“Apparently you did not,” said Benson in a chiding tone.
“I do not necessarily consider the defendant a flight risk. But it has come to our attention that it would be safer for the defendant to remain in jail pendin’ his trial.”
Benson hiked her eyebrows. “Safer? Can you explain that?”
“To come to the point, Your Honor, we have received threats against the defendant’s life.” He pulled some pieces of paper from his briefcase and asked permission to approach the bench. It was granted and he showed her the pages.
She read over them slowly and then handed them back.
“You consider these credible?”
“We do.”
“You understand that simply because the defendant has been threatened does not necessarily mean he should be kept locked up? The state does have a duty to protect him from such illegal threats regardless of the charges against him.”
“Of course we do, Your Honor, but we must be practical, too. We’re not a big city with lots of deputies available to watch over the defendant twenty-four hours a day. I sincerely want him to remain safe so that he may be tried for the crimes he’s charged with. And I don’t want his bein’ free on bail to serve as an incitement for others to commit the very same act with which he’s charged. I hope you can understand my dilemma.”
Benson looked uncertain for the first time. She glanced at Dan Robie.
“Mr. Robie, do you have anything else to say?”
“Only that I can take care of myself, Your Honor. And anyone seekin’ to harm me or those connected to me would do well to rethink such action because it will end in a way other than what they intend.”
As he said this Dan Robie turned and looked over the entire courtroom.
When his gaze hit upon his son he stopped, but only for an instant. Then he kept going and turned back around.
Benson nodded. “I will take the arguments under consideration. Until such time as I render a decision the defendant will be remanded into the custody of the State of Mississippi.”
She smacked her gavel, rose, and left the way she came in, not even giving Taggert a chance to say “All rise.”
Dan Robie was being removed from the courtroom right at the moment that the main door opened and Victoria appeared there. She was dressed all in black, with a skirt that hit right at her knees. Her high-heeled shoes matched the color of her clothes.
All heads turned to her, including Dan Robie’s.
Husband and wife locked gazes for a moment and then he turned and was led away. The door closed behind him.
Davis stuffed his papers back in his briefcase, then turned and glanced at Victoria, who still stood framed in the doorway, looking surprised that the hearing was already concluded.
Davis flicked a gaze at Robie and smiled.
Right before folks got up and started heading out, Victoria fled.
As everyone quickly filed out, Davis came up to Robie.
“Well, that was interestin’,” said Cantrell’s sole remaining prosecutor.
“What credible threats?” asked Robie.
“Can’t really say. We’re investigatin’ them, o’course. But I think your daddy will be a lot safer in jail than out.”
“He should have a lawyer,” said Robie. His mind, though, was on the expression in his father’s eyes when he had seen his son. It had not been what Robie had expected.
Indifference.
It was more painful to him than anger would have been. And here he had convinced himself that he didn’t care what his father felt toward him.
Davis said, “I’m not disagreein’ with you. He sure as hell needs a lawyer. Right now he’s got a fool for one, if you believe the old adage. Which I happen to. You got any influence, you should talk him into hirin’ one. Sure as hell got the money for it. Now I’ll be seein’ you. And let’s not forget ’bout that drink sometime, man.”
Davis walked off, leaving Robie alone in the courtroom.
Chapter
22
Based on the man’s threatening gesture in the courtroom, Robie had thought that Pete Clancy and a group of his cronies would be waiting for him outside.
He wasn’t.
But someone else was.
Sara Chisum’s father was leaning against the handrail on the courthouse front steps.
He pushed off when Robie appeared at the doorway.
“I’m Lester Chisum,” he said, holding out his hand. The men shook. “I understand that you’re Will Robie, Judge Robie’s son.”
“I am.”
“As a man of God I can’t condone what he did.”
“Allegedly did,” said Robie.
“Allegedly did. But as a father I can’t say I’m unhappy.”
“But it’s clear now that Sherman Clancy didn’t murder your daughter,” countered Robie.
“Is it?”
Robie looked at him curiously. “He has an alibi.”
“And people lie all the time, Mr. Robie. I see it in my work. Humans are frail. They seek the easy way out too often. Lyin’ as opposed to tellin’ the truth. Tellin’ the truth is hard.”
“And why would Victoria lie? It had to have been embarrassing for her. She had every reason not to come forward. She could have just let Clancy be convicted. Telling the truth was hard for her.”
“Unless there was somethin’ compellin’ her to do so. That was stronger than her natural inclination not to come forward, as you say.”
“And what might that be?”
“I have no idea. I’m just pointin’ it out as a possibility.”
“I understand that your daughter knew Clancy.”
“My daughter was a sinner. A slut, if you will. As is her younger sister. That is all clear to me now. I don’t blame them. I blame myself. I have obviously failed them as a father. Sometimes I spend too much time on my congregation. Perhaps I have been too restrictive with them. So while they fell down, I also fell down. I have prayed over it ever since Janet was killed. I prayed over it even harder when certain facts came to light showin’ that my daughter was…complicit in certain things of a depraved nature. If your father or someone else hadn’t killed Clancy, I might have.”
“Don’t let Aubrey Davis hear you say that.”
“I know that it’s unbecomin’ of a man of the cloth to say such things. But I’m only human, too. And losin’ your child goes against nature. Children are supposed to bury their parents, not the other way around.”
Robie’s thoughts turned for a moment to the dead Sasha, whose mother would have had to bury her. “No argument there.”
Chisum looked at him closely. “I suppose you came back because of your father’s situation?”
“Yes.”
“We only came here three years ago. From Mobile, though I was born and raised in Mississippi.”
Robie was about to say that he knew some of this from Sara, but caught himself.
“Mobile is a nice town,” he said.
“Well, it’s certainly bigger than Cantrell. With far more to do. But I was offered my own church here. In Mobile I would have been an associate pastor my whole career.”
“So you made the choice to come here for your career?”
“I did. When I should have been thinkin’ of my family.”
“Life is complicated,” said Robie.
“Life shouldn’t be so complicated if you listen to the Lord.”
“Well, maybe sometimes he wants us to make mistakes so we learn for the future.”
Chisum took a moment to respond to this. “Maybe that’s what he did for me.”
“Will you stay in Cantrell?” asked Robie.
“Highly doubtful. We’ll wait to find out what happened to Janet, of course. After that, I think we’ll move on. To a bigger city. Even if I have to be an associate pastor. I’ve got two daughters left. I do not intend to bury another.”