Chapter 4
Joe was brought to the line up room. He had already asked to see a lawyer and was told that it wouldn’t be necessary unless he was picked out of the line up by the girl. If he wasn’t, then he would be cleared for the time being, pending further investigation, of course. But, obviously, not being picked out of the line would go a long way to proving his credibility and innocence.
However, if the girl did pick him as her homicidal secret lover then, he would be given the chance to talk to an attorney. At which point he would definitely need one.
Joe objected to this scenario, “But, she could just lie about knowing me.”
Sergeant Rawls laughed in response, “Now, why the hell would she do that?”
“I don’t have any idea. Just like I don’t know why her boyfriend attacked me.”
“Well, put the shoe on the other foot, Mister Smith. You could be lyin’ too. We just don’t know as of yet.”
“I’m not lying! It was self defense! And you’re going to put my word against the girlfriend of some maniac?!”
“Damn son, calm down. You ain’t even been pick out of the line up yet.”
“Well, if she does pick me then, she’s lying. I’m telling you it was self defense.”
“Well, if it comes to that, we’ll have to let a court o’ law decide.”
As Joe entered the room, he saw five other men already standing on the small stage facing the one-way mirror. He had seen several of them before around town but, knew none of them by name.
One of them was already well on his way to an intoxicated evening and was having a hard time standing without swaying. Another was very annoyed with having his evening interrupted so rudely by the police, “Dammit, I was just mindin’ my own damn bizness, when all of a sudden like Danny Stanton comes up and tells me I gotta come down to the damn station house so I can stand ’round here with ya’ll damn clowns and waste a perfectly damn good Friday night when I got things to do an’ places to go and . . .”
One was telling Joe that he found the situation very unsatisfactory and he was doing it very high fashion, “I say my good fella,” he whispered conspiratorially, “What terrible fate has befallen us this here foul eve? Most certainly a travesty o’ justice, what sorrow craves aquaintance at my hand that I yet not know?”
Joe wasn’t sure if this guy expected a response and wasn’t feeling conversational anyway, so, he simply ignored everyone and stood brooding in a corner of the room.
The other unfortunate two stooges were sullen, but silent as they waited to be unwilling participants in the late night line up.
On the other side of the glass Eagleton and Rawls watched the men being positioned against the wall painted with fading height lines.
“Where’d you get these sorry asses?”, Eagleton asked.
The sergeant chucked and replied, “Pulled ‘em out of the Puddle’s parkin’ lot. Closest place ’round fer appropriate material. And, we had to git Mary down there anyhow, so, I just sent a few cruisers to round up everybody in one go,” he pushed the intercom button, “Awl-right, you assholes. Get on the stage, face the glass and shut yer mouths. Ready?”
The detective grumbled in the affirmative. When all was ready, Mary was brought in to ID the man with which she was cheating on Jimmy Hollowy.
Outwardly, she calmly faced the glass. In her mind, however, there was rushing panic. She was ready to incriminate the ‘new guy’ at the music store, and so it was no surprise to see him in the line up. What surprised her was to see her secret boyfriend in the line up along with the guy from the music store. When Jimmy had confronted her about hearing rumors around town, she told him it was true. She was seeing someone on the sly. But, to protect her new lover, she lied to Jimmy about his identity.
If you thought about it for perhaps a few seconds, you might realize that in a town as small as Pinhill it would be hard to get away with such a falsehood for long. However, when you thought about a few more seconds, you might realize that it wouldn’t be hard to fool a mind as small as Jimmy Hollowy’s for a very long time. But, back to Mary Gulder’s panic.
She didn’t think Jimmy would go get himself killed over her. She didn’t think the calm, quiet repairman from the music store could have done that killing. Therefore, she deduced, her secret lover must have killed Jimmy, the police suspected him and put him in this line up. She was, of course, very wrong on all of these points.
Now, however, she felt she had no choice but to continue her charade and hope for the best. Which was to convince the local police force her lie was truth, incriminate an innocent man, get her new lover out of suspicion’s way and live with him happily ever after, or at least for a few months until she got bored and found someone new.
She tried to keep the rising fear out of her voice, but failed completely. It was wasted effort as the policemen present merely took it for grief over her slain boyfriend and her murderous new lover.
She pointed at Joe and in a trembling voice said, “T-t-that’s him. I . . . I . . .just wanted to have some f-f-fun with him. I didn’t know he’d go an’ k-k-kill Jimmy over me!”