>===== Original Message From CS Bartholomew <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>
=====
>Perhaps David's speech is just over the body of the man
>and addressed to someone else?
That's how I would take it. I don't think we need to think too hard to come
up
with examples where this sort of thing is done for dramatic effect. Even if
no
one else in the story hears it, David and the reader do. Personally, I feel
better about this sort of reading than trying to monkey with the regular flow
of the verb forms.