Free South River Incident by Ann Mullen

her?”
    “I keep thinking that one
day you’re not going to be so lucky. If she hadn’t recanted her story, you
could very well be in jail right now. You weren’t guilty, but that didn’t mean
a thing. If they would have pursued the matter, you’d still be trying to prove
your innocence. In this case, that could happen to me. I didn’t do a thing, but
they don’t care. They have one little piece of evidence, and now they’re going
to use it against me. I’m going to jail over this one. You can bet on it.”
    “No, you’re not, Jesse.
You’re just freaking out. Everything will work out in the end... just wait and
see.”
    “I’m glad that you’re so
confident. However, it’s not your butt this time that’s in a sling.”
    “It might as well be,” he
said, determined to make me feel better. “We’re in this together. If you go
down; I go down with you.”
    “Oh, that makes me feel
much better! At least I won’t be sitting by myself in a jail cell. I’ll have
you as company.”
    “Jesse, you don’t even know
what’s going on, yet. Stop worrying. You’re innocent. You have nothing to fear.”
    “I’m sorry, Billy,” I said,
taking a deep breath. “The dogs have a bone.”
    “What?”
    “The cops are like a dog
with a bone. Give a dog a bone and he’ll chew on it, and then bury what’s left,
only to dig it up at a later time. I’m that bone. They won’t leave me alone.
Even if I don’t go to jail now, they can always come back later. They have my
watch, and they found it at a crime scene. It doesn’t matter that I’m innocent.
I look guilty. Cops can be tricky. They don’t let a little thing like the truth
stand in their way if they think they’re right.”
    “I thought you liked cops.
At least you did when I first met you. I remember a time when you thought cops
were always the good guys. To you, they could never do wrong. What happened?”
    “You happened, that’s what.
I learned from you that as long as you stay on the right side of the law,
everything might be fine, but if they even think for one minute that you’ve
done a dirty, you’d better watch out. They come at you with a vengeance. I
think murder would be classified as a dirty.  Don’t you? They will hound me
forever. They will never give up.”
    “Yeah, there might be some
validity to your words. We need more information. We need a plan. ”
    “I think the first thing on
the list would be to keep me out of jail,” I said. “That’s the main thing that
I care about at the moment.”
    “But we can’t do that until
we find out if they plan to arrest you. That’s the key. We have to know.”
    Billy turned the truck
around and headed back to Mom’s.
    “And the only way to do
that is to talk to the police.”
    “But...”
    “It’s the only way we’re
going to know where we stand. Don’t worry, everything will be fine.  Trust me.”
    “You always say that.”
    “And don’t I always live up
to my word?”
    “Yeah, that’s what scares
me.”
    “If you have a better idea,
I’m willing to listen.”
    “I guess running is out of
the question.”
    “Look,” Billy said. “We’ll
have to go face them eventually. There’s no way of getting around it. If the
sheriff is back at your house, it’s because they have more evidence or they’ve
matched something to something. They wouldn’t come back without a trick in
their pocket. You know they came back to talk to you so let’s go see what they
want.”
    “Wait a minute,” I said.
“Let’s talk about this.”
    “Nope, I’m done talking.”           
    Billy pulled into the
driveway and parked behind the police cars in the circle. He put the gear in
park, and then turned off the truck engine. He looked over and smiled at me.
    “I just want you to know
that I am your friend. I’ll never desert you like that stinking rat did. I tell
you that on my honor as a true Cherokee. We are a proud people and when we give
our word, you can take it as