The preliminary hearing is set for ten days from now, and this session is adjourned. The courtroom quickly empties out, Laurie included. Calvin, Jeremy, and I move to an anteroom, with a guard planted outside the door in case the handcuffed Jeremy attempts an escape.
Jeremy looks shaken but comes right to the point. “My father says you’re the best.”
“He’s only repeating what he’s been told.”
“So you’re not the best?”
“Jeremy, I’m not here to talk about me. I’m here to talk about you.”
He sits back. “Okay… I’m sorry. What do you want to know?”
“When did you see Elizabeth and Sheryl last?”
He takes a deep breath. “I saw Liz the night she died. We met at the Crows Nest… it’s a bar out on Highway 57.”
“So it was a date?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “No, she had already broken up with me. I got her to come out there just to… to ask her to come back.”
“But she said no?”
He nods. “She said no. She was only there maybe ten minutes. And I think her ex-boyfriend was waiting for her in the car.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I saw somebody in the driver’s seat, but it was pretty far away, and it was dark, so I couldn’t make out his face.”
“Could it have been Sheryl Hendricks?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t think so. I asked Liz straight out if this was about her old boyfriend. She said that in a way it was, but that there was more to it than that. Then she said they were running away; she seemed really upset.”
“What was the boyfriend’s name?”
“I don’t know. She never mentioned his name. She always told me that she was going to make decisions for herself and that their relationship was a thing of the past.” He shakes his head sadly. “And then I guess all of a sudden it wasn’t.”
“So she told you again that it was over between you. Then what happened?”
“I got mad, and I started yelling at her, saying she was being unfair, making a big mistake, that kind of thing. But she didn’t want to listen to me anymore. She said I just couldn’t understand, and then she just left. I… never saw her again.”
“After she left, what did you do?” I ask.
“I was going to go into the bar and get a drink. I felt like getting drunk, you know? But I had the truck with me, and no other way to get home, so I didn’t. I just went home and went to sleep.”
“Truck?”
He nods. “A pickup truck; that’s what I drive.”
“Were your parents at home when you arrived?”
He shakes his head. “No, they were out of town, visiting my aunt and uncle in Milwaukee.”
“Did you know Sheryl?”
“No, I actually never met her, but she was Liz’s best friend from Center City,” he says. “Liz talked about her a lot.”
Calvin asks, “Why did Liz break up with you?” He’s obviously been over this ground with Jeremy, so if he’s asking this question, it’s an answer he wants me to hear.
“It was because of her religion,” Jeremy says with more than a trace of bitterness.
“You were of different religions?” I ask, though I already know the answer.
He nods. “She’s a Centurion. To be one, you have to be born in that town.”
“People can’t convert to it and move there?”
“Nope. Not according to Liz.”
This is something of a surprise; it’s rare that a religion would turn down members.
“Any idea who might have killed her?”
“No.”
“Was there anybody else she ever mentioned she had a problem with? Something or someone she was afraid of?”
“No… I’ve been racking my brain.”
Jeremy has little more to offer, and the session evolves into an effort by him to get me to take on the case. I don’t commit, and Calvin doesn’t seem fazed by the implied insult that Jeremy and his father don’t seem to think they’re in sufficiently good hands with Calvin.
I leave after telling Jeremy I’ll likely have a decision within twenty-four hours, but that either way he’ll be well represented. I owe that to him and Calvin as well, though in truth I’ve done nothing toward advancing my decision-making process. Calvin gives me some papers relating to the case to go over; he’s prepared a brief summary of the events, or at least his knowledge of them. It’s a professional gesture that I appreciate, and I tell him so. He also invites me to come to his house later for a drink so that we can discuss the case further. He even says I can bring Tara, so I agree to come.
I feel vaguely out of sorts here in Findlay, and I certainly don’t have a feel for the case. It’s disconcerting, though on the positive side I haven’t thought about Laurie for almost an hour, which represents a record for me.
Right now I just want to go home, and the closest thing to that is Tara, waiting at the hotel. The man behind the desk in the lobby tells me that they have the TV ready to install, but they were afraid to do so with “that dog” in the room. Little do they know that “that dog” is probably smart enough to have installed it herself.
Tara is beyond thrilled to see me and just about drags me to the elevator. We go for a long walk, maybe an hour, which pretty much covers all of Findlay. I mentally guess which houses could be Laurie’s, but it’s not that challenging a game, and my thoughts switch to the case.
Jeremy doesn’t seem like a young man capable of slashing two coeds to death, but I certainly can’t be anywhere near sure of that. I’ve never seen him enraged or rejected or distraught, and I have no idea what those powerful emotions might do to him. Or cause him to do.
The bottom line is that this is probably a case I would take if the murder were committed in North Jersey. It has the elements that can make what’s left of my legal juices flow. But I have to look at this on a personal, perhaps selfish level. A murder case takes an enormous amount of time and energy, and I really don’t want to turn my life upside down for the duration. It’s a good case, but it’s in little danger of being referred to as the trial of the century.
My level of guilt at the selfishness of my approach is pretty low. Calvin is probably competent to give Jeremy a good defense, but that will be a decision Jeremy and his father can make. If they have the money to hire me, they have the money to hire pretty much anybody they want, so my departure will not mean he will have poor representation.
Basically, it comes down to this: I want to stay in my own house, I don’t want Tara stuck in a hotel, I want to go to Charlie’s with Vince and Pete when I feel like it, and I don’t want to worry that every time I go somewhere I could run into Laurie. Or worse yet, Laurie and some boyfriend.
As my mother would have said, “Why do I need the aggravation?”