Just Cause Read Online Free Page B

That you liked it more the old way.'
    'I won't say it.'
    'Good.'
    'Because you just said it.'
    'Doesn't count,' the young woman laughed. She rose and went to where he was standing at a counter. 'So how can I help you?'
    'Laura the librarian. Has anyone told you that you'll wreck your eyes staring at that computer screen all day?'
    'Everyone.'
    'Suppose I give you a name…'
    '… And I'll do the old computer magic'
    'Robert Earl Ferguson.'
    'What else?'
    'Death Row. Sentenced about three years ago in Escambia County.'
    'All right. Let's see… ' She sat primly at a computer and typed in the name and punched a button. Cowart could see the screen go blank, save for a single word, which flashed continuously in a corner. Searching. Then the machine seemed to hiccup and some words formed.
    'What's it say?' he asked.
    'A couple of entries. Let me check.' The librarian hit some more characters and another set of words appeared on the screen. She read off the headlines: Tormer college student convicted in girl's murder, sentenced to death penalty; Appeal rejected in rural murder case; Florida Supreme Court to hear Death Row cases. That's all. Three stories. All from the Gulf Coast edition. Nothing ran in the main run, except the last, which is probably a roundup story.'
    'Not much for a murder and death sentence,' Cowart said. 'You know, in the old days, it seemed we covered every murder trial
    'No more.'
    'Life meant more then.'
    The librarian shrugged. 'Violent death used to be more sensational than it is now, and you're much too young to be talking about the old days. You probably mean the seventies…' She smiled and Cowart laughed with her. 'Anyway, death sentences are getting to be old hat in Florida these days. We've got…' She hesitated, pushing her head back and examining the ceiling for an instant.'… More than two hundred men on Death Row now. The governor signs a couple of death warrants every month. Doesn't mean they get it, but…' She looked at him and smiled. 'But Matt, you know all that. You wrote those editorials last year. About being a civilized nation. Right?' She nodded her head toward him.
    'Right. I remember the main thrust was: We shouldn't sanction state murder. Three editorials, a total of maybe ninety column inches. In reply, we ran more than fifty letters that were, how shall I put it? Contrary to my position. We ran fifty, but we got maybe five quadrillion. The nicest ones merely suggested that I ought to be beheaded in a public square. The nasty ones were more inventive.'
    The librarian smiled. 'Popularity is not our job, right? Would you like me to print these for you?'
    'Please. But I'd rather be loved…'
    She grinned at him and then turned to her computer. She played her fingers across the keyboard again and a high-speed printer in the corner of the room began whirring and shaking as it printed the news stories. 'There you go. On to something?'
    'Maybe,' Cowart replied. He took the sheaf of paper out of the computer. 'Man says he didn't do it.'
    The young woman laughed. 'Now that would be interesting. And unique.' She turned back to the computer screen and Cowart headed back to his office.
    The events that had landed Robert Earl Ferguson on Death Row began to take on form and shape as Cowart read through the news stories. The library's offering had been minimal, but enough to create a portrait in his imagination. He learned that the victim in the case was an eleven-year-old girl, and that her body had been discovered concealed in scrub brush at the edge of a swamp.
    It was easy for him to envision the murky green and brown foliage concealing the body. It would have had a sucking, oozing quality of sickness, an appropriate place to find death.
    He read on. The victim was the child of a local city-council member, and she had last been seen walking home from school. Cowart saw a wide, single-story cinder-block building standing alone in a rural, dusty field. It would be painted a faded pink or