The Last Innocent Man

“I lay there. I think I was cryin’ ’cause they were gonna leave me alone in the dark and the pain was gettin’ worse. I heard the car door slam and I yelled to them to take me with them. I even said I wouldn’t take none of the pot. Then I heard two shots and I just shut up. I laid there not moving until the car drove off. I didn’t move then, either. I thought maybe one of them was waiting for me to move.

“About two minutes later they turned around and fired the rest of the shots in the gun off at me.”

It was very quiet in the room. David was having trouble taking this in, which was unusual for him. He was an old pro at this sort of thing. How many mutilated bodies had he seen in photographs or in person? How many human tragedies had he been involved in? What was this girl to him?

“How close did the shots come to you?” David asked.

“One bullet spit up dirt right near my head. So did another.”

“Did you hear any of them say anything when they left?”

“Yeah, someone said, ‘I think we got her,’ but I don’t know who.”

“Do you know who shot at you from the car?”

She shook her head and put it down on her crossed arms again. She looked very tired.

“How did you get down to the bottom of the mountain? It’s several miles from where the shots were fired.”

“I crawled.”

“Crawled?”

“I got scared lying there. I stayed curled up for a while, but the pain wouldn’t stop and there was no sound up there. Just the wind and animals in the woods. I didn’t want to stay put, so I crawled. And it took hours and it hurt so much.”

There were tears in her eyes and David felt dead inside.

“But I wasn’t gonna let them do this to me. So I crawled and sometimes I walked a ways and I got to the bottom and just fell in that ditch, and anytime a car come by or a truck I’d pull myself up. That was the worst. Even worst than the shooting and being alone. No one would stop for me or help me.”

The tape recorder spun on. The rays of the sun created splotches of light on the tabletop. Monica placed her arm around Jessie’s heaving shoulders and spoke soothingly. David stared at the wall. It took every ounce of control he had learned in the courtroom to keep his features from showing any emotion. Sometimes he wondered if that wasn’t one trick he could do now without trying.

MONICA ANDDAVIDagreed to meet by the reception desk, and Monica took Jessie back to the girls’ detention area. It was a little past noon and the reception room was empty. David sat down on a couch in the corner. The interview had shaken him, and he wanted some time to calm down.

A teenage boy walked up to the reception desk and David thought about the man-boy, Tony Seals, whom he was being paid so much money to represent. Eighteen years old, his brains burned out by controlled substances, not caring about anything or anyone, not even himself.

And the boy’s parents. David would never have come into the office the day after the Gault verdict if Anton and Emily Seals had not been old and valued clients of his firm, and close personal friends of Gregory Banks, one of the senior partners and David’s closest friend.

During the meeting Anton Seals had sat straight-backed and expressionless, wearing his conservative pinstriped suit like a uniform. His only show of emotion had been the constant stroking of his wife’s hand. Emily Seals had also kept her composure, but David could see that her eyes were red-rimmed from crying. The Sealses represented old money. They were elegant people. Neither of them fully understood what their son had done to Jessie Garza, himself, or their lives.

“Why did you shoot Jessie Garza?” David had asked Tony Seals yesterday at the county jail. Even now David did not know why he had asked the question. You didn’t have to know why a person violated the law to get him off.

“She was a pain in the ass.”

“You shot her because…”

“Well, you know, she knew how to get drugs, so we used her like that for a while, but she was a pain in the ass. Then she tore up some marijuana plants that Sticks had growing. So we were talking about what a pain in the ass she was and how no one liked her because she’s got such a big mouth and Zack says he’ll bump her off.”

“Just like that?” David had asked. “Just because of the plants?”

“I guess so. Zack was always talking like that. About how he was a hit man. He said he’d killed guys before, but Sticks and me didn’t believe him even though he was always flashing this gun around. We didn’t think he’d use it.”

“Why didn’t you try to get Zack to take her to the hospital after she was shot?”

“I did say we should back at the hole, but Zack said, ‘Don’t worry about her, she’s just gonna die,’ so I forgot about it. Besides, I was real tired and I didn’t want trouble with the cops.”

David saw Monica walking toward him and he stood up.

“Is she okay?” David asked when they were outside.