The murderer was already taunting me with visions, not only of my own death but of the deaths of others. I fantasized their bodies constantly: one of the Guys from the Brown House, anonymous, in the Long Orchard; my mother, who lived in a trailer off the grid with her abusive boyfriend; my father, a devout Christian.

In the woodshed off the garage, where, after abaloneing, he hung his wetsuit, itself the shape and size of his body. Splinters of kindling beneath his dangling feet.

He was left there for me to find.

They had coasted the pickup down the driveway, popping the clutch at the bottom of the hill, crossed the highway and climbed out. The pickup rolled empty to a stop against the embankment of the irrigation pond. To trick me into believing I was home alone, while his body rocked heavily against the windowless frame, facing out over the pasture. To trick me into finding him as I looked for the cat, who had heard, when I had not, the struggle. They’d wrestled him off the porch as he sat down to lace up his work boots, stiff with dried mud.

The corpse was nearly barefoot. It wore browned athletic socks.


I forced myself to look, knowing what I would find. Instead, on the ground, only the splinters, on the hook, only the wetsuit.

My breath eased out. My heart and my hands still shook. The immediate danger was over, but I felt disappointed.

Laura’s cat scrunched through a gap in the pasture fence, leaving a patch of black and white fur on the wire.

Here, Kitty.” I leaned to the ground, rubbing my fingers together.

The sooner it happened the better.

from The Book of Revelation

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Ev"i*dence (?), n. [F. 'evidence, L. Evidentia. See Evident.]

1.

That which makes evident or manifest; that which furnishes, or tends to furnish, proof; any mode of proof; the ground of belief or judgement; as, the evidence of our senses; evidence of the truth or falsehood of a statement.

Faith is . . . the evidence of things not seen. Heb. xi. 1.

O glorious trial of exceeding love Illustrious evidence, example high. Milton.

2.

One who bears witness.

[R.] "Infamous and perjured evidences."

Sir W. Scott.

3. Law

That which is legally submitted to competent tribunal, as a means of ascertaining the truth of any alleged matter of fact under investigation before it; means of making proof; -- the latter, strictly speaking, not being synonymous with evidence, but rather the effect of it.

Greenleaf.

Circumstantial evidence, Conclusive evidence, etc. See under Circumstantial, Conclusive, etc. -- [Crown's, King's, ∨ Queen's evidence, evidence for the crown. [Eng.] -- State's evidence, evidence for the government or the people. [U. S. ] -- To turn King's, Queen's ∨ State's evidence, to confess a crime and give evidence against one's accomplices.

Syn. -- Testimony; proof. See Testimony.

 

© Webster 1913.


Ev"i*dence, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Evidenced (?); p, pr. & vb. n. Evidencing (?).]

To render evident or clear; to prove; to evince; as, to evidence a fact, or the guilt of an offender.

Milton.

 

© Webster 1913.

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