Everything She Ever Wanted (74 page)

been killed in the basement of a house?
 
You don't recollect whether or

not you told the police?"

"Was this supposed to be included in my statement of the twenty-sixth

of July?"
 
Radcliffe asked.

"I'm asking, on that statement you gave the police-did you give this

information?"

Colonel Radcliffe was as calm and as flat as a windless lagoon.
 
"I

believe I did mention that there had been a confession."

He had fallen into a prosecution trap and never realized it.

He had never mentioned the confession.

. . .

Fanny Kate Cash was the next witness for the defense.
 
A heavyset,

disheveled woman, she peered at the gallery through thick glasses.

Fanny Kate explained that she had lived all of her sixty-seven years at

4185 Tell Road.
 
She had not married.
 
She had once been a secretary

and a bookkeeper, but when her mother passed away, she had to take care

of her father.

Out there, before there were any other houses, Fanny Kate had lived

with her aged father, who lay like a man already dead on the chaise

longue on the veranda.
 
She had done sewing and babysitting.
 
And then

she was alone, except for her church circle.

She sold a piece of her acreage to Pat and Gil Taylor.
 
Seeing them tow

those two houses in and watching the horse ring and the red and white

stables being built must have been a happy thing for Fanny Kate.
 
With

the advent of Clifford and Margureitte Radcliffe, and all of Pat's

children moving in and out, the neighborhood certainly livened up.

Fanny Kate didn't even mind that Pat had never p aid off the land

contract.

Fanny Kate had become a part of Boppo's, Papa's, and Pat's lives, and

she had lumbered down the road to their house often for lemonade or

watermelon.
 
They were so gracious to her that she hated to ask about

the land payments.
 
Their home was so lovely and clean.
 
Fanny Kate's

life was more basic.
 
Cooking and he cabin where she lived was

accomplished by a huge heating in t coal stove, belching smoke, and

Fanny Kate's home and person smelled of soot.
 
She didn't care for

Pat's children, who were terrified of her-their noise and their

rambunctiousness set Fanny on edge-but she adored Pat.
 
She had always

tried to do her best for that poor, sickly woman.
 
Fanny Kate had

almost come to the point where she was going to give Pat her bedroom

set, which Pat had long coveted-all carved with cupids and hearts on

the headboard.
 
Fanny Kate testified that she had become a frequent

companion and confidante to the Radcliffes and eventually spent much

time at the Washington Road home of Paw and Nona A anson.
 
She

substantiated all the testimony given by Pat and the Radcliffes.

She had seen it herself.

Fanny Kate was off and running, relishing her place on the witness

stand, eager to support her neighbors.
 
She recalled that she had heard

Paw Allanson talk strangely about his son and 1976.

daughter-in-law's murder way back in March of "Grandma was saying she

had a dream, and he interfered with her about the dream.
 
It was about

the murder.
 
And he told her it wasn't right .
 
. . and so he drew the

basement .
 
. . on the of the basement, where back of a magazine and

give full details the hole was, where the furnace was, and then the

stairway which came down .
 
. . and he said the police never did state

the truth about Carolyn and the way she was lying on the steps .
 
. .

and at that time, I says, 'Well, where was the one that shot Walter

standing?"
 
He said, 'Right there."
 
And it was in front of the

hole."

Fanny Kate was full of recollections about what Paw had told her.

"Was that the end of the conversation?"
 
McAlliste r asked.

"He caught himself and realized that he had talked too much, and he

shut up then.
 
Shut up like a clam."

Weathers was on his feet.
 
"Your Honor!
 
This is the most pure

conjecture I have ever heard-" It did sound as if Fanny Kate was,

perhaps, embellishing her testimony.
 
But then again, perhaps she was

remembering accurately.
 
She was not, however, responsive to

questions.

She was away and gone on her own, settled into the witness chair as if

it had been designed for her.

Judge Holt again ordered the jury to disregard her statements.
 
But

Fanny Kate would be heard.
 
She was, she announced, a witness to Paw's

confession to Pat.
 
