prospects. I fully expect that exactly five weeks from today I will be elected to the highest court in the State of New Mexico. I haven‘t lost an election in twenty years, and I don't expect to start now. That being the case, I will surely not preside at trial in this case.‖
―I certainly wish you the best, your honor.‖
―I know you do, Parker. I know you do. In any event, I'd recuse myself. I expect Swope, Fowlie and MacPherson will too.‖
―That doesn't leave anyone in the Second District but Judge McManus.‖
―Most of us, you know, had Bud Rice in our courtrooms at one time or another over the years while he fought with the State Highway Department over Interstate 40. I can't say I liked the man, liked anything about him, but the fact that he and I were acquainted would pretty well disqualify me.‖
―So that leaves Judge McManus?‖ Pratt repeated.
―I talked to John just before I appointed you to the case. He said he wouldn‘t recuse himself if it fell to him to hear the case. Given your experience in local jurisprudence, Parker, it wouldn't surprise me a bit if you—that is, your client—disqualified him.‖
―If my client were to do that, would you have any suggestion about how to best proceed?‖
―My suggestion is that you and Don get together and agree on a judge and ask the Supreme Court to make the designation. As far as a particular judge is concerned, it's my opinion that Frank Ziram of Gallup is one of the best men on the New Mexico bench and I doubt he ever had Bud Rice in his court.‖
―Thank you, Judge. Am I correct that I'll get a ruling on my motion this afternoon?‖
―You are. Call here at four o'clock and I'll have it for you.‖

CHAPTER VIII

Doc Spurlock sold his mobile home to a Navajo Reservation schoolteacher. He moved into a single rented room in an old motel among the Indian pawnshops and bars along the Old Road east of downtown Gallup. He‘d slept poorly since Patsy moved back to Roswell so he had no trouble getting up early to drive to Budville on Wednesday morning, October 2. He left early enough to have coffee with Flossie and Nettie before driving them on into Albuquerque for Wilcoxson‘s lineup. He hoped he wouldn't see Max Atkins. He had no use for the ex-con after Troy McGee told him the story about the old
cacique
. McGee said he wanted to arrest Max for aggravated battery, but the Indian disappeared before the officer could get him to sign a criminal complaint. Fortunately, Max didn‘t put in an appearance that morning. Flossie said he'd worked late the night before. Nettie rolled her eyes toward heaven.

―You know,‖ Flossie said as they drove toward Albuquerque, ―I never got Bud‘s money. You remember: what he had in his pocket when he was killed. You got any idea what ever happened to it?‖

―Yes ma‘am. I turned it in as evidence and requested that they cut a check for you. Then I followed up on it after you and me talked about it last winter. Durin‘ the big storm. You never got it, huh?‖

―No, I didn‘t, and it is mine.‖
―I know it. I‘ll check on it again and let you know.‖

The three arrived in Albuquerque in time to find out that the lineup wouldn‘t take place. Doc drove the women back to Budville and went on back to Gallup. He checked in at the State Police office and called Mat Torrez in Albuquerque. The captain said he'd let Doc know about the lineup when, and if, Wilcoxson rescheduled it. Doc said he figured he'd put in a day's work and he'd take the rest of the day off. Torrez agreed. Doc parked his state car in front of his motel room and walked eight blocks to El Rancho Hotel. His intentions were good. He'd have some lunch, a couple beers in the bar, go back to the room and watch television for a while and try to get a good night's sleep.

Doc drank two bottles of beer while he ate a lunch of chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes and greenbeans and then he moved to the bar for a few more beers. He knew he'd been drinking more lately than he wanted to and he worried about ending up like Herman Budwister. But what the hell, it was a free afternoon and he didn‘t have anywhere else to go, anything else to do. Doc lost count of the beers he consumed but the more he drank, the better the Coors tasted and the more his thoughts wandered away from Charlie Scarberry and the State Police. He fondly remembered cool fall mornings riding the Rio Pecos breaks brush-popping stray calves. And his thoughts dwelt fondly on Patsy. He‘d spent the previous weekend with her. After Freddy Finch quit slinking around behind Spurlock‘s back, Doc had a little more flexibility. He'd driven to Albuquerque on Friday and checked into the Crossroads Motel. Late that afternoon Virgil Vee picked him up and drove him to the town of Moriarty, 20 miles east of Albuquerque. Doc got on a TNM&O bus to Roswell. He got back to Albuquerque late Sunday afternoon and to Gallup Sunday evening. Two nights and days with Patsy pretty well convinced him that if Tom Lord won reelection to Chaves County sheriff in November, he'd take even a deputy‘s job, and go home. Where he belonged.

Evening darkness had settled in when a familiar figure took the stool next to him and ordered a glass of iced tea. The new arrival was Lt. Morris Candelaria.

