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This was every lawyer’s nightue witness, off on her own

My father banged his gavel several times “Order!” The buzz subsided “Mr Lewis?”

Lewis turned back to the witness stand “Now, Miss Cross,” he said, “every previous witness, including your grandfather, claimed that they never were presented with a search warrant that night”

“I know that, sir,” she said “Papaw’s getting pretty old now; he doesn’t always notice everything And when those men came with the warrant, there wasn’t anybody out in front of the house except me I was the only one”

I’ht Maxwell Lewis looked as confident as ever, but I saw signs that he was flustered He was forgetting to slouch casually against the railing of the jury box He was standing at attention and speaking a little too quickly His countrified Clarence Darrow lilt had all but vanished Moody had rattled him

“This is, to say the least, a most unusual bit of testimony, Miss Cross”

“Why is that, sir? You-all said they came there with a search warrant You said they showed it to us All I’ is… well, that’s exactly what happened”

She was lying I knew it for sure I ith Abrahaht, and I knew nobody came to the door with any warrant All had been quiet, there was a clatter of horses, then the Raiders started shooting at anything that moved

Maxwell Lewis put on an uncoht, they showed you the warrant,” he said “And then what happened next?”

Suddenly I knehere Moody was going with this, why she was lying What she was hoping to demonstrate with her lie

Daht of it?

But of course, if I had thought of it—if I’d even asked her to do such a thing—I could have been disbarred

As it was, she was on her own

“Well, sir,” she said to Lewis, “I was looking over the warrant, you know, and I said, ‘I still don’t think y’all have the right to do this But if that’s what the paper says, I reckon we’ve got no choice but to let you come on in’ ”

“You said that?” Lewis turned to the jury, hoping they would share his skepticism