One Good Deed(119)

“Maybe the same pair who tried to kill you—Dickie Dill and Malcolm Draper.”

Brooks shot to his feet. “Your Honor, really! He’s doing it again.”

Archer grinned and said, “Well, hell, I was just answering the lady’s question.”

Archer and Jackie once more shared a look and exchanged tiny smiles as folks in the courtroom laughed over his remark.

Richmond said to the jury, “You are hereby instructed to not listen to any of what the defendant has just said. There’s not an ounce of proof in any of it.”

Archer turned to the jury and said, “You folks remember reasonable doubt? I just need to let you good people see that others had a reason to kill Hank Pittleman, not just me, and Lucas Tuttle had a damn good reason. A lot more than me.”

He turned back to find Jackie’s gaze upon him.

Archer leaned against the witness box, folded his arms over his chest, and said, “You moved out of your father’s house. Why?”

“I wanted to make my own way in the world.”

“Your father approved of this?”

“I don’t know if he did or not.”

“But he wanted you back home, didn’t he?”

“Yes, but so what? I wasn’t going back. I told you that.”

“Your mother died in an accident out at the farm right before you left home, correct?”

Jackie looked startled by this abrupt segue. “Y-yes.”

“Can you describe what happened?”

Brooks got to his feet. “Judge, what does this have to do with anything?”

“Good question,” said Richmond. “You care to answer that, Mr. Archer?”

“I’ve got a theory of the case, Judge, and this one goes to motive on both the murders I’m accused of.”

Richmond looked at Brooks, who finally shrugged.

“Okay, proceed.”

“Your mother’s death?”

“She fell out of the hay bale in the barn and was impaled on a corn picker that was down below.”

“How do you get impaled on a corn picker?”

“One of the cones was pointing upward. The ends are very sharp, almost like the point of an arrow. That’s what she fell on.”

“Do you know how to raise the cone on that machine?”

“No. I’ve never had a reason to do it.”

“Well, I do—and before anybody objects to me testifying again, I got Mr. Bobby Kent sitting over there who will back up everything I have to say on the matter.”

Kent, who was sitting in the second row and dressed in an old suit, shyly waved his hand and nodded.

Brooks looked put out by this, but the judge finally nodded. “Go ahead, Mr. Archer.”

“While I was preparing for the trial I talked to Bobby Kent, and he told me the corn picker there now is the same one your mother fell on. There’s a little turn handle. Now, as you already testified to, I’m pretty strong, but it took a lot of my strength to turn that thing and point that cone upward. Kent said it’s always been that way.”

“So what are you getting at?” asked Jackie.

“Would it surprise you to learn that your father tried to suggest to me that you murdered your mother?”

The court broke into pandemonium over this until Richmond shattered a gavel bringing back order. He pointed the broken gavel at Archer and said, “You better get to your dang point, but fast, son.”

Here, Archer turned and looked over at Brooks. “A woman couldn’t have turned that handle to make the cone point upward. It would take a fairly strong man. So I think your father killed your mother by pushing her out of the hay barn and onto that corn picker, which he had set just underneath, because why else would it have been there with one of the cones pointing up?”

While Archer and Brooks exchanged a long, probing look, the whole courtroom went into such an uproar over this that it took a full minute for Richmond this time to restore order, using his fist against the wood of the bench and his high-pitched voice as he searched through the drawers of his bench for a fresh gavel.

The judge barked, “We are not interested in what you think, Mr. Archer. Is there a question in there somewhere for the witness?”

“Yes, Judge, and here it is.” He looked at Jackie. “Did you see your father kill your mother?”

The courtroom went quiet. Even Richmond seemed mesmerized, waiting for her to answer.

Archer and Jackie were locked in a stare-down. When it seemed apparent that Archer was not backing down, Jackie said quite firmly, “Yes. I saw him do it.”

“But you never told anyone?”

“No.”

“Why?”

Jackie dabbed at her eyes, and this time Archer could see that these were real tears.

“Because he told me if I did, that no one would believe my word over his and that he would then make me pay a tremendous price.”

“He threatened to harm you?”

“He told me he would blow my head off with his shotgun.”

Surprisingly, the courtroom remained quiet at this. Brooks and Judge Richmond were watching all this openmouthed, along with everyone else.

“Why would he want to kill his own wife?” asked Archer.

“I…I don’t know.”