Mr. Bates guided her through an explanation of how she had known Frank from the third grade on. She made it clear—and Mr. Bates underscored the fact—that the two of them had never been romantically involved.

“And you never went out with him on a date? You never had a romance with him?”

“He didn’t have any money for dates. He never went out with anyone. He was too busy looking after his sister. She was retarded.”

Several of the jury sat up and leaned forward.

“Now tell us about the evening you visited the Mattison house.”

“It wasn’t visiting; no one saw me. It was in the winter, around Christmas time. A couple of days before, I asked him to go to a school dance, the kind where the girls are supposed to ask the boys. I asked him in front of his friends and it embarrassed him. He didn’t have any money to go to a dance. I wanted to tell him I was sorry, but in school there were always too many people around. I knew him and his sister slept in this shack behind their house and I was going home after a baby-sitting job and their place was on the way so I figured I could talk to him alone. I took the shortcut through a field so I wouldn’t have to go past the house. Well, I got nervous thinking he might get mad at me for coming around at night. I stood behind the shack awhile, trying to make up my mind. Then someone opened the back door of the house and I heard voices coming. I was scared if I ran they’d see me, so I stayed where I was. I heard them pound on the door and Regina started crying inside.”

“And who was it pounding on the door?”

“I couldn’t see but I could hear them. Two young men and a woman. They broke the door open and—”

“They broke it open? Something was blocking it?”

“I heard something crack and then something heavy fell on the floor. They got the door open and there was this kind of fight inside. Somebody got knocked against the wall.”

“Were you able to look through a window?”

“There wasn’t no windows.”

“This shack that Mr. Mattison and his sister slept in had no windows at all?”

“That’s right.”

“I see. Go on, please.”

“I looked for a window. I come around to the one side, and then around the back to the other side, and there wasn’t a window. I was standing just around the corner from the front when Regina and the woman come out of the shack. Regina kept saying she didn’t want to go in the house, but the woman said it’s all right, he loves you.”

“Who was the woman?”

“Vivian Mattison.”

“When she said ‘he loves you,’ did she say who the man was?”