Alibi II by Teri Woods

control unit, leave it just like it is.”
    “I’m not sitting here watching no football all night, Lester. I want to watch my Lawrence Welk programming.”
    “Woman, has you lost your mind? I’m not fittin’ to sit up in here looking at that old wrinkly white man on my brand-new thirty-two-inch Magnavox television set when my football game is on. The Cowboys is playing tonight,” he said, laughing at her, knowing he was getting his way. “Listen, if you’re lucky, you might get a commercial break, maybe a little five minutes or something extra, but I’m watching my game,” said Lester, laughing at his wife as he walked out the door.
    “Whatever, weasel,” she mumbled to herself.
    “Hey!” he shouted, “I heard that,” he said.
    She went over to Lester’s chair and sat down in it. He had the best seat in the house. She grabbed the remote, changing the channel until she found the station she was looking for. She even turned up the volume a bit and sat back and relaxed, watching her programming. Poor Lester, had it not been for Lawrence Welk, Euretha might have heard the intruder and the attack on Lester downstairs in Daisy Mae’s apartment. But she didn’t.
    She had watched as Daisy got down off the stand. Yeah, honey, you got yourself in a whole world of trouble, Missy. I guess I won’t be seeing you no more. I might as well go ahead and get that apartment unit of yours ready to rent again.
    Truth was Euretha didn’t have to do much of anything. She had a two-hundred-thousand-dollar life insurance policy that had been in effect at the time of the brutal beating that led to Lester’s death, which the police had ruled a homicide. And in a couple of weeks, when underwriting was done with their paper-pushing process, ol’ Euretha would be sitting pretty on a fancy island, sipping one of those fruity-looking piña coladas and doing the limbo. Don’t forget about the rent. Oh, yeah, and the rent, hope everybody had it on time ’cause there’d be no more bargaining. It was a new day, a new way, and you had to pay. That’s right, honey, make sure they know it’s a new sheriff in this town and her name is Euretha Giles.
    Bobby DeSimone pushed open the double wooden doors that led into the courtroom. He had worked on the Somerset murder case all night long, gone through at least three pots of coffee. And now, he was ready. He had the perfect defense lined up. After yesterday, and the damaging testimony of Daisy Mae Fothergill, he had to make a comeback. This was it.
    “Are we ready, Mr. DeSimone?” the judge bellowed from the stand.
    “Yes, Your Honor, yes, we are,” said DeSimone, standing straight and tall. “I’d like to call Bernard Guess to the stand, Your Honor,” said DeSimone, the entire courtroom buzzing with excitement. He felt it was the only way to save the kid’s life. He had no choice but to put him on the stand. With only half an hour of prep time, he had told Nard that the only way to get out of this trap he was caught in was to tell the truth. And at the end of the day, the truth could easily set him free.
    After Bernard was finished telling the story of how the two would-be gunmen came from down the hall holding his friend, Ponando “Poncho” Fernandez, in a choke hold with a gun to his head demanding drugs and money, he knew that if he didn’t do something, he would have been murdered, too. By the time  DeSimone  had finished with Bernard Guess, he was merely a man who was protecting himself from would-be robbers, a man who was lucky to have escaped with his life. And the bottom line was, because they came through that back window with fully loaded weapons, Bernard Guess had every right to protect himself. It was a classic case of self-defense. Was it wrong to get the girl Daisy Mae Fothergill involved? Of course it was. DeSimone made sure that he and the jury knew that, because if that was all that the district attorney had, that simply wasn’t going to be enough. When