*

application, and that at one point the potential insurance on her was nearly double what Tommy carried.

Eagan rested after nine and a half days of testimony.  That afternoon, Hadley moved for a judgment of acquittal.  He argued that the state's own witnesses had suggested a hypothesis of innocence—he cited the missing .22 bullet, the bloody pants and shoes of Charlie Mays, the unexplained tooth in the photograph, and Zeigler's own emergency-room statement about a robbery.

A "moral certainty" of guilt had not been established.  Hadley said; "The quantum of evidence required by Florida case law is simply not there."

It was a pro forma argument. Judge Paul denied the motion.  On Thursday, 9:00 A.M., Hadley would begin to present his defense.

*

More than one news report had noted Tommy Zeigler's calmness and detachment as the state unfolded its evidence against him.  Hadley believed that for much of the past three weeks Zeigler simply had tuned out what was going on around him, as if it were too much to deal with.

But he would have to confront it soon.

Hadley planned to put Zeigler on the stand as the climax of his defense.  He believed that once the jury began to consider all the other contradictory evidence, the verdict would come down to a choice between Tommy Zeigler and Edward Williams.  Zeigler's silence would be a surrender.

Hadley believed that his client would stand up under Eagan's cross-examination.  Zeigler had managed to hold together under the questioning of his own lawyers, who were not bound by rules of order.

If anything, Hadley thought, Zeigler might handle himself too well.  Some emotion, some passion, would not be out of place.  The world had definite ideas about how people should act, and Zeigler was expected to act like a man who has lost almost everything.  The jury would want to see an innocent man's grief.

They would have to settle for the truth, Hadley thought.  Zeigler did not show his feelings easily, even at the best of times.  His friends knew a funny and generous and self-effacing young man; the world saw a blank wall.  Maybe it was pride, maybe an exaggerated sense of dignity.  But Hadley believed that Tommy Zeigler would never publicly display the pain of his loss, much less manufacture it.  Not even to save his own life.