Chapter 20

One month later

Jarrod Barkley put his left hand on the bible and raised his right hand, saying, "I do," after the bailiff read the oath to him. Jarrod listened carefully to the words. He always listened carefully to the words. To Jarrod, an oath was a sacred thing. When you took an oath, you were putting yourself up front and center before the whole world. You were saying you were a person of honor, a person who could be trusted, a person who would be truthful or be ready to go down for not living up to those things. This time, it was even more important, because this courtroom was filled with reporters and important political people, some of whom he wanted to be aligned with, some of whom he never wanted to be around.

It was more important because his two brothers, his sister and his mother were in the courtroom too. Time off at home after his abduction and efforts to find out what had happened to him had helped him recover and get his bearings back, but what helped most was the support of his family, as it always did. He was a lucky man, and he knew it, and that bolstered his belief in his oath even more.

Pennimore had been arrested before the Barkley brothers even made it to the train the night they left San Francisco. By the time Jarrod took the stand, the two men who had abducted him had already been tried, convicted and sent off to prison. They never gave up Pennimore or anyone else. John George in the blue suit had cut a deal, told all and had been cut loose after serving a week in jail. He was just a follower to keep Pennimore informed, not a killer, and he wasn't a big enough player in this mess to bother with. After he was released, he disappeared, and the police couldn't locate him. Since he wasn't needed for the trial, nobody seemed to care much.

This was Henry Pennimore's trial, for having Jarrod abducted so that he could not testify at the bribery trial. Witness tampering, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and assault, and obstruction of justice were the main charges. While he was on the witness stand, Jarrod avoided the temptation to look down at Pennimore sitting at the defense table. What he made sure to do was to answer every question by looking toward the jury as he did, as he always told his witnesses to do when he was trying a case. Everyone in the room knew Jarrod Barkley. Everyone in the room knew that he knew what he was doing.

Jarrod was the first witness to be called. He and the D.A. had talked about him taking the stand last, to maximize his impact, but they decided to open up strong with him, then call him on rebuttal at the end of the case. They were pretty certain the defense would give them opportunity for that. The D.A. asked Jarrod to give his name and address, then they went through some questions establishing his profession, his knowledge of what this trial was about. Then the real questions started.

"Mr. Barkley, where were you on the night of June 14 last?"

They had gone over the questions several times, but did not rehearse word for word answers. They did not want to sound too scripted. Jarrod said, "On June 14 I came to my home in San Francisco from my family's ranch in Stockton. I dropped my briefcase off at my house and then went out to get some dinner."

"Do you remember where it was you went?"

"No," Jarrod said. "I have no actual memory of that."

"What is the next thing you remember?"

"Bits and snatches of things. I remember fading in and out of consciousness every now and then. I remember a voice feeding me some foul-tasting milk and telling me I had been ill. I remember being in bed and I remember soiling that bed more than once because I was not allowed to get up."

"Did you know where you were at the time?"

"No, not at the time."

"What is the next thing you remember after the bits and snatches?"

"I remember being partially awake but lying on the street. I didn't know where, but it turned out I was on the sidewalk in front of my own house. Two men who turned out to be my brothers carried me into my house."

"You recognized your house and your brothers?"

"Yes, once I was inside. My mother and sister were there, too."

"What happened next?"

"My neighbor, Dr. Elias Abernathy, came over and examined me."

"How coherent were you?"

"I woke up more as time went on, but when Dr. Abernathy said it was all right for me to go to sleep, I fell asleep on the sofa."

"What time was all this occurring?"

"I asked and was told it was about three in the morning."

From there, the D.A. asked about what happened next, and Jarrod took it all step by step, explaining all the things he and his brothers did together to find out what had happened to him. When he got to the part where they found out he had been held in Dr. Abernathy's house next door to his the whole time, an audible gasp went around the room. Jarrod finished up his story with finding Dr. Abernathy at the room at 2520 and taking him to the police station.

"Did you have any leftover effects from the drugs you had been given, Mr. Barkley?" the D.A. asked then.

"Some fogginess in my mind for a day or so, but no. The fogginess passed and there are no effects left over now."

"Mr. Barkley, where were you supposed to be during the time you were held captive?" the D.A. asked.

"I was supposed to be testifying in the case of the State of California versus Henry Pennimore on a charge of bribery," Jarrod said.

Another gasp went around the room.

"Did you ever testify in that case?"

"No. The case was dismissed before I was released."

When Jarrod completed his testimony, after cross-examination that didn't do much for the defense and only four rebuttal questions, Jarrod was excused but kept available to be recalled. He returned to his seat in the courtroom with his family and said to them, "You can go on now if you like. I'm not sure you're going to want to hear what Dr. Abernathy has to say. He'll be pretty specific about how he treated me while he had me."

Both Victoria and Audra took of expressions of defiance. "We'll stay with you," Victoria said. "If you're staying to hear it, we'll hear it too."

Jarrod gave his mother a smile and a squeeze of the hand. "If you're going to stay, you need to stay for the whole thing. If you try to leave while anyone is testifying, the defense is going to argue your leaving is influencing the jury. They will be trying every trick in the book in this case."

"We're staying," Audra said flatly.

