Whispers on the Wind (32 page)

Mary was so stunned that
Carter was here that she didn’t bother to move or question who the
man was with him. He was probably just another lawman. Mary watched
him as he spoke to Thunder. She’d figured that she would never see
Carter again. After all, he’d done his duty by bringing her in, so
why was he here now? Why had he come back?

The three men put their
heads together while they discussed something. One would nod and
then the other would nod. Mary shifted in her hard chair. It would
be real nice if someone would let her in on what was going on,
since it was her trial. She was all but forgotten.

Mary sighed. She felt so
helpless not being able to help herself. For once in her life she
had to depend on others.

Again, the back doors of
the courtroom opened and a crowd of people surged through. They
found seats in the back.

Mary couldn’t see until the
doors were shut. Then her eyes widened. Brandy, Helen, Scott,
Ellen, and Willie had marched into the room and were seating
themselves in the back row. Scott and Willie both waved.

Mary smiled. They had come.
The people who truly loved her had come to support her. It made her
choke up; she’d never felt so loved as she did now.

How long had it been since
Mary had seen Helen, Thunder’s mother? She had been back east
visiting her parents when Mary first went to the mine. Helen must
have come back in the last few months or Brandy would have written
to her about it. It would be good having her back on the ranch.
They all thought of Helen as the mother most of them had never
had.

Carter broke away from the
crowd and started toward the witness stand. He stared at Mary for a
long while, as if he were trying to memorize her face before they
hung her. She should have taken him up on his offer to flee; then
she wouldn’t be going through this agony. But they would never have
been able to return to the ranch and Carter’s mother, and she would
never have been able to forgive herself.

The way Carter looked at
her gave Mary a very uneasy feeling. He looked tired and worried.
Could he be worried about her? Did he truly care?

“How are you holding up?”
Carter asked, and reached for her hand. The warmth of his skin felt
good on her cold fingers. Even though it was hot outside, Mary felt
cold all over.

“What are you doing here?”
she asked. “I thought you were gone for good.” Carter had hurt her,
and at the moment she had a thin grip on her emotions.

“I’m here because of you,”
Carter told her.

Mary gave him a sarcastic
laugh. “You’ve already arrested me and brought me to justice. Must
you see them hang me, too, before you realize that your job is
finished?”

The hurt that flashed in
Carter’s eyes surprised her. And for a moment, she felt bad that
she’d lashed out at him. But it was the truth. He’d left her when
she needed him the most

There was pain in Carter’s
eyes when he replied. “I guess I deserved that.”

The judge came back in the
courtroom, drawing their attention. “We’ll talk more later. Come
on, according to Thunder you need to sit over at the table for
now.”

Carter walked with Mary
back to the table, then sat down besides her, taking her hand in
his. She didn’t jerk her hand away, but it was because she
selfishly needed Carter’s comfort. However, she also remembered how
easy he could dismiss her, so she looked at him questioningly.
“What do you want, Carter?”

A slow smile slipped across
his face as he whispered to her, “You.”

Mary’s traitorous heart
soared. But she was cautious, so she didn’t say anything. She knew
at the moment her life was dangling by a thread and there might not
be a future with Carter. Or anyone.

The court was called back
into session, and the judge asked for the next witness.

Charles Bryan stood. “I’d
like to call John McCoy to the stand.”

Mary squeezed Carter’s hand
tightly. Her stomach ached at the mention of that man’s name. She
didn’t know why, but she had a gut feeling he had something to do
with the murder ... if she could only remember what

The stranger who’d come in
with Carter tapped him on the shoulder, then whispered something in
his ear.

Carter leaned over to Mary
and whispered, “No matter what you do, do not look directly at John
McCoy.”

“Why?”

“Because we believe he’s
controlling your mind by giving you some kind of a signal. Every
once in a while, glance at him, but only for a moment, so we can
pick up on the signal.”

“Who is that man that came
in with you?” Mary asked.

“He’s Thunder’s friend,
Delaney. Remember, Thunder told us about him?”

Mary shook her head. “There
has been too much going on. I had forgotten all about
him.”

Bryan started first “Can
you tell me how you were related to the deceased?”

“He was my half
brother.”

“I see,” Bryan said. “And
when is the last time you saw Jim?”

“The night he was
killed.”

Carter nudged Mary. She
glanced up at McCoy, and found he was staring directly at her, his
eyes accusing. His hand started toward the side of his face, and
Mary glanced away.

Charles Bryan cleared his
throat before asking the next question. “Can you tell us what
happened?”

“Jim invited me to dinner.
When I arrived, I met a young boy named Mark, or so I thought,”
McCoy said with a disgusted grunt.

“Can you
explain?”

McCoy leaned against the
back of the chair, confidence stamped all over his face. Carter
tightened his jaw. Oh, how he’d love to mop the floor up with that
man.

“The boy was really a
woman who dressed as a man. Everyone in camp thought of her as
Mark,” McCoy explained.

Bryan walked toward Mary as
he asked, “Can you identify this woman?”

“She is right over there.”
McCoy pointed.

Mary looked up at her
accuser, and again McCoy’s hand started toward his face, so she
looked away.

“I see,” the prosecutor
said as he, too, glanced intently at Mary. “Can you tell me what
happened that night?” he asked McCoy without looking at
him.

“We had a pleasant dinner
until Mark—I mean, Mary—and Jim started to argue. They were arguing
over the mine. Mary wanted a bigger cut of the rich gold vein they
had just struck. She claimed she was the one that found
it.”

Mary leaned over to
Thunder. “He’s lying.”

Thunder glanced at her. “I
know.” Then he turned and leaned over to speak with Delaney in a
low voice. “Did you get it?”

