Chapter 5: "The Woman"

But Becky Daily didn't give up on him.

At first, she remained in the tiny little town of Magnolia. But it became quickly apparent to her that she would never make a decent living there. Even if she did, it wouldn't be enough to provide her the financial resources to both survive and mount a successful fight to see Ethan go free.

After the trial, Becky had started saying quite publicly that it sure did seem odd how the only piece of evidence that would have backed up Ethan's story mysteriously disappeared.

She must have said it in front of the wrong person, because that Friday she was called into her boss's office in the middle of her shift. He told her that she was being laid off from her job at the hatchery.

Doc had told the man that she was developing carpal tunnel syndrome and her days were numbered. When she pointed out to her supervisor that she hadn't even been to see the physician! His reply was, "Sorry Becky, but if Doc says you don't work, you don't work!" As she was leaving, when she got to her car, she found that all four tires had been cut! It became obvious to her that someone was trying to run her off.

Two years before when her mother died, Becky had inherited what could laughably be referred to as 'the family farm'. It wasn't a real farm any more, only about fifty acres of land, and only about a third of that was cleared and fit for farming, the rest being wooded. But it was just too small to produce enough crops for anyone to live on any more and she realized it was time for her to leave Magnolia.

Becky thought about where she would go and there seemed only one logical choice, Columbus Georgia.

There she might find better employment with which to finance her fight for Ethan's freedom. It was the largest city in the state of Georgia by area, if not by population, and was located near one of the country's largest military bases, Fort Benning. It certainly didn't escape her mind that the move to Columbus provided the added bonus of putting her closer to Ethan as the state prison was conveniently located just at the edge of town.

She had a cousin, Joni, living in there who was working as a secretary for one of the local real estate brokers. Her cousin had had the good sense to get out of Magnolia two years earlier. Becky was pretty sure that Joni would put her up for a couple of weeks.

So Becky called her, just to make sure she would and then, sold what wood there was on the land to Georgia Wood and Logging for $10,000. A week later, after the company had cleared the land of all its timber, she sold it to one of the local farmers for about $700 an acre. She went out of her way to choose one of the few men who openly despised the Doc because she knew the farmer would never let the old bastard buy the land from him.

With her few meager belongings loaded in her car, she headed off to Columbus, stopping only in town long enough to fill her gas tank for the long trip. The store had a policy of prepaying and when Becky went inside to give the cashier twenty dollars, she realized that she had been in such a hurry she had left her purse in the car. As she walked back to her car, she discovered that all four of her tires had been cut once again.

Furious, she left the car where it was sitting and walked to "Doc's" office at the other end of town. When she got there she walked right past the receptionist, and began looking around until she found him in an examination room with the Mayor's wife. From the looks of it, she must have caught him in the middle of giving the woman a pap smear.

When he heard the door open, he turned around to look at her. With sweat dripping from her, she said, "Look you old bastard, I'm trying to leave this fucking town. If you want me to leave, tell your boys to stop slicing my tires!" Then on inspiration, she glanced over at the woman and said, "Otherwise, I'm going to tell everyone you were giving her more than a pap smear!" Without waiting for a response, she turned around and stomped out leaving the old man sitting there with his jaw wide open."

When she got back to her car, it was to find that there was a note stuck with something stapled to it under the left windshield wiper. There were four brand new tires on her car. Shocked, she picked up the note and read it, "Don't come back! Doc". She looked at the paper stapled to the note, it was a receipt for four tires, one tank of gas, one oil change and a new fuel filter, all paid in full!

As she pulled off onto the state highway, a road with a name that only those poor unfortunate souls who were misfortunate to live in Magnolia ever seemed to remember, Becky thought to herself, "This town hasn't seen the last of me you old fool!"