Baby, Would I Lie?

18

Afterward, Ray understood that the little interrogation they’d run him through was just bullshit, a stalling session while Warren was being nailed to the wall by the prosecutor and the judge, but at the time it was going on, he didn’t get it, and for a few minutes there he got truly rattled. The troopers arrested him in front of the bus, they put handcuffs on him for the brief walk into the courthouse, they took him upstairs and through a hall full of local citizens waiting to be called as jurors — all of whom gawked at the celebrity in handcuffs, a dream come true — they took him into a small underfurnished room, and there they removed the cuffs, read him his rights, took his fingerprints, sat him down at a little metal table, and clumsily questioned him for about half an hour. Clumsily, because in fact they told him a lot more than he told them. There were half a dozen of them, in uniforms and plainclothes, led by a craggy-faced chief interrogator, and from their questions, Ray put together the story: Bob Golker’s body had been found in a car at the bottom of Lake Taneycomo, blood full of alcohol and lungs full of water. He’d died no more than twenty-four hours after Belle. And what did Ray Jones have to say to all that?

That was Ray’s first real moment of doubt. He almost broke down at that point and told the truth; but one look at those closed dumb official faces all around him and he realized the truth would be utterly wasted if used here. So, while they were stalling him, he stalled right back.

Jury selection had been supposed to start at 9:30, so it had been just a little before that time when Ray and the bus had arrived, and it was just a little after ten when the chief interrogator was called out of the room for a minute. The others halfheartedly went on with their bullshit, but everybody looked relieved when the interrogator came back a few minutes later and said, “Okay, Ray, that’s all for now. The deputy will escort you to the courtroom.”

“For what?” Ray asked.

The interrogator looked surprised. “For what? You came here for jury selection, didn’t you?”

“That’s goin ahead?”

“The deputy will escort you.”

The deputy, a blond gelding in tan, gestured with a hand that didn’t quite grasp Ray’s elbow. “Come along.”

Ray looked at his fingers, still black with ink from the printing. “Got to wash my hands,” he said.

“No time,” the deputy said.

Ray looked at him, looked around at the rest of these assholes, and grinned. “I may be a country boy,” he said, “but I know better than to walk into that courtroom and those folks on the jury with ink on my fingers. You’ve had your fun jerkin me around, but it’s over.”

The chief interrogator looked like a fella eating a bad clam. “The deputy will escort you to the washroom.”

“That’s more like it,” Ray said, getting to his feet. “And tell him, while we’re in there, keep his hands to himself.”

That shocked the dumbos into silence. Ray and the deputy went around the corner to the men’s room and Ray washed the black off his fingertips. Then the two of them walked together down the hall full of people waiting to be called for jury duty — Ray now grinning left and right, waving, demonstrating unfettered hands — and into the courtroom, crowded with press in the public seats and lawyers up front.

The judge looked like the orphanage operator in Annie; not a good sign. She glowered at Ray for his whole walk between the rear door and the defendant’s table. Ray ignored her as best he could, took the empty chair beside Warren Thurbridge, and leaned over to half-whisper, “We havin fun yet?”

Warren gave him a bleak smile. “When the going gets tough,” he said.

Ray looked interested. “Yeah. What happens then?”

“Wait and see.”

So Ray waited and saw, for the next two hours until lunchtime, and there wasn’t much fun in it. Most of the time, he didn’t know what the hell was going on, and when he did know what was going on, he didn’t like it.

One by one, the prospective jurors were put on the witness stand and asked questions. Sometimes the questions were asked by the judge; sometimes by the prosecutor, Buford Delray; sometimes by the state prosecutor, Fred Heffner; sometimes by Warren; and sometimes by Warren’s local legal beagle, Jim Chancellor. The questions had to do with what the people knew about the case and what they knew about Ray and what attitude they had toward capital punishment. (Those who didn’t like capital punishment were automatically excluded, which meant the very first cull was in favor of the bloody-minded. Great.)

There were a lot of other reasons as well for excusing a possible juror: if they said they’d already formed an opinion about the case, for instance, or if they claimed to have somebody dependent at home that needed them every day, or if they thought a woman like Belle Hardwick probably deserved what she got no matter who it was did it to her — there were a bunch of those.

Then every once in a while, there’d be a peremptory challenge, which would mean either Warren or one of the prosecutors just didn’t like that juror’s face and wanted him or her out of there. It seemed to Ray that every time a potential juror gave Ray even the slightest smile of encouragement or nod of recognition or even admitted to ever having bought one of his records or tapes or CDs, there would be old Buford Delray on his feet again, chanting the old mantra: “For cause!”

What made it even worse, he didn’t have his backup group with him like he’d expected. Everybody from the bus was supposed to be here in court, in the seats just behind Ray and Warren, so at least from time to time at one of the more unbelievably boring or stupid parts he’d be able to turn around and make eye contact with a friend, but the mess out front when they’d arrived had thrown everybody off. According to Warren, some of the bunch were over at his offices now and the rest were just wandering around Forsyth, a one-horse town if ever there was one. Leaving Ray, except for his high-priced legal talent, all alone. And the talent was busy.

Time crawled, and most jurors were excused for one reason or another, but nevertheless by lunchtime five people had been accepted and led away through the side door to become jurors. Ray hadn’t thought about food at all, and, in fact, wasn’t entirely certain he’d ever eat again, the way his stomach was all knotted up, so it was a surprise to him when the judge suddenly said they’d stand at recess for lunch until two o’clock, banged her gavel, and left.

Everybody was suddenly up and moving. Ray said to Warren, “So what do you think?”

“They don’t have you yet,” Warren said. “Let’s go eat. I don’t know about you, but I’m starved.”