Show of Evil

Flaherty: 'She's seventy-five?'

Parver: 'Six. Seventy-six.'

Flaherty: 'And the house is eighty yards from Darby's place?'

Parver: 'Eighty-three, but she knows what she heard. I don't think there's any doubt about that. But just to make sure, Abel and I did a test.'

Vail: 'A test?'

He looked at Stenner.

Stenner: 'We set up a tape recorder in her kitchen beside the open window. I went down to Darby's place and went in the barn and fired two sets of shots into some sacks of grain.'

Vails: 'Where was Darby?'

Stenner: 'He wasn't there.'

Vail: 'Uh-huh. Trespassing.'

He scribbled some notes on a legal pad.

Stenner: 'We can go back and do it legal. I just wanted to make sure we had a live one here.'

Vail: 'I know.'

Stenner: 'First I did it the way Darby says it happened. I fired three shots from the pistol, one from the shotgun, another pistol shot, and the final shotgun blast. Then I did it the way Mrs Shunderson says she heard it: the shotgun first, four pistol shots, and the final shotgun. Shana stood beside Mrs Shunderson exactly where she was standing when the event took place and taped both sets of shots.'

Parver: 'She was adamant. She says it was BOOM, bang, bang bang, bang… BOOM. Not bang, bang, bang. BOOM, bang, BOOM. Here's the tape.'

She put a small tape recorder on the desk and pressed the play button. There was silence except for the room tone. Then there were the shots, echoing very clearly in the night air.

Bang, bang, bang… BOOM… bang… BOOM.

'No, no. Not the way it was't'all,' came an elderly woman's firm, very positive voice. 'As I told you…'

Shana's voice interrupted her. 'Just a minute,' she said. 'Listen.'

BOOM… bang, bang, bang, bang… BOOM.

'Yes! That's the way it was. 'Cept there was a little more time between the last pistol shot and the shotgun.'

'You're absolutely positive?' Parver asked.

'I told you, child, I know the difference between a shotgun and a pistol.'

'And you're sure of the sequence?'

'The shotgun was first. And there was that little pause between the last pistol shot and then the shotgun again.'

Parver turned off the tape recorder.

Hazel Fleishman said, 'Wow!' The rest of the group started to talk all at once. Vail knocked on the table with his knuckles and calmed them down.

'Is she a good witness, Abel?' Vail asked.

'A crusty old lady.' Stenner nodded with a smile. 'I think she'll hold up.'

'A woman that age -' Meyer started.

'She's positive about what she heard. And there's not a thing wrong with her hearing,' Stenner assured him.

'You think we can bring a first-degree murder case against Darby on this boom-bang testimony?' Flaherty said.

'This woman knows what she heard,' Stenner insisted.

'This is what I think happened,' Parver said. She acted out her theory again, walking to the middle of the room with her hand down at her side holding the ruler-shotgun.

'He comes home, has the shotgun loaded, walks into the house. His wife is sitting in the living room…'

Parver approached Flaherty. When she was two feet away from him, she swung her arm up, aiming the imaginary gun at his forehead.