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"Fine All motions must be filed and pretrial nment is set for tomorrow at nine Any questions?"
Jake stood and shook hands with Noose and Musgrove, and left
After lunch he visited his famous client in Ozzie&039;s office at the jail A copy of the indictment had been served on Carl Lee in his cell He had some questions for his lawyer
"What&039;s capital murder?"
"The worst kind"
"How hter, regular murder, and capital hter?"
"Twenty years"
"What&039;s regular murder?"
"Twenty to life"
"What&039;s capital murder?"
"Gas charavated assault on an officer?"
"Life No parole"
Carl Lee studied the indictas chambers and a life sentence"
"Not yet You&039;re entitled to a trial first Which, by the way, has been set for July 22"
"That&039;s two ?"
"We need the ti to find a psychiatrist who&039;ll say you were crazy Then Buckley gets to send you to Whitfield to be examined by the State&039;s doctors, and they&039;ll all say you were not crazy at the time We file s It takes time"
"No way to have it sooner?"
"We don&039;t want it sooner"
"What if I do?" Carl Lee snapped
Jake studied hi et outta here, and fast"
"I thought you said jail wasn&039;t so bad"
"It ain&039;t, but I need to get home Gwen&039;s outta money, can&039;t find a job Lester&039;s in trouble with his wife She&039;s callin&039; all the tier I hate to ask my folk for help"
"But they will, won&039;t they?"
"Soet me outta here, Jake"
"Look, you&039;ll be arraigned in theat nine The trial is July 22, and the date won&039;t be changed, so forget about that Have I explained the arraignment to you?"
Carl Lee shook his head
"It won&039;t last twentycourtroom He&039;ll ask you some questions, then ask me some questions He&039;ll read the indictment to you in open court, and ask if you&039;ve received a copy Then he&039;ll ask you to plead guilty or not guilty When you answer not guilty, he&039;ll set the trial date You&039;ll sit down, and ht over your bond Noose will refuse to set a bond, then they&039;ll bring you back to the jail, where you&039;ll stay until the trial"
"What about after the trial?"
Jake smiled "Naw, you won&039;t be in jail after the trial"
"You promise?"
"Nope No promises Any questions about tomorrow?"
"No Say, Jake, uh, how much money did I pay you?"
Jake hesitated and smelled trouble "Why do you ask?"
"Just thinkin&039;"
"Nine hundred, plus a note"
Gwen had less than a hundred dollars Bills were due and food was low She had visited on Sunday and cried for an hour Panic was a part of her life, her makeup, her composition But he knew they were broke and she was scared Her faarden and a few bucks for s When it came to funerals and hospital stays they were very dependable They were generous and gave of their time freely to wail and moan and put on a show But when real money was
needed they scattered like chickens He had little use for her family, and his wasn&039;t much better
He wanted to ask Jake for a hundred dollars, but decided to wait until Gas completely broke It would be easier then
Jake flipped through his legal pad and waited for Carl Lee to ask for money Criminal clients, especially the blacks, always asked for some of the fee back after it was paid He doubted he would ever see more than nine hundred dollars, and he was not about to return any Besides, the blacks always took care of their own The faet involved No one would starve
He waited and placed the legal pad and file in his briefcase "Any questions, Carl Lee?"
"Yeah What can I say tomorrow?"
"What do you want to say?"
"I wanna tell that judge why I shot thehter They needed shootin&039;"
"And you want to explain that to the judge tomorrow?"
"Yeah"
"And you think he&039;ll turn you loose once you explain it all?"
Carl Lee said nothing
"Look, Carl Lee, you hired me to be your lawyer And you hired ht? And if I want you to say so tomorrow, I&039;ll tell you If I don&039;t, you stay quiet When you go to trial in July you&039;ll have the chance to tell your side But in the ot that right"
Lester and Gwen piled the boys and Tonya in the red Cadillac and drove to the doctor&039;s building next to the hospital The rape eeks in the past Tbnya walked with a slight limp and wanted to run and climb steps with her brothers But her s and buttocks was ales on her wrists and ankles had been re nicely The gauze and cotton between her legs remained
In a small room she unaressea anu sat HCAI ed her and helped her stay warm The doctor poked in her mouth and rubbed her jaw He held her wrists and ankles and inspected thes She cried and clutched her ain
At five Wednesday h the French doors across the dark courtyard square He had slept fitfully, and several hours earlier had given up and left his waria case that, as he thought he ree to allow bail in a capital murder case if the defendant had no prior criminal record, owned property in the county, had a stable job, and had plenty of relatives nearby It had not been found He did find a battery of recent, well-reasoned, clear, and unae co bail to such defendants That was the law and Jake noell, but he needed so bail for Carl Lee Buckley would scream and preach and cite those wonderful cases, and Noose would set his tail kicked in the first skir, sweetheart," Dell said to her favorite customer as she poured his coffee
"At least I&039;s since the amputation Looney was popular, and there was resentment at the Coffee Shop and around town for Hailey&039;s lawyer He are of it and tried to ignore it
There was resenter for killing thite ot aaround At five-fifteen, the cafe was not yet full She sat across from Jake in a small booth and poured coffee
"What&039;s the talk in here?" he asked
"The usual Politics, fishing, fares I&039;ve been here for twenty-one years, serving the sa about the sa new?"
