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dollars? The answer was no.
One of the men in the outer office said, Hell. All them Shannons from
the old man down have been biggety scapers, but they re smart. Hi would-
n t keep the money on him. But he sure could use it. The unseen speaker
wolf-whistled. It must come higher in Hollywood n it does in Elfers. Jist
look at the clothes that little ol gal he s married to is wearing. Look at her
diamond rings and her earrings.
Sally turned her face to the wall and stood, her slim shoulders shaking,
as if her heart was broken.
She was thinking of me? A bad press? What? I wished I knew. I wished
I knew the real reason why she d come to Elfers. I realized I was panting,
as if I d run a long way, with a lynch mob at my heels.
Now, wait. Look, fellows, I gasped. Listen to me. Before this gets out
of hand. I appealed to Doctor Handley. You say Paul was killed about an
THE PASSION MURDERS 63
hour ago?
Yes, Doctor Handley said. Approximately. Give or take a half hour
either way.
I said, Then I couldn t have killed him. Like I told you before, an hour
ago I was down in the cane brakes, having the hell beaten out of me by five
men in white robes and hoods. They pulled me out of bed a half hour
before that. They beat me in my room out at the farm. Then they adjourned
to the river and did it all over again.
I paused, waiting for someone to speak. No one did. I continued:
Just before they knocked me unconscious, the leader of the mob
warned me to get out of Elfers before morning. He told me not to let the
Elfers sun shine on my head. He said they would kill me if I did. That s
why I came up here. Along with wanting to apologize for our rhubarb this
afternoon, I wanted to ask Paul if he knew any of the local men who
belonged to the Klan.
They didn t believe me. Even Sally turned from the wall. Her eyes were
wide and worried.
Doctor Handley broke the silence. They beat you in those clothes?
I shook my head. No. The clothes I was wearing were all covered with
mud and blood. I threw them into the bushes. Then I went for a swim in the
river and changed into this suit.
May crossed the office and stood in front of me. So close, her big, firm
breasts almost touched my chest. I don t believe that, she said. You re
lying, Hi. You may have changed your clothes. But you changed them after
you fought with Paul. And the only reason you came back was because
Paul s body was found sooner than you expected it to be, and you couldn t
get through the road blocks.
The man who had remarked about Sally said, By God, I ll buy that.
Come on, fellows. Let s string the bastard up to the railroad trestle.
The men in the outer office tried to push Jack Carter aside. He turned
and beat at them with the butt of his pistol. Her face white, her eyes big and
round, Sally interposed her small body between me and the doorway.
Sheriff White drew his bone-handled pistol again.
Step aside, Jack, he said, quietly. He laid down the law without rais-
ing his voice. Now, as for the rest of you men. There has never been a
lynching in Elfers County. There s never going to be one as long as I m
sheriff. Come ahead and get Shannon, if you think you can take him away
from me. But I ll shoot the first son-of-a-bitch that steps over that doorsill.
The men in the reception room pushed back from the doorway. They
knew White meant it. He did. He was Law as it was once represented, as it
64 DAY KEENE
still is in some places.
Doctor Handley broke the silence that followed. Look, fellows. Let s be
sensible about this. We all loved Paul. That s understood. But Hi is also a
local boy. I, for one, have never known Hi Shannon to tell a lie. And if he
is telling the truth, there should be some sign of a struggle down in the cane
brakes. We should be able to find the clothes he says he was wearing when
the hooded men beat him.
White stroked his moustaches with his free hand. Now, that makes
sense. Won t do a mite of harm to look. He waved the men aside. All
right, make a path there, men. He motioned me on ahead of him. And
you ride in my car, Hi. You ll find it right out in front.
I rode looking straight ahead, trying to forget that Sally was sitting
beside me. Sally being here with me was merely another turn in the night-
mare that had begun the afternoon Blair had walked into my office. Don t
give me that, Shannon, he d said. The hell you re not in. I told your girl
to tell you this was important!
Somehow in the confusion Sally had fought her way into Sheriff White s
car with me. She tried to snuggle her hand into mine. I couldn t see her face
in the dark, but there were tears in her voice. Don t be so cold and distant
with me, Hi. Stop being a tight-lipped mean old cracker and tell me that
you love me, that you want me here with you.
I pushed her hand away. What kind of chap did Sally think I was?
Winchell, or maybe it was Lyons, had best summed up Sally s type: If a
smart little hustler fools a big dumb country boy once, shame on her. If she
fools him twice, shame on him.
Even I had to admit the search was thorough. The clearing in the brakes
was criss-crossed with headlights. If my discarded underthings and shirt
and suit had still been there, Sheriff White and his deputies would have
found them. But they weren t. Nor had the spongy ground held the imprints
of the struggle. All they had been able to find were my footprints in the
mud on the river bank.
I sat in the sheriff s car, trying not to hear Sally sobbing beside me, fight-
ing panic. White had to believe me. I had been beaten by five sheeted
hoodlums. I hadn t killed Paul. I stirred restlessly on the seat and Orin
Bream turned his pale eyes La my direction. Just take it easy, Hi. It
shouldn t be too long, now.
His heavy gun sagging his belt, Sheriff White cut across the battery of
headlights to the car. He pushed his hat back on his head, leaned on the
door and looked in at me.
You wouldn t care to change your story, would you, Hi?
THE PASSION MURDERS 65
No, I said. I wouldn t. Why?
This is the clearing in which you were beaten?
It is.
The clearing in which five men dressed in Klan regalia beat you with a
blackjack and warned you to leave Elfers under penalty of death?
That s right.
The tobacco-stained corners of the old man s mouth turned down. He
spat a stream of tobacco juice out into the glare of the headlights, then
turned back to the car. Uh uh, he said. You re lying and you know it,
Hi. His voice was flat, without expression. Because you are a local boy,
because you made us proud of you for a while, I ve given you every break
I could. But the five sheeted men exist only in your own drunken imagina-
tion. In the first place, the Klan never got a foothold in Elfers County. I
don t hold with men covering their faces to do what they re ashamed to do
with their faces bare. So me and Orin and Jack run their organizers out of
the County by the seat of their pants and you are the first and only one to
report an incident of night riding.
I tried to speak. I couldn t. The lump in my throat was too big.
The old man tugged a heavy manila envelope from his hip pocket. In the
glare of the headlights, I could see it was imprinted with Paul Mason s
return address.
If not delivered within five days return to Paul Mason, Atty.-at-law,
Courthouse Square, Elfers, Georgia.
Sheriff White continued. In the second place, I did just what I should
have done in the first place. I searched your car. And what do you think?
Tucked away in the well under your spare tire, I found the eight thousand
dollars that was known to be in Paul s safe.
He opened the envelope. I stared at the money in it, incredulous. Sally s
hand felt for mine again. I gripped it this time.
Take a good look, White told me. His voice was still flat, expression-
less. It s going to burn you, boy.
CHAPTER TWELVE
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