Almost Midnight by Michael W. Cuneo

Author:Michael W. Cuneo [Cuneo, Michael W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-81545-3
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2012-01-24T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

THE TANEY COUNTY jail sits right next to the courthouse in downtown Forsyth. It holds thirty men and eight women and is usually booked to capacity. At the rear of the jail, along a short corridor, there’s a small maximum-security unit: three identical eight-by-eleven cells with twelve-foot-high ceilings and cement-block walls. Each cell in the unit has a set of bunk beds, a stainless-steel toilet, a sink with hot and cold running water, and a tiny molded-plastic table with attached stools. Outside the cells, on the opposite side of the corridor, three window slots afford a dim view of a do-it-yourself car wash and a hunting-and-fishing store across the street.

Darrell was transferred from Springfield to the maximum-security unit in Forsyth two days after Mary was set free on bond. As a celebrity prisoner, he was assigned a cell to himself. One of his new neighbors in the unit asked him what he was in for.

“Homo-cide,” Darrell answered.

“Do you mean homicide?”

“Yow, that’s it.”

His first afternoon he called Mary’s number in Branson from the jailhouse phone and got Barbara Epps on the line. Screwing up his nerve he told her who he was and asked for Mary. Barbara said she wouldn’t allow him to talk with Mary. She asked him if it was true: Was it really he who had killed the three Lawrences?

“Yeah,” Darrell said, “I killed them.”

Barbara started crying. She hadn’t wanted to believe it; she’d been holding out hope it wasn’t true. When she first heard about the Lawrence homicides and Chip told her Darrell and Mary might be involved, she’d been defiant in her disbelief. No way, she’d said. No way could her daughter have had anything to do with such a thing. Even over the past few days she’d refused to concede the obvious. But now she had no choice: the last shred of protective doubt had been stripped away.

“Why’d you get Mary involved in a mess like that?” she asked.

Darrell had no easy answer. He said he was sorry. He hadn’t meant Mary any harm. He loved her and thought she was the best person he’d ever known.

“Are there any more hoodlums in Stone or Taney Counties that could harm my daughter?” Barbara asked.

“No,” Darrell answered.

The conversation with Barbara Epps didn’t improve Darrell’s appetite. Since getting arrested he hadn’t eaten a thing; he’d been too depressed and torn up even to think of food. He’d been surviving on water, unfiltered Pall Malls, and Skoals chewing tobacco. He certainly wasn’t up to eating anything now. He felt lost and helpless. He wanted to do something for Mary but he hadn’t a clue what it might be. Then it dawned on him: he’d try praying for her, asking God to give her strength and courage and peace of mind.

Back in his cell he lay down on the bottom bunk and closed his eyes. Hesitantly, feeling his way, awkward, awkward, so awkward, he tried finding the right words, the right frame of mind. It had been so long.

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