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"His blood pressure keeps acting up Especially after the phone calls He&039;s had three strokes in five years, and he&039;s due for another one He&039;s scared; we&039;re both scared"

"How many phone calls?"

"Several They threaten to burn our house or blow it up They always tell us they knohere we live, and if Hailey is acquitted, then they&039;ll burn it or stick dynamite under

it while we are asleep A couple have threatened to kill us It&039;s just not worth it"

"Maybe you should quit"

"And starve? Bud hasn&039;t worked in ten years, you know that Where else would I work?"

"Look, Ethel, I&039;ve had threats too I don&039;t take theive up the case before I endangered my family, and you should be comforted by that You and Bud should relax The threats are not serious There are a lot of nuts out there"

"That&039;s orries "

"Naw, you worry too much I&039;ll tell Ozzie to watch your house a bit closer"

"Will you do that?"

"Sure They&039;ve been watchingto worry about Probably just so punks"

She wiped her eyes "I&039; so irritable lately"

You&039;ve been irritable for forty years, Jake thought "That&039;s okay"

"What about these?" she asked, pointing to the invoices

"I&039;ll get the s finished the second shift at 10:00 PM and punched the clock next to Ozzie&039;s office He drove straight to the Hailey house It was his night to sleep on the couch Soht; a brother, a cousin, or a friend Wednesday was his night

It was io near the bed unless every light in the house was on Thosefor her She had seen the the floor toward her bed, and lurking in the closets She had heard their voices outside her , and she had seen their bloodshot eyes peering in, watching her as she got ready for bed She heard noises in the attic, like the footsteps of the bulky cowboy boots they had kicked her with She knew they were up

there, waiting for everyone to go to sleep so they could come down and take her back to the woods Once a week herstairs and inspected the attic with a flashlight and a pistol

Not a single rooht, as she lay wide awake next to her ht in the hall burned out She screamed violently until Gwen&039;s brother drove to Clanton to an all-night quick shop for more bulbs

She slept with her mother, who held her firht and she drifted away At first, Gwen had trouble with the lights, but after five weeks she napped periodically through the night The sled and jerked even while it slept

Willie said good night to the boys and kissed Tonya He showed her his gun and proh the house and checked the closets When Tonya was satisfied, she lay next to herShe cried softly

Around ht, Willie took off his boots and relaxed on the couch He reun on the floor He was alh-pitched cry of a child being tortured He grabbed his gun and ran to the bedroo and shaking She had seen theed her The three boys ran to the foot of the bed and watched helplessly Carl Lee, Jr, went to theand saw nothing They had been through it many times in five weeks, and knew there was little they could do

Gwen soothed her and laid her head gently on the pillow "It&039;s okay, baby, Moonna get you It&039;s okay, baby"

She wanted Uncle Willie to sit under the ith his gun and the boys to sleep on the floor around the bed They took their positions She rew quiet and still

Willie sat on the floor by theuntil they were all asleep He carried the boys one at a time to their beds and tucked the sun

Jake and Atcavage met for lunch at Claude&039;s on Friday They ordered ribs and slaw The place was packed as usual, and for the first tiulars talked and gossiped like old ti his loyal customers Claude was one of those rare people who could curse a e had watched the venue hearing, and would have testified had he been needed The bank had discouraged his testifying, and Jake did not want to cause trouble Bankers have an innate fear of courtroo this paranoia and attending the hearing In doing so, he became the first banker in the history of Ford County to voluntarily appear in a courtroom without a subpoena while court was in session Jake was proud of him

Claude raced by and told them they had ten minutes, so shut up and eat Jake finished a rib andof loans, I need to borrow five thousand for ninety days, unsecured"

"Who said anything about loans?"

"You said soht ere conde it"

"You shouldn&039;t criticize, Stan It&039;s an easy habit to acquire and an impossible one to break It robs your soul ofcharacter"

"I&039;ive me?"

"About the loan?"

"Okay Why do you need it?"

"Why is that relevant?"

