the policeman told Pap. Pap threw up his hands to protect himself. “No more reporters. I’m not talking to no more reporters.” His old head wagged tiredly from side to side, begging for mercy. “Me either,” said Vern who was sitting beside him. “This is not a reporter. It’s a lawyer.” Pap’s head snapped up. “Lawyer?” “The best the town’s got—Henry Ward Bowman.” “What’s he want with me?” “He says he wants to defend you.” “For how much?” Pap asked suspiciously. “For free.” Now Pap was even more suspicious. “Why?” “You want my opinion?” Pap nodded reluctantly. He hated to ask a policeman for anything. “Mr. Bowman’s getting ready to make a run for the state senate, and I imagine he thinks it wouldn’t do him any harm to get you off and get himself some publicity doing it. You may not know this, but we’ve had more calls about you and the boy than about anything else that’s ever happened in the police department, even the Safeway robbery last year.
