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her and sauntered over to her car. "I went over there and I said could I
have it back?"
Loretta said. "He gave the gun back. He went to his car and wrapped the
gun up in a cloth and gave it to me." Loretta said she had stuck it in
her purse and then put it in a closet at her apartment. That seemed to
be the end of the matter. She wasn't mad because her cousin hadn't paid
her for the gun and she had it back. As far as she knew, he had just
wanted to carry it to look like a big man. He was going to college, he
wasn't in any trouble, and the whole transaction was no big deal.
Loretta Scott paused as she answered the detectives' and the
prosecutor's questions. She was still nervous, but she felt better now
that she'd started to tell the story. "Okay," Jeff Sullivan asked her,
"did Angelo [Turfy] ever come to you again asking for the gun?"
"Yes, he did," she said. "On the twenty-fourth... Christmas."
It was Christmas Eve and she and her sister were alone when he came over
and said, "Can I get that from you again, Cousin?" He didn't say the
word gun at first but she knew what he meant. She asked him what he
wanted it for, but he didn't really answer. All he would say was,
"You'll read about it in the paper." She stared at him. That didn't
sound so good. But he seemed to be in a hurry, and he was Turfyher
"Cur," her longtime friend. She gave him the. 22 again and he asked
about ammunition. "I told him I only had one bullet left in the bathroom
in the medicine cabinet. We were in there already and I just had to turn
around to get it for him." She remembered that she had put the lone
bullet in a medicine vial when she cleaned the cabinet. It was there
with a single aspirin, a bobby pin, and a penny. When Turfy left, her
sister had looked at her and shook her head.
"You shouldn't have done that, Loretta," she said flatly.
Loretta had wondered briefly why her sister hadn't objected while Turfy
was in the house. Whatever he wanted the gun for, it was too late now.
She moved about her kitchen, getting ready for a family Christmas Eve
party. All over Yakima, people were celebrating the holiday The first
time Loretta Scott had given Turfy her gun, she had had to go and ask
for it. That's probably why Loretta's sister had told her she had done a
dumb thing. Oddly, she didn't have to ask for the gun this time. Turfy
was back before she knew it.
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Loretta had been bewildered to see Turfy again at about l :30 A.M.
Christmas morning. Her Christmas Eve party was in full swing when he and
his girlfriend, Rene, showed up unexpectedly. But he hadn't come to the
party, he had come to give her the. 22. She thought that was kind of
strange his bothering to come to her house on Christmas Eve. "Did you
have any conversation with him?" Jeff Sullivan asked Loretta. "No, he
just gave it to me. I put it in a drawer."
Loretta had no idea what Turfy had wanted with the gun that he had kept
for only five hours. Not, at least, until Christmas morning.
"We had opened our Christmas gifts and we were supposed to have dinner
at my mother's house," Loretta said nervously. "When I came in the door,
my sister said, Loretta, I have something to tell you."" Loretta Scott
had thought her sister was just joking and she moved toward the buffet
to fill her plate. But her sister was adamant that she stop and listen
to her news before she ate. "Okay," Loretta said. "Before I fix my
plate. What?"
"Mr. Moore is dead."
"Aww, girl, go on." Loretta laughed.
"No," her sister said urgently. "He's dead. He was shot last night."
Suddenly, Loretta Scott had lost her appetite and any Christmas spirit.
"He was shot last night?" she whispered. "Yeah, he was shot last night
with a twenty-two."
"With a twenty-two?" Loretta repeated like an automaton. She kept
hearing Turfy say, "You'll read about it in the paper." She stayed at
her mother's house so her children could enjoy the day, but her mind had
been going ninety miles an hour. She could not believe that Turfy had
had anything to do with shooting Mr. Moore. Mr. Moore had made Turfy a
champion. Still, on Monday, she was waiting for the paper boy at five.
She took the paper in carefully but was afraid to open it. She set it
down on the kitchen table. "I let it sit there until about eight-thirty
and I started thinking. I was trying to get my mind clear." Loretta
still could not imagine that Turfy would hurt anyone, much less Mr.
Moore. She turned to her boyfriend "G," and the look on her face made
him ask, "What's wrong?"
"I've got a gun," she answered. "And I've got a feeling something is
wrong." Loretta picked up the paper and started reading about Gabby
Moore s murder. "When I got to the twenty-two caliber part, I panicked."
The paper said the bullet had been a. 22
caliber long bullet, and that was the same kind of bullet she had given
to Turfy. She asked "G" if she could borrow his car, a brand new
Oldsmobile. He handed her the keys. Whatever was going on, he didn't
particularly care to know the details. "I went to my mother's house,"
Loretta told the investigators who were listening to her recollections
avidly. "I had forgotten that she had left and went to Seattle, and
there was no one there but my brother, Charles. He was having a little
party. I called him into the bedroom, and I said Chucky, I did something
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