"What do you mean, &039;Why is that relevant?&039; "

"Look Stan, all you should worry about is whether or not I can repay the money in ninety days"

"Okay Can you repay the money in ninety days?"

"Good question Of course I can"

The banker sed down, huh?"

The lawyer smiled "Yeah," he admitted "It&039;s hard to

concentrate on anything else The trial is three weeks fro else"

"How much will you make off this case?"

"Nine hundred minus ten thousand"

"Nine hundred dollars!"

"Yeah, he couldn&039;t borrow on his land, remember?"

"Cheap shot"

"Of course, if you&039;d loan Carl Lee the money on his land, then I wouldn&039;t have to borrow any"

"I prefer to loan it to you"

"Great When can I get a check?"

"You sound desperate"

"I kno long you guys take, with your loan committees and auditors and vice-presidents here and vice-presidents there, and maybe a vice-president will finally approve my loan in a month or so, if the ht e looked at his watch "Three o&039;clock soon enough?"

"I guess"

"Unsecured?"

Jake wiped his mouth and leaned across the table He spoke quietly "My house is a landot the lien on e on hter, but if you try to foreclose I&039;ll kill you Nohat security do you have in mind?"

"Sorry I asked"

"When can I get the check?"

"Three PM"

Claude appeared and refilled the tea glasses "You got five ht," replied Jake

"Listen Mr Big Shot," Claude said with a grin "This ain&039;t no courtroom, and your picture in the paper ain&039;t worth two cents in here I said five h anyway"

"I notice you didn&039;t leave any"

"Might as well eat them, as much as they cost"

"They cost e said as he stood and threw a dollar on the table

Sunday afternoon the Haileys picnicked under the tree away frooal The first heat wave of the su close to the ground and penetrated the shade Gatted flies as the children and their daddy ate warm fried chicken and sweated The children ate hurriedly and ran to a neing Ozzie had installed for the children of his inmates

"What&039;d they do at Whitfield?" Gwen asked

"Nothin&039; really Asked a bunch of questions, made me do some tests Bunch of crap"

"How&039;d they treat you?"

"With handcuffs and padded walls"

"No kiddin&039; They put you in a roole

"Sure did They watched uards told me they was proud of ht thing and they hoped I got off They was nice to me"

"What&039;d the doctors say?"

"They won&039;t say nothin&039; till we get to trial, and then they&039;ll say I&039;m fine"

"How do you knohat they&039;ll say?"

"Jake toldyet"

"Has he found you a doctor?"

"Yeah, so up somewhere Says he&039;s a psychiatrist We&039;ve talked a couple of times in Ozzie&039;s office"

"What&039;d he say?"

"Not much Jake said he&039;ll say whatever ant hiood doctor"

"He&039;d fit in good with those folks in Whitfield"

"Where&039;s he from?"

"Jackson, I think He wasn&039;t too sure of anything He acted like I was gonna kill him too I swear he was drunk

bolh times we talked He asked some questions that neither one of us understood Took soht he could help me I asked Jake about him Jake said not to worry, that he would be sober at the trial But I think Jake&039;s worried too"

"Then why are we usin&039; him?"

" &039;Cause he&039;s free Owes somebody some favors A real shrink&039;d cost over a thousand dollars just to evaluate me, and then another thousand or so to come testify at trial A cheap shrink Needless to say, I can&039;t pay it"

Gwen lost her smile and looked away "We need so at hiroceries and bills"

"How ot?"

"Less than fifty"

"I&039;ll see what I can do"

She looked at hiet money while you&039;re in jail?"

