Sister's Choice (32 page)

“Yes, though not as much as usual. It was a . . . uh . . . kind of a busy time.” Maggie hoped Evan didn’t question her about this because she really didn’t want him to know that she’d been busy throwing herself at the new minister. “I saw him at church,” she added, thinking this ought to help Tommy.

“What did his demeanor seem like at this time?”

“Objection,” Cranston said. “The question requires a subjective judgment from the witness that she has no real expertise to make.”

“But, Your Honor,” Evan argued, “it has been established that Miss Newcomb was the defendant’s close friend, and by his admission, his only ‘real’ friend. I would think she’d be the best person to make such a judgment.”

Judge Olsen nodded. Maybe he was a fair judge after all!

“I’m going to overrule the objection in the interest of illuminating an important aspect of these proceedings. I believe Miss Newcomb is a fair and honest young woman and will give the court a true assessment of her observations. But I will instruct the jury to keep in mind that these are, in fact, only subjective observations. Answer the question, Miss Newcomb.”

She almost forgot what the question was, then just as Evan was about to remind her, she remembered. “Oh yes, his demeanor. He was pretty normal.”

“He did not appear more embittered or sinister than in the past?”

“Goodness, no! He never was any of those. I mean he may have complained about his father, but he never was white-hot mad. When he did get a little angry, it was gone in a few minutes, and he was back to talking about the catch of the day or something. Tommy has always been a pleasant, good-natured person.” She felt great relief at being able to say her piece uninterrupted. She silently thanked Evan for that.

“You mentioned that he had started attending church,” Evan said. “How was his attitude there?”

“He was glad to attend. His father was very hostile about church, and that was one of the reasons he beat Tommy. If Tommy went to church, he was sure to expect a thrashing later.” Maggie brightened as she realized something. “That was the true result of the incident between Zack and Mr. Donnelly. It gave Tommy the courage to defy his father and attend church. To do the
right
thing instead of all the bad things his father made him do. Tommy wanted to go to church because he wanted to be a better person.”

Though Evan was maintaining a serious, formal façade, Maggie could see a brief glimmer of pleasure flit across his expression. Perhaps she was now actually helping Tommy more than her previous testimony hurt him.

Evan put forth a few more questions about Tommy’s actions in the weeks and days before Tom’s death, then he thanked Maggie, and she was excused from the stand.

Then, as she suspected, Mr. Cranston, with great flourish, said, “Your Honor, the prosecution rests!”

“The afternoon is nearly gone,” Judge Olsen said, “so we will hear the defense’s case tomorrow. Court is adjourned for the day.”

After the judge exited and everyone was dismissed, Maggie found herself immediately surrounded by friends and family, all praising her and telling her how proud she had made them. Of course she was pleased, especially by her parents’ support, but all she really wanted to do was get to Evan, who, much to her disappointment, hadn’t joined the well-wishers. In fact, he had quickly gathered his papers into his leather satchel and all but raced from the courtroom.

How she wanted to run after him! But she couldn’t be rude to these people who were showing her such kindness. Yet that wasn’t the biggest reason for her not following her impulse. She could not forget the scene earlier in the alley. Evan had been humiliated, and she didn’t want to risk a repeat should she find him in similar circumstances. Moreover, tomorrow he would begin to present his case. He needed to focus. He did not need to be distracted by her. But she found more and more that she greatly missed those lovely days when she and Evan had been easygoing friends.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Evan took two days to present his case. His witnesses were a varied list of friends, mostly Mrs. Donnelly’s, and neighbors who generally painted a picture of Tommy as a troubled boy with bad habits influenced by a father who was far less than an ideal model. They all agreed he was respectful to his elders and did not display violent tendencies except when defending himself against the taunts of his peers.

Since these witnesses were all upstanding, mostly churchgoing citizens, the prosecution had a difficult time tarnishing their testimony. Cranston did make such an attempt with Zack, but Zack withstood the barrage against his character with grace and forbearance.

