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execution’s doorstep
likely. The dog had been there for some time and was already in a high state of decomposition. Appalled and distraught, Cathy phoned Randal, and he came over to the house and removed the fetid, rotting carcass.32 When Cathy ran out of gas a few weeks later, she again phoned Randal for help. Randal saw his children every day, picking them up when their mother left for work, most days taking them next door to his aunt’s home, so she could look after them while he tended to chores in his chicken houses. In many ways, the Padgetts had a model separation, just as theirs had been a model marriage in the early years. Even people who knew about Randal’s a=air found it hard to imagine Cathy and Randal divorced.33 Judy Bagwell, though, was already making plans for her life with Randal Padgett. ‘Come here, come here, and let me show you what I got,’ Judy beamed excitedly, one day in early August, when Randal stopped by to see her. She ushered him into the spare bedroom, now furnished with bunk beds identical to those in Micah’s room at Cathy’s house. Randal had never taken the children to Judy’s house. He never saw her when he was with them. Since he and Judy first became involved, the children had been in her presence only once, when they were with their father in downtown Arab and happened upon Judy entirely by chance. Randal frequently spent the night at Judy’s, so it struck him as somewhat odd when Judy suggested he ask Cathy if Heather and Micah could stay with him on the Thursday night before they left for Florida for a weekend outing. That would mean he would not be spending the night with her. And, in fact, Randal had already arraigned to take the children to a movie Thursday afternoon and for them to sleep over Thursday night. He would be gone from Friday through Monday, and he knew they would wonder when they did not see him for three days. Spending extra time with them beforehand made him feel a little less guilty. Perhaps when he got back, he would make up a little white lie about being busy with the chickens.
“I Can’t Believe You’re Arresting Me. You’re All Messin’ Up” Judy had made the lodging arrangements for the Florida trip, an excursion prompted by Judy’s recently acquired passion for scuba diving lessons. The drive from Arab, Alabama, to Destin, Florida, took nearly eight hours. Randal and Judy arrived in Destin late Friday night, and checked into the Harbor View Motel. Shortly after eleven, a motel employee knocked on the door, with a message for Judy to call her sister Peggy Bin-