فصل 03

CHAPTER THREE

Afterward

“You can see him in a minute, Jake,” Ozzie said, after Carl Lee had been brought back to the sheriff’s office.

“Thanks. You sure he did it?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“He didn’t say he did it?”

“No. He didn’t say anything. I guess Lester told him what to do.”

Half an hour later, lawyer and client sat across the table and looked at each other carefully. They smiled but neither spoke. They had last talked five days before - the day after the rape.

Carl Lee was not as troubled now. His face was relaxed and his eyes were clear. Finally he said:

“You didn’t think I’d do it, Jake.”

“Not really. You did do it?”

“You know I did.”

Jake smiled, nodded, and crossed his arms.

“How do you feel?”

Carl Lee sat back in the folding chair.

“Well, I feel better. I don’t feel good about the whole thing. But then I don’t feel good about what happened to my girl, you know?”

“Are you scared?”

“Of what?”

“How about the electric chair?”

“No, Jake, that’s why I’ve got you. I don’t plan to go to the chair. You helped Lester, now you can do it for me, Jake.”

“It’s not quite that easy, Carl Lee. You just don’t shoot a person, or two people, tell the jury they needed to be killed, and expect to walk out of the courtroom.”

“You did with Lester.”

“But every case is different. And the big difference here is that you killed two white boys and Lester killed a nigger. Big difference.”

“You scared, Jake?”

“Why should I be scared? I’m not facing the electric chair.”

“You don’t sound too confident.”

You big, stupid fool, thought Jake. How could he be confident at a time like this? Sure, he was confident before the killings, but now it was different. His client was facing the electric chair for a crime which everyone knew he did. And that was only the beginning of his problems. Carl Lee was a black who had killed two whites in a mainly white county, Rufus Buckley would be the prosecutor, and Rufus would do everything he could to win. It was personal between him and Jake. And there was going to be a problem about money.

Jake hated to discuss professional costs, but he knew he had to do it immediately. Clients wanted to know about his charges, and most were shocked at how expensive the law could be. After he had talked about Carl Lee’s family and how they were, Jake started to talk about preparing for the trial. Carl Lee made it easy for him and asked how much all of that was going to cost.

Jake looked at the file and the contract he had brought with him and thought desperately of a fair amount. There were other lawyers out there who would take such a case for almost nothing - nothing except publicity. He thought about the land Carl Lee owned, the job at the paper factory, and his family, and finally said, “Ten thousand.”

Carl Lee did not seem too worried, though he said, “You charged Lester five thousand.”

They finally agreed on seven thousand, five hundred. After Jake filled out the contract and Carl Lee signed, Carl Lee asked:

“Jake, how much would you charge a man with plenty of money?”

“Fifty thousand.”

“Fifty thousand! Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“Man, that’s a lot of money. Did you ever get that much?”

“No, but I haven’t seen too many people on trial for murder with that kind of money.”

Once he had finished talking with his client, Jake left the sheriff’s office and walked toward the reporters with their microphones and cameras. Although he pretended he wanted to get away from them, he stopped for enough time to stand in front of the cameras and answer ten or more questions. Ozzie and the deputies watched from inside.

“Jake loves cameras,” the sheriff said.

“All lawyers do,” added one of the deputies.

After a cold supper, Jake and his wife sat at the front of their house and looked out at the garden. They talked about the case. Jake’s interview was too late for the early evening news, so he and Carla waited for the ten o’clock program. And there he was, looking fit and handsome. Jake thought he looked great on TV and he was excited to be there. He felt good. He enjoyed the publicity. And when Carl Lee Hailey was found not guilty of the murder of the two white men who raped his daughter, before an all-white jury in rural Mississippi…

“What’re you smiling about?” asked Carla.

“Nothing.”

“Sure. You’re thinking about the trial, and the cameras, and the reporters, and walking out of the courthouse with Carl Lee a free man, reporters chasing you with the TV cameras, everyone congratulating you. I know exactly what you’re thinking about.”

“Then why did you ask?”

“To see if you’d admit it.”

“OK. I admit it. This case could make me famous and make us a million dollars.”

“If you win.”

Next morning, Tuesday, Jake ate his usual breakfast at the Coffee Shop. He noticed that some of the regular customers were quieter with him than normal, but he hoped this would change when Deputy Looney was out of hospital. Looney was well liked by the other customers, and Jake knew that there were some who would not be happy about him defending Carl Lee. He spent the rest of the morning making arrangements for the trial, and talking to a TV reporter from Memphis. He went home feeling a lot happier.

On Wednesday, at 10 a.m., the two rapists were buried. The minister struggled desperately for something comforting to say to the small crowd. The service was short and with few tears.

Afterward, friends came to the Cobb’s house. The men sat around in the back yard while the women looked after Mrs. Cobb. The men drank whiskey and talked about the good times when niggers knew their place. Then one cousin said he knew someone who used to be active in the Ku Klux Klan, and he might give him a call. Cobb’s grandfather had been in the Klan, the cousin explained, and when he and Billy Ray were children the old man told stories about hanging niggers in Ford and Tyler Counties. They should do the same thing the nigger had done.

Maybe the Klan would be interested.

