Page 111 of Texas Splendor
Larkin rolled the match from one side of his mouth to the other. “All right,” he said reluctantly. He jerked his head to the side. “Let’s go.”
Loree took a step forward, halted, and glanced over her shoulder. Austin shook his head. “I can’t go, Loree.”
She gave him a smile filled with sympathy and understanding. “I know.”
She angled her chin proudly, squared her shoulders, and followed Larkin down the hallway and into the front office. He waited until he heard the front door close before he gave into the pain. His agonizing wail echoed between the empty cells. He pounded on the brick wall until his knuckles were scraped raw and bleeding.
Somehow, in spite of all she had endured, Loree had managed to maintain an aura of innocence and sweetness. Prison would do what Boyd McQueen had been unable to do: It would kill her spirit and rip every shred of kindness from her.
He slammed his palm flat against the wall and pain ricocheted up his arm. Even knowing the hell that waited, he’d gladly go to prison in her place.
Loree decided it wasn’t a trial, but more of a hearing. People got to hear her say how she’d killed Boyd McQueen. They got to hear Duncan demand that she hang for killing his brother. And they got to hear her lawyer ask for leniency because she’d confessed.
And now Judge Wisser was pondering her fate, although it looked to her like he’d fallen asleep, his hands crossed over his stomach, his lips pursed, his eyes closed. Only the flies in the crowded room dared to make a sound.
She was glad that Austin hadn’t come with her. She thought she could accept hearing her sentence with dignity as long as she didn’t have to see how much her going to prison would hurt him.
Judge Wisser popped his eyes open and leaned forward. “Loree Leigh, it is the decision of this court that you are indeed guilty. Do you have anything to say on your behalf before I pronounce your sentence?”
Loree’s mouth went as dry as the parched earth, and her heart was pounding so hard against her ribs that she was certain they would crack. She could do little more than shake her head.
“Very well, then. In light of the circumstances—”
“I’ve got something to say.”
Loree twisted around. Austin walked down the aisle between the bench seats, a purpose to his stride, while people craned their necks to see around each other, whispering and muttering.
“Six years ago you sent me to prison for a murder I didn’t commit.”
“An injustice I intend to set right today …”
“You can’t set it right,” Austin told him. “No matter what you do, you can’t undo what you’ve already done. I lived in hell for five years, not because of Loree, but because of Boyd McQueen. He was a mean-spirited man who hurt children for the pleasure of it. She listened to the screams of her fourteen-year-old brother while McQueen tortured him. Then she had to watch while he hanged him. McQueen shot her, her mother, and her father. He paid a man to kill my brother, slit the throats of three men on the prairie—”
“You can’t prove that!” Duncan roared.
Austin spun around. “Then who did it, Duncan? You? Cooper told Dee that her brother paid him to kill Dallas. If it wasn’t Boyd, then it had to be you because I damn sure know it wasn’t Cameron.”
Duncan paled and dropped back into his chair. “It wasn’t me.”
Austin turned back to the judge. “I know we can’t take the law into our own hands. I’m not saying Loree should have gone after Boyd, but I know the man isn’t worth all our worry. An injustice was carried out here six years ago. Don’t worsen it today by seeking justice for a man who didn’t know the meaning of the word.
“I gave up five years of my life for his murder. Let those years serve as Loree’s and if that’s not enough then send me back to prison—”
Loree jumped to her feet. “No!”
“Duncan wants somebody to hang, then hang me—”
“No!” Loree cried.
“Because by God if you take her from me now I’m gonna die anyway—and where’s the justice in that?”
Loree had never been so terrified in her whole life because it looked to her as though the judge was seriously contemplating what Austin had just said.
Judge Wisser sliced his gaze over to her. “Loree Leigh, I sentence you to life …”
Austin slammed his eyes closed, bowed his head, and clenched his fists.
“With this man.”
