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Tank flipped on a light switch by the front door "Say, everbody, this here is Carl Lee Hailey&039;s lawyer, Jake Bri-gance A good friend of mine Let&039;s hear it for him"

The small room exploded in applause and bravos Several of the boys at the bar grabbed Jake and shook his hand Tank reached in a drawer under the bar and pulled out a handful of Jake&039;s cards, which he passed out like candy Jake was breathing again and the color returned to his face

Outside, they leaned on the hood of Tank&039;s yellow Cadillac Lionel Richie echoed through the s and the crowd returned to normal Jake handed Tank a copy of the list

"Look at each name See how many of these folks you know Ask around and find out what you can"

Tank held the list near his eyes The light frolowed over his shoulder "How many are black?"

"You tell me That&039;s one reason I want you to look at it Circle the black ones If you&039;re not sure, find out If you know any of the white folks, lad to, Jake This ain&039;t illegal, is it?"

"Naw, but don&039;t tell anybody I need it back by Wednesday "

"You&039;re the boss"

_ - _- (tm), uu JUKC ncaciea tor the office It was almost ten Ethel had retyped the list from the initial one provided by Harry Rex, and a dozen copies had been hand-delivered to selected, trusted friends Lucien, Stan At-cavage, Tank, Dell at the Coffee Shop, a lawyer in Karaway naot a list

Less than three miles from the tonk was a small, neat white-framed country house where Ethel and Bud Iwitty had lived for almost forty years It was a pleasant house with pleasantchildren ere now scattered up North The retarded son, the one who greatly resembled Lucien, lived in Miami for some reason The house was quieter now Bud hadn&039;t worked in years, not since his first stroke in &039;75 Then a heart attack, followed by two more major strokes and several s since accepted the fact that he wouldone and die on his front porch shelling butterbeans That&039;s what he hoped for, anyway

Monday night he sat on the porch shelling butterbeans and listening to the Cardinals on the radio Ethel orking in the kitchen In the bottohth with the Cards at bat and two on, he heard a noise from the side of the house He turned the volu Then another noise He stood and walked to the end of the porch Suddenly, a huge figure dressed in solid black with red, white, and black war paint srabbed Bud and yanked hiuished cry was not heard in the kitchen Another warrior joined in and they dragged the oldup to the front porch One maneuvered him into a half-nelson while the other pounded his soft belly and bloodied his face Within seconds, he was unconscious

Ethel heard noises and scurried through the front door She was grabbed by a third htly behind her and wrapped a huge arm around her throat She couldn&039;t scream or talk orbelow as the two thugs took turns with her husband On the front sidewalk ten

feet behind the violence stood three figures, each garbed in a full, flowing, white robe with red garnishment, each with a tall, white, pointed headdress from which fell a red and white ed froh they were the three wiseh," said the ruler in the middle The three terrorists in black ran Ethel rushed down the steps and slumped over her battered husband The three in white disappeared

Jake left the hospital afterwith the broken bones he had suffered another major heart attack Ethel had made a scene and blaer!" she screamed "Tell that to my husband! It&039;s all your fault!"

He had listened to her rant and rave, and the elanced around the s room at the friends and relatives All eyes were on him Yes, they seemed to say, it was all his fault

Gwen called the office early Tuesdayand the new secretary, Ellen Roark, answered the phone She fumbled with the intercom until she broke it, then walked to the stairs and yelled: "Jake, it&039;s Mr Hailey&039;s wife"

He slarily picked up the receiver "Hello"

"Jake, are you busy?"

"Very What&039;s on your"Jake, we need money We&039;re broke, and the bills are past due I haven&039;t paid the house note in two e company is callin&039; I don&039;t knoho else to turn to"

"What about your family?"

"They&039;re poor folks, Jake, you know that They&039;ll feed us and do what they can, but they can&039;t make our house notes and pay the utilities"

"Have you talked to Carl Lee?"

"Not about money Not lately There&039;s not ot enough to worry about"

"What about the churches?"

"Ain&039;t seen a dime"

"How much do you need?"

"At least five hundred, just to catch up I don&039;t know &039;bout next uess I&039;ll worry then"

Nine hundred minus five hundred left Jake with four hundred dollars for a capital murder defense That had to be a record Four hundred dollars! He had an idea

"Can you be at my office at two this afternoon?"

