The Miscreant (6 page)

Garran rolled away and lurched to his feet. Luke Vitale, one of the mayor’s toadies, sneered at him. He was one of the men who had hauled Garran in the other night and had taken great pleasure in his drubbing.

“You got less than an hour before you stand for your crimes.”

Luke turned without waiting for a response. He grasped the wooden slide lock’s handle and opened the door. Luke sniffed at the sticky substance transferred onto his hand, cast Garran a hateful scowl, and wiped the offending matter on his shirt.

“Wasn’t me,” Garran said innocently.

“Sick little bastard!”

Garran returned his scowl with a satisfied smile, not dropping it until the door closed him in once again. He was surprised they had given him this much time, but they probably wanted to wait for the weekend when the hard-working townsfolk took a day off from their labors and the farce could get a good turnout. Mayor Alessi likely wanted everyone to witness Garran’s humiliation before he demanded his execution or sent him to one of Anatolia’s prisons to live out the rest of his days. It was a scheme Garran intended to make him regret.

Luke returned with two other men and flung a heavy, leather belt at his feet. “Put that on.”

Garran wrapped the belt around his waist and buckled it. Luke grabbed the iron ring next to the buckle, twisted the entire thing around to position it at his back, and clipped a chain to a metal loop. He then gave Garran a push toward the door. “Walk.”

Garran and his retinue walked from the makeshift jail to the town hall. A few people stood watch along the street, casting him dirty looks but thankfully no stones or rotten fruit. That would come after his conviction. Nearly the entire town packed the benches arrayed before the single table behind which sat the three “judges.” Small towns like Wooder’s Bend did have a proper constabulary or court, so the three ranking members of their society usually conducted the trying and sentencing. Pastor Larkin and Bryn Salman occupied their usual seats, but the butcher, Tim Kane, replaced Mayor Alessi’s position since he was a witness and plaintiff.

“I’m going to enjoy watching you hang, boy,” Mayor Butch Alessi snarled as Luke led Garran to his seat.

Garran looked past the mayor to Claire sitting on his far side. She cast him a hateful look then refused to meet his eyes any further. Dwight and his mother sat just behind him. Nina also averted her eyes when he sought her out, but Dwight met his gaze and grinned as if he had won first prize in a pie-eating contest. The crowd’s murmuring ceased when Pastor Larkin called the hall to order.

“This town gathering has been called by Mayor Alessi and his daughter Claire who charge Garran Holt with assault and forcible sexual deviancy. Mr. Holt, do you wish to admit your crime and appeal to this council for mercy?” Pastor Larkin asked.

“Hell no!” Garran said.

Pastor Larkin banged his gavel. “Garran Holt, you answer this council respectfully and properly. Do I make myself clear?”

“Hell yes.”

“Mr. Holt!”

“Sorry, I meant hell yes, sir.”

“This is your last warning before the council declares you hostile and convenes for your verdict without testimony. I suggest you think very hard before you answer.”

Garran countered the hawk-faced pastor’s scowl with a smile. “Yes, sir, I understand.”

Pastor Larkin turned to Mayor Alessi. “Mr. Mayor, do you still wish to levy the aforementioned charges against Mr. Holt?”

Butch leered at Garran. “Hell yes.”

“The trial then stands.”

“Hey!” Garran protested, “Why doesn’t he get yelled at?”

“Because he’s not a deviant little shit.”

“I object to this trial on the grounds that the council is not impartial.”

“Overruled on the grounds that the council is impartial and is merely stating the defendant’s character based upon his previous actions.”

“I still object.”

“Noted. Miss Alessi, would you please give your account of what happened?”

Claire stood, smoothed her dress with her hands, and smiled at the pastor. “Of course. It was late, but I found myself unable to sleep, and I was restless. It was a beautiful night, so I decided to go for a walk and look at the stars.”

“Did you tell your father you were leaving the house?”

Claire did a magnificent job of looking abashed. “No, I knew he would not approve of me going out that late without an escort, but I trusted in the godliness of our wonderful town. That is why I wanted to look at the stars. I always thought of them as glittering jewels in the sky gifted to us by God as a reward for being such decent and hard-working people.”

Pastor Larkin smiled. “Indeed they are, child. Go on.”

“What a load of crap,” Garran muttered but not quietly enough to evade the pastor’s sharp ears.

“Quiet, you heathen!”

“Now I’m a heathen and an accused rapist? I would like to enter into evidence a dictionary and request the council look up impartiality.”

“Perhaps if you had spent more time looking up words instead of dresses you would not be in this situation.”

Garran crossed his arms and slunk into his chair. “I learned more looking up dresses.”

Pastor Larkin scowled and stabbed at Garran with his gavel in warning. “Please continue, Miss Alessi.”

“I was walking along the trail when Garran came out of the trees. He startled me ever so terribly.”

“Is that when he accosted you?”

“No, not then. I was just surprised to meet anyone out and about that late at night. He asked me what I was doing out. I told him I wanted to look at the stars. He told me there was a clearing nearby from where I could stargaze without the trees obscuring my view. I know it was foolish, but I followed him.”

Pastor Larkin gave her a consoling smile. “Try not to fret. The innocent are often naïve and easily tempted by those with a demon in their heart.”

“Really?” Garran exclaimed, for which he received another warning jab from the pastor’s gavel.

“Anyway, the view was beautiful, but when I told Garran I needed to get home before my father saw I was gone and got worried, he grabbed me and pinned me to the ground. His breath reeked of alcohol.”

“It always reeks of alcohol! That’s not evidence!”

“It is evidence of your wickedness and delinquency!” Larkin shouted.

“I would like to call back the dictionary so the council can also look up redundant.”

“Your sentence is going to be redundant!”

