Carolyn G. Hart_Henrie O_02 Read Online Free PDF Page B

a convenience store and bought the afternoon paper.
    This headline was crisp:
    POLICE ACCUSE
CRAIG MATTHEWS
OF WIFE’S MURDER
    Police arrested Fair Haven businessman Craig Matthews, 29, late Sunday evening for the murder of his 38-year-old wife, Patty Kay, after teenage hunters found a pistol linked to her slaying in the brush several hundred yards from Highway 94 near Snell.
    Fair Haven Police Chief J. T. Walsh revealed that Mrs. Matthews was shot three times.
    Sheriff Coby Trent said Snell residents Michael Bettis, 15, and Jimmy Graham, 17, were shooting squirrels late Saturday afternoon when they saw Matthews discard an object after he stopped on a country road near Highway 94. Sheriff Trent said, “The boys saw the suspect, whom they later identified as Mr. Matthews, get out of a green Porsche carrying a bundle. He unwrapped the bundle, looked around to see if he was observed, then threw a gun into the brush. Mr. Matthews then got into his car and drove off. The boys found the gun and brought it to us.”
    Chief Walsh said the weapon had been wiped,but the laboratory found a partial print on the bottom of the trigger guard that matched Matthews’s right index finger. The bullets which killed Mrs. Matthews were shot from this weapon, the chief said.
    Fair Haven attorney Desmond Marino said his client is innocent of the crime.
    The murder of the well-known socialite on Saturday shocked residents of the historic community twenty miles south of Nashville. Next-door neighbor Carl Jessop said, “I don’t believe he did it. Craig’s a really nice, mild-mannered guy. He and Patty Kay got along real well. This has got everybody nuts. Nobody around here even locks their doors in the daytime. But now my wife’s scared. Who’d want to shoot Patty Kay?”
    Several neighborhood residents declined to be quoted, but their reports tallied with that of Jessop. All appeared shocked and surprised at Matthews’s arrest.
    Services for Mrs. Matthews will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday in St. John’s Episcopal Church. The family requests no flowers. Memorials may be made to Walden School.
    Craig had said:
There was blood everywhere. I didn’t see a weapon
.
    Now eyewitnesses claimed they saw him toss away the gun that killed his wife.
    Obviously, another lie by Craig.
    So what else was new?
    In Craig’s recital to me there was no mention of a gun or that surreptitious stop.
    I didn’t feel quite that I had been played for a fool. ButI certainly had to accept the fact that Craig Matthews had been less than candid.
    The police would argue that the only reason to lie would be guilt.
    But it could be fear, came the whip-quick thought.
    I lifted an eyebrow. Somewhere within me lurked a champion for Craig Matthews.
    Craig Matthews. A civilized, delicate face. And frightened eyes. Not a very truthful man. The police discoveries surely augmented that judgment.
    All right. But there were facts in his favor. And being a liar can indicate either poor character or stupidity, but it hardly equates with being a murderer.
    I’d driven fast. I was glad. If anything could be done for Margaret’s nephew, it had to be done quickly.
    As a reporter I learned some horrifying truths about our legal system. I don’t call it our system of justice. It is, instead, an often haphazard process relentlessly affected by the participants, who can be bright, stupid, indolent, industrious, incompetent, or brilliant.
    If you question that, read some true crime books. Or go down to the courthouse and sit in on a murder trial. Either exposure should scare the bejesus out of you.
    Bottom line: The cops wouldn’t be trying to clear Craig; they would be busy amassing evidence so the D.A. could get a murder conviction.
    I wasn’t a cop. Or a private detective.
    But there’s no law against asking questions.
    For whatever reason.

4

    As I drove on into town, I spotted Patty Kay Matthews’s bookstore. Books, Books, Books was housed in a large redbrick building across the