"I&039;ll have to bring the kids"

"That&039;s okay Just be here"

"I&039;ll be there"

He hung up and quickly searched the phone book for Reverend Ollie Agee He found hi to discuss the Hailey trial and

covering Agee&039;s testiee said he would be there at two

The Hailey clan arrived first, and Jake seated them around the conference table The kids remembered the roo table, thick swivel chairs, and ied Gwen and made a fuss over the kids, especially Tonya

"I&039;ll be very brief, Reverend," started Jake "There are sos we need to discuss For several weeks now, you and the other blackood job Over six thousand, I believe I don&039;t knohere the money is, and it&039;s none of my business You offered the money to the NAACP lawyers to represent Carl Lee, but as you and I know, those lawyers won&039;t be involved in this case I&039;m the lawyer, the only lawyer, and so far none of the money has been offered to me I don&039;t expect any of it Evidently you don&039;t care about what kind of defense he gets if you can&039;t pick his lawyer That&039;s fine I can live with that What really bothers me, Reverend, is the fact that none, and I repeat none, of the ht, Gwen?"

The empty look on her face had turned to one of alared at the reverend

"Six thousand dollars," she repeated

"Over six thousand, at last reported count," said Jake "And thein so, the bills are past due, the only food comes from friends, and foreclosure is a few days away Now, tell us, Reverend, what&039;re your plans with the ee smiled and said with an oily voice, "That&039;s none of your business"

"But it&039;s my business!" Gwen said loudly "You used my name and my family&039;s name when you raised that money, didn&039;t you, Reverend I heard it myself Told all the church folk that the love offerin&039;, as you called it, was for ured you had done spent the money on lawyers&039; fee or somethin&039; like that And now, today, I find out you&039;ve got it stuck in the bank I guess you plan to keep it"

Agee was unht the money could best be spent on Carl Lee He declined the money when he refused to hire the NAACP lawyers So I asked Mr Reinfeld, the head lawyer, what to do with the money He told me to save it because Carl Lee will need it for his appeal"

Jake cocked his head sideways and clenched his teeth He started to rebuke this ignorant fool, but realized Agee did not understand what he was saying Jake bit his lip

"I don&039;t understand," said Gwen

"It&039;s si smile "Mr Reinfeld said that Carl Lee would be convicted because he didn&039;t hire hiht? And after Jake here loses the trial, you and Carl Lee will of course be lookin&039; for another laho can save his life That&039;s e&039;ll need Reinfeld and that&039;s e&039;ll need the money So you see, it&039;s all for Carl Lee"

Jake shook his head and silently cursed He cursed Reinfeld ee

Gwen&039;s eyes flooded and she clenched her fists "I don&039;t understand all that, and I don&039;t want to understand it All I know is that I&039;in&039; for food, tired of dependin&039; on others, and tired of worryin&039; about losin&039; ee looked at her sadly "I understand, Gwen, but-"

"And if you got six thousand dollars of our ive it to us We&039;ve got enough sense to spend it right"

Carl Lee, Jr, and Jarvis stood next to their ee

"But it&039;s for Carl Lee," the reverend said

"Good," Jake said "Have you asked Carl Lee hoants his ee&039;s face and he squirmed in his chair "Carl Lee understands e&039;re doin&039;," he said without much conviction

"Thank you That&039;s not what I asked Listen to me carefully Have you asked Carl Lee hoants his money spent?"

"I think it&039;s been discussed with hiee lied

"Let&039;s see," Jake said He stood and walked to the door leading to the small office next to the conference room The

reverend watched nervously, almost in panic Jake opened the door and nodded to someone Carl Lee and Ozzie casually walked in The kids yelled and ran to their father Agee looked devastated

After a feard s and kisses, Jake moved in for the kill "Now, Reverend, why don&039;t you ask Carl Lee hoants to spend his six thousand dollars"

"It ain&039;t exactly his," said Agee

"And it ain&039;t exactly yours," shot Ozzie

Carl Lee reee was sitting He sat on the edge of the table, above the reverend, poised and ready to strike if necessary "Let me make it real simple, preacher, so you won&039;t have trouble understandin&039; it You raised that money in my name, for the benefit of my family You took it from the black folk of this county, and you took it with the proo to help me and my family You lied You raised it so you could impress the NAACP, not to help my family You lied in church, you lied in the newspapers, you lied everwhere"

Agee looked around the roo at hiee&039;s chair and leaned closer "If you don&039;t give us that er I know that you&039;re a lyin&039; crook I&039;ll call ever member of your church, and I&039;ot a dih you won&039;t be able to raise two dollars on Sunday mornin&039; You&039;ll lose your fancy Cadillacs and your fancy suits You may even lose your church, &039;cause I&039;ll ask everbody to leave"

"You finished?" Agee asked "If you are, I just wanna say that I&039;m hurt Hurt real bad that you and Gwen feel this way"

"That&039;s the e feel, and I don&039;t care how hurt you are"

Ozzie stepped forward "I agree with theht, and you know it"

"That hurts, Ozzie, comin&039; from you It really hurts"

