The Jig is Up

"God damn it!" she said and started to cry. "Here, have a seat," he said and opened the back door of the car. I'll stay with you until the medical examiner gets here." Edna climbed carefully into the back of the patrol car. She stared at the metal bars between the deputy and herself and started to tremble. Keep it together, she told herself, they don't know anything. The deputy looked at Edna in the rear view mirror and watched her dab at her eyes with a lace handkerchief. Everyone reacted differently to news of death, he thought. However, Edna was acting odd. She wasn't talking and wasn't even crying any more. She simply sat and stared out the window at the slow parade of people walking in and out of the small building.

Back in Beeman things were equally busy. Sheriff Hurley had just finished a cup of coffee and he was planning his line of questioning for Hazel. She hadn't asked for a lawyer yet despite being Mirandized. They were going to do this one by the book and he had told his deputy the same thing. It was the first time they had to videotape a suspect during the arrest procedure. Usually the arrests were pretty straightforward with very little wiggle room. A drunk driving arrest or a vandalism at the local school didn't usually garner much criticism from the local lawyers or judge. A murder, on the other hand, was something else all together. Sheriff Hurley wanted to make sure that he didn't make any mistakes since this was the first serious crime of his fifteen-year career.