―Thought you might be here, Doc.‖
―Hey. Lieutenant. Let me buy you a cold beer.‖
―Better not, Doc. You might want to cut yourself off, too.‖ ―Why? Hell. I'm on my own time. Captain Torrez said so.‖ ―I know. I just talked to him. Seems like the lineup has been re

scheduled for tomorrow morning at nine o'clock. You got to take

Flossie to Albuquerque again.‖
―Shit.‖
―You got my sympathies, Doc, but that's the way it is. You want a

ride back to your place?‖

 

Doc stood up unsteadily. ―I guess maybe you better. I think I am too drunk to walk it.‖
  

Pratt and Wilcoxson leaned against the rear wall and watched as five men displayed themselves behind a jerry-rigged one-way window in the Albuquerque Police squad room. Flossie and Nettie identified Billy Ray White as the man who shot and killed Bud Rice and Blanche Brown nearly a year before.

―I understand, Park,‖ Wilcoxson said as he lit a cigarette and blew smoke at the ceiling, ―that you‘re plumbing the depths to find out which judge might handle the case. That a fact?‖

―I asked Judge Tackett about it.‖
―And what‘d he say?‖
―I suspect you already know the answer to that, Don.‖ ―All I know is that if you think you're gonna waste six or eight

months shoppin‘ around for a friendly judge, you're sadly mistaken. I won't have it.‖
―Who do you suggest?‖
―I like Tackett. He quashed your silly-assed Motion for Injunction. He's not patient with stalling tactics and nonsense.‖
―I've found Judge Tackett to be quite fair and even-handed, but he won't preside. He told me so. He expects to get elected to the Supreme Court, and I expect that he will. None of the other sitting judges in the Second District will take it either. Except Judge McManus. Would you be satisfied with McManus?‖
―I have no problem with him,‖ Wilcoxson said.
―I'm not surprised. I'm inclined to think we'll disqualify him.‖

―I know you can disqualify him, Parker, but I'm curious about why you would, except to stall for time in the hope some of my witnesses‘ll croak.‖

―Just a little bit too much publicity locally to suit me.‖

―Whoa up there,‖ Wilcoxson said, coughing and issuing cigarette smoke from both nostrils. ―You aren't going for a change of venue, are you?‖

―No change in venue, Don, but I'd like a judge from somewhere else to preside. Tackett recommended Frank Ziram of Gallup but I'm not sure I'd go along with that.‖

―Is that because you know he's got a reputation for hanging sonsa-bitches convicted in his court?‖

―You haven't got my client convicted yet, Don. Judge Tackett also suggested that you and I get together and settle on a judge and ask Justice Noble to appoint him. Otherwise, we'll both be stuck with whomever Noble feels like appointing. You make a suggestion, Don, and let me know. We‘ll see who's shopping judges.‖

Wilcoxson dropped his cigarette butt on the floor and ground it out with his toe. ―I'll get back to you!‖
CHAPTER IX

A court order from Judge Tackett allowed Pratt to meet privately with his client in a jailhouse conference room the day after the lineup. Billy Ray White‘s demeanor surprised the lawyer. The exconvict appeared respectful, almost thoughtful, as he chain-smoked Winstons. He talked easily and more articulately than the lawyer‘d expected.

―You here to represent me, Mister Pratt, or to dump the case and move on to some other sap-sucker like that son-of-a-bitch back there in Illinois did?‖

―I take the law seriously, Mr. White. If I didn‘t mean to do the best I could for you, I wouldn't be here. You cooperate with me and I'll do the best I can to see you receive every protection afforded you under the law.‖

