Free Paris Trout by Pete Dexter

clinic," she said. "Rosie
Sayers is quite grave .... "
    Seagraves nodded. "Did you talk to Dr. Braver
himself?"
    " No sir, Dr. Braver was busy. I talked to his
girl."
    " If you get a moment later," he said, "you
might try to get the doctor on the phone for me. I'd like to speak to
him myself."
    "The girl said he was in surgery," she
said, "some little boy that cut himself this morning on the
rocks at the church — "
    "Whenever he's finished," Seagraves said.
"It's no hurry."
    She closed the door, and Seagraves picked up his
telephone. Ward Townes answered the other end himself. "County
prosecutor's office," he said, "good morning."
    Seagraves said, "Mr. Prosecutor? This is Harry
Seagraves."
    " Thank you for getting back to me," he
said. "There was a problem yesterday afternoon down to Indian
Heights .... "
    " I heard that," Seagraves said.
    " I thought you might. You still represent the
Trout family?"
    " As far as I know."
    " Then let me suggest that you bring your client
by my office this afternoon, save us getting Chief Norland upset,
having to pick him up." `
    " Charges been pressed?"
    " Not yet," Townes said. "But people
been shot."
    "We might could settle this between the parties,
save everybody some aggravation."
    " I think it's too late," Townes said.
    "Does this mean you aren't in a settling mood
today, Mr. Prosecutor? We could come in some other time."
    " That girl he shot in the stomach, she's
fourteen years old," he said. There was no anger in the words,
it sounded more like an argument you might have with yourself, trying
to decide what to do.
    " That somebody shot," Seagraves said.
"There was more than one gun. Buster Devonne had a gun, maybe
some of them had guns too."
    " Buster Devonne's already told me who did the
shooting," Townes said. "He came in yesterday afternoon
after it happened."
    "Buster Devonne is a known liar."
    There was a pause, Townes considering Buster Devonne.
"He said Paris shot the girl. Followed her into the kitchen to
finish it, and then both of them lit out the back like thieves."
    " You believe him?"
    "You don't?" Townes said.
    Seagraves measured his answer. "I believe Paris
Trout's been a businessman in Ether County a long time," he
said. "His sister's a court I clerk. People know him, they
traded with him. Not just whites. He's got loans out all over the
county. Indian Heights, some in the Bottoms too, and there isn't
anybody either color ever heard of this Sayers girl or her people."
    " Obscurity isn't grounds to shoot children in
the state of Georgia," Townes said, and there was something in
his voice now. "The law doesn't say anything about the social
station of the deceased."
    Seagraves saw the conversation had somehow turned
personal and moved it a different direction. He said, "Buster
Devonne, he cracked so many burrheads they had to take him off the
police. The first man in the history of Cotton Point, Georgia, they
took off the police for assaulting Negroes. He went from that to
cotton stealing, you brought him in this office yourself for that.
    " He got off on cotton stealing, and the next
thing you know, he's got a death grudge against a man, all he did was
catch Buster stealing his cotton. Bragging all over town he's going
to do this and that to some dirt farmer — hell, I think he was a
Methodist — and then sneaks out one night and sets his chicken coop
on fire.
    " You couldn't find a jury in Ether County that
is going to believe the testimony of a man that settles his grudges
by setting chickens on fire — not over Paris Trout."
    Townes said, "The man was there. It's what he
said. The clinic reports the girl made the night, but she won't make
another. The nurse said isn't a thing left to do for her but dig a
hole."
    " That isn't up to the nurse, to say that she's
gone."
    " That's so," Townes said, "but she's
shot, four, five times, and I want to see Paris Trout about that at
one o'clock in my office this afternoon. If he isn't here, I'll send
Chief Norland to get