Chapter 10: "The Evidence"

When she had started working at the clinic, Becky's heart was bitter and hard. At first, she hated having to come back to her hometown and all its bad memories. But, as the months passed, the more she saw of the town and its people, the more her heart began to open up to them.

In her bitterness, Becky had forgotten how poor of the community really was and it occurred to her that she had it far better off in Columbus than most of the town's folk did. She began to realize that they were basically good, hard working people that had for years been exploited by the Doc and his family. To make matters worse, things had deteriorated even more before Doc Harris died.

The Doc had kept an iron-hand control over the town's economy and they had drained it every chance they could. It seemed to her that the old man had been the only thing that had kept the Harris family there for when he died, one-by-one they all began selling off their various business interests in the town to whatever out-of-town investor they could find.

Of all his relatives, only the sheriff, Johnny Wilkins and his cousin Cindy remained, probably because they had been the black sheep of the family had no real interest to sell off.

If Cindy knew anything, she never mentioned it to Becky, but that was because everyone involved had been careful not to tell her for fear she might spill what she knew while in a drunken haze.

Becky had been working at the clinic for almost five months when she got the call from Johnny Wilkins asking if he could meet her somewhere and talk to her.

Even thought Becky didn't trust the man, she knew he might be her last chance to learn something that could help Ethan so she agreed to meet him at 4:00 that Saturday afternoon at the clinic after it closed. Becky was surprised when she looked out into the lobby, as the doors were being locked, and found the sheriff waiting for her; she had expected him not to show up. He had a small blue gym bag sitting on the floor next to him.

When Becky walked into the lobby the sheriff rose to his feet and, for just a few seconds, the two just stood there looking at each other, neither of them sure what to say to the other. It was then that Doctors Jennings and Mercer walked in followed by Cindy.

Becky had told them all about the meeting that morning. As Dr. Mercer and Cindy sat on one of the couches near him, Dr. Jennings leaned with his back against the wall opposite the man. All eyes in the room looked at the sheriff expectedly.

The lawman bent down to the floor and picked up the gym bag. Holding it with one hand, he opened it, reached inside and pulled something out. When they saw what it was, everyone stiffened for he was holding in his had a dusty clear plastic evidence bag containing a knife.

"Is that?" Becky asked, she could barely get the words out.

The sheriff lowered his head and said in a low voice, "Yes."

"Where did you find it?" She inquired, her heart racing.

Without raising his head, the lawman answered, "It was under Ethan's car in the impound lot. It must have gotten stuck somewhere in the undercarriage. I guess the knife was knocked loose when the tow truck lowered it to the ground."

"Who found it?" Becky asked.

His voice beginning to crack, the sheriff answered, "I did."

"When?" From the condition of the bag, she thought to herself, it must have been quite some time ago.

He remained silent, too ashamed to speak.

"Johnny, how long have you had the knife?" Cindy asked.

The sheriff looked at Cindy and summoned the courage to tell her, "I found it just before the end of the trial."

"Why didn't you tell someone Johnny?" The woman enquired of her cousin.

He raised his eyes to look at her and said, "I did. I told Jack, Randal and 'Doc'. They told me to loose it. 'Doc' threatened to take my house away and have Jack fire me. He said that they'd make the knife disappear anyway. Liz had just had the Scott and 'Doc' held the note on my house. I couldn't afford to lose my job. God help me, I swear couldn't see any way out!"

"Why are you telling us about it now?" Becky asked skeptically.

He looked at her and replied sincerely, "I haven't had a decent night's sleep in the past fifteen years and I've lost my family because I started drinking over this. I almost ate a bullet over it. Yesterday, I went to the D.A. and told him about it but he's too god damn concerned with his career to make it right. So now I'm coming to you. I want to make it right."

Cindy stood up and was going to take the bag containing the knife from his hands when Becky stopped her, "Don't touch that!"

"But why? It's the proof you need to clear Ethan?" Cindy said to Becky, and she stopped and held her hand in mid-air.

Becky got a very serious look on her face as she replied, "Because it will break the chain of custody. Isn't that right Johnny? Then it will be useless!"

"She's right! My god, I can't believe what I almost did!" Replied the lawman as he withdrew his hand quickly.

Just then Dr. Mercer spoke up and said, "For those of us who are legally illiterate, will one of you please explain what's going on?"