And they all stayed. And when Abernathy was brought in to testify, they all heard everything about every indignity, every bit of psychological suffering and drugs he had inflicted on Jarrod while he had him. Abernathy had cut a deal that kept his prison time to a minimum, and in return he testified honestly and fervently for the prosecution. Jarrod caught a juror looking his way now and then, looking toward his family too, and he wished they hadn't stayed, but even Nick kept his expression plain, undisturbed, when Jarrod knew he wanted to run up and throttle Abernathy.

But Nick stayed quiet, and Abernathy drew an ugly portrait of the week of hell he put Jarrod Barkley through. "I'm glad I don't remember it," Jarrod said very quietly to his mother.

Victoria squeezed his hand.

The trial went on for several days. The hack driver and Dr. Minch both testified. The defense had witnesses, too, to try to exonerate Pennimore, but Pennimore did not take the stand. The Barkleys came for every bit of it, and when it came time for the State's rebuttal case, the D.A. called Abernathy again to clean up some questions about how he identified the intermediary who hired him as Pennimore's man. And then he called Jarrod again.

The defense had tried to paint a picture of Jarrod as a political enemy of Pennimore's who had been lying about his ambitions, libeling Pennimore with his bribery accusations. It was a feeble effort that seemed to bore some of the jurors and antagonize others. The D.A. asked Jarrod about his political ambitions, and he honestly testified he had none. Then he asked, "Mr. Barkley, were you prepared and fully willing to testify in the case against the defendant that you were prevented from testifying in?"

The defense objected to the question, but the judge let it stand. Jarrod said, "Completely." And then he snuck in, "If that case were retried tomorrow, I'd be testifying in it."

The defense objected again. The judge had the last of Jarrod's statement stricken but by then it didn't matter. The damage was done.

The last motions to dismiss by the defense were denied, the jury retired while the parties went over instructions, and then the jury came back to be instructed. When they were led out to deliberate, Pennimore left the defense table under the watchful eye of courthouse guards and a man from the police assigned to keep him in sight. He had been jailed before the trial, but right now he didn't look like a man who had been in jail, and he really didn't look uncomfortable at all. Did that mean that something on the jury was fixed and Pennimore was confident he'd be acquitted? Jarrod kept that worry to himself.

While the jury deliberated, the Barkleys took the time to get a bite of food at a nearby café. Jarrod was very quiet during the meal, but they all understood why. It had been a very personal case for him, especially when Abernathy testified about the personal indignities he'd inflicted on the lawyer. Jarrod endured the sensitive facts Abernathy had testify to and all the other baloney Pennimore and the defense testified to. He knew it was necessary to hit Pennimore as hard as possible and also let him spin his nonsense out and help hang himself, but enduring it had drawn Jarrod inside, and now he was staying there. His family let him.

It took hours of deliberation, but Jarrod was actually surprised it didn't take longer. The jury came back before the day was out. Pennimore was found guilty on every charge.

Every bit of tension flew out of Jarrod like birds out of a belfry when the bells rang. He watched Pennimore being taken into custody, despite the defense motion that he be allowed to remain free while the case was appealed. The judge cited a flight risk, and Pennimore was taken off to jail. Jarrod's heart sang.

It was a little tough getting through the reporters to a hack to take them home, but Nick and Heath cleared the way. Only two hacks followed them to Jarrod's home, and the family got inside without answering any questions shouted at them. Steven was there and the house smelled of a lovely beef burgundy for dinner. The Barkley men shed their coats and ties and the family relaxed with drinks. Heath checked out the window and announced, "It looks like the press is gone," at one point, but beyond that, they did not talk about the trial or anything to do with it.

They talked about cattle and mines and various people in Stockton. They talked about Audra's plans to raise money for new bedding for the orphanage. They talked about Audra's latest beau and the new family in town with the lovely daughter just a bit younger than Heath. They talked about anything other than what they had just been through.

Until much later, after dinner and brandy, after Victoria and Audra went upstairs to retire for the night. Jarrod poured a bit more brandy for his brothers and they all lit up cigars. After bidding Steven a good night and sending him home to his family, they sat and drank and smoked. They talked a little more but were mostly silent, winding down. It had been a very long six weeks.

"I gotta thank you boys again," Jarrod said. "I couldn't have made it through all this without you."

"Sure, you could have," Nick said. "You're the toughest of all of us, you know."

"I doubt that," Jarrod said with a chuckle. "You restrained yourself admirably through that whole trial. Didn't jump up yelling at anybody at all."

They all laughed then, and Nick said, "Well, I guess the big city tamed me a bit."

"What happens now, Jarrod?" Heath asked.

"They'll appeal, and it'll go nowhere, and Pennimore will lose his position and do time," Jarrod said.

"I meant with you," Heath said. "Seems to me you ought to take some time off, maybe go fishing or hunting or something."

"Maybe," Jarrod said, "but the truth is, I'm just anxious to get back to normal. A will here, a land transaction there. Maybe a little petty theft case. I just want to be a regular lawyer again."

"I'm glad to hear that," Nick said, "because I got a few things you can do for me. You know that winery thing we never cleared up with the county – "

Jarrod groaned, and sighed, and finished his brandy, and said, "Maybe fishing does sound like a good idea."

"I'll go with you," Heath said.

The End