Delaney nodded.

“No more questions,” the
prosecutor said.

Slowly, Thunder rose from
his chair. “Mr. McCoy, can you tell me how Mark was dressed that
night?”

“He had on Levi’s and a
faded flannel shirt.”

“And his hair?”

“He had on a cap. I
couldn’t see it.”

“Well, the lady who you
just pointed to has long blond hair. How can you be sure it’s the
same person you saw? She doesn’t look anything like a boy to
me.”

Several murmurs ran through
the crowd.

“It’s her, all right”
McCoy shifted and leaned forward. He didn’t look as sure of himself
as he once did. “I remember those eyes.”

“Could it be that you
remember so well because you never did leave the cabin, but stayed
and found out that Mark was really Mary?”

“I done told you, I left
and slept in my wagon. I have an alibi.”

“Oh, that’s right. Marshal
Forester told me you stayed the night with the town whore—someone
who can be bought, given enough money.”

“Objection,” the
prosecutor shouted.

“Overruled,” the judge
answered.

“Tell me, Mr. McCoy, what
kind of work do you do?”

“I travel around in my
wagon, selling elixirs.”

“Is that all you do?”
Thunder asked casually. He had a feeling that McCoy was the kind of
man who liked to boast and Thunder was getting ready to give him a
chance. “I heard that you can make people do funny things. Can you
explain?” Thunder watched as McCoy’s eyes lit up with a possibility
to talk about himself. Good, Thunder thought. He was hoping for
such a reaction.

“I hypnotize people to act
like dogs and chickens. The crowd gets a big kick out of
it.”

“Really.” Thunder leaned
on the rail. “What is hypnotism, and how can you do such a
thing?”

“It’s like when we drift
off and enter the sleep state, we pass through the state of
awareness known as hypnosis.”

“Let me
understand this, you can
make
people
do what you want them to do, such
as acting funny, once you put them under?”

“Yep.”

“I see,” Thunder said,
rubbing his chin. Suddenly he stopped and looked McCoy dead in the
eye. “So how do we know that you didn’t hypnotize Mary? It would
explain why she can’t remember anything. And it would be very
convenient for you to do the murdering.”

McCoy’s face turned an
angry red. “You ain’t got no proof.”

“Oh, but I think that I
do,” Thunder said. “Your Honor, may I approach the
bench?”

“Both of you and Mr. Bryan
approach the bench," the judge snapped. “McCoy, you can step down
for the moment, but remember you are still sworn in."

The judge peered at
Thunder. “I want to know where you’re going with this line of
questioning, Bradley.”

Thunder explained his
theory, but in order to prove it, he asked the judge to clear the
courtroom.

“This is highly unusual
but an interesting theory, to say the least, "Judge Parker
admitted. “However, you had better prove your point fast If you
don’t, it won’t look too good for the defendant”

Chapter Twenty-One

The courtroom was cleared
of everyone except the jury, the lawyers, Carter, and Delaney.
Thunder stood, waiting for the judge to signal him to continue.
Thunder had a lot riding on what would happen next. If this failed,
he wasn’t sure how he could prove Mary innocent.

Finally, as the doors were
closed and locked, the judge nodded to Thunder for him to
proceed.

“Your Honor, this is
Delaney Shoff,” Thunder said, indicating Delaney, who had moved up
beside Thunder. Delaney was as tall as Thunder with blond hair and
a kind face, Mary thought.

Thunder continued. “Delaney
has studied hypnosis. I feel that something is blocking Mary’s
memory. We believe that Delaney can hypnotize Mary and make her
remember what happened the night Big Jim was killed.”

The judge held up his hand.
“First, I have a few questions. I need for you to explain hypnosis
to me.” He turned to Delaney. “And exactly what are your
qualifications, Mr. Shoff?”

Delaney stepped forward.
I’ll answer your second question first I am a doctor, and I have
had the opportunity to study hypnosis for many years, Your Honor,
at the universities back east. Hypnosis is a normal and natural
state of awareness, which most if not all, people experience on a
daily basis.”

The judge leaned forward
and propped his chin on his hand, peering at Delaney. “I find that
hard to believe.”

“Yes, I know. I thought
the same thing when I first learned of hypnosis, but let me finish.
Our conscious mind”—he pointed to his head—“or awareness, sometimes
known as our waking mind, is the portion of our brain that we
access to analyze things. This is generally referred to as critical
thought Every action we have begins with thought Think about it
Your Honor, do you ever do anything without first thinking about
it?”

Judge Parker thought for a
moment then said, “I guess not”

“So, you see, the brain
does not send messages to other parts of the body until it is told
what to do by a thought When we remove the analytical process from
our thinking, as we do when we are in a state of hypnosis, our
subconscious mind is opened to redirect information so that it may
empower us in our actions and behaviors. We can actually direct
someone not to remember anything.”

“That is an interesting
theory, but do you have some proof of what you say?” the judge
asked, his look still very doubtful.

“Yes,” Delaney nodded.
“And I will demonstrate in a moment on Mary. But first I want to
tell you about a documented case that happened in the 1820s in
Germany. A woman by the name of Cindy Berg was controlled for seven
years and made to do things against her will. And the sad part was
she knew nothing of what she had done for those years. It was a big
black hole to her.”

“Seven years!"Judge Parker
bellowed.

“That’s right, Your
Honor,” Delaney said with a nod. “A hypnotist named Wolfgang for
seven years extorted thousands of dollars from Cindy, used her
sexually, and sold her services as a prostitute. That was bad
enough, but then he compelled her to attempt murder on her husband
six times.” Delaney glanced around the room as he walked over to
get a drink of water. He definitely had everyone’s attention and
that was good.