Breath of Scandal(22)

"Did you rape a girl last night?"

Neal immediately lowered his fists. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

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,,I'm talking about Jade Sperry, who's down at the courthouse accusing you of rape, that's what I'm talking about." Ivan pointed a stem index finger at the center of Neal's chest. "You'd better tell me the truth, boy." Ivan's roar would have awakened the dead.

Neal's eyes darted around the dim bedroom, lighting briefly on several items before finally coming to rest on Ivan's thunderous countenance. "If she claims it was rape, she's telling a goddamn lie."

"So you do know what I'm talking about, you lying little son of a bitch - "

-I'm not lying!" Neal shouted. "Hutch, Lamar, and me picked her up and took her fishing with us. We drank some beer. Had some laughs. She got friendly-I mean real friendly, Daddy. She asked for it, and she got it."

Ivan glared at him, his shrewd eyes reflecting the breaking dawn light like shards of glass. "Bullshit. That Sperry girl ain't white trash. She's stuck like glue to that Parker boy. What would she want with you three stooges?"

Neal cursed beneath his breath and plowed a hand through his mussed hair. "I tell you, Daddy, she's been asking for it. She makes out like she's hot for Parker and nobody else, but every chance she gets, she wags her tail in my face. Then, when her boyfriend comes around, she goes back to being snooty and treating me like a pile of dogshit she's stepped in.

-You think I'm going to take that kind of crap from a girl? Hell no! Last night I decided to give her a taste of what a real man is like. If she wants to call it rape, that's her problem."

"The hell it is!" Ivan had listened to Neal's explanation with surprising patience. Now he ground his teeth. "It's not just her problem. She's made it the sheriff s problem. And now it's my problem."

Neal idly scratched his crotch. "What are you going to do?"

"Not a goddamn thing."

"Huh?" Neal's stance lost some of its swagger.

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"I'm doing nothing until you level with me and tell me what happened. Did you force that girl?"

Neal's shoulders rose in a tense shrug. "Things got a little rough. " Quickly he added, "But I know she wanted it. "What about Hutch and Lamar?"

is I 'They wanted a piece, too." He grinned. "I'm not selfh. "

Ivan almost backhanded him for his insolence, then decided not to expend the energy and lowered his raised hand. "Hutch, I can see. But I can't imagine that titmouse of Myrajane's forcing himself between a girl's legs."

"Lamar needed some egging on, but he did all right." There ws a knock at the door. They turned to see their housekeeper, Eula, standing on the threshold. "Will y'all be wanting your momin' coffee now, Mr. Patchett?"

"No!" Ivan barked. "I'll tell you when I want my coffee. "

"Yessir. Just askin'."

She withdrew. Ivan stared at the empty doorway for a moment, then said to Neal, "Why didn't y'all go to nigger town and pick a gal who would keep her trap shut? Why'd you have to poke that Sperry girl?"

"She had it coming, that's why." "Christ, what a mess."

Neal, seeming unconcerned, moved to the bed and stepped into the jeans he'd slung over the footboard the night before. "What're you going to do, Daddy?"

"I don't know yet. Let me think." Ivan paced the length of the bed. "They could lock you away for quite a spell on a rape conviction, you know. "

"Why, that's crap," Neal stammered. "That's bullshit. They can't send a guy to prison for screwing a girl who damn well needed to be screwed."

Ivan said, "I know that and you know that. We just gotta make certain everybody else feels the way we do." "Well, I'm not going to jail, that's for damn sure. In jail



the niggers f*ck white boys in the ass. You've got to do something, Daddy."



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Breath of Scandal



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"Shut up and let me think!" Ivan shouted. Then suddenly he slapped Neal hard across the face. "You little bastard. You perfectly ruined my day."

Jade rested her head on her folded anns on the table in the interrogation room. The backs of her eyelids were hot and gritty. She had been kept at the courthouse all night. She had been allowed to go to the restroom only once, and then a deputy had escorted her there and back. It was as though she were under arrest, while, to her knowledge, nothing had been done to apprehend her attackers.

She had told Sheriff Jolly her story twice, keeping her descriptions precise. During the second telling, she hadn't altered a single word from the first. Her remarkable memory had always served her well in school. Tonight, she had used it to give an accurate account of the gang rape. No matter how embarrassing the details, she hadn't glossed over them.

Without being abusive, the sheriff had tried to confound her. "Jade, Hutch was at home when I left a while ago." "I don't know where he is now. I only know where he