Accused

TWENTY-ONE

Scott arrived back at the beach house just as Bobby was leaving in the Prius.

"How'd it go with the senator?" Bobby asked through his open window.

"I'm number two for the job… behind Judge Morgan."

"You're shitting me? Can this case get any weirder?"

"I have a feeling it can. Another ice cream craving?"

"Mint chocolate-chip. I'm running a tab at the 7-Eleven." Bobby's ice cream runs had become a nightly occurrence. "Between diapers and ice cream, I didn't know how expensive a pregnant woman could be."

"Use a condom," Boo said.

" What? "

"If you have sex with Mother."

"I won't."

"Use a condom?"

"Have sex with your mother."

Scott had climbed the back stairs and gone directly up to the girls' bedroom to tuck them in. He found them huddled together reading a novel about vampires in love. They no longer required his reading services at bedtime. He missed it. They were growing up too fast, and sex ed had only accelerated the aging process. So he had made a deal with them when they had become a single-father family: they could talk to him about anything, ask him any questions they wanted, and he would always tell them the truth and never get mad. They took him up on the deal on a regular basis. Fifth grade had brought a lot of questions about sex. He had learned not to overreact.

"She had sex with that dead man, Mr. Fenney. And he had sex with those other women-"

"Were you two eavesdropping?"

"Unh-huh, we sure were, Mr. Fenney."

"If you have sex with Mother, it's just like you're having sex with all the women the dead man had sex with, Ms. Nelson said so in health class."

"AIDS, Mr. Fenney."

"Why were you eavesdropping?"

"I need to know," Boo said.

"Know what?"

"If Mother killed her boyfriend."

"She didn't."

"That's what she said, but she lied to us before."

"She's not lying about this, Boo. And I'm not going to have sex with her."

"You used to."

"When we were married."

"Do you want to again?"

"Get married?"

"Have sex with her? It would relieve your stress."

"So you don't have a heart attack, Mr. Fenney."

"A. Scott, are you healthy enough for sexual activity?"

"Boo, you sound like a commercial."

"Well?"

"Yes. I think. Look, I'm not going to have a heart attack, and I'm not going to have sex with your mother."

"She might try to seed you," Pajamae said.

" Seed me?"

"Sedate you," Boo said.

" Sedate? You mean seduce?"

"That's it. To tempt or lead astray, Ms. Nelson said. Boys usually do it to girls, but Ms. Nelson said it can go both ways. And Mother's got a lot of sexy clothes, more than she used to have. We looked at her stuff while she was gone."

Pajamae nodded a confession.

"You shouldn't snoop around her stuff."

"I used to go into her closet all the time. She's still my mother, you said so yourself."

"Yes, but-what do you mean, while she was gone?"

"Mother put on her wig and went somewhere in her car today."

"What wig?"

"A black wig. She said she didn't want anyone to recognize her."

Scott nodded. "Reporters. Where'd she go?"

"I don't know. But she was really happy when she got back."

What would make a woman really happy in the middle of the day? As Scott saw it, there were three possibilities: shopping, chocolate, or sex. She didn't have any money for shopping and chocolate was too fattening for the hottest WAG on tour. That left sex. Was she cheating on Trey? On Scott again?

Scott returned downstairs to the living room where he found Carlos and Louis slouched at opposite ends of the couch and Rebecca and Karen sitting in chairs and staring at the TV. It was a commercial.

"What's a five-letter word for 'bank job'?" Louis asked.

"Why?" Carlos said.

"That's three letters."

"No, why do you want to know?"

"For this here crossword puzzle."

"Why are you doing crossword puzzles?"

"To improve his vocabulary," Karen said.

"Oh. Thief."

"Is that a job?"

"It is for the thief."

"Where's Bobby with my ice cream?" Karen said.

"You'd better sit down, Scott," Rebecca said.

Scott sat. The commercial ended and returned to the local evening news from Houston. The anchor introduced the next story.

"Now for our first installment of 'Murder on the Beach,' we go live to Renee Ramirez in Galveston."

