Chapter 7: The Hearing

The Calloway County Fair Board met in the basement of the courthouse, under a ceiling of stained tiles.

There were five board members at a long table, and the room was packed with people in boots.

Half of them wore Faulk Rodeo caps.

I sat at the back with Carys, in the only suit I owned.

Across the aisle, Brody and his father sat with a lawyer in a silver tie.

Cassidy sat beside them in a gray dress, holding Poppy's hand.

Poppy saw me when I came in.

She started to lift her hand, and Cassidy pressed it down into her lap.

I held still.

"Mr. Rawlins is here by the court's leave," the chairman said, "and is to stay in his seat."

The Faulk lawyer stood.

"Mr. Chairman," he said, "this is not complicated."

He spoke for ten minutes.

He said I was a trained killer with unspecified combat trauma.

He said I had arrived at a family event unannounced and struck four men.

He said I had taken a loaded rifle from a safety officer in front of eight thousand citizens and executed a prize animal at close range.

"A man like that," he said, "does not belong near a rodeo, or near a child."

He turned and pointed at me.

Heads turned all over the room.

Carys's hand closed hard on my wrist.

"Don't," she said under her breath.

I had not moved.

"The Faulks call Mrs. Cassidy Rawlins," the lawyer said.

Cassidy went to the stand and sat down with her hands folded.

She was a very good witness.

She spoke softly and cried in the right places.

"He came home different," she said. "He doesn't sleep. He checks the windows."

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