Billy Ray thought about his talk with Doug, and about the phone call he’d just made. “You’ll be the one making those plans for a long time to come, Carolina.”
“If I’m not…” She faced him, placing her finger against his lips when he started to protest. “If I’m not, I don’t ever want you to blame yourself, Billy Ray. You’ve restored my soul by believing in me. You’ve fought for me when no one else would. You’ve stood up to the worst threats. Someday I’ll tell the children about this, about what you did for all of us. Even if the Gray sons get custody, I’ll tell them what a gentleman you were to fight and to care. The children will need to know what a real gentleman looks like, and no matter what happens, that’s something I can show them. I hope someday Chris will turn out to be just like you.”
He gathered her into his arms. His heart beat so fast he felt dizzied by it. “You haven’t given up, have you?”
“Not by a long shot. But, Billy, you have to know that no matter what happens in that courtroom this afternoon, I still love you. I still believe in you.”
He didn’t know how he could hold her closer, but he did.
Sam Franklin looked like a cat lapping away at a milk cow’s titty. In a criminal trial, Taylor’s testimony would not have been strong enough to carry any weight. But in a custody hearing, the judge had to consider many factors. And Taylor’s words would affect Judge Sawyer deeply. She was Carolina’s friend; she had even been asked to testify for Carolina. And nothing Billy Ray had asked her in his cross-examination could get her to admit that she had been coerced by her husband into testifying for the Gray-sons.
Billy Ray wanted to wipe the smug expression off Sam’s face, but he knew exactly how to play his cards. He watched as Sam called Doug to the stand to talk about the night of the accident. Carolina fidgeted beside him, but she calmed after Doug was sworn in. She didn’t know what was about to happen. Billy Ray had chosen not to tell her. As much as he hated to string her along, he wanted her reaction to Doug’s testimony to be genuine.
Sam referred to his notes. “Sheriff Fletcher, will you tell us about the night of the accident that killed Champion Grayson?”
“Certainly. I got a telephone call at home from a woman who lived down the road from the accident site. She’d heard the crash. I called the paramedics and took off. I don’t live far away. I got there in a few minutes, before the ambulance arrived.”
“And what did you find?”
“Champion Grayson was dead, and Carolina Grayson was seriously injured.”
“Who was driving the car?”
“Mrs. Grayson was at the wheel. She was still behind it when I arrived, and she was unconscious. Mr. Grayson was beside her.”
“And was another car involved?”
“No, sir. She ran off the road and hit a tree. The car was demolished. We had to have it hauled to the junkyard.”
“Tell us about the road conditions that night.”
“The temperature was in the forties, but there hadn’t been any rain. The roads were dry.”
“In your expert opinion, did the roads seem hazardous?”
“Not at all. They were perfectly safe.”
“And did you notice any reason why Carolina Grayson might have run off the road? A pothole, a barrier, debris? Any obstructions of that nature?”
“Nothing. And I looked carefully, too.”
“Then, in your opinion, Sheriff, what was the reason for the accident?”
“Alcohol.”
“And what made you think that was true?”
“The smell was unmistakable. The car smelled like a distillery.”
Billy Ray didn’t object, although clearly, by Sam’s pause, he expected him to.
“So you ordered a blood alcohol test, Sheriff? To be done at the hospital?”
“It’s pretty much routine in situations like this one.”
“I see.” Sam turned to the judge. “I have here the original blood test performed on Carolina Grayson that night. I’d like to enter it, if I may.”
Billy Ray had talked to Carolina about the problems with tests of this nature and his plans to object strongly to this one, but now he did nothing. When she frowned at him, he just shook his head slightly, then turned his eyes back to the front.
“Do you have any objections?” Judge Sawyer asked him.
“I have no objections.”
Sam turned back to Doug. “The test concludes that Carolina Grayson’s blood alcohol level was three times as high as the law allows.” He sounded like a young boy who had just been given a special birthday present. “Was this what you expected to find?”
