The Whole Truth Read Online Free PDF Page B

at the courthouse for juicy cases.
    "It was just a little-bitty twenty-two caliber gun," she says to me, with a dismissive wave of a hand. "I've got one of those for scaring squirrels away from my bird feeders. I don't think it could even kill a sparrow. You can't even bleed to death from a little-bitty ol' twenty-two caliber bullet wound. So how can he be unconscious?"
    Manny says, "Maybe she shot him between the eyes?"
    Jaime and the woman both laugh, but then the woman leans closer and says to me in a loud whisper, "I know what Ms. English said to him before the judge shot him. Do you want to know for your book? What she whispered to Ray? After the verdict? She said, 'Don't piss off the judge, Ray, she always packs a pistol!'"
    "Thanks," I say, and write it down, feeling a bit shell-shocked myself.
    I don't know whether to believe her, but I take down her name, making a show of spelling it right. She looks pleased and gratified. "I just love your books," she confides, and seems eager to engage me in a conversation about them.
    But just then, the door to the little courtroom elevator slides open and two paramedics in navy blue uniforms step out, carrying a gurney and medical equipment. It gives me a tactful excuse to turn away, and start taking notes again. When the paramedics eventually lift Ray onto the gurney and carry him to the elevator, he looks completely out of it. His head lolls, turning our way, and it's obvious that she didn't shoot him between the eyes. There's a splash of blood in the middle of the white shirt. Small bullet or no, he certainly appears to be hurt and unconscious. Within moments, they've got him into the elevator, along with Leanne English and a deputy sheriff.
    The elevator door slides shut.
    The show is over.
     
    "Good-bye, Ray," Manny Meade intones.
    "Good fucking riddance," Jaime Suarez echoes.
    A spectator begins to clap, and the woman behind us calls out, "Judge, Judge!" The applause swells, and soon it seems as if the whole courtroom is calling out for Her Honor. Judge Flasschoen rises to her feet. She lifts her arms. The sleeves of her black robe fall back, revealing a black strap attached to her left forearm, which must be where she secured the gun. She bows to the crowd, and they stomp, cheer, and whistle while sheriff's deputies vainly attempt to establish order.
    During the celebration, I scribble a note about how unnaturally small and skinny Ray looked on the stretcher. He could pass for a child from a distance, or for a teenager up close. For an eerie moment, just as he was being lifted, I could have sworn that his eyelids opened a fraction, and that he looked directly at me.
    When I look up, I find that the state's attorney, Franklin DeWeese, is staring at me with an unreadable expression on his handsome face. My heart does an embarrassing little skip, which makes me glad that hearts are not visible from the outside. I catch myself staring at his mouth, and I quickly shift my gaze to his eyes, which still doesn't make objectivity any easier.
    I step closer to him, so he can hear me.
    "Congratulations, Franklin."
    "Thank you, Marie. You on their side now?"
    "What? Just because I'm standing here?"
    It amazes me, what people assume about my biases, when I try so hard not to show any at all.
    "What are you going to do about the judge, Franklin?"
    "If it were up to this crowd, I'd have to give her a medal."
    "Well, Florida is a death penalty state, she just tried to beat you to it."
    He smiles at that. "Even our electric chair is more efficient than this, Marie." The Florida electric chair is infamous for shorting out at the worst possible time. "We don't usually wound them first and kill them later." 
    "Where will they take him?"
    "You want to see?"
    "Yes!"
    "Come with me, girl, we're outta here."
    The prosecutor grabs me by an elbow, and instinctively, I move away a little. He drops his hand. More subtly this time, he steers me toward the same courtroom elevator where Ray, the