Dr. Allred.”
She looked at me expectantly.
“Dr. Allred, you say you try not to abuse the author-
ity Sheriff Poole gave you. It’s my understanding that
you usually just write a ticket. Could you tell me why
you called a tow truck for Mr. Alito’s car?”
“Because this is the second time I’ve caught him in a
handicap space.” Her fingers played over the keyboard.
“According to my records, I ticketed him on the fourth
of September in front of a grocery store.”
89
MARGARET MARON
Alito’s mouth dropped open when he heard that.
“Thank you, Dr. Allred. No further questions. You
may come up and take the witness stand, Mr. Alito.”
They passed in the space before my bench and I heard
Alito mutter, “Bitch!”
“Did you say something, sir?” I asked.
“No, ma’am. Just clearing my throat.” He took the
Bible and promised to tell the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth.
“Yeah, I know I shouldn’t have parked there, but I
really was just going in to buy a present for my poor
old mother. I bet I wasn’t in there ten minutes. Well,
twenty if you count the time I had to wait in line to
check out.”
“One present?” I said. “That was all?”
“Well, maybe I did pick up a couple of little things on
my way back to the front, but my mother’s present was
really all I went in for. I got back outside, I almost had a
heart attack myself. I thought my car’d been stolen, but
when I called the police and they saw where I’d been
parked, they told me to call the county’s towing service.
Cost me a hundred-fifty to get it back, and what I don’t
understand is how come this ticket’s for two-fifty, when
the first one was only fifty.”
He paused briefly to glare at Dr. Allred but there was
a whine in his voice when he turned back to me and
said, “So what I’m saying here is yes, I did wrong, but
I don’t see why it’s got to cost me four hundred dol-
lars. It was Christmas and the parking lot was jammed.
She says there were spaces further out, but by the time
I parked out there and walked to the store, I could have
90
HARD ROW
already been in and out. Can’t we just let the towing
charges take care of everything?”
I shook my head. “Sorry, Mr. Alito. If this were your
first citation, I might have been inclined to let you off