Doug sat back a little and crossed his arms. “As a matter of fact, no.”
Sam looked startled, but he recovered quickly and tried again. “Sheriff, you ordered the test. You must have expected to find her alcohol level was high.”
“No, sir, I didn’t. As I explained, the tests are routine in a case like this one. I make sure they’re always performed. And I have a technician up at the hospital who I always use. A fellow named Greg Cameron. He’s the best, and I can trust him. Unfortunately, he was out of town for the holidays.”
Sam ignored the last part. “Sheriff, according to your own testimony, the car smelled like a distillery.”
“But I didn’t have any reason to think the smell was coming from Mrs. Grayson.”
Sam didn’t recover as quickly this time. “Still, the test was conclusive. So whether you were surprised or not, she was the driver, by your own testimony. And the test results stated that she was legally drunk.”
“That’s right. That’s what the test said.”
Sam seemed to consider where to go from there. Finally he stepped back. “No further questions, Your Honor.”
Billy Ray stood and ambled toward the front. Doug met his eyes. And waited.
“Sheriff Fletcher,” Billy Ray said, “you’ve described the accident scene for us. No water on the roads, no barriers, not even a pothole. You’ve said that you thought alcohol was involved, yet you’ve said that you didn’t expect to find that Carolina had been drinking. I think we’re all a little confused. Will you clarify a little, please? What exactly did you find when you arrived at the accident scene? Will you describe what you found inside the car?”
“Well, first, both Mr. and Mrs. Grayson were still inside, and she was unconscious. Mr. Grayson had been killed on impact—that was determined later by the coroner. Mrs. Grayson was slumped over the wheel. She’d hit her head on it, but she had her seat belt fastened, and that’s what saved her in the end.”
“No air bags?”
“No, it was an older model.”
“Go on, please.”
“Mrs. Grayson’s arms were dangling at her sides, but Mr. Grayson’s hands were still gripping the steering wheel. In fact, he had one arm threaded through it. He wasn’t wearing a seat belt. Frankly, it looked to me like he had grabbed the wheel and forced the car off the road. And that’s why I ordered a blood alcohol test for both of them, because it was clear to me that—”
“Objection!” Sam was on his feet, his cheeks bright red and his eyes wild. “This is opinion. This isn’t fact.”
“I believe you invited the sheriff here to tell us what he found,” Billy Ray said. “And he is an expert witness, with opinions based on years of experience.”
A chair screeched along the wood floor behind him. Billy Ray turned and saw that Carolina was standing, her hands resting on the counsel table as if to hold herself erect. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. “I told Champ I was going to leave him. I couldn’t stand the abuse any longer. I couldn’t stand living that way. He got drunk at the party, so drunk he started to scream at me on the way home. And for the first time I screamed back. I told him I was going to take the children and leave! Pd already decided earlier that night to leave him. That’s what I meant when I told Taylor I had business to take care of with him. Champ told me he’d kill me if I left. He called me terrible names and threatene
d to kill me again. I was so tired of hearing that. So I dared him to try….”
She put her face in her hands and began to sob. “I remember….”
Billy Ray reached her side and took her in his arms. “Shh. Carolina…”
“He grabbed the steering wheel! When I fought him, he hooked his arm through it. I remember now! I saw the tree coming….” She was shaking uncontrollably.
“We’ll have a recess,” the judge ordered. “Sheriff Fletcher, you are excused for now. Mr. Wainwright, calm your client or she’ll be required to spend the rest of these proceedings outside in the hall.” Judge Sawyer rose and retired to his chambers.
Billy Ray eased Carolina into her seat; then he sat beside her, chafing her hands.
“I dared him, Billy,” she said through her tears. “For the first time in years I felt powerful. I finally realized I had to leave him, no matter what, and I knew that no matter what he did, he couldn’t hurt me anymore.”
“He almost killed you.”
“But he didn’t!”
