"The sheriff and the mayor called the governor, and convinced him the National Guard was needed to preserve peace in Ford County. They told him our hospital is not large enough for this trial."
"Where are they from?"
"Booneville and Columbus. I counted two hundred and twenty around lunch."
"They've been here all day?"
"They woke me at five this morning. I've followed their movements all day. They were pinned down a couple of times, but reinforcements arrived. A few minutes ago they met the enemy when Miss Gatewood and her friends arrived with their candles. She stared them down, so now they're playing cards."
Ellen finished her drink and left for more. Jake picked up the stack of notecards for the hundredth time and flashed them on the table. Name, age, occupation, family, race, education-he had read and repeated the information since early morning. Round Two arrived with haste, and she took the cards.
"Correen Hagan," she said, sipping.
He thought a second. "Age, about fifty-five. Secretary for an insurance agent. Divorced, two grown children. Education, probably high school, no more. Native of Florida, for what that's worth."
"Rating?"
"I think I gave her a six."
"Very good. Millard Sills."
"Owns a pecan orchard near Mays. About seventy years old. His nephew was shot in the head by two blacks during a robbery in Little Rock several years ago. Hates blacks. He will not be on the jury."
"Rating?"
"Zero, I believe."
"Clay Bailey."
"Age, about thirty. Six kids. Devout Pentecostal. Works at the furniture plant west of town."
"You've given him a ten."
"Yeah. I'm sure he's read that part in the Bible about an eye for an eye, etc. Plus, out of six kids, I'd think at least two would be daughters."
"Do you have all of them memorized?"
He nodded and took a drink. "I feel like I've known them for years."
"How many will you recognize?"
"Very few. But I'll know more about them than Buck-ley."
"I'm impressed."
"What! What did you say! I have impressed you with my intellect!"
"Among other things."
"I feel so honored. I've impressed a genius in criminal law. The daughter of Sheldon Roark, whoever he is. A real live summa cum laude. Wait'111 tell Harry Rex."
"Where is that elephant? I miss him. I think he's cute."
"Go call him. Ask him to join us for a patio party as we watch the troops prepare for the Third Battle of Bull Run."
She headed for the phone on Jake's desk. "What about Lucien?"
"No! I'm tired of Lucien."
Harry Rex brought a fifth of tequila he found somewhere deep in his liquor cabinet. He and the law clerk argued violently over the proper ingredients of a good margarita. Jake voted with his clerk.
They sat on the balcony, calling names from index cards, drinking the tangy concoction, yelling at the soldiers, and singing Jimmy Buffet songs. At midnight, Nesbit loaded Ellen in his patrol car and took her to Lucien's. Harry Rex walked home. Jake slept on the couch.
Monday, July 22. Not long after the last margarita Jake bolted from the couch and stared at the clock on his desk. He had slept for three hours. A swarm of wild butterflies fought violently in his stomach. A nervous pain shot through his groin. He had no time for a hangover.
Nesbit slept like an infant behind the wheel. Jake roused him and jumped in the back seat. He waved at the sentries, who watched curiously from across the street. Nesbit drove two blocks to Adams, released his passenger, and waited in the driveway as instructed. He showered and shaved quickly. He chose a charcoal worsted wool suit, a white pinpoint button-down, and a very neutral, noncontro-versial, expressionless burgundy silk tie with a few narrow navy stripes for good measure. The pleated pants hung perfectly from his trim waist. He looked great, much more stylish than the enemy.
Nesbit was asleep again when Jake released the dog and jumped in the back seat.
"Everything okay in there?" Nesbit asked, wiping the saliva from his chin.
"I didn't find any dynamite, if that's what you mean."
Nesbit laughed at this, with the same irritating, laughing response he made to almost everything. They circled the square and Jake got out in front of his office. Thirty minutes after he left, he turned on the front lights and made the coffee.
He took four aspirin and drank a quart of grapefruit juice. His eyes burned and his head ached from abuse and fatigue, and the tiring part had not yet begun. On the conference table he spread out his file on Carl Lee Hailey. It had been organized and indexed by his law clerk, but he wanted to break it down and put it back together. If a document or case can't be found in thirty seconds, it's no good. He smiled at Jier talent for organization. She had files and sub-files on everything, all ten seconds away at a fingertip. In a one-inch, three-ring notebook she had a summary of Dr. Bass's qualifi-
cations and the outline of his testimony. She had made notes on anticipated objections from Buckley, and provided case authority to fight his objections. Jake took great pride in his trial preparation, but it was humbling to learn from a third-year law student.
He repacked the file in his trial briefcase, the heavy black leather one with his initials in gold on the side. Nature called, and he sat on the toilet flipping through the index cards. He knew them all. He was ready.
A few minutes after five, Harry Rex knocked on the door. It was dark and he looked like a burglar.
"Whatta you doing up so early?" Jake asked.
"I couldn't sleep. I'm kinda nervous." He thrust forward a loaded paper sack with grease spots. "Dell sent these over. They're fresh and hot. Sausage biscuits, bacon and cheese biscuits, chicken and cheese biscuits, you name it. She's worried about you."
"Thanks, Harry Rex, but I'm not hungry. My system is in revolt."
"Nervous?"
"As a whore in church."
"You look pretty haggard."
"Thanks."
"Nice suit though."
"Carla picked it out."
Harry Rex reached into the sack and produced a handful of biscuits wrapped in foil. He piled them on the conference table and fixed his coffee. Jake sat across from him and flipped through Ellen's brief on M'Naghten.
"She write that?" Harry Rex asked with both cheeks full and his jaws grinding rapidly.
"Yeah, it's a seventy-five-page summary of the insanity defense in Mississippi. It took her three days."
"She seems very bright."
