Second Chair, A Stan Turner Mystery, Vol.4

by William Manchee

  Chapter 16

  Children of Despair

   

     On the way home I went over everything Bobby and I had been involved in over the past year. Nothing stuck out in my mind that would cause her to be upset. Unless it was a referral. That’s one of the dangers of referring business to someone. Either party could hate you for putting them together. But who was it and what had they done? It was a puzzle I wasn't going to solve that night. When I got home it was after 8:00 p.m. Rebekah was sitting in the kitchen watching her mother, Sylvia, work. She didn't smile, just raised her eyebrows.

  "Well, who is that? I don't recognize him, do you ma?" Rebekah said.

  "Very funny, where is everybody?"

  "The kids went to the movies with their grandfather."

  "Oh, lucky kids. What's for dinner?"

  "Dinner? That was two hours ago," Rebekah said.

  "All right Rebekah, Stan's obviously had a rough day in court,” Sylvia said. “I've got your supper all ready Stan.” "Come sit down. I’ll bring it to you."

  I sat down next to Rebekah and grabbed her hand under the table. She turned and looked at me with her big brown eyes and smiled warmly.

  "I've missed you. I'll be glad when this damn trial is over."

  "Me too, believe me."

  "So how is it looking?"

  "Oh, it could be worse. I think we've given the jury a few things to think about. Not a lot, but a few tidbits."

  "So, why were you so late tonight?"

  "I had to make phone calls, I had a stack of messages you wouldn't believe. Unfortunately I do have other clients. Their problems don't disappear just because I'm in trial."

  "They all know you're in a murder trial. I can't believe they still call you."

  "They do, believe me. Anyway, we may have figured out who Doomsayer is."

  "Really?" Rebekah said.

  "Yeah, but you can't mention this to anyone."

  "Who is it?"

  "Well, we think it's Margie Westcott."

  "Who?"

  "Margie Westcott, the assistant DA helping Hudson with the prosecution."

  "You're kidding? How could that be?" Rebekah said.

  "Well, we're not sure, but it seems to be a strong possibility."

  "Why would she do something like that?"

  "We're not sure yet," I replied. "I think she’s mixed up with the Children of Despair. You know, the ones who have been picketing."

  "Geese. I can't believe that," Rebekah said. "How could a public official do something like that?"

  "I don't know. It's pretty mind boggling."

  "Do you think she tried to kill you?" Sylvia said.

  "No, probably not. I think she just wanted to cause us a little grief."

  "Well, you can't let her get away with something like that. It's not right. She's put us through hell and she should pay for it,” Rebekah said.

  "We don't know for sure she is Doomsayer, we're only speculating."

  "So how will you find out if she is or isn’t?"

  "I don't know, but I need to look at a Bible."

  "A Bible?"

  "Yeah, when I was in Margie's office I looked at her Bible and noticed it was turned to Revelations, 14."

  "Well, you know where the Bible is—on my night stand."

  "Would you get it for me?" I asked.

  "I will," Sylvia said.

  Sylvia finished what she was doing and then went down the hall. After a minute she returned with a Bible in her hand and handed it to me. I turned to Revelations, 14 and began reading aloud. ‘If any man worship the beast and his image, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels.’ Doesn't that sound familiar?"

  "That was part of the last message you got before Beauty was poisoned," Rebekah replied.

  "You're right, that's quite a coincidence that there was a page marker on that citation."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "I don’t know. I’d like to get back into her office when she’s not there. We need some hard evidence to connect her to Doomsayer. If we accuse an Assistant District Attorney of obstruction of justice and then we can't prove it, we'd be in deep trouble. The judge would think the whole thing was a ploy to get a mistrial."

  "I can't believe you can't do anything. She's obviously a sick person. She needs to be put behind bars. What if she hires someone to kill you?"

  "No. She wouldn't do that. Anyway, we've got twenty-four hour police protection. Don't worry, nothing will happen," I said.

  "I'm not so sure about that. If she really wants to hurt us, she will. One police officer won't stop her."

  "I think you're overreacting," I said with more irritation in my voice than I had intended.

   "Overreacting? Bullshit!" Rebekah screamed.

  "Margie wouldn't try to kill me anyway. That would be stupid."

  "Well, somebody has been trying awfully hard to kill you."

  "I don't really think so. They're just trying to scare me. They just want to distract me so I won't do a good job defending Sarah."

  "If they killed me or the kids that would really be a great distraction."

  "What do you want me to do? I can't withdraw. You know that."

  "I know," she said. She took a deep breath, her eyes wet with tears. "I'm just so scared, Stan. I'm just so scared."

  Rebekah dropped her head and began to sob. I put my arms around her and said, "No one is going to get hurt, I promise you."