Kings of the Earth: A Novel by Jon Clinch Page B

long. He had chores to do, and I could see that he was concerned about seeing to them, but he didn’t hesitate to come. I think it was kind of an adventure in his mind. I let him ride up front. I didn’t think there was any harm in granting him that little bit of dignity, although you could make a case that it gave him the wrong impression as to his circumstance. I did try to be clear about all that, though. A little ways out of town I got his attention and we went through his rights. First I went over the letter of the law and then I explained everything again just as clearly as I possibly could in very simple language. Creed Proctor doesn’t possess a great intellect. He’s a person who’s very easily confused. I did everything I could for him in that department.
    He didn’t want an attorney. He made that clear. I asked him if he was certain and I went so far as to determine that he knew exactly what an attorney could do on his behalf. The importance of it. He assured me that he knew all about that from watching the cop shows on television. The cop shows and the lawyer shows. He knew what a district attorney was and what a defense attorney was, and he knew how they’d take opposite sides. I was persuaded that he knew what he was giving up, or else I wouldn’t have let it go.
    He didn’t want a defense attorney. He said it just like that. He said he had no use for a defense attorney. I made sure he knew that he wouldn’t have to pay for it if he couldn’t, but he was adamant.

Creed
    D EL G RAHAM ASKED if I wanted us to stop at McDonald’s before we went to the station but I said no. I had my breakfast already. He said how about just a little coffee and I said no I didn’t care for none. I said I seen from the television how they always have a pot of coffee at the police station so I guessed we could do without McDonald’s.
    I told him I had to be home by lunch for chores. Audie was all by his lonesome. He said he didn’t know when we’d be finished. He couldn’t make any promises. He said we’d get some hamburgers at lunchtime if we wasn’t finished and we needed some. He was crazy about McDonald’s I guess.

Del
    F IRST WE TALKED about the farm. We talked about his parents and his brothers, and how they’d had it growing up. Those men lead an isolated life. They see the regular world on television and then in the morning they get up and go back out into a different world all their own. It must seem like a dream.
    The sister intrigues me, though. Donna. How did she cut herself loose?
    One thing you notice is that there’s been a lot of sickness out there. A lot of pain. Hardly anybody in the family has a full set of fingers. The mother died of cancer thirty years ago, and Vernon’s body showed any number of tumors that the medical examiner identified as quote unquote potentially malignant . That’s as far as they take it. There was a large one in his throat. What looked like skin cancer in a number of places too, which is what you’d expect from a man of his age doing outdoor work. Probably more of them elsewhere, but we don’t know yet. I should think that the tumor in his throat may have obstructed his breathing a little, but that would be up to the medical examiner. We’ll have to wait for his final report.
    I don’t know what killed the father.
    Vernon seems to have developed bladder problems on top of everything. According to Creed he couldn’t hold his water. The bed was always wet. Creed volunteered that information. I hadn’t questioned him along those lines, because I didn’t remember anything in the report that would have suggested it in particular. It would certainly explain the condition of the mattress, although I guess it really could have been any one of them doing it. Or all three. The lab work may tell us more, but to my mind Creed’s statement was telling.
    It got me thinking down certain lines.
    People were coming and going in the outer office and I could hear them muttering