The Secrets on Chicory Lane: A Novel(58)
“Did you really worship the devil in these services, Mr. Jones?”
“Not really,” the witness answered. “The devil—Satan—is a symbol. We don’t believe he’s a real entity or deity. For Satanists, the devil merely means liberation.”
“Liberation from what?”
“The confines of Christian society. We believe that man should embrace his carnal and animalistic instincts. It’s natural. It’s human. We believe religion was foisted upon us to keep us in line.”
“So there were no animal sacrifices, no blood rites, no conjuring up demons from the underworld?”
Jones laughed. “No. That’s just what everyone thinks Satanism is. They’re wrong.”
Shamrock objected, saying the witness wasn’t qualified to define what “everyone thinks.” The judge sustained.
Crane went on. “Very well. Mr. Jones, you testified the other day that you worked for my client. Would you please repeat what you told the jury?
“I was the IT guy, I guess you could say. I made sure all the technical stuff behind running the business worked. I maintained the website and handled our presence on social networking media.”
“Social networking media?”
Back in 2006, social media was a brand-new term. We had MySpace, Twitter had just launched, and Facebook existed only for students—although in a month it would open to the public. Jones gave a thumbnail description of what is now common knowledge for nearly everyone on the planet.
Crane handed Jones some sheets of paper. “Do you recognize these?”
The witness nodded. “These are copies of emails that were going around.”
“Could you please identify the first email?”
“Yeah, it’s from me to Dora.”
“What is the date of the email?”
“December 18, 2005.”
“That’s about a week prior to the date of the murder, is that correct?”
“I guess so.”
“Could you please read the email?”
“Sure. Uh, ‘Dear Dora. Eddie seems to be getting worse with the anxiety. Today he became unusually belligerent. Is he off his medication? Sorry I have to ask. Signed, Wade.’”
“Fine,” Crane said. “So you knew my client was on medication for an anxiety disorder and depression?”
“Yes, sir. The whole inner circle knew.”
“When you say, ‘inner circle,’ what do you mean?”
“The core group of The Temple. Eddie, Dora, Catherine, me …” He named a couple of other people as well.
Crane thanked Jones, took the paper, and submitted it to the court as evidence. “Now, Mr. Jones, please do the same for the second email in your hands.”
“Uh, it’s dated December 19. It’s from Dora to me. ‘Wade—Eddie and I decided that the drugs the doctors give us are evil. If he doesn’t want to take the medicine, it’s his right not to. I support his decision. However, I agree with you that he is becoming more unstable. He keeps saying my baby is going to be evil. I will try to reason with him.’”
Crane submitted that missive as evidence and went on. I was starting to get what he was doing—establish that Eddie was mentally off balance at the time of the crime.
“Mr. Jones, when you and Ms. Carter went to my client’s home on Christmas Eve last year, were you planning to worship the devil?”
“No, sir.”
“It was just a party?”
“Yes, sir.”
Crane paused to consult his notes. “Now, Mr. Jones. What was the defendant like, in general?”
Jones shrugged. “Most of the time he was fine. Very smart. Very charismatic. He was fun to be around.”
“Were there other times when he was ‘off his meds,’ as you put it?”
“Yeah. There was a period a couple of years ago, about a month long, I think it was in the summer of 2004. He went a little nuts and was in that babbling state. Nervous as he—heck. I could see it was torture for him. Eddie did keep his sense of humor, though. He’d say that demons were tormenting him for his past sins.”
“He thought that was funny?”
Jones raised his eyebrows. “Yeah.”
“Did he say what these past sins were?”
“No. Just that he’d done horrible things. He was in Vietnam, you know. I really don’t know a lot about Eddie’s past.”
“So, it’s your opinion that the defendant was disturbed by events that took place when he was in the armed services?”
Shamrock objected, saying that the witness was no expert in psychiatry and also had no knowledge of Eddie’s actions in Vietnam. The judge sustained.
Crane studied his notes for a moment and then asked, “Mr. Jones, back to Christmas Eve last year, how was the defendant during the party?”
“He was all right. At least he acted like he was. There was a moment when the two of us were in the kitchen while the two ladies were in the other room. I noticed his hand shaking when he poured some wine. I asked him if he was all right. He said, ‘I’m never all right.’ But after that he seemed fine.”
“Thank you. No more questions.”
Shamrock then got up for cross-examination. “Mr. Jones, when you and Ms. Carter went to the party on Christmas Eve, did you notice if the defendant had set up the house in preparation for a party that night?”