little bump on the back of your head?2  Well, Mr. Eagan, I can't testify as to how big or how little it was.

Eagan took him through each of the eight pistols, sometimes asking virtually the same questions Hadley had asked on direct, and getting the same answers.

He ended this way:

Q: What was [Edward Williams] doing when you went into the store?

A: He was backing his truck up.

Q: He wasn't telling the truth when he said he put you out up here in front of the store?

A: No, sir, I did not get out in front of the store.

Q: You did lock the gate behind him, though?

A: Yes, I did.

Q: You never knew Felton Thomas?

A: I have never seen Felton Thomas before in my life.

Q: You know of no reason why he would want to tell such a story about you?

A: Not that I have any knowledge of, sir.

Zeigler was excused.  It was now nearly noon; Judge Paul recessed for lunch.

On Christmas Eve, the critical window—from the time Curtis Dunaway left Temple Grove Drive until Thompson, Ficke, and Yawn arrived at the store—was almost exactly two and a half hours.  Tommy Zeigler's explanation of his innocence, and the state's questioning of it, had required less time than the crime itself.

*

Zeigler was Hadley's last witness.  The defense rested when court came back in session that afternoon.  Eagan could now present rebuttal witnesses.

Rebuttal testimony is restricted to issues raised by the defense. Hadley believed that Eagan might call a witness to testify that Eunice Zeigler was unhappy in her marriage.  Eagan's likely justification would be that a line of Zeigler's testimony—"We were happier then than when we got married"—had introduced the question of his wife's state of mind.

Eagan had told Hadley that he intended to call Eunice's hairdresser, who had disparaged Tommy in her statements to police and who apparently was the source of a report that Eunice had resisted moving next door to Beulah and Tom Zeigler's and that Beulah had picked out all of the furniture for the young couple's home.

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2   This characterization of the injury was not in evidence.