in half. Two deputies with rifles stood guard on either side. She
noticed a side door directly across from the door to the judge's
chambers. It too was guarded.
She was called forward to the witness-box. Every eye in the room was
on her. Her head held high, her expression fearful, she half expected
applause. She was, after all, about to give the performance of her
life.
Judge Rafferty was so eager to hear her testimony he interrupted the
closing arguments so that she could take the stand. As she walked past
him to take her seat behind the railing, she looked him over closely
and came to the conclusion that it would take very little effort on her
part to get him in the palm of her hand. Rafferty was a heavyset,
middle-aged man with eyeglasses so thick his owlish eyes appeared to be
three times the normal size.
She also noticed he was taken with her. He smiled, he gawked, and she
couldn't have been happier.
She v. as being sworn in by the clerk when the defense attorney leapt
to his feet and demanded the judge's attention.
"Your Honor, this is highly irregular, " he protested. "Couldn't you
wait until the prosecutor and I have finished up and the jury has left
the courtroom to deliberate? My client is being tried on the charge of
attempted murder. The prosecutor is trying to prove that my client
willfully and with malice in mind tried to kill the Maple Hills
sheriff.
This case shouldn't be muddled up with a witness testifying about an
altogether different matter." The judge peered at the upstart over the
top of his glasses. "I'm fully aware of what this case is all about.
Do you think I've been sitting up here twiddling my thumbs and
daydreaming about fishing, Mr. Proctor? Is that what you think I've
been doing? " "No, Your Honor, I don'tţ" The judge wouldn't let him
continue. "What you're saying, Proctor, is that you don't think that
what the witness has to say is relevant, but I say it is. If your
client is who I think he is, then the jury needs to know it because he
would have been fleeing and he would have tried to kill the sheriff and
he would have tried it with what you call malice in mind."
"But, Your Honorţ" "Mr. Proctor, you need to understand. No one tells
me what to do in my own courtroom, and that includes fancy-pants
lawyers like you.
I know you're young and inexperienced and that you think you know just
about everything there is to know, but I make the rules here. Now sit
down and be quiet until I finish with my witness. You understand me?
" "Yes, Your Honor."
"Then why aren't you sitting? " The crowd burst into laughter when
Proctor tripped in his hurry to take his seat.
The judge wasn't amused. He slammed his gavel on the desk and demanded
silence. "I'll have order in my court. If I hear another sound out of
any of you, I'll clear you out.
"Like I said before, I make the rules here, not you. Sit." He
bellowed the command, but by the time he swung around to Rebecca, he
had mellowed considerably.
"I sure would like to cut to the chase and ask you plain out, but I'm
not going to do that. First, I want you to tell the jury who you are
and what happened to you." Her moment had finally arrived. Gripping
her hands together on the railing so the jury could see them, she took
a shuddering breath and began. She told them why she had been in the
bank and what she had seen.
Tears came easily, and her voice had a halting quality she was quite
proud of, and by the time her story ended, she was sure there wasn't a
dry eye in the courtroom.
The judge was as shaken as the jury by her gut-wrenching recollection
of the murders. He sat hunched over his desk, leaning toward her as
though he thought his nearness would somehow comfort her.
"All right, then, " he said. "I know how hard it was for you to go
through it again, and I appreciate it. Now, I want you to look at the
man shackled to the table over on your right and tell me if he was one
of the men in the bank." Rebecca stared at Bell for several seconds
before shaking her head.
"No, " she cried out. "He wasn't there." The judge's face betrayed
his disappointment. His frustration was palpable, but he wasn't ready
to give up. "Take your time and look him over real good before you
make up your mind." She did as he instructed. "I'm so sorry, Your
Honor. I wish he were one of the Blackwater gang, but he isn't. I
swear to you he wasn't there." Bell's attorney was grinning from ear
to ear, and that offended the judge almost as much as her devastating
testimony.
"Don't even think about getting to your feet again, Proctor. You keep
your seat glued to your chair until I'm finished. I've got a couple of
nagging points I want to clear up before I let this young lady leave
the stand." Rebecca bowed her head and pretended she was desperately
trying to compose herself. She knew the judge was watching her
closely, and when she looked up at him again, she felt a burst of
gloating satisfaction over Rafferty's compassionate gaze.
"I'm going to make this quick, " he promised. "I just have a couple of
questions. Are you up to answering them now, or would you like a
recess? " "I'd like to finish now, please." He immediately asked his
first question. "I ordered three women brought here, and I'm curious
to know where the other two are. Do you have any information about
their whereabouts? " "No, I don't. When Marshal Cooper told me Grace
and Jessica were also being brought here I felt terrible, just
terrible. Their lives have been uprooted because of me. If I had told
the truth from the beginning, none of this would be happening to
them.
They've become dear friends. I expected them to be here when I
arrived, and I was looking forward to seeing them and telling them how
sorry I am. I'm sure they were just delayed. Grace wasn't feeling
well when I left her. She might have had a relapse."
"Let's move on to the next question. You said you got on the train
with Marshal Cooper and that he left your compartment and didn't come
back.
Why did he leave? " "I had a pounding headache and my medicine was in
my suitcase. Because Marshal Cooper was such a gentleman, he insisted
on going to the baggage compartment to fetch it for me. If I hadn't
complained . . . if I had suffered in silence . . . he would still be
alive. It's my fault he's dead, all . . . my . . . fault." She
buried her face in her hands and began to sob. Rafferty looked at the
jury and noticed their united sympathy for the poor woman.
He realized he had better hurry up then before a rebellion broke out.
"We're almost done, " he announced. "Tell me what happened when you
heard the gunshots. Do you recollect how many you heard? " She wiped
her face with the handkerchief as she nodded. "I'm pretty sure I heard
two shots fired. I was too frightened to find out what was
happening.
The train made an unexpected stop, and that's when I heard that poor
Marshal Cooper had been killed."
"And then what did you do? " "I was afraid to get back on the train.
I didn't know what to do, " she cried out. "I hid in the brush and
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