Dad’s testimony was the best because he made it clear he did not approve of Tommy’s behavior or of Tommy’s friendship with his daughter. But he never truly believed Maggie was in danger around the boy. He was also one of three people who had examined the scene of Tom’s death immediately after the incident. Boyd was another, as was the sheriff. But Dad brought out something that the sheriff had failed to mention. There were several trees in the clearing in the woods where the killing had occurred that were badly chewed up by gunfire, trees behind the area where Tom’s body had been found, and trees behind a spot where another shooter appeared to have stood. The marks were random, almost haphazard, as if fired wildly. This, along with Dad’s description of a couple of empty jugs of moonshine, supported the suspicion that a drunken melee had taken place there.

Cranston, of course, tried to discount these observations. But Evan recalled the sheriff to the stand. He was forced to agree with Dad. Maggie thought Evan did marvelously and had made one of the most important points of the trial. The gunplay was wild and would certainly give a person reason to fear for his life. Also, the parties involved were most likely drunk and not in complete command of their actions.

Mama’s testimony was the most difficult to hear. Evan had previously called two witnesses who described having seen Tom whip his son. He had induced them to give detailed, fairly graphic, descriptions of what they’d seen. It obviously pained Evan to draw this testimony from the two men, but he was especially distressed to do so with Mama.

“I heard a noise behind the Donnelly barn,” Mama testified. “Maybe I should have minded my own business that day, but it sounded like distress, and I just couldn’t turn my back on it.”

“What did you discover?” Evan asked.

“Tom was beating Tommy.”

“He was punching him in the face and body?”

“Not exactly.”

“Describe what you saw, Mrs. Newcomb,” Evan prompted, his voice strained, his eyes conveying apology.

Mama glanced at Mrs. Donnelly. Mama knew every testimony was gut-wrenching for her friend. She’d lost her husband, and now she was on the brink of losing her son, as well.

“Mrs. Newcomb, I know this is difficult, but the court needs to hear what you saw that day,” Evan urged.

Mama licked her lips. Maggie had never seen her mother so reticent to speak her mind. “Tom had a piece of firewood in his hand and was striking Tommy with it. Poor Tommy was crouched on the ground trying to protect himself, but Tom kept hitting him and hitting him . . .” Mama paused, trying to control her emotions. “I yelled at him to stop. When Tom saw me, he halted in surprise, and the look on his face was fearsome. I thought he might come after me with that wood. In those few moments of reprieve, Tommy jumped up and ran away. Knowing I could do no more, I left the farm without even visiting with Jane, as I had intended.”

“Tell the court, Mrs. Newcomb, was Mr. Donnelly simply striking Tommy on the backside as a father might when ‘taking the rod’ to the child?”

“Many of those blows would have struck Tommy’s head if he hadn’t been protecting it with his hands,” Mama answered. “His hands and arms were bloody.”

In cross-examination Mr. Cranston tried to twist Mama’s testimony to make it appear that she had overreacted to a mere spanking, implying that her female tender sensibilities might have clouded her perspective. Those in the audience who knew Mama chuckled at this implication. While Mama was tenderhearted, she was in no way fainthearted, and everyone knew this.

After the midday recess on the second day of the defense’s case, Evan called his final witness, Tommy himself. Maggie knew he had debated about doing this. Testimony by the defendant was, as Evan said, a “double-edged sword.” It would give Mr. Cranston an opportunity to chip away at Tommy’s story and his self-confidence. It was also tricky because of Tommy’s mental slowness and his propensity to say what he was thinking with little restraint. But Tommy was the only witness to the death of Tom Donnelly. He needed to have a chance to tell his side of it. Evan trusted that Tommy’s account was completely true and that Cranston would be unable to impugn it.

First, Evan questioned Tommy about his father’s treatment, the beatings, which Tommy said happened almost daily, the name calling, and the constant criticism.

“Why did you stick around?” Evan asked. “Many boys your age would have run away long ago.”

“I saw my pa strike my ma only once or twice,” Tommy replied. “But it was pretty awful, and I knew that if my pa didn’t have me to knock around, he’d light into my ma.”

“So you stayed and took the beatings to protect your mother?” Evan repeated, no doubt to impress this fact upon the jury.

“Yeah, ’course. Wouldn’t you do the same?”

“Did you ever strike your father back?”

