Louisiana Lament

think logically? You will find, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that one of the screens was destroyed, and that that one was the one covering Clayton Patterson’s bedroom window. It did not come off easily. Whoever tried to remove it failed, then removed the others, and finally, perhaps after having been ordered to do so, ripped it apart. In fact, the same person also broke the window of Clayton Patterson’s bedroom, but not from the outside, ladies and gentlemen. Not from the outside. The fragments of glass fell, not into the room, but onto the ground outside the window. No one broke in through that window. That window was broken from the inside in an attempt to make it look as if someone came in that way.
    “Does it sound as if I am telling you Donny Troxell was set up? Was framed, as it were? Ladies and gentlemen, that is exactly what I’m telling you. Someone in that house, for whatever reason, attacked Clayton Patterson and then attempted not only to cover it up, but to fix the blame on Mr. Troxell.
    “Later, Mr. Ortenberg will show you pictures of the injured Miss Patterson—pictures indicating a horrible crime—in an attempt to turn you against Mr. Troxell, yet these pictures themselves will show that Mr. Troxell did not commit the crime. They will show that Miss Patterson’s wounds were caused by a diagonal cut to the left side of her face, a blow delivered by a person standing between Miss Patterson’s bed and the door to her bedroom, not a person standing between the window and the bed. A person who was already in the house. Could Mr. Troxell have already been in the house? Anyone could have, ladies and gentlemen; anyone could have. But if Mr. Troxell was already in the house, why then does Mr. Ortenberg argue that he broke in?
    “Finally, ladies and gentlemen, let’s talk about timing. The attack, according to Miss Patterson and her family, took place around ten-fifteen p.m. Yet the first call to the sheriff’s office came in at eleven-ten. Eleven-ten, ladies and gentlemen. At no time in that period was an ambulance or a doctor called. Fifty-five minutes between the attack and the call to the sheriff’s office, and no call to a doctor or a hospital.
    “Has any of you ever seen a scalp wound? Have you any idea how much a scalp wound bleeds? Picture your own child with a scalp wound. Imagine your horror.
    “Wouldn’t you call a doctor immediately? Or take your child to an emergency room? Certainly you would. Yet the family of one of the most prominent men in Clayton did not.
    “I submit that the occupants of that house had a reason for that, ladies and gentlemen. A reason involving a cover-up and a frame-up. It is not our business here today to accuse anyone. Exactly who attacked Clayton Patterson may never be known. Miss Patterson says she was asleep and has no idea. But it was not Donny Troxell. It was someone who did not break into that house, someone who was visiting or who lived there. I can’t tell you who it was—but it was someone that family wanted to protect.”
    Talba felt her palms sweating, the back of her neck sweating, sweat pouring off her waistband. Cover-up hardly began to describe this thing. If half the things Blue said were true, how the hell had Troxell been convicted? How, in fact, had the sheriff’s office overlooked this stuff?
    She read on. The prosecution’s first witness was the first officer on the scene, Sheriff’s Deputy Hubert J. Calhoun.
    Deputy Calhoun said that he arrived at the scene to find Clayton Patterson crying, her head wrapped in bloody towels, and that the first thing he did was call an ambulance.
    “Did you ask the Pattersons why they hadn’t called an ambulance themselves?” Blue asked on cross-examination.
    “No sir, I didn’t,” the deputy replied.
    “Did you wonder?”
    “No, sir, I didn’t.”
    “Did you ask Clayton Patterson who attacked her?”
    “Yessir, I did. She said she didn’t know.”
    “Did you think that was strange?”
    “No, sir. She said she was asleep at the time.”
    “Did you ask her who would have reason to attack her?”
    “Yessir. She said she couldn’t think of anyone.”
    “What led you to suspect Donny Troxell?”
    “We developed that information based on statements of various witnesses.”
    “What witnesses were those?”
    “Mr. and Mrs. Patterson.”
    “Did you examine the windows in her bedroom?”
    “I did.”
    “And what did you find?”
    “I found evidence of forced