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Moss Junior led Carl Lee into Ozzie&039;s office, where Jake waited with a newspaper The deputy quickly left and closed the door Carl Lee sat on the small black vinyl couch
Jake threw the newspaper at hilared at hinored the paper
"Why, Carl Lee?"
"I don&039;t have to explain, Jake"
"Yes, you do You didn&039;t have the guts to call me like a man and tell me You let me read it in the paper I demand an explanation"
"You wanted too ripin&039; over the money Here I am sittin&039; in jail and you&039;re bitchin&039; &039;bout somethin&039; I can&039;t help"
"Money You can&039;t afford to pay me How can you afford Marsharfsky?"
"I ain&039;t gotta pay him"
"What!"
"You heard uess he works for free"
"Nope Somebody else is payin&039;"
"Who!" Jake shouted
"I ain&039;t tellin&039; It ain&039;t none of your business, Jake"
"You&039;ve hired the biggest criminal lawyer in Memphis, and someone else is payin&039; his bill?"
"Yep"
The NAACP, thought Jake No, they wouldn&039;t hire Marsharfsky They&039;ve got their oyers Besides,xhe was too expensive for them Who else?
Carl Lee took the newspaper and folded it neatly He was ashamed, and felt bad, but the decision had been made He had asked Ozzie to call Jake and convey the news, but the sheriff wanted no part of it He should have called, but he was not going to apologize He studied his picture on the front page He liked the part about the vigilante business
"And you&039;re not going to tell me who?" Jake said, somewhat quieter
"Naw, Jake I ain&039;t tellin&039;"
"Did you discuss it with Lester?"
The glare returned to his eyes "Nope He ain&039;t on trial, and it ain&039;t none of his business"
"Where is he?"
"Chicago Left yesterday And don&039;t you go call him I&039;ve made up my mind, Jake"
We&039;ll see, Jake said to himself Lester would find out shortly
Jake opened the door "That&039;s it I&039;m fired Just like that"
Carl Lee stared at his picture and said nothing
Carla was eating breakfast and waiting A reporter fro for Jake, and had told her about Marsharfsky
There were no words, just motions He filled a cup with coffee and went to the back porch He sipped froes that lined the boundary of his long and narrow backyard A brilliant sun baked the rich green Ber a sticky haze that drifted upward and hung to his shirt The hedges and grass aiting on their weekly grooh the soggy turf to inspect a broken birdbath near a scrawny crepe nificance
UC11111U Him
He took her hand and smiled "You okay?" she asked
"Yeah, I&039;m fine"
"Did you talk to him?"
"Yes"
"What did he say?"
He shook his head and said nothing
"I&039;m sorry, Jake"
He nodded and stared at the birdbath
"There will be other cases," she said without confidence
"I know" He thought of Buckley, and could hear the laughter He thought of the guys at the Coffee Shop, and vowed not to return He thought of the cah his sto the case
"Would you like sory Thanks"
"Look on the bright side," she said "We won&039;t be afraid to answer the phone"
"I think I&039;ll cut the grass," he said
The Council of Ministers was a group of black preachers that had been formed to coordinate political activities in the black co the off years, but during election years it met weekly, on Sunday afternoons, to interview candidates and discuss issues, and, more importantly, to determine the benevolence of each office seeker Deals were cut, strategies developed, ed The council had proven it could deliver the black vote Gifts and offerings to black churches rose draee called a specialof the council for Sunday afternoon at his church He wrapped up his sermon early, and by 4:00 PM his flock had scattered when the Cadillacs and Lincolns began filling his parking lot The s were secret, with only ministers ere council members invited There were twenty-three black churches in Ford County, and twenty-twoto order Thewould be brief, since some of the in their evening services shortly
The purpose of the anize moral, political, and financial support of Carl Lee Hai-ley, a al defense fund al representation Another fund must be established to provide support for his fa efforts, with each ation, as usual A special offering would be taken during the ee would use his discretion in disbursing the o to the defense fund Time was important The trial was next month The money had to be raised quickly while the issue was hot, and the people were in a giving ee He continued
The NAACP must become active in the Hailey case He would not be on trial if he hite Not in Ford County He was on trial only because he was black, and this must be addressed by the NAACP The national director had been called The Memphis and Jackson chapters had promised help Press conferences would be held Demonstrations and marches would be important Maybe boycotts of white-owned businesses-that was a popular tactic at theresults
Thisand in a giving reed and left for their evening services
In part due to fatigue, and in part due to eh church Carla fixed pancakes, and they enjoyed a long breakfast with Hanna on the patio He ignored the Sunday papers after he found, on the front page of the second section of The Mee spread on Marsharfsky and his famous new client The story was coreat lawyer The Hailey case presented his biggest challenge, he said Serious legal and social issues would be addressed A novel defense would be employed, he promised He had not lost a murder case in twelve years, he boasted It would be difficult, but he had confidence in the wisdom and fairness of Mississippi jurors
Jake read the article without comment and laid the paper in the trash can
Carla suggested a picnic, and although he needed to work he knew better than to mention it They loaded the Saab with food and toys and drove to the lake The brown, muddy waters of Lake Chatulla had crested for the year, and within days would begin their sloithdrawal to the center The high water attracted a flotilla of skiboats, bass rigs, catahies
Carla threo heavy quilts under an oak on the side of a hill while Jake unloaded the food and doll house Hanna arranged her large family with pets and auto orders and setting up house Her parents listened and shtmare, two and a halfsynoses For eleven days Jake sat by the incubator in ICU and watched the tiny, purple, scrawny, beautiful three-pound body cling to life while an army of doctors and nurses studied the monitors and adjusted tubes and needles, and shook their heads When he was alone he touched the incubator and wiped tears from his cheeks He prayed as he had never prayed He slept in a rocking chair near his daughter and drea with dolls and sleeping on his shoulder He could hear her voice
After a month the nurses smiled and the doctors relented The tubes were reht ballooned to a hearty four and a half pounds, and the proud parents took her hoested no more children, unless adopted
She was perfect now, and the sound of her voice could still bring tears to his eyes They ate and chuckled as Hanna lectured her dolls on proper hygiene
"This is the first time you&039;ve relaxed in teeks," Carla said as they lay on their quilt Wildly colored cata boats pulling half-drunken skiers
"We went to church last Sunday," he replied
"And all you thought about was the trial"
"Still thinking about it"
"It&039;s over, isn&039;t it?"