If not an eyewitness, she was most certainly an

"earwitness."
 
She said she had been with Pat the very day Paw dictated

his confession.
 
"Mrs. Allanson got restless and wanted to know what

they were doing out back, and I went to see.
 
And as I stood at the

jalousie door that goes to the garage, I overheard the conversation.

Pat begging him to slow down-that she couldn't take the notes so

fast.

And he become irritable with her and spoke up.
 
His voice raised and

says, 'I killed Walter and Carolyn.
 
I didn't intend to kill Carolyn.

But I did it in self-defense!"

" Fanny Kate said she didn't hang around to listen but had gone back to

Nona Allanson's room.

On cross-examination, Weathers asked Fanny Kate about her allegiance to

the Radcliffes and Pat Allanson.
 
She allowed she was close" to

Margureitte and Clifford Radcliffe, and "very close" to Pat.

"How long after you heard someone admit to .
 
. . a double murder case

was it that you called the local law officials?"

"I didn't understand the question."

"How long .
 
. . from the time you heard this did you contact any law

enforcement official?"

"I didn't contact any law enforcement at all."

"When is the first time since this date in 1976 that you have furnished

this information to any law enforcement?"

"I furnished it to Mr.
 
McAllister, the lawyer."

"That is not my question.
 
When was it, please, ma'am, that you have

given this information for a double murder case to anyone in law

enforcement?"

" I didn't give it to any law enforcement at all."

"When is the first time you gave it to anyone in the district

attorney's office?"

"Not at all."

"When is the first time you tried to contact any judge or any superior

court?"

Fanny Kate wasn't catching on yet.
 
"Not at all."

"Well then, this is the first time that any of these people have had

any opportunity to hear this today, is it not?"
 
turned it over to Mr.

McAllister."

"That is not my question.

"I haven't told anyone."

"That is my question.

No further questions."

It was clear to the most casual observer that Fanny Kate Cash would do

anything possible to help Pat out of a jam.
 
She was not nearly as

subtle as the other defense witnesses, and she tended to embroider, but

her loyalty was unquestionable.
 
Dunham McAllister could see the

roblems inherent in his witness.
 
He approached her warily for redirect

examination and was rewarded with an incredible story that he would

just as soon not have heard.

She said she and Pat had gone to the house on Washington Road with a

message from Tom "warning Grandma to be careful.
 
Her life was in

danger.
 
. . .

"And that night, between eleven-thirty and twelve o'clock, it was a

disguised [my] phone rang and I answered it.
 
And voice-" "Miss Cash,"

McAllister said quickly, "I don't want to go into that.
 
I think Mr.

Weathers probably would object to that."
 
mption of Mr. Weathers

objected to Mr.
 
McAllister's assu what he might object to.

"Go ahead," McAllister said, a trace of apprehension in his voice.

"I answered the phone and there was a disguised voice, saying, 'What

did you tell Mama?"
 
The word 'Mama' gave the voice away.
 
And I coolly

answered, and said, 'What did I tell-what did I tell Mama?"
 
and the

phone went up.
 
I recognized that voice, and it was Walter

Allanson's!"

Fanny Kate had a scenario of her own.
 
If the case on trial had not

been so serious, her testimony would have been hilarious.

But no one laughed.

iss Cash had Andy Weathers caught her again on recross.
 
If M been so

fearful for Nona Allanson's life, if she had gone there to deliver an

alleged message from Tom warning her that her life eelchair with was in

danger-this pathetic old woman in a wh the use of only one of her

limbs-then when had she called anyone in law enforcement to warn them

of the great danger this invalid lady was in?
 
Had she told anyone?

"No one, no," Fanny Kate responded.
 
"Not at all."

McAllister demanded to see all of Tom's letters to his grandparents and

asked for time to analyze them.
 
Judge Holt would not pause.
 
He had

warned the attorneys that he had only a week for this trial.
 
He

suggested that McAllister's wife, Margo-his COcounsel-could go over the

letters.

They moved ahead, the trial staying afloat but getting bulkier and

bulkier, listing to port with its heavy load of objections and legal