Read Online The Red Scream by Mary Willis Walker - Free Book Online

you must have used my testimony at the trial for your information.”
    “That, and the interview you gave me at the time,” she said.
    “You stuck close to it, so it was accurate in that respect. I guess that’s what you got to do, but—” He took a long swig of his drink.
    Molly shifted her weight on the hard chair; the man’s tension was contagious. “But what?”
    He didn’t answer and he didn’t look up.
    This was so unexpected a development that Molly found herself floundering around for the right question. Finally she said, “David, are you having some second thoughts about your testimony in the McFarland matter?”
    When he looked up, there were several tiny droplets of liquid just above his upper lip; Molly wasn’t sure whether it was sweat or Scotch. “I just wondered,” he said softly. “There wasn’t anything in your book about the nicks.”
    “Nicks?”
    “Yeah. The nicks on her scalp.”
    Molly felt short of breath and her fingertips prickled. “What are you talking about, David?”
    He lifted a hand and used the back of it to wipe the moisture off his upper lip. “Well, those little cuts Mrs. McFarland had on her head—you didn’t mention them in the part about the autopsy. I read it a couple of times to be sure.”
    “There weren’t any little cuts,” Molly said.
    “Yes there were. Like I’ve seen sometimes when our clients—you know, the departed—have been shaved by someone in the family who had a shaky hand instead of having it done by our professional mortuary barber.”
    When she had caught her breath, Molly said, “David, the Travis County ME who’s been doing the postmortems for thirty years didn’t mention any nicks. And I had one of the autopsy photographs on my bulletin board for a year, looked at it every day, and I never saw any nicks.”
    “They weren’t very big,” he said, “and when they’re done after death, there isn’t any bleeding.”
    “Why didn’t you mention this before?”
    “No one asked. I thought it was obvious and would come out in the autopsy. I didn’t know it hadn’t until I read your book.” His black eyes watched her so intently Molly got the feeling that he was giving her a test of some sort.
    “I’ll check on it tomorrow,” she said, looking at the tight set of his handsome red mouth and wondering what else he was holding back. “Is this what’s been bothering you?”
    “I guess.”
    “Is there anything else I can check on for you?”
    He lifted his glass, drained the contents, and set it down carefully on the table. “Molly,” he said, using her name voluntarily for the first time, “you’re against the death penalty, aren’t you?”
    “Yes,” she said.
    “Are you Catholic?” he asked.
    “No. I’m not any religion. I’m just against the state killing people. What about you?”
    He lifted his right hand to his chest and put the index and middle fingers inside his shirt between the buttons. Molly was certain hewas touching a small gold cross that hung there. “I’m against it, too,” he said. “Thou shalt not kill.”
    Molly thought she understood now what his problem was. “It sounds like you’re having some last-minute discomfort about your role in putting Louie Bronk away. That’s not unusual for witnesses, David. Among the many things wrong with the death penalty is that it can be devastating for witnesses.”
    He let out a stream of air through his lips; all the way across the table she felt it on her face and smelled the Scotch.
    “David, I’m doing an article about the execution, sort of an update on Louie Bronk, for Lone Star Monthly. I wonder if you’d talk to me about this, on the record? About your religious scruples as a witness. I’d like to record what we say, if it’s all right with you.”
    He ran his tongue over his lips and looked around the room. “Now?”
    She smiled at him. “Why not? No time like the present.” She leaned over and pulled her little recorder and her notebook from