Carl Lee raised his eyebrows and pointed at his wife She was not to question hih he put them on in jail He was the boss

"I&039;ee peered through a crack in one of the huge stained glass s of his church and watched with satisfaction as the clean Cadillacs and Lincolns arrived just before five Sunday afternoon He had called aof the council to assess the Hailey situation and plan strategy for the final three weeks before the trial, and to prepare for the arrival of the NAACP lawyers The weekly collections had gone well-over seven thousand dollars had been gathered throughout the county and almost six thousand had been deposited by the reverend in a special account for the Carl Lee Hailey Legal Defense Fund None had been given to the fa the o to the defense fund The sisters in the church could feed the fary The cash was needed elsewhere

The council talked of ways to raisemoney froht, and if they didn&039;t raise it noould not be raised They agreed to dale Church in Clanton The NAACP people were expected in town byNo press; it was to be a work session

Norenius in cri Harvard&039;s law school at the age of twenty-one, and after graduation declined a randfather&039;s prestigious Wall Street law factory, opting instead to take a job with the NAACP and spend his ti furiously to keep Southern blacks off death row He was very good at what he did although, through no fault of his own, he was not very successful at what he did Most Southern blacks along with as chamber But Reinfeld and his team of capital murder defense specialists won more than their

share, and even in the ones they lost they usually h adelays and appeals Four of his forassed, electrocuted, or lethally injected, and that was four too many for Reinfeld He had watched them all die, and with each execution he renewed his vow to break any law, violate any ethic, contenore any ally killing another hus of hus so artfully and cruelly achieved by his clients It wasn&039;t his business to think about those killings, so he didn&039;t Instead he vented his righteous and sanctis

He seldoht Sleep was difficult with thirty-one clients on death row Plus seventeen clients awaiting trial Plus eight egotistical attorneys to supervise He was thirty and looked forty-five He was old, abrasive, and ill-tempered In the normal course of his business, he would have beenof local black ministers in Clanton, Mississippi But this was not the norilante The father driven to revenge The most famous criminal case in the country at the moment This was Mississippi, where for years whites shot blacks for any reason or no reason and no one cared; where whites raped blacks and it was considered sport; where blacks were hanged for fighting back And now a black father had killed thite as chaone unnoticed had he been white This was the case, his case, and he would handle it personally

On Monday he was introduced to the council by Reverend Agee, who opened the thy and detailed review of the activities in Ford County Reinfeld was brief He and his team could not represent Mr Hailey because he had not been hired by Mr Hailey, so aat the latest, because he had a flight out of Memphis at noon He was needed in a ee pro with the defendant as

soon as possible He was friends with the sheriff Fine, said Reinfeld, just get it done

"How much money have you raised?" Reinfeld asked

"Fifteen thousand froee answered

"I know that How ee said proudly

"Six thousand!" repeated Reinfeld "Is that all? I thought you people were organized Where&039;s all this great local support you were talking about? Six thousand! How ot three weeks"

The council members were silent This Jew had a lot of nerve The only white roup and he was on the attack

"How ee

"That depends, Reverend, on how good a defense you want for Mr Hailey I&039;ve only got eight other attorneys on ot thirty-one capital ot seventeen trials scheduled in ten states over the next five et ten requests each week to represent defendants, eight of which we turn down because we simply don&039;t have the staff or the money For Mr Hailey, fifteen thousand has been contributed by two local chapters and the home office Now you tell me that only six thousand has been raised locally That&039;s twenty-one thousand Fpr that aet the best defense we can afford Two attorneys, at least one psychiatrist, but nothing fancy Twenty-one thousand gets a good defense, but not what I had in mind"

"What exactly did you have in mind?"

"A first-class defense Three or four attorneys A battery of psychiatrists Half dozen investigators A jury psychologist, just to name a few This is not your run-of-the-mill murder case I want to win I was led to believe that you folks wanted to win"

"How ee

"Fifty thousand, minimum A hundred thousand would be nice"

"Look, Mr Reinfeld, you&039;re in Mississippi Our people are poor They&039;ve given generously so far, but there&039;s no e can raise another thirty thousand here"

Reinfeld adjusted his horn-ri beard "How much more can you raise?"

"Another five thousand, maybe"

"That&039;s not much money"

"Not to you, but it is to the black folk of Ford County"

Reinfeld studied the floor and continued stroking his beard "How iven?"