―I'll take your word for it, like I had any other selection. What do you want to know?‖
Pratt opened his briefcase and took out a yellow legal pad. ―I guess the best way to begin is for you to tell me your side of the story. Names, dates, times and places.‖
―As I understand it, I‘m supposed to have killed these two old people on the 18th of November, last year. The thing is, I wasn‘t in New Mexico on that date.‖ Billy Ray laid out a series of dates and events that showed him to have been in the St. Louis area at the time Rice and Brown died. He provided the lawyer with the names of his alibi witnesses: Lydia Bohannon and Lyle Bromer.
―Your problem here, Billy Ray, rests with two eyewitnesses. Flossie Rice and Nettie Buckley. They picked you out of a lineup.‖
―How could they?! I mean....‖
―You‘re the second suspect they identified, so I think we can handle them. But I‘ll need some help with three others who have also pointed the finger at you. Joe Peters, Joe Cato and Dave Sipe. Are you acquainted with them?‖
―Yeah. I know ‗em. Met ‗em that time when I was in Albuquerque. I guess I thought we was friends. Cato, at least. I didn‘t care too much for Peters.‖
―Why not?‖
―Didn‘t like his attitude. He don‘t make you feel comfortable. He‘d do anything for money. Even mess over his friends. Seemed like a backstabbing type to me. I got pissed off at Cato for bringin‘ him over to my place.‖
―Tell me about that.‖
―Peters came over to my apartment and wanted to buy some hot merchandise I had. It was at night. Dave and Joe was there, but I don‘t think the girl I was living with was there. Peters wanted to buy a typewriter and Cato let him take it. They were all talking.... We all talked about robberies, and lots of things. I don‘t know what all we talked about. I was kind of high at the time. I don‘t think I ever saw Peters except for that one time, but I didn‘t like him and I told Cato not to bring the bastard around any more.‖
―What about Cato? How‘d you get along with him?‖
―We wasn‘t friends too long. I liked the guy. We made a little money together. I helped him and he helped me.‖
―Dave Sipe?‖
―He seemed like kind of a jerk to me. He just hung around and didn‘t seem to do much of anything. He didn‘t seem to belong with them other two. Different. He hadn‘t done hardly any jail time. Like, he wanted people to think he was a bad man. That‘s why he had tattoos all over his arms. I didn‘t think he had guts to do anything. He never paid no hard-ass dues.‖ Pratt let the convict talk. ―Cato thought maybe I was in Leavenworth with Peters, but I wasn‘t and I‘m not sure Peters was ever in Leavenworth. He said he didn‘t know Jimmy Claire and I know Jimmy was there when Peters said he was.‖
―Is that important?‖
―It is to me, Mr. Pratt. You know, some guys went to college. Some went to the service. I went to prison. I served time in six federal pens and in county and city jails from Miami, Florida, to Minneapolis, Minnesota. I‘ve done hard time with baddest criminals in the meanest joints in the United States, and I always come out with a smile on my face and spit in my eye. The pigs never wore me down, no matter how hard they tried. And they never will. No prison can break me.‖
―I assume that you‘d rather not go back to prison, though.‖
―I‘d rather not, but if I do, I do. Won‘t be nothin‘ new to me, but I understand I can get gassed out of this deal. I‘d just as leave avoid that experience.‖
―You must have thought about this whole situation, Billy. Tell me what your assessment of it is.‖
―They‘re framin‘ me, taking advantage of me bein‘ here last fall and them gettin‘ jammed up on this Budville thing. They‘re usin‘ me to get themselves in the clear.‖
―Who told you about Budville?‖
―No one ever told me about it. I never heard of it ‗til after them pigs grabbed me in Wood River and killed Jimmy. I ain‘t big on readin‘ the newspapers.‖ Billy Ray put out one cigarette and lit another. ―Look, Mr. Pratt, at heart, I‘m a booster. It‘s the safest way. You don‘t hurt anyone and people can afford it. I don‘t like the idea of hurting people who can‘t afford it. I like to rob places that got insurance: loan companies, jewelry stores, auto parts places. Not some little grocery store out in the sticks. I don‘t like usin‘ no guns, neither, and I never have, except for one time, and even then I didn‘t hurt no one.‖
―What do you mean by booster?‖
―You know. Thief. I steal about anything I can get my hands on. Commercial burglaries. Safe jobs. Smash and grab deals. Like that. ‗Course, lately I got into the pimping business. I like it pretty well. A good string of girls can make you a hell of a profit.‖
Parker Pratt felt vaguely uncomfortable with the conversation. ―Did you have a car while you were in Albuquerque?‖
―Yeah. I had a ‗57 Chevy I bought from a guy going in the service. But I got drunk one night and hit a little car. A VW I think it was, and I kept on a goin‘. I figured my car was hot after that. Joe Cato sold it for me and gave me some money. Not too much as I recall. He was gonna get me another one, but he never did. That Chevy is the only car I ever owned. I don‘t know too much about cars.‖
―How did you leave town?‖
―Sipe took me to Oklahoma City. Later on I took a bus to St. Louis. Florissant, really. I called Lyle from up there and he came an‘ got me.‖
―When was that?‖
―Week or so before Thanksgiving.‖
―Sipe says it was on the Sunday after the killings.‖
―He‘s full of shit. I was in East St. Louis the weekend before Thanksgiving. Lydia and Lyle will prove it.‖
―In his statement, Sipe says that the two of you went to a club in Oklahoma City called the Silk Hat. He says you met a man there. Can he testify as to the date?‖
―He never took me to any club. Truth is, he ditched me. See, we left Albuquerque and we talked about going on to St. Louis or Chicago. Then we stopped at a truck stop just outside Oklahoma City. We ordered hamburgers and Sipe said he needed gas money. I gave him a twenty to fill it up, and I never saw him again. I didn‘t think too much of it. I was tired of him anyway. All he wanted to talk about was whores, and gettin‘ his rope yanked. I didn‘t miss him, I can tell you that.‖
―This is a good start. We‘ve got a lot of work to do, Billy Ray, but I think we‘ve got a shot at winning.‖
―Well I didn‘t do it, Mr. Pratt. I didn‘t kill them two old people, or anybody else, either.‖
―That helps, Billy. Let me ask you a question, just out of my own curiosity. If you get free of these charges, and the ones I understand are pending in Louisiana, what would you do with your life?‖
Billy Ray paused to think about an answer. No one ever asked him such a question before. He lit a fresh cigarette. ―I‘d have to say I‘d stay with the pimpin‘ business. That‘s got it all over anything else I ever done. Yep. Pimpin‘. Lot less complicated than other things. One thing‘s for sure: no whore I ever met treated me like Joe Peters and Dave Sipe done.‖