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And so it went In that steamy courtroom, ripe with the sood people of the Eudora Quarters took the stand and swore to tell the truth and nothing but the truth And they did And then Maxwell Lewis ripped them apart

One by one, Loophole Lewis plowed his way through our witness list Whether defiant or docile when they took the stand, every one of those witnesses eventually stepped down looking foolish, stupid, or wrong

It happened every single time

At last Jonah stood up

“If it please the court, the people call Miss Moody Cross to the stand”

Chapter 113

MY GOD She was dressed like a grown-up

I had never seen her wearing anything but one of the three identical white juh the laundry basket so that she always appeared to be wearing the sarooman: a formal blue skirt, a neat white blou

se On her feet were lace-up boots polished to a high shine She hite gloves and a straw hat

Last night we had gone over and over the questions ould ask “Just tell the truth,” Jonah kept saying, “and everything will be fine”

“What are you talking about?” she scoffed “In that courtroom the truth ain’t worth a bucket of piss”

“Char,” I said “Try not to say that”

Jonah said, “The truth is the only weapon we have, Moody So we have to use it”

“Maybe so,” she said

I should have listened more carefully to that phrase of hers