"I don&039;t know"
"Will he change his ht, if Lester talks to him It&039;s hard to say Blacks are so unpredictable, especially when they&039;re in trouble He&039;s got a good deal, really He&039;s got the best criminal lawyer in Me the bill?"
"An old friend of Carl Lee&039;s frouy by the name of Cat Bruster"
"Who&039;s he?"
f\ very ncn pi, thief Marsharf-sky&039;s his lawyer A couple of crooks"
"Did Carl Lee tell you this?"
"No He wouldn&039;t tell me, so I asked Ozzie"
"Does Lester know?"
"Not yet"
"What do youto call him, are you?"
"Well, yes, I had planned to"
"That&039;s going a bit far, isn&039;t it?"
"I don&039;t think so Lester has a right to know, and-"
"Then Carl Lee should tell him"
"He should, but he won&039;t He&039;s made a mistake, and he does not realize it"
"But it&039;s his problem, not yours At least not anymore"
"Carl Lee&039;s too embarrassed to tell Lester He knows Lester will cuss him and tell him he&039;s made another mistake"
"So it&039;s up to you to intervene in their family affairs"
"No But I think Lester should know"
"I&039;m sure he&039;ll see it in the papers"
"Maybe not," Jake said without any conviction "I think Hanna needs soe the subject"
"The subject doesn&039;t bother et it back Lester&039;s the only person who can retrieve it"
Her eyes narrowed and he could feel the drift into a mud bar on the near shore
"Jake, that&039;s unethical, and you know it" Her voice was calm, yet controlled and firm The words were slow and scornful
"That&039;s not true, Carla I&039;m a very ethical attorney"
"You&039;ve always preached ethics But at thisto solicit the case That&039;s wrong, Jake"
"Retrieve, not solicit"
"What&039;s the difference?"
"Soliciting is unethical I&039;ve never seen a prohibition against retrieving"
"It&039;s not right, Jake Carl Lee&039;s hired another lawyer and it&039;s tiet it"
"And I suppose you think Marsharfsky reads ethics opinions How do you think he got the case? He&039;s been hired by a man who&039;s never heard of hiot it"
"So that makes it okay if you chase it now?"
"Retrieve, not chase"
Hanna deh the picnic basket Jake reclined on an elbow and ignored theht of Lucien What would he do in this situation? Probably rent a plane, fly to Chicago, get Lester, slip hi him home, and convince him to browbeat Carl Lee He would assure Lester that Marsharfsky could not practice in Mississippi, and since he was a foreigner, the rednecks on the jury wouldn&039;t believe hi cases and threaten him with an ethics coet his black cronies to call Gwen and Ozzie and persuade the&039;s chance in hell of winning the case was Lucien Wilbanks Finally, Carl Lee would knuckle under and send for Lucien
That&039;s exactly what Lucien would do Talk about ethics
"Why are you s about how nice it is out here with you and Hanna We don&039;t do this enough"
"You&039;re disappointed, aren&039;t you?"
"Sure There will never be another case like this one Win it, and I&039;reatest lawyer in these parts We would never have to worry about ain"
"And if you lost it?"
"It would still be a drawing card But I can&039;t lose what I don&039;t have"
"Embarrassed?"
"A little It&039;s hard to accept Every lawyer in the county is laughing about it, except et over it"
"What should I do with the scrapbook?"
"Save it Youand tour feet wide,bed of a pickup Much larger crosses were used for the rituals, but the small ones worked better in the nocturnal raids into residential areas They were not used often, or often enough according to their builders In fact, it had been many years since one had been used in Ford County The last one was planted in the yard of a nigger accused of raping a white wo, the cross was lifted quietly and quickly fro slot in the front yard of the quaint Victorian house on Adams Street A small torch was thrown at the foot of the cross, and in seconds it was in flaht and stopped at a pay phone at the edge of tohere a call was placed to the dispatcher
Moments later, Deputy Marshall Prather turned down Ada cross in Jake&039;s front yard He turned into the driveway and parked behind the Saab He punched the doorbell and stood on the porch watching the flaain Adalow of the cross and the snapping and crackling of the wood burning fifty feet away Finally, Jake stuh the front door and froze, wild-eyed and stunned, next to the deputy The two stood side by side on the porch,cross, but by its purpose
"Mornin", Jake," Prather finally said without looking from the fire
"Who did it?" Jake asked with a scratchy, dry throat
"Don&039;t know They didn&039;t leave a name Just called and told us about it"
"When did they call?"
"Fifteen h his hair in an effort to keep it fro will it burn?" he asked, knowing Prather knew as little or even less than he about burning crosses
"No tellin&039; Probably soaked in kerosene Sht burn for a couple of hours You want me to call a fire truck?"