“She was a good woman and a good friend. We all know you’re still angry Dupree got the girl you wanted, and that Matt won’t bring his movie premieres to the Midnight. Which, by the way, you’ve still not shownFlight Deck.”
What happened next will forever be one big blur. Dale’s face flamed red, and he lunged at Tuesday, his hands like claws. Harry moved forward, stumbled and tripped, causing Tuesday to fall backward. “Dupree!” The last thing she saw before hitting the carpet was Matt’s fist connecting with Dale’s chin.
31
MATT
Milo charged a buck a person to let tourists walk through the jail and take pictures oftheMatt Knight behind bars, reclining on a narrow cot, hands locked behind his head, legs stretched out, crossed at the ankles.
Imagine, in all that kerfuffle, he was the only one arrested. Harry’s testimony was he moved to calm down Dale, tripped on the Starlight’s old carpet and into Granny.
Dale insisted he had no intention of harming Granny. His I’m-appalled-at-this-accusation expression was worthy of the big screen.
However, Matt’s testimony that he never intended to hit Dale was refuted by so-called eyewitnesses and he was arrested.
Word spread through the night to the morning Rollo on the Radio show that Matt Knight was behind bars. When folks began to visit the Sea Blue Beach jail, Milo started charging. If Matt retained any ego while sitting behind bars, Milo’s scheme put him in check.
“This is fantastic. Matt Knight. I had no idea when I bookedour vacation here we’d see a movie star.” A woman with a camera in hand waited as her husband paid the admission for a family of four. “Is Harlow Hayes here? Can we see her?”
“All you get is Matt Knight,” Milo said. “Thank you for your donation to the Sea Blue Beach Police Benevolence League.”
The little girl, around nine or ten, pressed her face between the cell bars. “Do you need some water?”
Matt sat up, touched by her sweet offer. “No, thank you. I just had breakfast.”
“What’d you do to get in here?”
“Do you know what it means to plead the Fifth?” He didn’t mean to put his fist between Dale, Harry, and Granny, but instinct kicked in. And maybe his loathing for Dale Cranston. Just a little.
“Yeah, my brother says it all the time when he’s in trouble.” The little girl cut Matt a side grin. “Me too.”
“Atta girl.”
“Jackie, smile for Mama.” The woman snapped a photo of her daughter talking to Matt before Milo hustled the family along.
“Any more tourists out there?” Matt stretched back out on the cot. “How much have you made? Twenty bucks? You’ll answer to God for this, you know.”
“I’m up to seventy-eight big ones. I let a few people pass through while you were sleeping.”
“Andy Griffith would never do this, you know. Never.”
“I couldn’t resist, Matt. You’re going into the judge any minute now. Look at it this way, I’m building public sympathy.” He glanced toward the door as more tourists entered. “Come on in. See Lieutenant Striker behind bars. Step this way. That’s a dollar per person. Even kids.”
Matt smiled and waved, wondering when Bodie would get him out of here. He seemed rather irritated last night when Matt called.
“Pleasestop allegedly hitting people. The state was just about todrop your case. They won’t now.”
The morning passed with one court delay after another, so heremained the main attraction in Milo’s little circus. As the day wore on, more and more folks filed through the jailhouse door.
“My sister and I called off work to drive down from Thomasville, Georgia.”
“I was just happening through and stopped for a bite at the Blue Plate.”
“Can I have your autograph?” A young woman stuck a pen and autograph book through the bars. Matt obliged.
He smiled for the cameras and signed autographs, imagining this to be one of the more interesting chapters for his autobiography. The women flirted. The girls giggled and blushed. The men shook his hand, cleared their throats, and delivered lines like, “Dug you inFlight DeckandCochise County.” Boys passed by with bored expressions and said, “Cool.”
Matt picked up bits and pieces of conversation.
