Free Lost in Clover by Travis Richardson

at the bar, the biggest rumor wasn’t about them. It was about those who couldn’t get in the bar.
    Jeremy heard Lawrence’s name paired with a few high school girls. All of them had reputations of easy virtue and had most likely been with men over eighteen long before Lawrence came to Clover. But when a state trooper pulled a BMW over for erratic driving at two in the morning, what he found, according to local buzz, was Mr. Lawrence Eliot with his pants unzipped, an open bottle of scotch, and fifteen-year-old Katie Brannegan.

20. LAWRENCE
    The trial was delayed that Friday morning until the following Monday, based on “outside developments.” Gossip hit the fan and splattered far and wide. Phone calls, emails, texts, and social networking pages buzzed with stories of horn dog Lawrence and how he had swept the virtuous Katie Brannegan, granddaughter of a Baptist minister, no less, off her feet with his wily lawyerly ways. 
    The charges against him included driving under the influence, reckless driving, endangerment of a minor, lewd exposure to a minor, statutory rape, and sodomy. Lawrence made bail early Friday morning, avoiding most of the reporters by ducking his head under his jacket, and jumping into a drinking buddy’s Land Rover. Reporters and hecklers followed the SUV to his hotel in Emporia. Lawrence sprinted inside and returned with bags in hand a minute later to the waiting Rover. Fewer followed him back to Lawrence, where he finally escaped them via underground parking in an exclusive townhome. Within hours a video of Lawrence running back and forth with the press following him was sped up and cut to Benny Hill music. Jeremy laughed longer and harder than he ever remembered in his life. 
    *
    Lawrence surprised everybody in Clover when he attended services on Sunday at the Prairie View Methodist church. He arrived sullen. His shoulders were sagging and his face held a world of sadness. But his public display of contrition seemed to backfire. Jeremy sensed the congregation’s discomfort. Lawrence sat on a pew with space on both sides of him, like he had a contagious disease. Few people shook his hands afterwards, though several children gawked, and many parents physically pushed their young daughters away from him.
    *
    On Monday, the crowd that surrounded the courthouse was even bigger than when the trial began, or for even Randy’s testimony. People from the neighboring towns came over, including that annoying roving Westboro Baptist church notorious for protesting soldiers’ funerals. They could have made a case about God hating pedophiles, but kept with their anti-homosexual message instead.
    Katie’s parents and immediate relatives locked the doors to their houses and refused to talk to anybody. They had circled the wagons around Katie. 
    Jeremy watched Lawrence on TV when he arrived at the courthouse all smiles with an extra helping of smarmy charm, but Jeremy saw fear in his eyes. The courtroom sounded like a football stadium with nonstop chattering voices. Even when the judge strode out, the audience did not quiet down. Judge Rhinehart banged his gavel so hard it looked like the handle cracked. 
    “I’ll throw every one of you out if I hear another peep. This is a courtroom, my courtroom!” He was red faced, and the veins in his temples pulsed rapidly. “You all are guests here and nothing more.”
    The judge looked at Lawrence wearily for a moment. The camera switched to Crazy Eddie, who flexed his tattooed fingers back and forth, giving the judge a contemptuous stare. The camera returned to Judge Rhinehart as he turned to the jury. “I don’t know what the hell you’ve heard, but it doesn’t matter at all. This case is solely about Mr. Eddie Cooper and nobody else.”
    He turned back to Lawrence.
    “Now, Mr. Elliot, would you like to continue from where you left off on Thursday?”
    “Thank you, Your Honor. I would.”
    The camera took a shot of Crazy Eddie staring straight ahead and