Page 36 of The Devil's Advocate

‘I know that feeling,’ said the Pastor.

‘Your little group could get you into a lot of trouble. The FBI are watching right-wing extremists. It’s going to be their priority once they deal with the threat of foreign terrorists,’ said Korn.

‘No one knows I’m involved. No one that I don’t trust, anyway. I know you don’t share our vision, but our goals are the same.’

‘To create fear,’ said Korn.

‘A white majority county fearful of a small black community is a weapon that can be used. People who are in fear will do almost anything, and they’ll listen to those who would save them. It’s easier to get a death penalty when a jury is afraid of the defendant.’

Korn nodded, said, ‘I could use someone like you. Lomax isn’t going to be around forever, and there are certain jobs he is either unwilling or unsuited to perform. I know you have the courage to do whatever needs to be done.’

The Pastor raised his glass in a toast and said, ‘Here’s to our mutual benefit.’

And so an alliance was formed. It was that alliance that led to the phone call tonight. And the warning. It was in both their interests that Andy Dubois be convicted at trial. Nothing could be allowed to interfere with that process.

For the Pastor, the reckoning was mere days away.

The Pastor turned over the engine and accelerated away from Francis Edward’s home. He soon found himself on Main Street. The lights in Cody Warren’s office were still burning. He sat in the car, watching and waiting for Betty Maguire to leave.

He didn’t have to wait long.

He watched her lock the front door and get into a ten-year-old Volvo that had been parked out front. The engine came to life, and the lights flared, and the Volvo took off. The Pastor followed at a distance. Betty lived alone, just outside of town. He waited until she got onto that lonely stretch of two-lane highway, surrounded by willows that trailed Spanish moss overhead like a soft canopy. The Pastor put on his siren and flashed the red and blue lights built into the dash of his SUV.

Betty pulled over and the Pastor stopped behind her. He took his time before getting out of the car. Letting her wait. Permitting the anxiety to build. Betty didn’t trust law enforcement. For good reason.

He took a flashlight from the glove box, approached the driver’s side of Betty’s car. He stood just a little behind the window. Force of habit. On a traffic stop the officer waits at the rear door, never puts their body in front of the driver’s window – less of a target that way and they have a killing angle if the driver pulls a gun.

The Pastor tapped Betty’s window. His teeth ground together, his jaw tightening in anticipation as she buzzed her window down. He leaned forward and shone the flashlight into her face.

‘What’s the problem? I was under the speed limit you—’

Betty’s words died in her throat as the heavy Maglite smashed into the side of her head.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

EDDIE

Kate and Bloch took the larger room at The Chanterelle. Harry and I took the double bed in the next room and we slept head to toe, but Harry did most of the sleeping. He could damn well sleep anywhere.

I gave it an hour then got up and read the files again. When I take on a case, I must know the evidence and statements like I know my own hand. It has to be imprinted on my mind, otherwise I can’t shape it, use it, or know when something comes up during testimony that doesn’t fit with the evidence in the case already. It wasn’t burned into my brain yet, but I was getting there.

I looked again at Andy’s confession.

‘My name is Andy Dubois and I give this confession of my own free will and without incentive or coercion. On the night of the fourteenth of May I was working in Hogg’s Bar, at the Union Highway Truck Stop. My shift finished at twelve midnight, and I followed a fellow employee, Skylar Edwards, into the lot. I know Skylar. We have worked together for a while. She is pretty and I liked her. I wanted to kiss Skylar, but she pushed me away. I grabbed a hold of her and squeezed. She struggled and I made sure she stayed quiet. I didn’t mean to hurt her. She stopped struggling and I squeezed harder. Afterward I felt real bad. There’s a stretch of marshland beyond the parking lot, and I took her there and buried her so no one would find her.

That was it. Having spent all of fifteen minutes with Andy, I knew these were not his words. Nobody talks like that, and certainly not a young man. The statement had been typed up, and signed by Andy. The signature was very carefully written, the pen leaning on the page.

To say that the Sheriff’s Department and the DA had railroaded this kid into a false confession was an understatement. He’d been beaten, threatened, his mother threatened. Not only that, but the real killer of Skylar Edwards was still out there somewhere.

I spent an hour on the internet doing an image search on rings with five-pointed stars on them. There weren’t that many. The markings weren’t mentioned at all in the county medical examiner’s autopsy report. That made those marks important. The ME is supposed to be impartial, but with a prosecutor like Korn I expected there to be some things added to the report to help his case, or maybe things taken out that weren’t so helpful.

I turned off the light, tried to sleep.

Images flashed through my mind. Andy. His mother. A young woman beaten and strangled and stuffed headfirst into a deep, narrow hole in the ground.

I got up, found the plastic bag containing my property, which had been returned to me at the courthouse. There were only two important things. Two necklaces. One was a Saint Christopher’s medal that had its own story. The other was a gold chain with a crucifix that belonged to an investigator, Harper. My finger and thumb worked the worn gold of the cross around my neck. She’d died working one of my cases. It was still raw to think about her. That wound would never heal. She died without knowing that I loved her. I should’ve told her. I should’ve protected her. I looked over at Harry, his mouth open, his snores filling the room. I thought about him, and Kate and Bloch next door.

They knew the risks, but it didn’t make me feel any better. The whole goddamn town hated us. I had put them in danger, but I felt that for now I was able to manage it. If things got hotter I would send Kate and Bloch away with Harry.