Only the Truth (19 page)

The Chief looked over at me and grinned. "I had to ask. It's driving me
nuts."

Then he smiled at Mrs. Covey, "Well, now you know your man always loved
you. He was as good a man as you thought."

Mrs. Covey smiled through her tears, nodding her head.

My brain felt like it was melting. The whole picture of that horrible night
kept changing and changing.

"Okay," said the Sheriff. "Let's see what we've got
here."

"We've got Rubin Covey," said the Chief, "A rescuer, not a
lover."

The Sheriff added to the story.

"And we've got a girl who seemingly planned to take her children with
her when she left town."

"And we got something awful enough happening to that girl that she
needed some form of medical attention...wait!" The Chief turned toward
Mrs. Covey again.
"The day you saw Rubin at the motel
with Kristin...wasn't that exactly one day before the fire?
Wasn't that
on a Sunday?"

"Yeah, it was Sunday night."

"And Mrs. Stoddard would leave on the weekends to stay with her
sister."

The Sheriff stood up behind his desk and leaned on his chair.

"Jesus Christ! I wonder what went on in that locked room. It makes my
stomach turn."

I finally spoke up.

"I was told no one really knew what boys...uh, Kristen…was going out to
see or who she had those babies by."

Chief Williams was shaking his head.

"
Gotta
wonder if those were Mr. Stoddard's
babies or if Kristen got pregnant by somebody he was putting in the room with
her.
Sick bastard."

"So," the Sheriff went back to that night, "You got Rubin
trying to get Kristen out of there when he gets himself shot. She wouldn't
shoot him if he was helping her. So why are Kristen's fingerprints on the
shotgun?"

"Probably she was trying to get the gun away from her father."

The Chief agreed.
"Makes sense."

"And once the one murder is committed, Stoddard can't leave witnesses,
so he shoots his wife."

"Then," chimes in Chief Williams, "Stoddard decides to get
rid of the kids because they are only a liability, so he goes into Kristen's
bedroom where the children were asleep and he starts tossing gas over all over
the place, lights a match...and the place goes up like a torch, fire rolling
across the ceiling, everything becoming like a burning iron."

"And then closes the door and bolts it shut," said the Sheriff.

The room swum a bit before my eyes.

Sheriff Williams said, "The two older kids tried to get out because we
found them just on the other side of the door."

"So, she didn't kill her kids?" asked Mrs. Covey.

Chief Williams looked like he had been hit with a brick. He kept blinking
his eyes and you could see he was searching for just the right answer.

"Well, it's just a scenario, Mrs. Covey," said the Chief.
"Kristen's fingerprints were on the shotgun, she ran town, and she killed
a man in just the same way. If we had some evidence to back the theory, it
would be another story."

I felt my eyes fill up and then tears came down both my cheeks. I started
doing that thing where you breathe too fast and I began shaking uncontrollably.

"Billy Ray!"

The Sheriff opened the door and yelled out to the officer on duty to bring a
paper bag pronto.

Mrs. Covey started rubbing my shoulders and then someone handed me the paper
bag and told me to put it around my mouth and breathe slowly. I tried, gulping,
and gulping, and the bag was getting wet, but, finally, I stopped shaking and
could breathe normally again.

"What the hell is it, Billy Ray? What's going on?" The Sheriff was
leaning down over me.

"Go look at Charlene's fingers." I didn't get the last word out
all the way.

"Her what?"

"Her fingers, her fingers."

The Chief looked at the Sheriff and made a 'whatever'
face
and they went out of the room together and down the hall.

I sat there and tried not to hold my breath, trying to breathe normal.

We waited about ten minutes and then they came back in the room.

Mrs. Covey looked at them, eager for an explanation.

The Chief looked at me and then her.

"Every one of her fingertips is scarred. Not real noticeable, but, if
you look close, every one of them."

"We should have noticed that when she was fingerprinted," said the
Sheriff. "Maybe we did but it didn't ring any bells at the time."

The Chief pulled a chair over next to me and sat down.

"She must have tried like hell to save those children, to get that
red-hot bolt pulled back."

"My Charlene didn't do it, she didn't do it." I said over and
over. It was the only thing that really mattered.

The Sheriff picked up the phone and dialed.

"Sorry to bother you, Mr. Dawson, at your dinner hour. I just want to
tell you we are dropping the charges against Kristen Stoddard."

I felt something like an actually happy feeling coming up in me.

"Long story.
I will explain it to you
tomorrow."

He hung up the phone.

He looked over at me with a bit of a smirk.

"What jury is going to convict Kristen for giving Stoddard a dose of
his own medicine? How would they know that she wasn't in fear of her life? That
she didn't go temporarily insane when the murderer of her children showed up?
That she wasn't trying to save your life, Billy Ray?" For the first time,
the Sheriff actually smiled at me in a kind way.

I twisted around and looked at Chief Williams.

He was collecting his papers in a file folder.

"I can't see that there's any case in Tennessee that has anything to do
with anyone here in
Whitfeld
Glen," he commented
quietly.

The Sheriff opened the door and herded us out into the waiting area.

"Go get Kristen," he told the deputy.

Then he turned to me.

"Never would have thought..."

I grinned. I felt like I could fly up off the floor.

"One more thing, though," said Chief Williams and he came and put
his arm around me. Charlene and the deputy were coming down the hall toward us.

He spoke very quietly next to my ear.

"You know, Billy Ray, she may not have killed her children but she still
shot a man and burned him up. She's been through a lot of stuff in her life
that has twisted her mind. She not right, Billy Ray. She's not right."

I took in Charlene's face as the deputy walked her up to us. She looked like
an angel to me.

I whispered back to in his ear.

"She's right for me, Chief."

Then I reached out and took Charlene's hand and walked her to the glass
doors.

The Chief opened a door for us and said, "Offer still stands in
Jenkins, Billy Ray."

I smiled at him...my friend. "Maybe later,
Chief
."

********************

Charlene and I walked silently in the dark up Makin Road towards home. We
just made the top of the hill when I heard a yapping sound that got louder and
louder as we neared the house. And there he was, New Big Dog, standing on the
porch waiting for us, like he knew all along we were going to eventually show
up. I looked up at the sky and I knew everything was going to be okay because
each and every star was out shining down on us.

Charlene patted New Big Dog on the head and she looked at me and smiled.
Then she put her arms around me and whispered in my ear, "I love you,
Sweet Billy Ray, I love you."

My Charlene was back.

The End