The picture cut to the reporter holding a microphone in front of the courthouse, framed by palm trees. Her tan skin glowed in the camera lights. Carlos sat up.

" Estoy enamorado."

"You're in love with every beautiful woman you see," Karen said.

"What's your point?"

"Trey Rawlins," the reporter said, "was murdered nine days ago. He was buried Thursday at the Old City Cemetery, and yesterday the grand jury indicted his longtime lover for allegedly stabbing him to death with a butcher knife from their own kitchen. The national media has dubbed Rebecca Fenney the 'Guilty Groupie,' and with good reason. I've learned that her fingerprints were on the murder weapon-"

Scott jumped up. "How'd she get that?"

"The D.A. had to leak it to her," Karen said. "Or that detective."

— "and that there's no evidence that anyone other than Rebecca Fenney entered the bedroom the night Trey was found dead in his bed. Prosecutors are convinced that Ms. Fenney did in fact kill Trey, a conclusion bolstered by the fact that she has refused to take a polygraph exam."

"Damnit-that taints the jury pool! Rex said he didn't try his cases in the press."

Back on the TV: "But while convinced she killed Trey, prosecutors are confounded by the apparent lack of a motive. Why would Rebecca Fenney kill the man who gave her everything from the clothes she wore to the Corvette she drove? She claims Trey proposed to her that same night. Surely that will all come out at trial, which promises to be another O.J. circus-like spectacle, particularly with the news that guns, porn, and Viagra were found in the residence and with the confirmation that Ms. Fenney is being represented by her ex-husband, A. Scott Fenney from Dallas. Scott Fenney was a star football player at SMU back in the early nineties-"

On the screen now was a clip of Scott running the football against Texas.

— "and became a legend when he rushed for one hundred ninety-three yards against UT. But he became a legal legend two years ago when he defended Shawanda Jones, a black Dallas prostitute charged with the murder of Clark McCall, the thirty-year-old son of the late Senator Mack McCall."

The screen showed Scott, Shawanda, and the girls on the courthouse steps after the verdict.

"She's gorgeous," Rebecca said.

"She was."

Renee Ramirez appeared on-screen. "Ms. Jones was acquitted by a federal jury in Dallas, but died of a heroin overdose two months later. Scott Fenney adopted her daughter. Rebecca Fenney began an extramarital affair with Trey Rawlins while he was an assistant golf pro at the Highland Park Country Club where the Fenneys were members. She left Scott Fenney for Trey, and now he's representing her. Now that's a man who really meant 'until death do us part.' Of course, that could happen. At Trey's funeral service this past Thursday, I spoke with his twin sister, Terri Rawlins."

The picture cut to the front of the church and the young woman Rebecca had identified as Terri on the funeral tape. She looked like Trey.

"I hope they give her the death penalty."

Scott turned to Rebecca just as she turned to him. Her face was pale.

"The death penalty?"

"It's not a capital murder case, Rebecca. They can't give you the death penalty."

"But this is Texas."

Back to Renee Ramirez: "While I certainly believe in 'innocent until proven guilty,' I must ask why Rebecca Fenney, an indicted murderer, is not in jail at this hour? Why was she released on her personal recognizance? Is the D.A. extending professional courtesy to Mr. Fenney because he's a Texas legend and thereby endangering the good citizens of Galveston? Is Mr. Fenney receiving preferential treatment because of his political connections-he was seen dining with our own Senator George Armstrong tonight at Gaido's by this reporter. Rumor has it that Mr. Fenney is up for a federal judgeship in Dallas. It is all quite interesting. Perhaps Judge Shelby Morgan will have something to say about all of this when Ms. Fenney is arraigned next week. Finally, Rebecca Fenney is reportedly residing until trial with Mr. Fenney and his family in a rented house here on the Island. Hopefully there are no sharp knives in the kitchen. Reporting live from Galveston Island, this is Renee Ramirez."

They went to commercial break.

"The D.A. was right," Scott said.

Karen looked up. "About what?"

"Her. She is annoying as hell."

"Bitch," Louis said.

"That, too."

"No, that's a five-letter word for 'female dog'."