Tough as They Come
By J. M. Davis
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About this ebook
Bart Bengo goes up against a corrupt chief of police, who is good at covering his tracks. Are the judge and prosecutor corrupt too or just incompetent. The evidence against Bart appears to be compelling, but it was planted. Bart's defense attorney, a former drunk, is in over his head. Time is running out.
Bart came to the small Texas town to save a woman from her abusive husband, but now he has to save himself. Who would ever guess he is about to get a little help from a woman who was supposed to have been dead. But a little help only goes so far, after Bart is accused of another murder. The rest is up to him.
A short story, approximately 8000 words.
Excerpts included after end of story.
J. M. Davis
Jim Davis is the author of Portrait of Conspiracy, Tough As They Come, A Woman To Die For, Murder and Mayham, The Ghost of Leonard Korn, The Durley Incident, No Tears For Jack, Prom Friday, The Storekeeper, and The Last Violin.Over a period of two decades, he traveled to twenty foreign countries and made the first cellular telephone call in the country of Russia. In 1988, he thought he'd found Elvis alive on the Island of Tortola. Awakened from a dream, he learned an Elvis Impersonator had begun singing in the bar located directly beneath his second floor room.Jim lives with his wife in the Boston Mountains. He writes mystery/suspense novels, novellas, and short stories.
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Tough as They Come - J. M. Davis
TOUGH AS THEY COME
J. M. Davis
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2013 by J. M. Davis
Cover Design by Fury Cover Designs
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Dedication
To my wife and children
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOUGH AS THEY COME
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PORTRAIT OF CONSPIRACY ( Excerpt included )
TOUGH AS THEY COME
I’d met Police Chief Darrel Benson’s wife in a café just on the outskirts of town three days prior to her death. We had coffee and talked for a couple of hours. I gave her my card and went on my way. Two days later, she called. I drove through the night to go back for her.
The courtroom had a small town appearance. Intricate architectural moldings and baseboards bordered the ceiling and walls, the kind rarely seen in modern buildings. My criminal defense at the murder trial amounted to my story against that of Chief Benson’s. The jury listened as Benson told them how he had found me leaning over his wife’s body, my shirt and hands covered in her blood. He went on to testify he found a knife, later confirmed to be the murder weapon, under the driver’s seat of my Ford truck. It had been wiped clean of fingerprints.
After the State of Texas rested its case, against me, Edward P. Hamilton, my criminal defense attorney planned to call only one witness for the defense.
"Your Honor, the defense calls Bart Bengo to the stand.
I took the witness stand with hopes of being able to give my version of the story.
Mr. Bengo, would you please tell the jury what happened on the day of the victim’s death?
After raising the microphone a few inches, I turned toward the jury.
Mrs. Benson was fine when we loaded a few of her personal belongings into the back of my pickup truck. I opened the passenger door for her, but she told me she wanted to leave a message for her husband. She suggested I move the truck out of the driveway and return for her in fifteen minutes. I left to go gas up the vehicle at a station four blocks away.
Before continuing, I scanned the faces of all twelve jurors and the two alternates. It appeared I had their full attention. If they didn’t accept my version of what happened that day, I would become a long term resident of the State of Texas.
On the way back to her house, I still had a few minutes, so I stopped at a Burger King to purchase a couple of sandwiches. Upon my return to the Benson’s home, there was no answer to my knock at the front door. I walked around to the rear of her home where she had re-entered the house. The door was open. I found Mrs. Benson lying on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood. Before I called nine one one, I knelt down to see if she was breathing. The blood, on me, was a result of my efforts to administer CPR in hopes I could revive her. As to—
A male juror sneezed loud enough to rattle the windows.
Everyone turned their attention to him.
He removed a handkerchief from his pocket.
I’m sorry.
The juror held a hand out toward the judge apparently attempting to indicate he was okay, while he raised the handkerchief