Paris Trout: A Novel by Pete Dexter

Author:Pete Dexter
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780812987393
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2014-11-03T16:00:00+00:00

TOWNES CALLED THOMAS BOXER. He was smaller than his brother, and more delicate-looking. In some ways, Seagraves thought, he resembled the pictures of Rosie Sayers. He settled into the witness chair after he was sworn and then jumped at the sound of his name.

“Thomas,” Townes said, “you were at the house the day Mr. Trout and Mr. Devonne came to see your brother?”

Thomas Boxer told the story, what he had seen and heard. It took him a long time, but it came out true. Trout and Devonne on the porch with their guns, the things that were said and done.

Trout following Rosie into the house, Mary McNutt following him, and then Buster Devonne coming in behind. Thomas Boxer looked at his hands when he said he had run into the other side of the house.

“Why did you go in there, Thomas?” Townes asked.

“Went in there to get out the way.”

“Do you know what else happened?”

“Shooting,” he said. “Shooting started before I got to the door.”

“How many shots?”

He shook his head. “You couldn’t say. Seem like firecrackers. They was almost all together, all of it didn’t take but four or five seconds.”

“What happened after the shooting stopped?”

“After the shooting I went out to the back, there was Momma and Rosie both coming out the house. Momma holding herself here on her breast, Rosie holding her ’tomach.”

“Did you see Mr. Trout or Mr. Buster back there?”

“No sir, they gone by then.”

“Was there a pistol in the house at the time all this happened?”

“Yessir, on my side. Right under my mattress.”

“Did you ever get that pistol?”

“No sir, I never bothered it till the next morning when they come out after it. I give it to a police.”

“Did you fight Mr. Trout any? Did you put your hand on him?”

“No sir.”

“Did he put his hand on you?”

“Yessir, but he didn’t have his hand on me but a little while. He didn’t touch nothing long, but when he left his hands off us, we was changed for good.”

Townes stood quietly a moment, giving that time to sink in. Then he looked at Trout and said, “Your witness.”

∗

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