Then, she realized what she'd said and had to fight hard to keep from laughing out loud. Mark Jennings didn't show as much restraint and started laughing hysterically. It seemed to break the tension in the air until Becky and Cindy looked at him sternly.

"Basically, the chain of custody is a chronological record of where the knife has been and who has had it. It started when I found the knife, placed in this bag, and marked the bag. If I give this knife to someone and don't document it, then the chain of custody is broken and the knife's value as evidence is suspect. There would be no real way to prove that the knife presented as evidence is actually the knife I found. And even it you could prove it was the same knife, there's no way to prove it hadn't been tampered with." The sheriff explained.

Cindy looked at him and said, "Well, you have it. We've all seen it. What are you going to do with it?"

"I'll tell you what were going to do with it." Becky interjected, "As soon as I find Ethan an attorney; Johnny, and I are going to drive up to Decatur and hand it over to the state crime lab for analysis. Then, Johnny's going to give an affidavit in which he detail every thing he just told us." She paused for a few seconds while she thought, "What I can't figure out is what do we do about the gun? They still have Ethan for possession of a stolen weapon and that makes him look guilty. Sammy and Bert are in the state prison at Columbus. I'm sure they've been running their mouths about it but I can't even get the warden to talk to me. It would be nice to know what they've been saying. It might give us a lead to go on. The only problem is, all the lawyers in Columbus I've tried didn't get anywhere. I'd like to try someone else, but frankly, I have no idea who's good and who isn't."

Dr. Jennings spoke up just then, "I think I might be able to help you with that. My nurse told me her boyfriend had some problems with his ex-wife a while back and the lawyer he found was very creative in solving them. I don't know if this is the kind of thing he can handle but it's worth a try. What do you think?"

"I'll take all the help I can get." Replied Becky.

Cindy said to her cousin, "What about you Johnny, anything you can do to help?"

He considered it for a second and then said, "I'll make a call to the warden in Columbus and see if he will talk to me."

"No better yet, see if he will talk to Ethan's lawyer. That way we keep you out of it. We need to keep you away from potential witnesses. There's going to be enough questions about your motivations as it is without someone questioning the credibility of witnesses because you had contact with them. We're going to have enough trouble with your credibility as it is when everyone finds out you've been sitting on the knife all these years. The D.A. might try to say you pressured them to lie to back up your story." Insisted Becky.

They all went into Dr. Jennings office and stood around impatiently while he called his nurse to ask her for the name and phone number of the attorney her husband used.

Five minutes later they had Howard Booth on the speakerphone and were recalling the whole story for him.

When they were finished, the voice of the lawyer came over said, "Becky, Sheriff Wilkins, I'll meet you at the state crime lab. After we've handed over the knife, we'll all go to my office and I'll get an affidavit from you. Then I want you to call the warden in Columbus and see if he will talk to me as Becky suggested." He paused a second and then asked, "Sheriff, how much trouble do you think this D.A. you talked to will be?"

"None at all." Replied the sheriff smiling.

Everyone present looked at him in surprise as silence filled the room.

It was broken by the voice of the attorney coming from the phone, "Okay, I'll bite. Why is that?"

"I suspected he might react that way so I made sure that the security cameras were running when I talked to him!" The lawman answered, still grinning.

Two days later, the knife was safely at the crime lab and Johnny had given his affidavit. Johnny and Becky were in the attorney's office listening while the man talked to the warden of the Columbus State Prison.

Candidly the warden said, "The two Oglethorpe boys started bragging about it as soon as they got hear but they shut up after some of the other inmates started using them for punching bags. They haven't said a word about it since then, too afraid to talk about it. Hell, I had to move them to maximum security just to keep them from being killed. The whole prison knows about it; I just assumed you knew too."

He had already told them everything the two brothers had said.

"I just took over the case. Is there anything else you can tell us?" Asked the attorney.

There was a short pause before the warden replied, "Just this, I don't think you are going to get those two to recant their testimony. Even if they did, the D.A. will probably just say they're doing it to try to get out of maximum security. You'll probably better off talking to the guy they bought the pistol from, if he's still alive that is."

"Thanks warden, I appreciate your candor. If there's nothing else, I'll hang up now."

Then the voice of the warden came one last time over the phone, "Yes there is. Do me a favor and let me know how it's going from time to time. The first ten years after Barns got here, he had it pretty bad. If he really is innocent, I want him out of here as fast as possible."