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Jake looked up and down the street Every house was silent and dark

"Naw No need to wake everybody Let it burn It won&039;t hurt anything, will it?"

"It&039;s your yard"

Prather never ing over his belt "Ain&039;t had one of these in a long time around here Last one I remember was in Karaway, nineteen-sixry-"

"Nineteen sixty-seven"

"You reh school We drove out and watched it burn"

"What was that nigger&039;s na Robinson Said he raped Velma Thayer"

"Did he?" asked Prather

"The jury thought so He&039;s in Parch cotton for the rest of his life"

Prather seeet Carla," Jake mumbled as he disappeared He returned with his wife behind him

"My God, Jake! Who did it?"

"Who knows"

"Is it the KKK?" she asked

"Must be," answered the deputy "I don&039;t know anybody else who burns crosses, do you, Jake?"

Jake shook his head

"I thought they left Ford County years ago," said Prather

"Looks like they&039;re back," said Jake

Carla stood frozen, her hand over her low of the fire reddened her face "Do so, Jake Put it out"

Jake watched the fire and again glanced up and down the street The snapping and popping grew louder and the orange flaht For aseen by anyone other than the three of theotten and no one in Clanton would ever know Then he siu on the porch "Say, Jake, uh, I don&039;t ot the wrong lawyer That true?"

"I guess they can&039;t read," Jake muttered

"Probably not"

"Tell me, Prather, do you know of any active Klan members in this county?"

"Not a one Got some in the southern part of the state, but none around here Not that I know of FBI told us the Klan was a thing of the past"

"That&039;s not very co"

"Why not?"

"Because these guys, if they&039;re Klan members, are not from around here Visitors from parts unknown It means they&039;re serious, don&039;t you think, Prather?"

"I don&039;t know I&039;d worry more if it was local people workin&039; with the Klan Could mean the Klan&039;s comin&039; back"

"What does it mean, the cross?" Carla asked the deputy

"It&039;s a warnin&039; Means stop what you&039;re doin&039;, or the next time we&039;ll do s for years to intiers and all that civil rights crap If the whites didn&039;t stop their nigger lovin&039;, then violence followed Bo tiht In your case, it&039;s their way of tellin&039; Jake to stay away from Hailey But since he ain&039;t Hailey&039;s lawyer no more, I don&039;t knohat it means"

"Go check on Hanna," Jake said to Carla, ent inside

"If you got a water hose, I&039;ll be glad to put it out," offered Prather

"That&039;s a good idea," Jake said "I&039;d hate for the neighbors to see it"

Jake and Carla stood on the porch in their bathrobes and watched the deputy spray the burning cross The wood fizzed and smoked as the water covered the cross and snuffed out the flames Prather soaked it for fifteen minutes, then neatly rolled the hose and placed it behind the shrubs in the flower bed next to the front steps

"Thanks, Marshall Let&039;s keep this quiet, okay?"

Prather wiped his hands on his pants and straightened his hat "Sure Y&039;all lock up good If you hear anything, call the dispatcher We&039;ll keep a close watch on it for the next few days"

He backed from the driveway and drove slowly down Ada and watched the s at an old issue of Life azine," Jake said

"Or a chapter from a Mississippi history textbook Maybe we should tell theot fired"

"Thanks"

"Thanks?"

"For being so blunt"

"I&039;ed, or terminated, or-"

"Just say he found another lawyer You&039;re really scared aren&039;t you?"

"You know I&039;m scared I&039;m terrified If they can burn a cross in our front yard, what&039;s to stop the the house? It&039;s not worth it, Jake I want you to be happy and successful and all that wonderful stuff, but not at the expense of our safety No case is worth this"

"You&039;re glad I got fired?"

"I&039;lad he found another lawyer Maybe they&039;ll leave us alone now"

Jake put his arently She was beautiful, at three-thirty in thein her bathrobe

"They won&039;t be back, will they?" she asked

"Naw They&039;re through with us They&039;ll find out I&039;ize"

"It&039;s not funny, Jake"

"I know"

"Do you think people will know?"

"Not for another hour When the Coffee Shop opens at five, Dell Perkins will know every detail before she pours the first cup of coffee"

"What&039;re you going to do with it?" she asked, nodding at the cross, now barely visible under the half oi an idea Let s load it up, take it to Meoing to bed"

By 9:00 AM Jake had finished dictating hisit with zest when she interrupted hiance, there&039;s a Mr Marsharf-sky on the phone I told him you were in conference, and he said he would hold"

"I&039;ll talk to hiance, Bo Marsharfsky in Memphis How are you?"

"Terrific"

"Good I&039;et the paper in Clantpn?"

"Yes, and we have telephones and mail"

"So you saw the stories on Mr Hailey?"

"Yes You write&039; sonore that I wanted to discuss the Hailey case if you have a minute"

"I would love to"

"As I understand Mississippi procedure, out-of-state counsel must associate local counsel for trial purposes"

"You mean you don&039;t have a Mississippi license?" Jake asked incredulously

"Well, no, I don&039;t"

"That wasn&039;t nore that too Do the judges require local counsel in all cases?"

"Some do, some don&039;t"

"I see What about Noose?"

