He Defended Her, He Said I Deserved It novel · Chapter 15 of 32

Chapter 15: The Gallery

I sat down.

Ike put a coffee in my hand and went and stood behind his desk, pretending to file things.

"I was in the second row," I said. "On the left. Every day of your trial."

"I know where you were," the nurse said. "I could see you. You were the only one in the room who looked at my face."

The bartender nodded.

"You looked at all of us," she said. "That's what made it worse. You saw it, and you went home."

"Yes."

"Why?"

I made myself say it out loud.

"Because he was gentle with you. And I told myself gentle meant fair. I married a man who told me every night that everybody deserves a defense."

The bus driver's wife snorted.

"Everybody does," she said. "Not like that."

"No," I said. "Not like that."

Nobody said anything for a while.

The neon buzzed.

"I'm not here to forgive you," the nurse said finally. "I'm here because I watched you on the news say you never drew anybody and thought she asked for it."

"I never did."

"I know. I saw the drawing." She set her coffee down. "Your station ran it the night of my verdict. You made me look like I wanted to put my fist through his face."

"You did."

"I did." Her mouth twitched. "Best I ever looked on TV."

By noon there were eight of them.

The nurse had made calls all night.

The college girl came in last but one. She was twenty-six now, a second-grade teacher, still in her lanyard.

The woman from last spring came on her lunch hour from the salon. She had forty minutes.

We moved across the street, because the bond office had four chairs and Darla had eleven.

Darla cleared the files off every surface by sweeping them onto the floor with her forearm.

"Sugar, sugar, sugar," she said, shaking every hand. "Sit. There's coffee. It's better than Ike's."

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