Sins of Mine (Complete)

Part 25

Part 14

2005

1:00 p.m., November 3

James recognized her voice instantly, despite having heard it only once before.

"You look as surprised as I was," Billy said.

When he opened his eyes she indicated the newspaper on the bench beside him.

"I was sure it was those kids. I was positive." Her expression was unreadable ... except for her eyes. Her eyes were tired.

"Me too," said James, not sure what else to say.

The waitress sat on the bench beside him. On her t-shirt was an image of a man in a tight-fitting uniform, a comic book character with whom James was unfamiliar. On the bench they were separated by the newspaper. The front-page showed a photograph of a remorseful-looking young man in handcuffs. The article was about a man betrayed by his young fiancée. It described how he had followed her and her college roommate to a party where he hid and watched them have sex with two men. It went on to explain how the man's plea of temporary insanity would be strengthened by the fact that he had eventually turned himself in for following the two girls while they walked back to their residence and for beating them to death with an aluminum baseball bat.

The last paragraph of the article, the one after the paragraph that described the double murder as a crime of passion, explained how the two previous suspects, the men who had slept with the girls on the night that they were murdered, were coerced into signing the confession by their lawyer, who felt that a plea of guilty would save them from the death penalty.

"They said that they had everything. DNA, witnesses ... a confession." She crossed her arms in front of her chest defensively.

James nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"Those two kids ... they were at my bar ... the night they got released."

James’s hand moved towards the newspaper then stopped, settling back down on his lap. She lowered her eyes. Both of them looked with unseeing eyes towards the street.

"They were just sitting in my bar."

Without looking James knew that there were tears in her eyes.

"I wanted to hurt them ... so much."

He raised a trembling hand and placed it on her shoulder. "But you didn't," he told her.

"But ... what if ... maybe things can happen if enough people want them to … badly enough ... what if we all killed them?"

She waited for a response, looking away from the street to the man who sat behind her. When he didn't give her one her eyes eventually rested on the hand on her shoulder.