Grass Roots Read Online Free PDF Page B

house or apartment?”
    “No, sir, I rent a house.”
    “Do you know anybody who might put up some property?”
    “Maybe my boss, Mr. Morgan. I wouldn’t want to ask him, though.”
    “I’ll talk to him. He’ll need to know that you won’t be at work on Monday, anyway.”
    Larry slapped his forehead.
    “Geez, I forgot to tell you about the lineup. I just remembered.”
    “The sheriff put you in a lineup?”
    “Yeah, with four other guys.”
    “Were they about your size and general description?”
    “More or less. It’s funny, though. They made us stand with our faces to the wall.”
    “You mean the witness was looking at your backs?”
    “At first. After a couple of minutes, they told us to turn around.”
    “Did you see the witness, the person who was looking at you?”
    “No, there was a mirror. I guess there was somebody behind it, one of those two-way things.”
    “That’s the way it’s usually done.” Will snapped his briefcase shut.
    “Mr. Lee, how much trouble am I in?” Moody looked more than just worried now.
    “I don’t know yet, Larry. We won’t know that until we hear more about the prosecution’s case. I’d better tell you what your options are. On Monday morning at the preliminary hearing, you’re going to have to enter a plea. That means you’ll plead either guilty or not guilty. If you plead not guilty and go to trial and are convicted of first-degree murder, then you might very well get the death penalty, but you might get life, depending on the circumstances.
    “But”—Will leaned forward on his elbows—”you have the option of pleading guilty. If you are guilty. If you decide to do that, I can go to the prosecution and maybe make a deal, let you plead to a lesser charge, maybe voluntary manslaughter, depending on the circumstances.
    In that case, you’d probably get a shorter sentence, be out in a few years. It boils down to this, Larry. Plead guilty and do, maybe, five to ten years in jail; or plead not guilty, in which case you might go free or you might die. You think about it over the weekend, and we’ll talk before your hearing on Monday. If you want me to, I can feel out the prosecutor and see what sort of a plea bargain might be available.
    You can let me know what you want to do then.”
    “Oh, I already know,” Larry said, sitting up.
    “I want to plead not guilty.” “You’re sure,” Will said.
    “I’m absolutely sure.”
    “Fine.” Will rose.
    “I’ve got to go now. Is there any thing I can do for you before Monday, besides call your boss?”
    “Yes, sir. You can bring me some shaving stuff and a change of clothes from the house, and let Charlene know where I am.” He wrote down the address and gave Will directions.
    “There’s a key under the flowerpot. And you could give Charlene the keys to the van, so she can use it.
    She doesn’t have a car.”
    “That may not be possible. The sheriff may hold the van as evidence, but I’ll try. Anything else?”
    Moody looked away from him.
    “Something’s bothering me,” he said.
    “What is it?”
    Moody turned to face him again.
    “You never asked me if I murdered that woman.”
    It was Will’s turn to look away.
    “Well, Larry, that’s a question a lawyer sometimes doesn’t want to ask his client.”
    “Well, you don’t have to ask, I’ll tell you,” Moody said.
    Will held his breath. If this boy was guilty, he didn’t want to know it.
    “I did not kill her,” Larry said with conviction.
    “I swear to God, I didn’t. Everything I’ve told you today is the gospel truth.”
    Will smiled.
    “In that case, Larry,” he said with more certainty than he felt, “you don’t have anything to worry about.”
    Larry grabbed Will’s hand and pumped it, smiling as though he had just been acquitted. will rapped on the glass partition that separated the sheriff’s office from the squad room.
    “Morning, Clan. How you doing?”
    Sheriff Cox lifted his head from the paperwork before him,