"Hailey We get a lotta talk about tnat except wiicn oes back to the usual"
"Why?"
"Because if you act like you know anything about the case, some reporter will follow you outside with a bunch of questions"
"That bad, huh?"
"No It&039;s great Business has never been better"
Jake srits, then added Tabasco
"How do you feel about the case?"
Dell scratched her nose with long, red, fake fingernails and blew into her coffee She was faht answer
"He&039;s guilty He killed them It&039;s cut and dried But he had the best damned excuse I&039;ve ever seen There&039;s some sympathy for him"
"Let&039;s say you&039;re on the jury Guilty or innocent?"
She watched the front door and waved at a regular "Well, ive anyone who kills a rapist Especially a father But, on the other hand, we can&039;t allow people to grab guns and hand out their own justice Can you prove he was crazy when he did it?"
"Let&039;s assuuilty, even though I don&039;t think he was crazy"
He smeared strawberry preserves on dry toast and nodded his approval
"But what about Looney?" she asked "He&039;s a friend of mine"
"It was an accident"
"Is that good enough?"
"No No, it&039;s not The gun did not go off by accident Looney was accidentally shot, but I doubt if that&039;s a valid defense Would you convict hi Looney?",
"Maybe," she answered slowly "He lost a leg"
How could he be insane when he shot Cobb and Wil-lard, and not when he shot Looney, Jake thought, but didn&039;t ask He changed the subject
"What&039;s the gossip onwhere you were the other day, and said you don&039;t have time for us now that
you&039;re a celebrity I&039;ve heard soer, but it&039;s pretty quiet They don&039;t criticize you loudly I won&039;t let them"
"You&039;re a sweetheart"
"I&039;m a mean bitch and you know it"
"No You just try to be"
"Yeah, watch this" She jumped from the booth and shouted abuse at a table of farmers who had motioned for more coffee Jake finished alone, and returned to the office
When Ethel arrived at eight-thirty, two reporters were loitering on the sidewalk outside the locked door They followed Ethel inside and deance She refused, and asked them to leave They refused, and repeated their demand Jake heard the coht with them
From his office he watched a camera crew set up by the rear door of the courthouse He se of adrenaline He could see hi briskly, stern, businesslike, across the street followed by reporters begging for dialogue but getting no coine the trial! Cae stories, perhaps azine covers An Atlanta paper had called it the most sensational murder in the South in twenty years He would have taken the case for free, alureeted the reporters Ethel disappeared into the conference room
"Could you answer some questions?" one of them asked
"No," Jake answered politely "I have to e Noose"
"Just a couple of questions?"
"No But there will be a press conference at three PM" Jake opened the door, and the reporters followed him onto the sidewalk
"Where&039;s the press conference?"
"In my office"
"What&039;s the purpose?"
"To discuss the case"
Jake walked slowly across the street and up the short
driveway to the courthouse answering questions along me way
"Will Mr Hailey be at the press conference?"
"Yes, along with his fairl, too?"
"Yes, she will be there"
"Will Mr Hailey -answer questions?"
"Maybe I haven&039;t decided"
Jake said good day, and disappeared into the courthouse, leaving the reporters to chat and gossip about the press conference
Buckley entered the courthouse through the huge wooden front doors, amid no fanfare He had hoped for a ca at the rear door to catch a glimpse of the defendant He would use the rear door in the future
Judge Noose parked by a fire hydrant in front of the post office and loped along the east sidewalk across the courtyard square and into the courthouse He, too, attracted no attention, except for a few curious stares
Ozzie peered through the front s of the jail and watched thelot The ploy of another end run crossed his mind, but he dismissed it His office had received two dozen death threats on Carl Lee, and Ozzie took a few seriously They were specific, with dates and places But eneral, everyday death threats And this was just the arraign to Moss Junior They surrounded Carl Lee with uniformed bodies and marched him down the sidewalk, past the press and into a rented step van Six deputies and a driver piled in Escorted by Ozzie&039;s three newest patrol cars, the van drove quickly to the courthouse
Noose had scheduled a dozen arraignments for 9:00 AM, and when he settled into the chair on the bench he shifted through the files until he found Hailey&039;s He looked to the front row in the courtroo men, all newly indicted At the far end of the front roo deputies sat next to a handcuffed defendant, and Brigance hispering to him Must be Hailey
Noose picked up a red court file and adjusted his read-
ing glasses so they would not hinder his reading "State versus Carl Lee Hailey, case number 3889 Will Mr Hailey come forward?"
The handcuffs were removed, and Carl Lee followed his attorney to the bench, where they stood looking up to His Honor, who quietly and nervously scanned the indictrew silent Buckley rose and strutted slowly to within a few feet of the defendant The artists near the railing busily sketched the scene
Jake glared at Buckley, who had no reason to stand before the bench during the arraignment The DA was dressed in his finest black three-piece polyester suit Every hair on his huge head had been meticulously combed and plastered in place He had the appearance of a television evangelist
Jake walked to Buckley and whispered, "That&039;s a nice suit, Rufus"
"Thanks," he replied, solow in the dark?" Jake asked, then returned to the side of his client