"Sometimes"

"Thanks Well, I usually associate local counsel when I try cases out in the country The locals feel better with one of their own sitting there at counsel table with me"

"That&039;s real nice"

"I don&039;t suppose you&039;d be interested in-"

"You !" Jake yelled "I&039;ve just been fired and now you want me to carry your briefcase You&039;re crazy I wouldn&039;t have my name associated with yours"

"Wait a minute, hayseed-"

"No, you wait a minute, counselor This may come as a surprise to you, but in this state we have ethics and laws against soliciting litigation and clients Champerty-ever hear of it? Of course not It&039;s a felony in Mississippi, as in most states We have canons of ethics that prohibit a and solicitation Ethics, Mr Shark, ever hear of them?"

"I don&039;t chase cases, sonny They come to me"

"Like Carl Lee Hailey I&039;m supposed to believe he picked your nae ad, next to the abortionists"

"He was referred to me"

"Yeah, by your piht solicitation I ht have your rand jury"

"Yeah, I understand you and the DA are real close Good day, counselor"

Marsharfsky got the last word before he hung up Jake fumed for an hour before he could concentrate on the brief he riting Lucien would have been proud of him

Just before lunch Jake received a call from Walter Sullivan, of the Sullivan firm

"Jake, my boy, how are you?"

"Wonderful"

"Good Listen, Jake, Bo Marsharfsky is an old friend of o on fraud charges Got them off, too He&039;s quite a lawyer He&039;s associatedto know-"

Jake dropped the receiver and walked out of his office He spent the afternoon on Lucien&039;s front porch

Gwen did not have Lester&039;s number Neither did Ozzie, nor did anyone else The operator said there were two pages of Haileys in the Chicago phone book, at least a dozen Lester Haileys, and several L S&039;s Jake asked for the first five Lester Haileys and called each one They were all white He called Tank Scales, the owner of one of the safer and finer black honky tonks in the county Tank&039;s Tonk, as it was known Lester was especially fond of the place Tank was a client and often provided Jake with valuable and confidential infors and whereabouts

Tank stopped by the office Tuesdayon the way to the bank

"Have you seen Lester Hailey in the past teeks?" Jake asked

"Sure Spent several days at the place shootin&039; pool, drinkin&039; beer Went back to Chicago last weekend, I heard Must&039;ve, I didn&039;t see him all weekend"

"Who was he with?"

"Hisself mostly"

"What about Iris?"

"Yeah, he brung her a couple of tis her Henry&039;s a bad dude He&039;d cut them both if he knew they&039;s datin&039;"

"They&039;ve been doing it for ten years, Tank"

"Yeah, sh,e got two kids by Lester Everbody knows it but Henry Poor old Henry He&039;ll find out one day, and you&039;ll have another murder case"

"Listen, Tank, can you talk to Iris?"

"She don&039;t come in too often"

"That&039;s not what I asked I need Lester&039;s phone nuure Iris knows it"

"I&039;m sure she does I think he sends her et it for me? I need to talk to Lester"

"Sure, Jake If she&039;s got it, I&039;ll get it"

By Wednesday Jake&039;s office had returned to noran to reappear Ethel was especially sweet, or as sweet as possible for a cranky old nag He went through thelaw, but the pain showed He skipped the Coffee Shop eachEthel do the filing or checking or whatever business required his presence across the street He was embarrassed, humiliated, and troubled It was difficult to concentrate on other cases He conte vacation, but couldn&039;t afford it Money was tight, and he was not motivated to work He spentthe courthouse and the town square below

He dwelt on Carl Lee, sitting in his cell a few blocks away, and asked himself a thousand times why he had been betrayed He had pushed too hard forto take the case for free He hated Marsharfsky He recalled the many times he had seen Marsharfsky parade in and out of Me the innocence and mistreatment of his pitiful, oppressed clients Dope dealers, piuilty, all deserving of long prison terms, or perhaps even death He was a yankee, with an obnoxious twang from somewhere in the upper Midwest It would irritate anybody south of Memphis An accomplished actor, he would look directly into the cameras and whine: "My client has been horribly abused by the Memphis police" Jake had seen it a dozen times "My client is completely, totally, absolutely innocent He should not be on trial My client is a model citizen, a taxpayer" What about his four prior convictions for extortion? "He was fraovernment Besides, he&039;s paid his debt He&039;s innocent this time" Jake hated him, and to his recollection, he had lost as many as he had won

By Wednesday afternoon, Marsharfsky had not been seen in Clanton Ozzie promised to notify Jake if he showed up at the jail

Circuit Court would be in session until Friday, and it would be respectful to e Noose and explain the circumstances of his departure fro over a civil case, and there was a

good chance Buckley would be absent He had to be absent He could not be seen or heard

Noose usually recessed for ten minutes around three-thirty, and precisely at that tih the side door He had not been seen He sat patiently by the aiting for Ichabod to descend froer into the roo open, and His Honor walked in

"Jake, how are you?" he asked

"Fine, Judge Can I have a minute?" Jake asked as he closed the door

"Sure, sit down What&039;s on your mind?" Noose removed his robe, threw it over a chair, and lay on top of the desk, knocking off books, files, and the telephone in the process Once his gawky fra, he slowly folded his hands over his stomach, closed his eyes, and breathed deeply "It&039;s my back, Jake My doctor-tells me to rest on a hard surface when possible"

"Uh, sure, Judge Should I leave?"

"No, no What&039;s on your ht so I saw your motion Found a neyer, huh?"