"Leonna hurt a whole lot worse than that Next Sunday me and Carl Lee will be in your

church I&039;ll sneak him outta the jail early Sunday and we&039;ll take a little drive Just about the tiet ready to preach, we&039;ll walk in the front door, down the aisle and up to the pulpit If you get in my way, I&039;ll put handcuffs on you Carl Lee will do the preachin&039; He&039;ll tell all your people that the enerously has so far not left your pocket, that Gwen and the kids are about to lose their house &039;cause you&039;re tryin&039; to big-shot with the NAACP He&039;ll tell them that you lied to theh, I&039;ll say a feords I&039;ll tell theer you are I&039;ll tell theht that stolen Lincoln in Meot indicted I&039;ll tell them about the kickbacks froe in Jackson I got diso And, Reverend, I&039;ll tell-"

"Don&039;t say it, Ozzie," Agee begged

"I&039;ll tell them a dirty little secret that only you and me and a certain woman of ill repute know about"

"When do y&039;all want the et it?" Carl Lee demanded

"Awfully damned quick"

Jake and Ozzie left the Haileys to the office, where Ellen was buried in law books Jake introduced Ozzie to his law clerk, and the three sat around the big desk

"How are my buddies?" Jake asked

"The dynamite boys? They&039;re recuperatin&039; nicely We&039;ll keep them in the hospital until the trial&039;s over We fixed a lock on the door, and I keep a deputy in the hall They ain&039;t goin&039; anywhere"

"Who&039;s the erprint tests haven&039;t come back yet There may be no prints to match He ain&039;t talkin&039;"

"The other is a local boy, isn&039;t he?" asked Ellen

"Yeah Terrell Grist He wants to sue because he got hurt during the arrest Can you iine?"

"I can&039;t believe it&039;s been kept quiet so far," Jake said

"Me neither Of course, Grist and Mr X ain&039;t talkin&039; My men are quiet That leaves you and your clerk here"

"And Lucien, but I didn&039;t tell hiures"

"When will you process them?"

"After the trial we&039;ll move them to the jail and start the paperwork It&039;s up to us"

"How&039;s Bud?" Jake asked

"I stopped by this mornin&039; to check on the other two, and I went downstairs to see Ethel He&039;s still critical No changes"

"Any suspects?"

"Gotta be the Klan With the white robes and all It all adds up First there was the burnin&039; cross in your yard, then the dynaure it&039;s theot an informant"

"You what!"

"You heard me Calls himself Mickey Mouse He called me at hoer&039;s lawyer&039; is what he called you Said the Klan has officially arrived in Ford County They&039;ve set up a klavern, whatever that is"

"Who&039;s in it?"

"He ain&039;t much on details He proet hurt"

"How nice Can you trust him?"

"He saved your life"

"Good point Is he amarch planned Thursday"

"The Klan?"

"Yep NAACP has a rally toonna march for a while The Klan&039;s supposed to show up for a peaceful march on Thursday"

"How many?"

"The Mouse didn&039;t say Like I said, he ain&039;tin Clanton I can&039;t believe it"

"This is heavy stuff," Ellen said

"It&039;ll get heavier," Ozzie replied "I&039;ve asked the gover-

nor to keep the highway patrol on standby It could be a rough week"

"Can you believe Noose is willing to try this case in this town?" asked Jake

"It&039;s too big to move, Jake It would draw marches, and protests, and Klansmen anywhere you tried it"

"Maybe you&039;re right How about your jury list?"

"I&039;ll have it tomorrow"

After supper Tuesday Joe Frank Ferry paper and a fresh chew of Red Man, and spat carefully, neatly through a s ritual Lela would finish the dishes and fix thelass of iced tea, and they would sit on the porch until dark and talk about the crops, the grandchildren, the huhty acres of neatly trimmed and cultivated far the Depression They were quiet, hardworking Christian folks

After a few discharges through the hole, a pickup slowed out on the highway and turned into the Perryravel driveway It parked next to the front lawn, and a faed It was Will Tierce, former president of the Ford County Board of Supervisors Will had served his district for twenty-four years, six consecutive terms, but had lost the last election in &039;83 by seven votes The Perrymans had always supported Tierce because he took care of theravel or a culvert for the driveway

"Evenin&039;, Will," said Joe Frank as the ex-supervisor walked across the lawn and up the steps

"Evenin&039;, Joe Frank" They shook hands and relaxed on the porch

"Gis you around here?"

"Just passin&039; by Thought about Lela&039;s iced tea and got real thirsty Hadn&039;t seen you folks in a while"

They sat and talked, chewed and spat, and drank iced tea until it was dark and tiht required th of the dry spell and hoas the worst in ten years Hadn&039;t had a drop of rain since the third week of June And if it didn&039;t let up, he could forget the cotton crop The beans ht make it, but he orried about the cotton

"Say, Joe Frank, I hear you got one of those jury summons for the trial next week"

"Yeah, afraid so Who told you?"

"I don&039;t know I just heard it around" tf