Velvet didn’t disappoint. ‘Are you freaking kidding me? What is this crap? Do I even get a chance to talk?’
‘Court is adjourned, ma’am,’ Lloyd warned in an even tone. ‘You got a complaint, take it outside.’
Velvet yelled, ‘If I can’t get justice here, I goddamn well will get it somewhere else. Fuck you, Mosley!’
Whit ignored her, gathering his papers. A low chorus of boos erupted around Velvet, and she pulled away from one older woman who tried to console her. She stormed out of the courtroom.
Whit whispered to Lloyd, ‘Follow that woman, please. I want to know what she does.’
Lloyd navigated through the throng leaving the courtroom. Claudia pushed past and caught Whit’s arm.
‘I’d like a word with you, Your Honor. In private,’ she said. Her voice was low, but her tone was white with rage.
‘About what?’
‘About why you didn’t call me to testify in this hearing.’
Whit shrugged. ‘I really didn’t see the need.’ He stepped down from the bench.
Claudia stared at him, incredulous. ‘The need? Jesus, Whit! You ignored Pete’s connection to Jabez, his dealings with Deloache, the bad blood with the Hubbles, the custody battle that was brewing. Christ, what didn’t you ignore?’
He walked out of the courtroom by the back entrance, and she followed him down the hallway. The departing crowd buzzed like angry bees. Whit imagined Senator Hubble holding tearful court before the television reporters.
Claudia shut the door behind them.
‘I really don’t want to tell you what I think of you right now,’ she said.
‘You can. I don’t break easy.’
‘You had acres of room for doubt, Whit. The fact he consorted with known criminals. The fact that everything about this movie project seems to have vanished. The fact he was taking on his mother and wife for custody of his son. The fact that he had a young woman actively digging dirt on Jabez Jones and finding it.’
‘The fact that evidence was improperly handled by your department. Maybe you should just trust me on this, Claudia.’
‘Trust you? Trust you when you won’t tell me why you’ve suddenly dropped a hundred IQ points? Christ, Whit, you have a responsibility! Or is your responsibility to make Faith Hubble happy?’
‘Now the police don’t have to continue the investigation.’ He didn’t look at her, doffing his robe and sliding it onto a hanger.
‘I guess not. Delford’ll have hard nipples over this.’
‘Thanks for the image,’ he said. ‘You know, if additional information came forward at a later date, I could reopen the inquest.’
‘I suppose so. But will big Faithie let you?’
‘That’s enough,’ he snapped in a hard voice. ‘You might consider keeping your venom to yourself until you know the whole story.’
She ground her teeth together. ‘Fine, Your Honor.’ She made the title slightly mocking in tone. ‘So tell me.’
‘I certainly left enough room in the inquest record for more information to be brought forward,’ Whit said slowly. ‘I didn’t call Sam Hubble as a witness, didn’t have Heather Farrell testify to what she found, didn’t mention the connections between Jabez and Pete, between Deloache and Pete, and I emphasized the sloppy job that Gardner did. Like you said, acres of doubt.’
Claudia stared at him. ‘What the hell are you cooking up, Honorable?’
‘I’m going to leave town for a few days.’
‘Why?’
‘It’s the smart thing for me to do.’
She was silent for several seconds. ‘Jesus Christ, Whit. Have you been threatened?’
She surprised him. He liked Claudia, but she had struck him as the plodding sort of investigator who was dogged and determined but not particularly given to flights of imagination. She seemed more given to flights of impatience, irritability, and stubbornness.
He kept his face very still. ‘Of course not.’
Delford Spires opened Whit’s door, knocking at the same time, and bestowed a thin smile – the kind used at funerals when you see someone you haven’t visited with in a while and you’re glad to see them but sick over the reason.
‘Whit. Claudia.’ Delford nodded. ‘You kept justice swift, Whit. I know this has been hard on everyone.’
‘Another cleared case,’ Claudia said.
Delford shook his head. ‘You’re taking this the wrong way, Claudia. I’ve known Lucinda a real long time and I knew Pete. Just like him to come home and mess this up for his mama. She gave her kids the world and look what it got her.’ He brushed his mustache with a nervous flicker of his fingers. ‘Now I want you to focus on helping poor Mrs Ballew in finding her girl.’
‘How about finding Heather Farrell?’ Whit said.
Delford shrugged. ‘She’s a runaway.’
‘Who bought two tickets on the bus, didn’t use them, and now has vanished,’ Whit reminded him. ‘I wonder who that other ticket was for.’
Heather being gone was unexpected to him. She might have seen something and been silenced by the same people who had threatened him. A sharp, hot shame crawled through his body. Yeah, Heather might be sitting under a railroad crossing right now, picnicking on fried fish, or she might be facedown in the bluestems, two bullets in her head.
If so, he decided, they would not get away with it. Fuck the election. ‘I would certainly feel better if y’all would find Heather.’
‘Fine,’ Delford said. ‘We’ll put a notice out on the wires for the nearby counties. Claudia, would you excuse the judge and me for a moment?’
Claudia stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind her with a final stabbing glance at Whit.
‘You think you’re big shit,’ Delford said. ‘Let me give you every assurance you’re not.’
‘Get out of my office.’
‘I don’t like you dressing down Gardner in open court. You talk to me and only me about problems with my officers. You made our whole department look bad.’
Whit opened his mouth, full of sharp responses. He remembered the bullet whizzing past his ear, Irina, Babe, his brothers, their wives, his beautiful nieces, his wriggly nephews. Not yet, he thought, not yet but oh, if you threatened my family I’m so going to fry you. He said: ‘I’ll keep that in mind.’
Delford put his Stetson back on his head, as carefully as hanging a picture. ‘See that you do. At least while you get to wear that robe.’ He smiled and left, shutting the door behind him.
Whit sat down at his desk and waited. Lloyd returned in a minute, face flushed from exertion.
‘What happened? Did she leave?’ Whit asked.
‘Yeah. With that guy in the Astros cap.’
Junior. Velvet had left with Junior, of all people. If I can’t get justice here, I goddamn well will get it somewhere else. He wondered what sort of justice Junior might offer.
‘Did it look like he forced her to leave with him?’
‘No. They talked outside for a few minutes. She was all in a tizzy and he calmed her down. Then they walked to his Porsche, talked some more, and she followed him in her car.’
‘Thank you, Lloyd.’ Lloyd left, and Whit stopped at Edith’s desk.
‘I’m taking some time off, Edith. Please clear my docket and reschedule my hearings. If Judge Ramirez can take them, that’s fine with me. If not reschedule for late next week.’
Edith frowned at him. ‘Well, that’s damn short notice.’
‘Sorry. I have to go.’
‘Shouldn’t you be campaigning?’
Whit shrugged. ‘In an odd way, I am.’
He gave her the inquest papers, had her make a copy for him, and then had the originals prepared for filing with the district court. He ran a quick errand to the police station, then drove toward Golden Gulf Marina, Velvet’s key to Real Shame in his pocket.