“I tried a couple times. But did you ever see my pa? He was big, and let me tell you he was strong. I didn’t get none of his size. I was pretty puny next to him.”

Next, Evan asked him to describe the day of his father’s death, and Tommy related the events in the same way he’d done several times since it had happened. He had to be telling the truth, Maggie believed, because he wasn’t bright enough to get his story straight over and over again unless that’s what really happened. He told how they had gone bird hunting, and Tom had brought a couple jugs of moonshine. They started into those and soon both of them were quite drunk. His father started railing at him for going to church, yelling that religion was making Tommy into a “nancy boy,” a “pansy,” a “sissy.” Then his father got it into his head that he was going to make a man of Tommy. That’s when the shooting started. Tom might not have wanted to shoot Tommy, but he was so drunk there was no telling what he was likely to hit.

“Then he started to shout, ‘I’d be better off with a dead son than a girly boy!’ ” Tommy said. “That’s when I really got scared. I could see it in his eyes . . . he wanted me dead. Then he tripped and fell and dropped the rifle. I grabbed it.”

“Tommy, are you saying you had no rifle of your own that day?” Evan asked.

“Nah. Pa came and got me when I was workin’ in the field. It would have been too much trouble to go back for my gun. We’d just share his. I figured if this was like most hunting trips, there’d be more drinking than hunting.”

“So you had no gun of your own?” Evan reiterated.

“No, sir.”

“Now, tell the court what happened after the shooting started?”

“Well, like I said, he tripped and I got the rifle, but then he got hold of a fallen branch and came at me with it. I was yelling at him to stop and leave me alone.” Tommy’s voice started to tremble. His eyes welled with moisture. With difficulty, he went on, “I yelled and yelled, and the next thing I knew the rifle was firing. Like my fingers had a mind of their own, you know? It went off several times ’fore I realized my pa was down again. This time he didn’t move. I saw blood on his shirt, and I ran.”

“Did you run because you had murdered your father?”

“I never thought ’bout that. I just ran because I knew Ma would be mad at me for what happened.”

“Did you know what you had done was wrong?”

“ ’Course! It was a horrible, horrible thing I done shooting my own pa. I . . . I still can hardly believe it happened. Except I know it did ’cause for the first time in my life I finally feel safe. I don’t gotta wake up every morning dreading the beatin’ I was sure to get that day.”

“Thank you, Tommy.” Evan turned to the prosecution. “Mr. Cranston, your witness.”

Mr. Cranston tried hard to tear apart Tommy’s story but without success. He spent much time dissecting Tommy’s statement about not realizing he was firing the rifle until he saw his father fall. Though Evan objected, Mr. Cranston implied that Tommy was too level-headed and too adept with firearms to fire one in a daze of passion.

When Cranston finished his questioning, Evan quietly said, “The defense rests.”

The trial concluded with closing remarks from each lawyer. Mr. Cranston harped about premeditation, though he’d made a weak case for it. But he was fairly convincing in attacking Tommy’s word regarding not knowing he was firing the rifle. It was a critical point, because if Tommy knew he was shooting, the case for murder strengthened. Self-defense could still apply, but it did raise an important question.

Maggie thought Evan was absolutely eloquent in his closing remarks. First he outlined the facts of the case, emphasizing the fact that Tommy had not even taken a gun into the woods that day, so how could there be premeditation? Evan then drew a poignant and heart-wrenching picture of a boy taunted and abused by his father, a boy who wanted to be a better person but who fell into unsavory actions in order to find acceptance from a cruel and heartless father.

Maggie was crying by the time Evan finished, and a glance around the courtroom revealed other women with moist eyes. The all-male jury was dry-eyed, but she saw many creased brows and sympathetic expressions among them.

The jury then exited the courtroom for their deliberation. Maggie’s prayers, and she was certain those of many other supporters of Tommy, followed them. It was in the jurors’ hands now and in God’s hands.

Tommy was taken back to jail, and Evan hurried from the room. Maggie didn’t even try to go after him. Though it was hard for her, she had to give him time to get over his humiliation, if that was the problem, or just time to concentrate on the remainder of the trial. Tommy needed Evan more than she did anyway. Waiting for the jury’s decision would be excruciating.