“Do you think anybody will believe these lies?” someone roared.
Billy Ray looked up to see Whittier Grayson towering above them, Sam Franklin hanging on to his arm.
“I believe her,” Billy Ray told him. “And in what passes for your heart, so do you.”
“Your client has just shown herself to be the unstable, paranoid woman I’ve claimed all along!”
Billy Ray got to his feet. “You know, you might have had a chance at pulling this off, Judge Grayson. Except for one small detail. When you pay off too many people, eventually someone does something foolish. And Francis Turner wasn’t too bright to begin with. You should have known better than to trust him.”
He looked beyond Whittier to Gloria, who had joined Sam Franklin in the effort to get her husband to leave. “Mrs. Grayson, the man who performed the blood alcohol test on Carolina on the night of your son’s death disappeared two weeks later. I couldn’t find him to question him.”
The judge was sputtering with fury. “This has nothing to do with her, with this case, with—”
Billy Ray cut him off. “It has everything to do with her. Your wife can stop this farce before it goes any further, before I tell the court what I discovered this afternoon.”
Billy Ray turned his gaze back to Gloria. “Francis Turner, the technician who performed the test, is in jail in Minnesota right now, awaiting trial on a manslaughter charge. It seems he was busy spending some of the money your husband paid him for falsifying Carolina’s lab test, and he got into a brawl. Somebody died. The Minnesota cops traced him back here after he told them where he’d gotten the money. They thought he’d stolen it. Doug Fletcher had a little talk with them yesterday.”
“I don’t believe it. I—” Gloria grabbed her husband’s arm. “Did you do this, Whittier?”
“Of course I didn’t! Who do you think you’re talking to? I’m the circuit court judge! Nobody can prove I did anything wrong. There is no trail, nothing to lead anyone to me. I—”
She shoved him hard, both hands against his chest. He let out a gasp.
“You destroyed my son,” she said in a low voice. “And I believed, deep in my heart, that we had another chance with Champ’s children, a chance to do it right. But I was a fool. Worse than a fool. Carolina’s none of the things you wanted me to believe, is she? She didn’t kill Champ. I can see it clearly. You killed him!” She shoved him again. “You killed him.”
Billy Ray came out from behind the table, and with Sam’s help, he pulled Gloria from her husband. The bailiff and Doug materialized to lead Judge Grayson off to one side of the courtroom. Sam took Gloria off to the other.
Carolina rose and faced Billy Ray, the counsel table between them. “It’s over, isn’t it?”
“It’s over,” he confirmed.
“I’ll keep the children?”
“I don’t think there’s any question about that now. We can probably prove that Turner’s sudden wealth is due to your father-in-law, if it comes to that. But I don’t think it will.”
Sam approached them, more deferential than Billy Ray had ever seen him. He cleared his throat and addressed Billy Ray. “Gloria’s willing to settle. She’ll agree to Carolina having full custody, as long as she retains visiting rights.”
Carolina answered for herself. “What if she changes her mind later? What if I have to go through this all over again?”
“We’ll get Judge Sawyer to issue a consent order. It’s as binding as a judgment,” Billy Ray told her. “The children are yours. After this travesty, no court would even consider another suit.” He reached for her hands. “The children are yours, Carolina. All yours. We won.”
With tears streaming down her cheeks, she leaned over the table and kissed him.
They were separated then, by well-wishers who had come to testify for her, Hattie and the two psychologists who wouldn’t be called on to testify now, as well as the old friends who hadn’t deserted her. Billy Ray stepped back and watched Carolina basking in the warmth of her victory and her acceptance back into Moss Bend society.
More than a few feet seemed to separate them. As people crowded around her, he felt a gulf widening with every hug, every word of congratulations. Last night, when he had made love to Carolina, he had convinced himself—or so he’d thought—that she knew her own mind, that she was not simply grateful to him, that she had not come to him only out of a need for support and encouragement.
