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"How much will it cost?"

"I don&039;t know I haven&039;t called yet"

"Better call Where is this psychiatrist?"

"Meures"

"How are the boys treatin&039; her?"

"They&039;ve been great They treat her special But the nightmares keep them scared When she wakes up screamin&039; she wakes everybody The boys run to her bed and try to help, but it scares theo back to sleep unless the boys slept on the floor next to her We all laid there wide aith the lights on"

"The boys&039;ll be all right"

"They ed a forced ser"

"You really think so?"

"I don&039;t knohat to think anymore But I don&039;t plan to spend the rest of my life in jail I hired Jake back"

"When?"

"Yesterday That Memphis lawyer never showed up, never even called I fired hiain"

"But you said Jake is too young"

"I rong He is young, but he&039;s good Ask Lester"

"It&039;s your trial"

Carl Lee walked slowly around the yard, never leaving the fence He thought of the two boys, so by now, their souls burning in hell Before they died, they irl, only briefly, and within two hours wrecked her little body and ruined her mind So brutal was their attack that she could never have children; so violent the encounter that she no theet about it, block it out, erase it from her mind so her life would be normal? Maybe a psychiatrist could do that Would other children allow her to be norer, they probably thought Soiti new

He remembered them in court One proud, the other scared He re down the stairs as he awaited the execution Then, the looks of horror as he stepped forith the M-16 The sound of the gunfire, the cries for help, the screaether, one on top of the other, handcuffed, screa, even laughing, as he watched thele with their heads half bloay, and when their bodies were still, he ran

He sook he killed in Vietnam had bothered him more

The letter to Walter Sullivan was to the point:

Dear J Walter:

By now it&039;s safe to assume Mr Marsharfsky has informed you that his employment by Carl Lee Hailey has been terminated Your services as local counsel will, of course, no longer be needed Have a nice day

Sincerely, Jake

A copy was sent to L Winston Lotterhouse The letter to Noose was just as short:

Dear Judge Noose:

Please be advised that I have been retained by Carl Lee Hailey We are preparing for trial on July 22 Please show me as counsel of record

Sincerely, Jake

A copy was sent to Buckley

Marsharfsky called at nine-thirty Monday Jake watched the hold button blink for two minutes before he lifted the receiver "Hello"

"How&039;d you do it?"

"Who is this?"

"Your secretary didn&039;t tell you? This is Bo Marsharfsky, and I want to kno you did it"

"Did what?"

"Hustled ht Jake He&039;s an agitator "As I recall, it was hustled from me," replied Jake

"I never met him before he hired me"

"You didn&039;t have to You sent your pi cases?"

"Yes"

Marsharfsky paused and Jake braced for the obscenities

"You know soht I chase cases everyday I&039; cases That&039;s how Icriet it And I&039;ll use whatever method I find necessary"

"Funny, that wasn&039;t mentioned in the paper"

"And if I want the Hailey case, I&039;ll get it"

"Cohed for tenon his e of venue

Two days later Lucien called and instructed Ethel to instruct Jake to come see him It was important He had a visitor Jake needed to meet

The visitor was Dr WT Bass, a retired psychiatrist from Jackson He had known Lucien for years, and they had collaborated on a couple of insane cri their friendship Both of the criminals were still in Parchman His retirement had been one year before the disbar that contributed heavily to the disbar affection for Jack Daniel&039;s He visited Lucien occasionally in Clanton, and Lucien visited him more frequently in Jackson, and they enjoyed their visits because they enjoyed staying drunk together They sat on the big porch and waited on Jake

"Just say he was insane," instructed Lucien

"Was he?" asked the doctor

"That&039;s not important"

"What is iive the jury an excuse to acquit the man They won&039;t care if he&039;s crazy or not But they&039;ll need some reason to acquit him"

"It would be nice to examine him"

"You can You can talk to hi on someone to talk to"

"I&039;ll need to meet with him several times"

"I know that"

"What if I don&039;t think he was insane at the tiet to testify at trial, and you won&039;t get your name and picture in the paper, and you won&039;t be interviewed on TV"

Lucien paused long enough to take a long drink "Just do as I say Interview him, take a bunch of notes Ask stupid questions You knohat to do Then say he was crazy"

"I&039;m not so sure about this It hasn&039;t worked too well in the past"

"Look, you&039;re a doctor, aren&039;t you? Then act proud, vain, arrogant Act like a doctor&039;s supposed to act Give your opinion and dare anyone to question it"

"I don&039;t know It hasn&039;t worked too well in the past"

"Just do as I say"

"I&039;ve done that before, and they&039;re both at Parchman"

"They were hopeless Hailey&039;s different"

"Does he have a chance?"

