pick her up until tomorrow morning. Jessie didn’t speak to me, but she didn’t have to. She gave me a good long look, shook her head, and walked back to her office. She’d never heard anything bad about me, and it made her sad that someone who’d had such a good grandma had ended up in jail. It made me sad, too.
A trustee brought us our supper, which was pretty much lunch revisited. At least the tomatoes were fresh, since there was a garden at the jail. I’d never thought I’d get tired of fresh tomatoes, but between my own burgeoning plants and the jail produce, I would be glad when they were out of season.
There wasn’t a window in our cell, but there was one across the corridor, high up on the wall. When the window got dark, all I could think of was Karin. I prayed very earnestly that (if she hadn’t been already) she would be contacted by the police, that she would tell the truth, that the truth would literally set me free. I didn’t get a lot of sleep that night after the lights went out. Jane snored, and someone over in the men’s section was screaming from about midnight to one a.m.
I was so grateful when morning came and the sun broke through the window across the corridor. The weather report two days ago had forecast Monday as sunny, which meant a return to very high temperatures. The jail was air-conditioned, which was a good thing, since it meant I wasn’t quite exasperated enough to kill Jane, though I came mighty close a couple of times.
I sat cross-legged on my top bunk, trying hard to think about nothing, until Jessie Schneider came to get us.
“You got to go in front of the judge now,” she said. “Come on.” She unlocked the cell and gestured us out. I’d been afraid we’d be shackled, but we weren’t. We were handcuffed, though.
“When am I getting to go home, Jessie?” Jane asked. “Hey, you know Sookie didn’t do nothing to Arlene. I saw Arlene with some men.”
“Yeah, when did you remember that? When Sookie reminded you?” Jessie, a big, heavy woman in her forties, didn’t seem to bear either of us any ill will. She was so accustomed to being lied to that she simply didn’t believe anything an inmate said, and very little anyone else told her, either.
“Awww, Jessie, don’t be mean. I did see her. I didn’t know the men. You ought to let Sookie go. Me, too.”
Jessie said, “I’ll tell Andy you remembered something.” But I could tell she didn’t hang any weight on Jane’s words.
We went out a side door and directly into the parish van. Jessie had two other prisoners in tow by that time: Ginjer Hart (Mel Hart’s ex-wife), a werepanther who had a habit of passing bad checks, and Diane Porchia, an insurance agent. Of course, I knew Diane had been picked up (which sounded better than “arrested”) for filing false insurance claims, but I’d kind of lost track of her case. Women were transported separately from men, and Jessie, accompanied by Kenya, drove us over to the courthouse. I didn’t look out the window, I was so ashamed that people could see me in this van.
There was a hush when we filed into the courtroom. I didn’t look at the spectator section, but when attorney Beth Osiecki waved her hand to catch my attention, I almost wept from relief. She was sitting in the front row. Once I’d noticed her, I caught a glimpse of a familiar face over her shoulder.
Tara was sitting behind the places saved for lawyers. JB was with her. The babies sat in two infant seats between them.
In the row behind sat Alcide Herveaux, leader of the Shreveport werewolf pack and owner of AAA Accurate Surveys. Next to him was my brother, Jason, and his packleader, Calvin Norris. Jason’s friend and best man, Hoyt Fortenberry, was nearby. Chessie Johnson, who was keeping Arlene’s kids, was having a low-voiced conversation with Kennedy Keyes and her boyfriend, Danny Prideaux, who not only worked at the home builders’ supply but was also Bill Compton’s daytime guy. And right by Danny glowered Mustapha Khan, Eric’s daytime guy, and Mustapha’s buddy Warren, who gave me a wispy smile. Terry Bellefleur stood at the back, shifting from foot to foot uneasily, his wife, Jimmie, at his side. Maxine Fortenberry came in, her walk ponderous and her face as angry as a thunderstorm.