Last night he had confessed his love to Carolina, a love as deep and true as forever. And in return she had told him that she loved him. But now he remembered the day so many years before when he had discovered that Carolina was going to marry Champ Grayson. On that day he had seen her from a distance, too, surrounded by giggling high school girls and their envious mothers as she showed off her sparkling engagement ring.
On that day he had walked away—seemingly forever—because he had known, deep in his adolescent heart, that he had never had a chance with Carolina. They were different people from different worlds, and she needed something he could never give her.
More than a few years had passed, but for the first time in the weeks since he had taken Carolina into his home, Billy Ray saw himself without illusions. On the outside he was a successful adult with much to offer a woman, but on the inside he was still that adolescent boy, yearning for the girl he loved but unable, somehow, to claim her. Then Carolina had needed the acceptance of Moss Bend society. Now she needed time and space to find out exactly who she was. With no interference. With no demands.
Carolina looked up from her circle of admirers and sent him a smile of purest joy. He smiled back at her, but Billy Ray had already begun to protect his heart.
Doug came to stand beside him. “What’11 she do now, do you suppose?”
“She has a thousand choices, doesn’t she?”
“Son, if I’m not mistaken, you’re choice number one.”
“She’s been through a lot. She needs time before she makes any decisions.”
“You know, Billy Ray, there are some things about being a gentleman that just don’t make any sense. Giving a woman too much time to make up her mind would be one of them.”
Billy Ray picked up his briefcase and did what he’d done so many years ago. He took one last look at Carolina surrounded by her friends; then he walked away.
12
He wished he were a knight in shining armor. He wished that he had single-handedly slain all of Carolina’s dragons. But he had only carried the standard.
Billy Ray stared over the hillside view just outside of town. Summer had just about come and gone, and Route 194 still wasn’t fixed. Today Gracie Burnette, the flagger, was wearing cutoffs and a baggy T-shirt, sending traffic up and down the hill with the fancy waves and flourishes of an Olympic rhythmic gymnast.
“How’re you doing, Billy Ray?” she called as he inched in her direction.
“No complaints.” He wasn’t about to tell her the truth, tha
t he was tied up in a million and one knots, not to mention tired and hot. His air conditioner had stopped working again, and even Joel had given up on it. It was time to replace it or look for another car, but new carpet for his office had wiped out what little extra cash he had.
He was nobody’s idea of a knight, nobody’s hero. He was a backwoods lawyer, in debt up to his eyeballs, whose clients, like the Burnettes, would be grateful till the day they died but never finish paying off their bill. And most of them would stop using his services the minute they realized that from now on Judge Whittier Grayson wouldn’t give them a fair hearing if Billy Ray represented them.
Gracie grinned. “You come see us now, you hear? You don’t come ‘round near often enough.”
He leaned out the window and managed a grin himself. “I’ll be over soon. Give that baby boy a hug for me.”
She waved him past, and he started up the hill. When he reached the top, Moss Bend lay spread out in front of him, a lazy north Florida town fading and wilting in the afternoon sun. He had the craziest notion to turn his car around, sail past Gracie and keep right on going. A world existed beyond the boundaries of River County. A world where he could forget his roots and still make something of himself. Joel would understand. And there were roads and planes in and out of the area. He could be at Joel’s side in a matter of hours whenever he was needed.
But it wasn’t only Joel who was keeping him here.
The parking lot at the Blue Bayou was jammed with cars, and he frowned as he pulled into the last space at the very edge. He didn’t know any reason why Maggie’s place would be crowded this early. There were no important games on television, and Donny and the Moondogs, Maggie’s house band, didn’t start their gig until nine. But it was the end of a hot week, the end of a hot month, and he supposed that Maggie’s was as good a place as any to keep cool.
Inside, Maggie greeted him with a warm hug as he adjusted to the air-conditioning and the old Reba Mc-Intire standard wailing from the jukebox. “I’ve hardly seen you, boy! What’s keeping you so busy these days?”
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