Wyoming Tough - Diana Palmer [40]
“What about water?” she asked gently. “It’s dangerous to drink water from springs….”
He pulled a packet of tablets out of his vest pocket and showed her. “It makes any water potable,” he said. “I was in the military. Tank and I served together in Iraq. That seems like a hundred years ago.” He grimaced. “He testified for me.
It was a real brave thing to do, when everybody thought I was guilty. The local boy’s family is known and loved, and that made it a lot harder for me to get an unbiased jury. In fact—” he sighed “—one of the jurors was actually an illegitimate blood relation. My attorney didn’t catch that on voir dire, either.”
She caught her breath. “That’s a disqualification. Grounds for a retrial.”
“You think so?” he asked, curious.
“I do. You should speak to your attorney.”
He laughed shortly. “She’s not my attorney anymore. I read in a discarded newspaper that she said she couldn’t represent someone who proved himself guilty by running away. So now I’ve got no defense and nobody to advise me.”
She moved a step closer. “I’m advising you. Turn yourself in before it’s too late.”
He shook his head. “Can’t do that. I can’t survive locked up in a cage. I’ve had months of it. I’d rather die than go back, and that’s the truth.”
She could sympathize. She didn’t like closed places, either. “It will go harder on you that you didn’t wait for an appeal.”
“I don’t care,” he said heavily. “My wife is dead…the life I had is all gone. I’ve got no reason to go on anyway. If they shoot me down in the woods, well, it won’t be so bad. God forgives people. Even bad people. I don’t think He’ll send me to purgatory.”
“You can’t give up,” she said, driven to comfort him. “God puts us here for a reason. We may never know why. It may be to inspire one person, or give another a reason to keep them from suicide, or be in the right place to give aid to save someone’s life who may one day save the world. Who knows? But I believe we have a purpose. All of us.”
“And what do you think mine is?” he asked with amusement. She was so fervent in her beliefs.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “But you have a part to play. I’m sure of that. Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”
“There was this movie Galaxy Quest with Tim Allen and Alan Rickman, kind of a Star Trek spoof,” he recalled. “Their running line was ‘Never give up, never surrender!’”
“I saw that one. It was terrific,” she replied, smiling.
He shrugged. “I guess it wasn’t such a bad credo, at that.” He shouldered the gun. “Don’t tell anybody I was here,” he said.
She bit her lower lip. It sounded like a threat.
He gave her a long-suffering look. “You might get in trouble for giving me food and water,” he added.
She relaxed. “Oh. Thanks.”
“I’m a wanted man,” he replied quietly. “I’m not giving up, no matter what. They’ll have to take me down. Prison is a horrible place for an outdoors-man.” He looked around at the towering trees and the blue, blue sky. “This is my cathedral,” he said solemnly. “There’s no place closer to God than the forest.” He drew in the scent of it with closed eyes. “I should never have let her talk me into going to her apartment,” he said. “She was screaming. She said her boyfriend was banging on the door threatening to kill her and I was the only person she knew that she could trust to deal with him. I must have been out of my mind,” he added remorsefully. “She was fending him off when I got there, but he muttered something about her attacking him first. She set us both up. I don’t think she meant for him to die, or me to go to prison… It was just a misguided plea for attention. But she caused it. Now she’s the injured party and I’m being sued for wrongful death by his family.” He gave her a long look.
She winced. “I’m sorry.”
“Hell, so am I,” he said heavily. “Don’t know what I ever did to deserve this.”
“It’s a trial,” she replied. “All of us have them. It’s part of the process of life. You’ll get through it,” she added firmly.
“Think so? If I were a gambler, I’d take that bet and get rich on it.” He looked at her clothing and laughed.