Chapter 3
"You're a lawyer, aren't you, Mrs. Cain?"
It worked. Jarrod said the words flat out and with that look in his eye that said he understood everything he wasn't supposed to understand. He caught Linda Cain by surprise, and she actually flinched.
Then she caught it and stared right back at him. "No."
Jarrod smiled his wickedest smile and drew closer. "Yes, you are a lawyer. My first thought was that your husband was but then I thought not only did you know to plead not guilty even though you were confessing. You hadn't said those magic words to fire me, and you knew you hadn't. You do want my help. Come on, Linda, admit it and let me help you. Tell me what really happened. You didn't kill your husband. He killed himself and for some reason you're taking the blame."
She turned away from him and moved back toward the window.
Jarrod knew he had struck a good nerve.
"Mr. Barkley," she said, not looking at him. "There is nothing in this whole thing that will get me out of trouble. Not a thing. Nothing I could tell you would do it."
Jarrod came up beside her. "Then you did kill him."
"Yes," she said. "I did kill him."
Jarrod still didn't quite believe her. "Why?"
"I won't tell you," she said.
"Is that what you're going to say when I put you on the stand? That you did kill him and you'll never say why?"
She actually smiled a little as she said, "I will rely on my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution."
"So, I'm right," Jarrod said, more gently now. "You are a lawyer. Where? What state are you admitted in?"
Before she could answer, Sheriff Madden knocked at the cell block door and then entered. "Dr. Merar is here. He wants to talk to Mrs. Cain."
Linda nodded. Sheriff Madden let Dr. Merar into the cell, then left and closed the cell block door behind him.
Linda and Dr. Merar exchanged looks. Jarrod said, "Mrs. Cain has just told me that she is a lawyer."
Dr. Merar sighed. It was obvious he knew that already.
"What state are you admitted in?" Jarrod asked.
"California," Linda said.
"Then you know Clara Foltz and Laura Gordon," Jarrod concluded and mentioned the two women who had fought hardest to get women the right to practice law in California, via a law passed in 1878. Laura Gordon had lived right here in Stockton.*
Linda nodded. "I do, but I had my husband's support too. He was a lawyer too."
"Where?" Jarrod asked.
"We both practiced in Los Angeles," Linda said. "He was Adam Desmond. I'm Linda Desmond. A month ago we changed our names and came here – to do what we wanted to do in someplace where no one knew us."
Dr. Merar said, "Linda – let Jarrod defend you. He's the best lawyer in this part of the state. Let him try to help."
Linda looked at Dr. Merar. "You can tell him anything he wants to know," she said and turned back to look out the window.
Jarrod watched Linda, but Dr. Merar spoke. "Linda and her husband contacted me as soon as they got here. I came to see them, but I couldn't help them. Her husband had suffered a heart attack before they came here, but he was still in extraordinary pain. The best I could do for him was provide nitroglycerin tablets and laudanum, but his heart was failing. Certainly he could not work anymore."
Linda turned back to them and said, "And the good doctor would not provide enough laudanum to do what we came here to do, so there was only one thing left. At least to Adam's mind."
"So he shot himself?" Jarrod asked.
Linda nodded. "I handed him the gun. He was very weak but he managed to pull the trigger. I was at his side. His blood was all over me. How could I deny I had a part in it?"
"But why not tell your real part and give the reason?" Jarrod asked.
"I loved my husband with everything in me, Mr. Barkley," Linda said. "He was a religious man and he struggled heavily with his condition and his decision. I couldn't deny him relief from the horrible pain he was enduring, and I couldn't deny him the peace of believing he was doing the right thing – even if I was sure the people around us would probably look at me with more revulsion for helping him kill himself than they would if they thought I killed him. Suicide is the most mortal of sins, Mr. Barkley, no matter the reason for it."
"You're trying to protect your husband's reputation by sacrificing your own?" Jarrod said. "Is that what he would have wanted?"
"None of this involved any easy decision, Mr. Barkley. Adam was sacrificing what life he had left to spare me the pain of caring for him," Linda said. "God knows I gave up my practice and Adam knew that if he lingered much longer I could be destitute because we had no income. Adam and I talked it over for weeks before we came up here, and we prayed, and we hoped. When it was done, I – I still did what I thought was best, and I still wanted Adam to be remembered as the good and decent man he was, and not scorned for what people might think was taking the easy way out."
Jarrod thought he read more of the truth in there, and he said it out loud. "You loved your husband so much you didn't want to live without him."
Linda hesitated, but then said, "Something like that was part of it, I guess." She sighed. "When it comes right down to it, Mr. Barkley – I'm struggling very hard not to drown. Can you understand that?"
"Yes," Jarrod said. "I can."
Jarrod took a deep breath. He wasn't thinking about what he was going to do in the legal proceedings yet. He was thinking about the sacrifice Adam Cain made, and Linda Cain was making. Jarrod couldn't help but hurt for both of them, but especially for Linda.
Linda went on. "We thought we could save enough laudanum for it to do the job, but we couldn't, and Dr. Merar just couldn't in good faith give us enough to give Adam an easier death."
"I'm sorry," Dr. Merar said. "I suppose I just didn't have the courage you had."
"And you didn't think we'd resort to what we resorted to," Linda said. She looked at Jarrod. "Adam shot himself, to spare me, and to get the relief he was desperate for. If I confess all of this, he'll be remembered as the man who killed himself, not as the fine man he was."
Jarrod and Dr. Merar both saw that Linda's face was wet now. She sat down on the bunk, but she did not sob or lose her composure. She just sat there and grieved, for everything.
"Linda," Jarrod said, "this is what I think we need to do. You need to tell the truth, all of it. You may have helped your husband take his life, but you didn't take it."
Linda wiped her face. "That might keep me from hanging but it won't keep me out of prison, and it will damage Adam's memory."
"Nevertheless, you must tell the truth and let me do as much as I can to use it," Jarrod said. "If I were your husband, that's what I would want you to do, and not sacrifice yourself for my memory."
"He's right," Dr. Merar said. "I knew Adam well enough to know it's what he would want you to do, and as your doctor, I'm telling you it's what you have to do. You're on the way to ruining your own health. Part of the reason Adam did what he did was to keep that from happening."
Linda got up and went to the window again. "Are you married, Mr. Barkley?" she asked, her back turned.
A question that hurt him. "My wife was murdered two years ago," Jarrod said.
Linda turned and looked at him. She saw Dr. Merar looking down and away. Jarrod suddenly realized that this woman might be as good at reading people as he was. She sensed that Beth's murder was complicated.
Linda said, "Then you know something of what I'm going through. You know how hard it is to deal with the death of a spouse when it's not – " She choked on the words. "When it's not a good death."
Jarrod nodded quickly. "Yes, I know. When it happened to me, I honestly could not help myself, but I can help you. Please let me."
She hesitated.
Dr. Merar said, "I will help you too. You must give yourself the best chance you can – for Adam, and yourself."
Linda hung her head, and thought, and finally said, "All right, Mr. Barkley. You're not fired."
Jarrod smiled. "I'd be pleased if you'd call me Jarrod."
*for information on female lawyers in California, see
article/the-first-female-lawyer-in-california-clara-s-foltz/