Free Cruel Justice by William Bernhardt

Maria got beat over the head with a golf club. A nine iron, as I recall.”
    Ben’s eyebrows rose. “And that killed her?”
    “No. She died when the broken shaft was driven through her neck.”
    Ben’s hand reached tentatively for the nearest chair.
    “Nailed her to the wall,” Mike continued. “Like she’d been crucified in some grisly satanic ritual. She was still hanging upright—clothes torn, blood splashed all over her sagging body—when I arrived. The location and the weapon suggested that the crime wasn’t premeditated. A spur-of-the-moment murder by an angry assailant with a deadly violent temper.”
    The words in Leeman’s psychiatric report came back unbidden to Ben. A sudden, explosive temper. Hmm.
    How long can you go on representing the scum of the earth?
    “Why did the police arrest Leeman Hayes?” Ben asked.
    “Leeman worked as a caddy at the country club. He’d been there for a couple of months. He wasn’t the most brilliant caddy in the world—mentally retarded, you know—but by all accounts, he tried hard and managed the essentials. Everyone liked him. Until he turned up at the scene of the crime, in the middle of the night, and they found his fingerprints all over the murder victim. And the murder weapon.”
    “But if he was a caddy—”
    “That wouldn’t explain why he was there after midnight.”
    “But surely the fingerprints—”
    “Granted, Leeman might have held the club before the murder occurred. But if so, where were the murderer’s prints? If he had wiped the club clean, he would’ve wiped away Leeman’s prints as well. And why would his prints be all over the victim? No, it just doesn’t make sense. And there was more evidence—I forget the details. I think they found some of the woman’s possessions in Leeman’s locker.”
    “So that’s the prosecution’s case?”
    “That—plus the confession.”
    Ben felt a sudden heaviness on his shoulders. “He confessed ?”
    “In a manner of speaking. We brought him in for questioning, but he wasn’t capable of answering the questions. Not verbally, anyway. But then one of the officers asked him to show us what happened. He did that—pantomimed the whole scene.”
    “And?”
    “You can see for yourself. It’s on videotape—one of the first our department ever made. But I can tell you what you’ll see. You’ll see a reenactment of Leeman Hayes clubbing Maria Alvarez to death.”
    Ben decided to get that tape as soon as possible. “Thanks for the inside scoop, Mike. I won’t forget it.”
    “No problem. Put in a good word for me next time you see your sis.”
    Ben raised a finger. “Speaking of whom—” He briefly told Mike what had happened that morning in his office.
    Mike listened to Ben with astonishment. “I can’t believe it!”
    “Yeah. Hard to believe she’d leave her baby behind like that.”
    “Oh, I can believe that,” Mike replied. “That part is pure Julia. I just can’t believe she’d leave him with you.”
    Ben lowered his chin. “And what, may I ask, is wrong with me?”
    Mike slapped him reassuringly on the shoulder. “Oh, you’re nice enough, in your own stiff, mildly neurotic way. But you’re hardly what I’d call a family man.”
    “I resent that.”
    “Come on, Ben. You’ve never gotten along with anyone in your family. Certainly not your sister. And when was the last time you visited your mother? Most guys would trip over themselves kissing up to a mommy with as much moolah as yours. But you see her, what? Maybe once a year. If there’s no snow on the turnpike on Christmas Day.”
    “My mother and I have an understanding.”
    “And what about your dad? You upset him so badly he wrote you right out of his will!”
    All traces of good humor disappeared from Ben’s face. “You really don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, Mike.”
    Mike held his hands out. “Did I hit a sensitive spot? Sorry, chum. I was just attempting to explain my mystification that