Free Only the Truth by Pat Brown Page A

bothered me and I had to ask him.
    "Are you sure that man was really Mr. Doe?"
    Mr. Green grinned widely and leaned close to me.
    "I haven't the faintest idea if that is the same man who moved cross
the way from you. But, since the prosecution was so excited to make him Mr.
Doe, I couldn't see why we shouldn't go along with it. The real Mr. Doe in the
fire ain't got no teeth to
check for dental records and it's my guess we'll never know who he really is,
but if Mr. Dawson wants to make a penniless old drifter into Mr. Doe, I've got
no objection! He isn't going to establish much motive that way."
    I looked at Mr. Green and I tried to see where he was going.
    "But, if Charlene didn't do nothing to the old
man and he didn't come to do nothing to her, why would she kill him? Is it cause like you said she thought he was someone else?"
    Mr. Green bit his lip and shook his head a few times back and forth.
    "That's the million dollar question, Billy Ray. If you can get her to
tell you, it would save us a whole lotta work and
guessing."
    "So, maybe she is just crazy."
    "Maybe, Billy Ray. That's for me to make the
jury think and if it's a good enough answer for the jury, it's good enough to save Charlene's life."
     
    ********************
     
    The heating system stopped working on Thursday night, so on Friday morning
there was frost collecting on the benches in the courtroom and they canceled
court until Monday. They brought Charlene back from the hospital to the jail
and I went over to see her. I should have gone to work that day since I didn't
have to go to court but I wanted to see Charlene so bad that I went over to the
boss and asked him if I could make some money on the weekend. He was nice about
it and told me to go on over and see Charlene.
    When I got over to the jail, I told the officer I wanted to see Charlene but
he told me I would have to come back later, that she was spending the morning
with her Mama. I waited a couple of hours and he came back and told me she was
now spending the next hours with her sister. I tried again in the evening, but
then he told me she said she was too tired to see me.
    I didn't go to work Saturday or Sunday neither. I
spent both days trying to get in to see Charlene. She was always occupied or
tired or visiting with someone else. The police officer finally told me that I
was stupid if I didn't get that she just didn't want to see me. I went over to
the motel down the block where the Wiggingtons were
staying and banged on their door. Mrs. Wiggington let
me in. She was still dressed from her visit down at the jail. She gave me a
little hug and patted me absentmindedly on the head.
    I asked her if she knew what was wrong with Charlene and why she didn't want
to see me.
    "She's just confused, hon. Give her time."
    "Confused? What is she confused about?"
    "She isn't sure she can love you right now, Sweetie."
    I felt like I had all the wind knocked out of me.
    "She don't love me no more?" The words
felt like dry straw in my mouth.
    Mrs. Wiggington pulled me in the door and sat me
down on the motel bed. She went to her little refrigerator and got herself a
beer. "Want one?"
    I shook my head. I never drank beer in my whole life.
    She came back and sat down beside me and the boozy smell of the beer made me
feel sick. Or maybe it was hearing her say Charlene didn't love me. Or maybe it
was sitting next to Mrs. Wiggington in her little
short skirt that bothered me.
    Mrs. Wiggington went right on and told me all
about Charlene and their visits.
    "Cheryl is real confused, Billy Ray. She told me she didn't want to
hurt your feelings but she thinks now she came to stay with you because she
couldn't find her way back to us."
    "She kind of already told me that."
    Mrs. Wiggington nodded and took a long drink of
her beer.
    "But, she has found her way back to us, Billy Ray. She has her family
around her and she is finding it hard to split herself between you and
us."
    "And I don't matter no more?"
    Mrs. Wiggington