I slept away most of Monday morning. It had been a long couple of days for me. I hardly slept at all Saturday night and Sunday night my mind just wouldn't shut down. I had a really bad feeling that something was going to happen. However, the Monday morning sunny weather, and mild temperature made me feel much better. I went to William sport to collect the papers for me to serve. I got Susan's without a hitch, but when I got to the Seymore office, it was a different story.

"You need to see Mary," the receptionist informed me. I knew Mary liked to make a bit of a production of handing me the papers, so I wasn't surprised at all.

I nodded and a minute later Mary came from her office. "John, come in we need to talk a minute."

When I was seated she went on, "John we got notice this morning that you are being called before a grand jury. The state is not going to let go. It seems they want to investigate all the circumstances related to Charlie's death. They are adding Robbie's treatment by the Carthage police department to their inquiry."

"Well do I get to serve myself and charge them for it?" I smiled.

"John this could be serious. Did you know what Charlie was up to?"

"As far as I knew then, and as far as I know now, Charlie was clean. He did no more than any other cop has done. A friend asks a favor and if it isn't illegal we did it. That's all Charlie did as far as I know."

"And that's how you plan to testify?"

"It is."

"Then they will paint your whole department as corrupt."

"I hope not because it is the truth. If that makes us corrupt, every cop in the world is corrupt."

"How about Robbie's finger. He is going to claim you did it."

"He can claim anything he want's. I'm going to tell the truth there. I did go to see him when he got out of jail. I wanted to ask about Charlie. He rode with me while I tried to talk to him about Charlie. I drove over to that overlook by the lake. You know the one right off the highway.

Robbie tried to jump me and we struggled. When he finally stopped fighting, he was bleeding like a stuck pig. I got a towel from the trunk of my car, wrapped his hand in it and carried him to the ER. On the way I asked him about the knife. I guess he was in such pain he couldn't figure out how to lie. I never did get to ask him why he did it."

"If you tell that story, you are going to prison."

"It's the truth, but if you think it best, I'll plead the fifth. I don't give a crap if they think I did it' I would prefer not to go to prison."

"How about I try to work out an immunity deal."

"You can, if you want, but I have nothing to give them."

"Yes, but they don't know that. If they think you will roll up everyone in Carthage they might well give you immunity on Robbie. They don't care about Robbie or Charlie, they think there is systemic corruption in Carthage. That's the publicity they want."

"What about Robbie. Does he still go down for Charlie, or will they throw out the knife."

"They will probably throw it out."

"Then I can't swap it out. I promised his wife he was going down for it. Do what you can, but I won't give Robbie away."

That's how, three days later, I came to tell the story to the grand jury. When I told it, I thought one of the women was going to cry.

"So if things happened as you said, why did you tell the police that you had no idea what happened to Robbie?" the state's attorney asked.

"Because I was Charlie's partner and friend for years, I knew how it would look. I really don't want to wind up in prison with the men I put there."

"Yes and that's exactly how it looks. You tortured a confession from the suspect."

"I knew that was how it would look to others, but it just isn't true. Robbie is an accomplished liar and a thug, I knew he would come up with some fancy story right off some TV show he had seen. I didn't really lie, I don't know exactly how it happened, but I know all I did was defend myself from a vicious killer."

Now most of the time a prosecutor can get the grand jury to indict a ham sandwich, but he get them to indict me. I was worried for a while but he just couldn't make it go. He didn't have anything but the word of a felon and murderer. He was an unarmed man in a gunfight. so he didn't even try to go the preliminary hearing route. If he had arrested me after the grand jury's findings, he knew he was facing a huge false arrest and harassment trial, one he would most likely lose. That would be a career killer.