In the courtroom, the groups of blacks and whites sat opposite each other and watched the machinery of justice at work. Ozzie Walls was the first witness. He gave a clear report of what had happened when Cobb and Willard were killed and what had happened after. He talked about the shooting, the bodies, the wounds, the gun, the fingerprints on the gun and the fingerprints of the defendant. Other witnesses followed and told how they had seen Carl Lee shoot the two men and walk out of the courthouse.

It was clear that he had killed the men who raped his daughter, and Jake did not ask any questions. Carl Lee was handed to the sheriff to be held until the trial, and everyone left the courtroom. Jake got ready to talk to the reporters who had already started to crowd around the courtroom doors.

Later on Wednesday night, the doctors had to remove Looney’s leg below the knee. They called Ozzie at the jail, and he told Carl Lee.

Rufus Buckley looked through the Thursday morning papers and read with great interest the report of the previous day’s events in Ford County. He was delighted to see his name mentioned by the reporters and by Mr. Brigance. He didn’t like Brigance, but he was glad Jake used his name in front of the cameras and reporters. For two days Brigance and Carl Lee had had all the publicity: it was time the prosecutor was mentioned.

Rufus Buckley was forty-one, and very ambitious. He wanted a big public position - maybe, even, Governor. He had it all planned, but he was not well known outside the district. He needed to be seen, and heard. He needed publicity. Rufus needed, more than anything else, to win a big, nasty, well- publicized murder trial.

On the same Thursday morning, Jake was reading the same newspaper. He was interrupted by his secretary, Ethel, who came and stood in front of the big desk.

“Mr. Brigance, my husband and I received a threatening phone call last night, and I’ve just had the second one here at the office. I don’t like this.”

Jake pointed to a chair.

“Sit down, Ethel. What did these people say?”

“They threatened me because I work for you. Said I’d be sorry because I worked for a nigger lover. They threatened to harm you and your family too. I’m just scared.”

Jake was worried too, but did not show it to Ethel. He had called Ozzie on Wednesday and reported the calls to his own house.

He advised her to change her number, but she did not want to do that. She wanted him to stop defending Carl Lee. Jake refused, and the conversation ended, like so many conversations he had with Ethel, in disagreement.

An hour later, Ethel called him to say that Lucien, the man who had given Jake the law business, had asked Jake to come to his house with some recent cases. Lucien came to the office or called once a month. He read cases and kept up to date with developments in the law. He had little else to do except drink his whiskey. He looked forward to Jake’s monthly visits, when he could hear about the world he used to work in and give advice to the only man who now listened to him. The advice was, in fact, surprisingly good, and Jake could never understand how Lucien knew so much.

Later on Thursday, therefore, Jake parked the Saab behind Lucien’s old Porsche, walked up to the house and handed the cases to him. Lucien offered whiskey, then wine, then beer, but Jake did not accept any. Carla did not like drinking, and Lucien knew it.

“Congratulations.”

“For what?” Jake asked.

“For the Hailey case.”

“Why are you congratulating me?”

“I never had such a big case, and I had some big ones.”

“What do you mean by ‘big’?”

“Lots of publicity. That’s what makes a lawyer successful, Jake. If you’re unknown, you don’t eat. When people get in trouble, they call a lawyer - and they call someone they’ve heard of. You must sell yourself to the public. And you’ve got to try to get the trial moved to another county. Without enough blacks on the jury, you won’t have a chance! This county is 26 percent black. Every other county in the district is at least 30 percent black. Van Buren County is 40 percent, that means more black jurors. If the trial is here, there’s a risk of an all-white jury, and believe me, I’ve seen enough all-white juries in this county. At the very least you need one black.”

Jake felt that it was not going to be easy to get Judge Noose to move the trial, and said so to Lucien.

“That’s not a problem,” he replied. “The main thing is to ask. Then, when they find that poor man guilty, you can claim he did not have a fair trial because the judge refused to move.”

“So you don’t feel too optimistic about Carl Lee’s chances.”

Lucien thought for a moment.

“Not really. It will be difficult.”

“Why?”

“Looks like it was planned. Right?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sure you’ll say he was insane.”

“I don’t know.”

“You must,” said Lucien. “There is no other possible defense. You can’t say it was an accident. You can’t say he shot those two boys with a machine gun in self-defense, can you?”

“No.”

“You won’t tell the jury he was at home with his family?”

“Of course not.”

“Then what other defense do you have? You must say he was crazy!”

“But, Lucien, he was not insane, and there’s no way I can find a psychiatrist who will say he was. He planned it - every detail.”

Lucien smiled and took a drink.

“That’s why you’re in trouble, my boy - but you’re still lucky to have the case.”

“You really think so?” asked Jake.

“I’m serious. It’s a lawyer’s dream. Win it and you’re famous. It could make you rich.”

“I’ll need your help.”

“You’ve got it. I need something to do.”

The next day, Friday, Lester came into Jake’s office and told him the family could only raise nine hundred dollars to pay for Carl Lee’s defense. All of the banks in town had refused to lend money.

“Wonderful,” thought Jake. “My family and my secretary are getting threatening phone calls. My best friend tells me I can’t win the case, and now I’m only going to get nine hundred dollars for a case which is going to stop me doing any other work for weeks. Wonderful.”