why she kept the marriage a secret.”
“ Maybe the cowboy was already married,” Granny said conspiratorially.
“ Yeah,” Kip chimed in, digging into a bowl of chocolate ice cream. “Maybe he was a bigamist, like Clifton Webb in The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker.
“ Nothing so sinister,” Patterson said. “He wanted to live out west and dig for Coronado’s gold. She wanted to prosecute criminals in Miami. They tied the knot but didn’t tell anybody. She kept her name and her job. For the first couple of years, they’d fly back and forth every few weeks, but that got old. They began to see each other less. I suppose you could say they separated, except they did that right after the honeymoon. But they kept getting back together over the years. Essentially, what you had were two strong-willed people who were drawn to each other, but neither one would budge on geography or lifestyle.”
“ So why’d she invite me to her bed in Miami six months ago?
“ It never happened,” Patterson said.
“ I need that tequila, right now, Granny.” I turned back to my lawyer. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“ When the widow lady testified today, did you hear anything about her exchanging bodily fluids with you?”
“ No, she just said I was at her house, and Cimarron and I had a conversation. Then I hit him but lost a fistfight, something like that.”
“ And you want me to get her to admit on cross that she was in bed with you when Cimarron broke in?”
“ Of course I do, and for lots of reasons starting with destroying her credibility. She’s going to testify I sexually assaulted her in the barn, right?”
“ About a dozen hours from now.”
“ Well, why would I have to attack her if she was a willing bedmate?’’
“ You wouldn’t, so she must deny the sexual interlude ever took place.”
“ Well, I’ll say it did,” I said, somewhat petulantly.
“ Did Josefina ever tell Socolow that Cimarron rousted you from her bed?”
“ No, I don’t think so.”
“ Did you?”
“ No. I don’t kiss and tell, but I figured he knew what was going on.”
“ Yet, he cannot dispute her testimony, can he?”
I didn’t answer, so he asked another question. “How did Cimarron get into the house?”
“ I don’t know. I was asleep at the time. There was no sign of forced entry.”
“ Well then, I’ll tell you,” Patterson said. “He had a key. Always did. Had it on his key chain the night he died. As you know, he owned the house in Miami. Josefina knew he was in town. He was, after all, staying there with her. Now, you’re going to ask the jury to believe she invited you to spend the night when she knew her husband would be coming home.”
“ So what the hell was I doing there?”
“ According to Josefina, discussing Blinky and Rocky Mountain Treasures, waiting for Cimarron to show up for a meeting.”
“ That’s crap! We were fastened onto each other like-”
“ Jake!” Granny gave me her steely stare, “There’s tender ears on the premises.”
“ Where?” Kip asked. “Hey, Granny, I saw Basic Instinct where Sharon Stone crosses her legs and puckers up-”
“ Hush!” Granny commanded.
Patterson drained his margarita. “Jake, it doesn’t matter what the two of you did because I can’t prove it. You want to testify that you bedded her down in Miami, you’ll come off as a boorish lout who’s accusing the grieving widow of infidelity.”
“ Infidelity? Who gives a flying fandango? She’s accused me of murder!”
“ And I’m trying to keep you from proving her case.”
I took a hit on the tequila straight out of the bottle. It was intended to make me think more clearly, but it made my lips feel like rubber worms. Still, the outline of a thought was forming. “H.T., maybe it’s starting to make sense, now.”
“ What is?”
“ What you were saying the other day. She set me up, all right, starting with that night in the cottage.”
“ Keep talking,” he said.
“ At the time, I thought she craved my body. Desire under the mangoes.”
“ Elms,” Kip corrected me. “Sophia Loren and Anthony Perkins.”
“ Boy am I stupid!”
“ Don’t state the obvious,” Patterson said. “Get on with it.”
“ Just like you said, she knew Cimarron was coming over. Coming home, in fact. She wanted me in her bed when he showed up. She wanted me to fight him. Who knows, maybe
Cimarron would be carrying a gun and one of us would buy the farm right there. If not, there’s always a second chance after she got me to chase her to Colorado. H.T., you’ve been right all along.”
“ I have been, as surely as God makes little brown babies, but what am I to do with it? I can’t prove a word of it. I guarantee you that no member of the jury will buy it.”
Here I was getting pumped up, and my lawyer’s defeatist attitude rankled me. “Hey, Counselor, whose side are you on?”
Patterson looked hurt.
And must have been.
He didn’t ask for a refill. He just grabbed his wool ski cap, put on his orange parka, and headed for the door. “We’re all a little tired, Jake. I’ll see you in court.”
I didn’t tell him good night.
Now Granny was scowling at me. “You know, Jake, you’re a fine specimen of a man.”
“ What’s that supposed to mean?”
“ Well, you got about an acre of shoulders, a bushy head of hair, all your own teeth, and a by-God full allotment of mouth.”
“ Okay, okay, I was a little tough on H.T., but I’m getting so frustrated, I feel like hitting someone.”
“ Don’t worry, Uncle Jake,” Kip said, his upper lip coated with a chocolate stripe. “If that woman’s saying bad things about you, no one will believe her. No one could believe you did anything bad.”
“ Kip, I love you, do you know that?”
“ Sure.”
“ I’m sorry I haven’t been able to spend much time with you.”
“ It’s okay. I like it here. The snow and all, it’s like Dr. Zhivago.”
“ You been making any movies?”
“ Can’t.” He looked into his bowl of melting ice cream.
Granny said, “He’s been afraid to tell you. In all the commotion, moving around and all, he lost the camera.”
“ I’m sorry, Uncle Jake. I just don’t know where-”
“ Hey, it’s okay. When’s the last time you had it?”
“ That night in the barn. Maybe the cops took it.”
“ I don’t remember it on the inventory,” I said, consigning the information to the repository in my brain where I store odds and ends that don’t fit anywhere else.
“ I know this sounds ridiculous,” Josefina Baroso said, “but to this day, I don’t know if it was rape. It’s so difficult to explain. Jake forced himself on me, but…I didn’t fight back. He hit me. He had before, so that was nothing new. He tore at my clothes. He told me he would have me whether I wanted it or not. He used to get like that, so full of anger, so violent. He just wore me down, and I let him. I just let him.”
With that, a tear tracked down a sculpted cheekbone. I felt my face heat up. The jurors were riveted to their
