Episode 19: Where the Sun Never Shines

Blurb
When the shadows of gods and monsters fall across Baker's Gap, we look across the mountain for help. We look to Family.

Content Warnings

 * Descriptions of injuries resulting from domestic violence
 * Discussion of emotional abuse and divorce

Plot Synopsis
Marcie Walker opens the paper one morning to see Cora Lee Tilley’s picture with a headline regarding her questioning in her husband’s murder. Having met Cora Lee once, when she was brought to the Walker House for her own safety, she knows beyond a doubt there is no way the woman is responsible for Frank’s death. She calls the sheriff to check on Cora Lee and discovers she isn’t under arrest and hasn’t been offered an attorney. She tells him to expect Cora Lee’s legal representation soon.

Melvin Blevins drives to Boone, North Carolina for the day to fetch the attorney, DL. While the lawyer is a frequent representative of women passing through the Walker House, Marcie is nonetheless apprehensive about the approaching meeting and about the history between them. She has lunch ready when Melvin and DL arrive.

Douglas Lillian Walker, one of the three youngest of Shiela Walker and sister to Marcie, enters the kitchen. DL had no interest in parlor houses, and instead became an attorney licensed to practice in multiple states. Her relationship with Marcie is strained, but she came all the same.

DL has read the newspaper article about Cora Lee and Frank, and asks Marcie why she’s been summoned. Marcie describes the situation.

Cora Lee, formerly Cora Lee Trent, was born to a poor farming family in Virginia. She met Frank there, because he bought grain from her father to sell to moonshiners. Knowing nothing of Frank’s reputation, her father gives them permission to marry; 18 year-old Cora Lee accepts the proposal primarily to relieve her parents of the burden of housing her. Seven years ago, he brought her with him back to Baker’s Gap.

As soon as they arrived in Tennessee, Cora Lee began to live in fear. She could rarely leave the house and Frank regularly physically assaulted her. She received no help until the previous year, when she didn’t come to church one week and Bonnie Ward came to check on her. She found Cora Lee barely able to get out of bed, and drove her to the Walker House.

At the House, Marcie and Ellie tended to her and heard Cora Lee’s story, similar to that of many women they had helped over the years. Cora Lee, eventually, returns to Frank, afraid the Walkers can’t protect her.

DL is skeptical that Cora Lee is not the murderer, and when Marcie tries to explain the situation, says she wants nothing to do with “haints and boogers and other mystical nonsense.” Marcie presses, and DL relents. Marcie tells her it is the seventh year of The Cycle, and that The Ritual has failed. She asks DL to keep that in mind as she helps Cora Lee.

DL goes to the sheriff’s office that afternoon to see Cora Lee. She catches the sheriff off guard by being beautiful, a weapon she has learned to use to her advantage. Sheriff Hodge tries to get her to go home, but DL questions him rigorously regarding her client’s treatment. Sherri, the sheriff’s wife and receptionist, interrupts and tells him to stop being obstinate. He shows DL to Cora Lee, who is being held in a small storage room. She agrees to speak to DL, and the sheriff locks them in the room.

DL offers to represent Cora Lee, who tells her she wouldn’t believe her story if she told her. DL uses her own Gift to help persuade the woman to tell her the truth, and Cora Lee agrees.