Chapter 31

“OBJECTION,” Drake said during Dennis’s deposition. “My client is not on trial. He is a witness for the prosecution. It is irregular for the district attorney to ask such irrelevant questions. Dennis, you may answer if you deem fit.”

“We need to ascertain whether his presence in the building had anything to do with the presence of the accused,” the DA answered.

“I was studying late and fell asleep. I didn’t intend to stay that late,” Dennis said.

“Do you often study late in the coaches’ office?” Madeline asked.

“As a coach, I’m privileged to be in the office whenever the building is open. I usually study in the mornings but I got a little behind during basketball tournament time. I was trying to get caught up,” Dennis said calmly.

“And when you woke up and heard voices, you immediately called 9-1-1?”

“No ma’am. I called Sheriff Moran directly.”

“And why did you call a direct line instead of the emergency number?”

“I knew I wouldn’t have to waste time explaining who I was or why I was in the building.”

“Why?”

“Because the sheriff and I know each other and often talk.”

“I see. What were your actions immediately following the call?”

“Um ... Either during or right after the call, I closed and locked the door to the coaches’ office and turned out the lights. Then I just crouched down by the wall until the um ... accused broke the window.”

“Objection,” the defense attorney said. “It has not been established who broke the window and the witness has already testified that he did not see the faces of either party to be able to identify them.”

Dennis had already answered questions from the attorney for the defendants. It had been harrowing. The attorney had tried to emphasize that Dennis was illegally in the building and should be charged with trespassing, therefore making him an undependable witness. Then he basically accused Dennis of attacking the first guy who tried to unlock the door and causing grievous, life-threatening injury. Dennis was exhausted. It had been going on all morning.

There was a question regarding whether the vandals would ever be tried in Bartley County. They were still being held in Des Moines, as Federal authorities worked on mopping up the entire operation of Warner Affiliated Farms. The SEC had moved in to halt the operations of the group and commissioned AgCentral to dispose of all the livestock. They watched and reviewed that function, assuring that the livestock brought a fair market price, even though most of it went to AgCentral.

That wasn’t as much as one might think. Warner Affiliated Farms was a loose-knit organization of independently owned and operated farms, most of which were at arm’s length from the parent organization. They functioned on a contract basis to supply pork to the corporation. WAF was essentially a marketing arm and clearinghouse for the products and only operated the shipping center and slaughterhouse.

It was still a mystery as to why the executives of WAF—who had all been arrested—bore such animosity toward AgCentral that they would attempt to destroy the company through various acts of sabotage and discreditation. The faulty portions of the construction at both the athletic pavilion and the new factory farm near Bartley had been traced to a single county inspector who had also been arrested.

The District Attorney wasn’t happy about the case, mostly because of the Federal involvement, but reluctantly agreed that Dennis was her only witness to anything that occurred before the sheriff and state police arrived on the scene. She couldn’t really press any charges against him unless the school stepped up with an accusation, and she’d already found that school district was as closed to outsiders as possible.

Dennis made it back to school in time for conditioning and track practice, bemoaning having missed all his classes that day.

The last six weeks of school were as chaotic as the seniors had expected. They were running in track meets twice a week and rushing through final papers, exams, and preparations for graduation.

Dennis discovered that he needed one more class at DMACC in order to complete his Fitness Specialist Certificate, even though he would complete all the work for his AA in Exercise Science and Kinesiology in time to graduate from Bartley.

“It’s a small delay in receiving your diploma,” Ms. Duval said when the guidance counselor met with Dennis.

“But don’t I have all the credits I need to graduate?” he asked. He did not want to delay graduation. He was ever mindful of the law stating he could have no relationship with Ardith until thirty days after he graduated.

“You really don’t want to do that,” the counselor continued. “If you graduate before you take the course at DMACC, you’ll have to pay for it yourself. If you take the course and then we issue your diploma, the school district pays for the course.”

“How much does it cost?” Dennis asked through gritted teeth. He’d just recently deposited a check for $25,000 from AgCentral.

“It’s $174 per credit hour and this is a three-credit class. That’s...”

“$522,” Dennis said, looking at his phone calculator. “I’ll pay my own tuition for the last class so I can have my diploma on graduation day.”

“You are dead set to be finished with school. If you are sure that’s what you want, I’ll put through the necessary paperwork for graduation.”

“Exactly what is the date of when I am officially graduated?” Dennis asked. “Is it as of commencement? Or at the end of the school year? Or do I need to wait until I have my diploma in hand?”

“The date of graduation is the date on the diploma, which will be entered as May 15. Your DMACC associate’s degree will be entered as May 6. You are certainly intent on these dates!” Ms. Duval said, shaking her head.

“They’re important to me,” Dennis said. “Thank you for facilitating my request. I know it’s unusual, but I’ll pay for the last class at DMACC on my own.”

The counselor nodded to him, congratulated him, and watched as he headed out the door. She hesitated before entering the graduation date on his paperwork, almost overriding his decision, and listing the date as August 4 when the DMACC summer term would end. She shook her head. It was his money, she assumed. She entered May 15 on the application for graduation.

“Our world requires that good, decent, moral citizens stand up for what is right,” Madeline said in her speech at Salter.

The party candidates for Attorney General had been invited to speak at the convocation before the April primary. It was one of her last campaign stops before the vote. It happened to be on campus tour day for the four incoming students.

“Dr. William Salter, for whom this prestigious institution was named, came to Iowa to find a population that was unchurched and deep in sin. He set about organizing his life so he could reform the State and bring it to an understanding of morality and God. He set his sights first on slavery, finding he was able to praise Iowa as the only territory west of the Mississippi that was free and was significant in the underground railroad. His leadership in the church and in the community led to the establishment of numerous colleges and churches. It is a heritage of which we can be justly proud.

“But what would Dr. Salter think of the Iowa of today? Would he find it just as immoral as the noisy place he found in 1845? We have lost significant moral battles in this state because the attorney general has held his hand from supporting those who challenged the growing wave of immorality in the state. It is not too late to stem that tide. We have suffered setbacks in the preservation of marriage, in abortion laws, and here in Iowa there is a shocking trend of group marriages that are tolerated and even supported by the communities. We have gangs of teens pitting school against school as corporate aggregates fund battles on our turf. We have unprecedented waves of teen sex, many resulting in venereal disease or pregnancy. We may not be able to stem this tide with mere rhetoric. We must investigate and prosecute every fundamental infraction of the laws we still have and drive toward representation that will enact laws that support the fundamental values of family, decency, and moral behavior. That is the pledge I bring to you as your candidate and that I will drive as the next attorney general of this great state.”

Her speech received some applause, but was not overwhelming. It was always hard to bring a message of morality to students. They were too wrapped up in the life of freedom and loose living to take a message of morality seriously. Most of them should just get a job and learn what life was really about.

“I have no idea if her opponent is any better than she is,” Dennis said to his exercise class. He asked for two minutes to address what he’d heard at his campus visit. “I would never imagine that I should campaign for someone in a state election—even a primary. But she’s made it personal. She singled things out that are part of the open, loving, and caring character of Bartley, Iowa. I’m a new eighteen-year-old voter and I’ve faced her interrogations in deposition. I won’t stand idly by and let her turn the state against us here if I can help it. If you are a voter, I urge you to go to the polls in April and vote for someone else.”

He went directly from that little speech into his warmup routine and the cheerleaders upped the tempo, encouraging everyone to work a little harder, and leading chants of “Just say no—to Courtney!”