“Could someone bookmark the page with impartiality on it? I think the pastor might need to refer to it often.”

“I am going to refer my gavel to your thick skull if you do not be still! Go on, Miss Alessi.”

Claire’s eyes became watery and tears streamed down her face as she sobbed and choked out, “Then he tore at my clothes and…and…”

“We do not need the details, child.”

Garran said, “I’d like to hear them, particularly the part where she begged me for more as I brought her into the throes of ecstasy.”

“As if you could!” Claire screeched.

“You little bastard!” her father shouted as he lunged at Garran.

Pastor Larkin banged his gavel on the table, and it took several men to keep Butch from throttling Garran. It took a full two minutes to restore order.

“Mayor Alessi, are you ready to give your testimony?” Pastor Larkin asked.

Butch glared hatefully at Garran, his eyes little more than slits, and his lip twitched in unsatisfied anger. “I am.”

“Start with when you discovered your daughter was not at home.”

“I discovered Claire was not in the house. She’s a good girl, and I immediately assumed something untoward had happened, so I rounded up a few of my neighbors to help me look for her. We were in the woods to the north of town when I heard her shout.”

“Did she sound distressed?”

“Yes, she called out for help.”

Garran quipped, “If you had been a few minutes earlier you would have heard her calling out to God.”

“You sonofabitch!”

It took the entire front row of spectators piling onto the infuriated mayor to keep him from reaching Garran’s throat. Even so, Butch managed to crawl halfway out of the mound of bodies and grabbed Garran by the ankle. Garran used his free foot to stomp at his hands and landed a few kicks to the top of his head.

It took nearly five minutes to regain control. Butch was covered in sweat from his exertions, and several fresh bruises dotted his face and balding head. Pastor Larkin ordered a few men to stand as bailiffs between Butch and Garran to prevent further violent outbreaks.

“What happened when you and your friends found your daughter?”

“We saw Claire sitting in the clearing.”

“What was the state of her clothing?”

“Her blouse was torn.”

“Did you see anyone with her?”

Butch pointed at Garran. “I saw that animal. He ran the moment he saw us, naked as the day he was born. That proves his guilt!”

“I ran because you and your goons were going to kick the crap out of me, which you did!”

“You’re lucky I didn’t string you from a tree then and there!”

“Because you know what your daughter really is, and that would have made you a murderer.”

“Are you accusing my daughter of immoral ways?” Butch asked, his voice low and threatening.

“I’m saying she’s been tapped more than a maple grove during sap harvest.”

Butch released a strangled cry and lunged, but the wall of men between him and Garran thankfully brought him to a halt. Thinking he was safe, Garran failed to see the gavel flung by the pastor. The wooden mallet struck him in the forehead and knocked him from his chair.

“I warned you!” Pastor Larkin shouted.

Garran clapped a hand over his bleeding wound. “Ow, shit, right in my stitches!”

Thinking it was either part of the trial or simply taking advantage of the situation, Dwight hurled an empty flask at him and narrowly missed his head. Garran snatched up the gavel lying next to his knee, threw it at Dwight, and hit him square on the nose. Dwight’s eyes crossed as his nose swelled to twice its normal size and began pouring blood.

Nina lurched to her feet, reeled back her handbag, and charged at her son. Garran hooked his chair with his foot and slung it into her path. She caught the chairback across her thighs and tipped forward over the seat, her ruffled dress inverting and cascading over her head.

Bereft of his gavel, Pastor Larkin pounded on the table with his shoe in an attempt to restore order. It eventually took the bailiffs to separate the combatants and hold them apart before calm was finally restored.

Pastor Larkin’s face was flushed, and sweat plastered his thinning, gray hair to his forehead. “Mr. Holt, I will give you one opportunity to give testimony in your defense. I warn you, if you intentionally become provocative and incite further disruption, I will adjourn this council and render a verdict. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” Garran replied as he pressed a wadded cloth to his wound.

“Good, please tell us your account of the events.”

“Claire and I had agreed to meet that night in the woods. She was waiting for me when I arrived.”

“Had you and she had similar…liaisons before?”

“Yes, about a week prior.”

“Liar!” Claire shouted.

Pastor Larkin tapped his shoe heel on the table. “Miss Alessi, you said your piece. I will give you the opportunity to challenge his or his witnesses’ statements later. Proceed, Mr. Holt.”

“We engaged in a
mutual
amorous exchange.” Garran looked at his stepfather who was pressing a handkerchief to his nose. “That means I plowed her field, Dwight, since you looked confused.”

Dwight glared and looked around as if in search of another bottle to throw, and Pastor Larkin banged his shoe on the desk. “Mr. Holt, you walk a thin line.”

“Sorry. Claire became upset and told me I was not going to ruin her engagement. When she heard her father call out, she tore her shirt and cried for help. Knowing they would beat me regardless of whether or not they believed our tryst to be consensual, I ran.”

“Why did she become upset?”

“She was afraid I may have knocked her up.” Garran looked at Mayor Alessi. “Wouldn’t you feel like a real shit heel if you had to explain to your grandson how you killed his father?”

“No daughter of mine will ever birth a spawn of yours! I’d drown it first!”

“I’m not much for church, but I’m pretty sure God frowns on that sort of thing. I think you and Pastor Larkin might want to have a long talk before you condemn yourself to hell.”

The pastor looked at Butch intently. “I am certain the mayor is just upset and would not commit such an unforgivable sin should such a conception come to pass. Do you have any evidence to support your defense or discredit your accuser’s accusations?”

“Yes, I do.” Garran looked to the back of the town hall. “Matt, did you find anyone?”

Matt stood up. “I found three who were willing to talk, but I’m pretty suspicious of a couple of others.”