Sins of the Fathers by James Scott Bell Page B

is real to me.”
    Lindy put her hand on Roxy’s arm. “I’m a jerk. Sorry. I’ll go to church with you again.”
    “Really?”
    “Let’s talk about the case now, huh?”
    Roxy poured a long shot of Dr Pepper down her throat then picked up a pad and pencil. “What do you want me to do, chief?”
    “First, I want to get a written statement from Darren’s father. Colby is not going to call him as a witness. Wouldn’t do his case any good and could possibly hurt it.”
    “Hurt it how?”
    “Maybe the jury sympathizes with Drake, doesn’t want to punish him by sending Darren to prison for life. Or maybe the jury hates him, puts the blame on him, so it doesn’t want to punish Darren for having a loser for a dad. Either way, it’s a risk for Colby. Question is, do we call him?”
    “Why would we?”
    “Well, he could help us the same way he could hurt Colby. But he could also say things that would make the jury think he did what he could with Darren, but the kid was just uncontrollable. That’s the problem. Thing is, though, the jury is going to want to hear from him. They’ll think it’s pretty odd if he doesn’t take the stand, and when things get odd in court the jury usually holds it against the defendant. But I have no idea how his father’ll come off. I’m sure Colby’s looking for him. If he finds Drake, he could nail down a statement that’ll haunt us. Let’s see if we can get a statement first. You game?”
    “Game.” Roxy jotted a note.
    “Darren said his dad is religious, taught him about God. I want to follow up on that.”
    “Check. Should I do anything on the parents of the kids who got killed?”
    “No reason. Nothing they did or didn’t do has any bearing on the shooting. In fact, I’m going to try to keep them off the stand.”
    “How can you possibly do that?”
    “First of all, we’re going to stipulate to the fact of the shooting. We’re going to take that off the table as an issue. Cut the legs off Colby. Everybody knows Darren did it, everybody in the world who watched the evening news. So the only reason Colby would put parents on the stand is to generate sympathy for the victims and increase the jury’s hate for Darren. Which makes the evidence prejudicial. I will make a 352 motion, argue that the prejudice outweighs the probative value, and if the judge denies me, take that issue up on appeal.”
    “Is Darren going to take the stand?”
    “No way. This is going to be an insanity defense. Has to be. That’s the only way to keep him out of prison. You know what’ll happen to him in there, don’t you?”
    Roxy nodded. There was no need for either of them to say more.
    “See what you can find about what went down in Vegas with Drake and his wife.”
    “On it.”
    “We’re going to need a good expert,” Lindy said. “Get on the horn and ask around. I don’t want any county guys. Let’s go private.”
    “Will the court pay for that?”
    “Probably not. I’ve got some money socked away.”
    Roxy shook her head. “Why would you do that, Lindy?”
    A sigh came out of Lindy’s deep place, the place where she dumped the pain of loss. All defense lawyers had such a place. “He’ll die in prison. If he’s not killed they’ll take his soul.”
    “Hey, Lindy,” Roxy said, “you said soul.
    ”
    2.

    “I can’t let you do this.” Brad was on his feet, facing Mona, his face twisted with fear and uncertainty and a bit of the lost little boy she had seen in the early days of their marriage. As a child, he didn’t have much of a home life. No doubt he thought he was losing another home now.
    Mona didn’t care. She couldn’t. There was only so much room in her for caring now, and it was filled up with death.
    “I’m not asking you to let me, Brad. Listen to me for once. This is the way it is .”
    “No.”
    He took a step toward her, a threatening step, unlike any movement she’d ever seen him make. Or was it just her imagination, her interpretive frame,