Shhh, you need to keep this quiet...McCain doesn't know I shoved it in here. Please don't tell her, it would upset her more than she already is. This whole "according to Monkey McCartney and Skweeker McCain" thing is okay but they're forgetting one important thing...my point of view and my third of the story. I'll tell it to ya under one condition...disregard everything I have said the minute you go on to read McCain's next blabberings, got it? You need to promise me.

Alright.

Here goes.

I left town days before anybody was murdered, that much is known and that much is true. I didn't even go far; Bayonne, New Jersey on some business trying to get in on a business venture that sounded promising. I arrived there three whole days before the murder even occurred and I heard nothing of it until I came back, and as for writing Skweeker a post card saying that I was okay, as she said before, I wasn't able to. Stupid really, I was walking in the street, it's not a big town and there was a horse and wagon coming down the way at a steady pace and a mother's child got away from her and was in the path of the horse. I'll admit to all of you that I have a soft spot for little children and upon seeing this, I ran to pull him out of the way because the mother hadn't realized what was happening yet. I grabbed the child and pushed back for the sidewalk, tripping on the curb. So as not to hurt the child, I put myself on the bottom and simply landed the wrong way, breaking my arm. It could happen to anyone. But, of course, I don't ever like making my presence known anywhere (whether there's a threat or not) because it's just not a good thing to do, so I didn't go to a doctor and I couldn't write to her. I didn't understand that not writing home one time could cause problems...she would understand and figure that I'd just forgotten once. No such luck.

Now, where Monkey just left off, she's got a pretty good representation, but here's my side at this junction.

I had heard MacRae return to the station and slam a cell door closed and I heard Monkey yelling at someone to shut up...then I heard her say "McCain" and I naturally deduced that it was Skweeker she was yelling at. Why was Skweeker here? She hadn't had anything to do with anything...or did she? Well, she shouldn't have been involved. It took so much for me not to yell out to her, I wanted to so bad. I wanted to tell her that she was stupid if she was involved. I wanted to tell Monkey to leave and forget she'd ever met either of us. Tell her to get out while she still could, let her know that she could go to the Manhattan boys and say she was siding with them and everything would be okay for her... but I didn't. I couldn't bring myself to talk to either of them. I heard Monkey tell Skweeker that I was there and my stomach twisted into knots when she did and I sat in the corner. It would have been better if she hadn't told... so much better. McCain would raise holy hell and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. She needed to find out that remaining level-headed was the only way to deal with this. The longer she kept her mouth shut the easier it would be for me to get her in that court room with me and the easier it would be to gain sympathy and the easier it would be to get off and get the real muderers on the stand... she can't keep her mouth shut very long though. I'd cross that bridge when I had to. Then it hit me-- why did she go into that cell so willingly? Something had to have happened, she never went willingly-- always put up a fight, for show more than anything else-- something was terribly, terribly wrong. I had to talk to her, had to get the officer to let her in with me, had no idea how to do it, but it needed to be done...


Ch. 34