"Sliht you said he was different"

"He&039;s a decent "

"Then why are his chances slih"

"That&039;s par for the law"

"Plus he&039;s black, and this is a white county I have no confidence in these bigots around here"

"And if he hite?"

"If he hite and he killed two blacks who raped his daughter, the jury would give hilass and poured another A fifth and a bucket of ice sat on the wicker table between the two

"What about his lawyer?" he asked

"He should be here in a minute"

"He used to work for you?"

"Yeah, but I don&039;t think you met him He was in the fir, early thirties Clean, aggressive, works hard"

"And he used to work for you?"

"That&039;s what I said He&039;s got trial experience for his age This is not his first murder case, but, if I&039;m not mistaken, it&039;s his first insanity case"

"That&039;s nice to hear I don&039;t want so a lot of questions"

"I like your confidence Wait till you ood about this We tried it twice, and it didn&039;t work"

Lucien shook his head in bewilderot to be the humblest doctor I&039;ve known"

"And the poorest"

"You&039;re supposed to be poant You&039;re the expert Act like one Who&039;s gonna question your professional opinion in Clanton, Mississippi?"

"The State will have experts"

"They will have one psychiatrist from Whitfield He&039;ll examine the defendant for a few hours, and then drive up for trial and testify that the defendant is the sanest man he&039;s

ever ally insane defendant To him no one is insane Everybody&039;s blessed with perfect mental health Whitfield is full of sane people, except when it applies for governet fired if he started saying defendants are legally insane So that&039;s who you&039;re up against"

"And the jury will autoh you&039;ve never been through one of these before"

"Twice, remember One rapist, one murderer Neither was insane, in spite of what I said Both are now locked ahere they belong"

Lucien took a long drink and studied the light brown liquid and the floating ice cubes "You said you would help me God knows you owe me the favor How many divorces did I handle for you?"

"Three And I got cleaned out every tiive in or go to trial and have your habits discussed in open court"

"I remember"

"How many clients, or patients, have I sent you over the years?"

"Not enough to pay my alimony"

"Remember the malpractice case by the lady whose treatment consisted primarily of weekly sessions on your couch with the foldaway bed? Your malpractice carrier refused to defend, so you called your dear friend Lucien who settled it for peanuts and kept it out of court"

"There were no witnesses"

"Just the lady herself And the court files shohere your wives had sued for divorce on the grounds of adultery"

"They couldn&039;t prove it"

"They didn&039;t get a chance We didn&039;t want theh I said I would help What about my credentials?"

"Are you a coet nervous when I think of courtrooms"

"Your credentials are fine You&039;ve been qualified before as an expert witness Don&039;t worry so much"

"What about this?" He waved his drink at Lucien

"You shouldn&039;t drink so much," he said piously

The doctor dropped his drink and exploded in laughter He rofled out of his chair and crawled to the edge of the porch, holding his stohter

"You&039;re drunk," Lucien said as he left for another bottle

When Jake arrived an hour later, Lucien was rocking slowly in his huge wicker rocker The doctor was asleep in the swing at the far end of the porch He was barefoot, and his toes had disappeared into the shrubbery that lined the porch Jake walked up the steps and startled Lucien

"Jake, my boy, how are you?" he slurred

"Fine, Lucien I see you&039;re doing quite well" He looked at the empty bottle and one not quite empty

"I wanted you to ht

"Who is he?"

"He&039;s our psychiatrist Dr WT Bass, from Jackson Good friend of ood?"

"The best We&039;ve worked together on several insanity cases"

Jake took a few steps in the direction of the swing and stopped The doctor was lying on his back with his shirt unbuttoned and his urgling sound A horsefly the size of a small sparrow buzzed around his nose and retreated to the top of the sith each thunderous exhalation A rancid vapor e over the end of the porch

"He&039;s a doctor?" Jake asked as he sat next to Lucien

"Psychiatry," Lucien said proudly

"Did he help you with those?" Jake nodded at the bottles

"I helped him He drinks like a fish, but he&039;s always sober at trial"