"She's got the brains, and she writes fluidly. The intellect is there, but she has trouble applying what she knows to the real world."
"Whatta you know about her?" Crumbs fell from his mouth and bounced on the table. He brushed them onto the floor with a sleeve.
"She's solid. Number two in her class at Ole Miss. I
called Nelson Battles, Assistant Dean of the Law School, and she checked out fine. She has a good chance of finishing number one."
"I finished ninety-third outta ninety-eight. I would've finished ninety-second but they caught me cheating on an exam. I started to protest, but I figured ninety-third was just as good. Hell, I figured, who cares in Clanton. These people were just glad I came back here to practice when I graduated instead of going to Wall Street or some pjace like that."
Jake smiled at the story he had heard a hundred times.
Harry Rex unwrapped a chicken and cheese biscuit. "You look nervous, buddy."
"I'm okay. The first day is always the hardest. The preparation has been done. I'm ready.. It's just a matter of waiting now."
"What time does Row Ark make her entrance?"
"I don't know."
"Lord, I wonder what she'll wear."
"Or not wear. I just hope she's decent. You know what a prude Noose is."
"You're not gonna let her sit at counsel table are you?"
"I don't think so. She'll stay in the background, sort of like you. She might offend some of the women jurors."
"Yeah, keep her there, but outta sight."
Harry Rex wiped his mouth with a huge paw. "You sleeping with her?"
"No! I'm not crazy, Harry Rex."
"You're crazy if you don't. That woman could be had."
"Then have her. I've got enough on my mind."
"She thinks I'm cute, don't she?"
"She says she does."
"I think I'll give it a shot," he said with a straight face, then he smiled, then he burst into laughter with crumbs spraying the bookshelves.
The phone rang. Jake shook his head, and Harry Rex picked up the receiver. "He's not here, but I'll be glad to give him the message." He winked at Jake. "Yes sir, yes sir, uh huh, yes sir. It's a terrible thing, ain't it. Can you believe a man would do it? Yes sir, yes sir, I agree one hundred percent. Yes sir, and what's your name, sir? Sir?" Harry Rex smiled at the receiver and laid it down.
"What'd he want?"
"Said you was a shame to the white race for being that nigger's lawyer, and that he didn't see how any lawyer could represent a nigger such as Hailey. And that he hoped the Klan got ahold of you, and if they didn't he hoped the bar association looked into it and took away your license for helping niggers. Said he knew you were no 'count because you were trained by Lucien Wilbanks who lives with a nigger woman."
"And you agreed with him!"
"Why not? He was really sincere, not hateful, and he feels better now that it's off his chest."
The phone rang again. Harry Rex snatched the receiver. "Jake Brigance, Attorney, Counselor, Consultant, Adviser, and Guru at Law."
Jake left for the restroom. "Jake, it's a reporter!" Harry Rex yelled.
"I'm on the potty."
"He's got the runs!" Harry Rex told the reporter.
At six-seven in Wilmington-Jake called Carla. She was awake, reading the paper, drinking coffee. He told her about Bud Twitty, and Mickey Mouse', and the promise of more violence. No, he wasn't afraid of that. It did not bother him. He was afraid of the jury, of the twelve who would be chosen, and their reaction to him and his client. His only fear, at the moment, was of what the jury might do to his client. Everything else was irrelevant. For the first time, she did not mention coming home. He promised to call that night.
When he hung up, he heard a commotion downstairs. Ellen had arrived, and Harry Rex was talking loudly. She's wearing a see-through blouse with a miniskirt, thought Jake as he walked downstairs. She was not. Harry Rex was congratulating her on dressing like a Southern woman with all the accessories. She was wearing a gray glen plaid suit with a V-necked jacket and short slim skirt. The silk blouse was black, and apparently the necessary garment was underneath. Her hair was pulled back and braided in some fashion. Incredibly, traces of mascara, eyeliner, and lipstick were visible. In the words of Harry Rex, she looked as much like a lawyer as a woman could look.
"Thanks, Harry Rex," she said. "I wish I had your taste in clothes."
"You look nice, Row Ark," Jake said.
"So do you," she said. She looked at Harry Rex, but said nothing.
"Please forgive us, Row Ark," Harry Rex said. "We're impressed because we had no idea you owned so many types of garments. We apologize for admiring you and we know how much this infuriates your little liberated heart. Yes, we're sexist pigs, but you chose to come to the South. And in the South we, as a rule, drool over well-dressed attractive females, liberated or not."
"What's in the sack?" she said.
"Breakfast."
She tore it open and unwrapped a sausage and biscuit. "No bagels?" she asked.
"What's that?" asked Harry Rex.
"Forget it."
Jake rubbed his hands together and tried to sound enthusiastic. "Well, now that we've gathered here three hours before trial, what would y'all like to do?"
"Let's make some margaritas," said Harry Rex.
"No!" said Jake.
"It'll take the edge off."
"Not me," said Ellen. "This is business."
Harry Rex unwrapped a biscuit, the last of the sack. "What happens first today?"
"After the sun comes up, we start the trial. At nine, Noose will say a few words to the jurors and we start the selection process."
"How long will it take?" asked Ellen.
"Two or three days. In Mississippi, we have the right to interrogate each juror individually in chambers. That takes time."
"Where do I sit and what do I do?"
"She certainly sounds experienced," Harry Rex said to Jake. "Does she know where the courthouse is?"
"You do not sit at counsel table," said Jake. "Just me and Carl Lee."
She wiped her mouth. "I see. Just you and the defen-
dant sitting alone, surrounded by the forces of evil, facing death alone."
"Something like that."
"My father uses that tactic occasionally."
"I'm glad you approve. You'll sit behind me, next to the railing. I'll ask Noose to allow you into chambers for the private discussions."
"What about me?" asked Harry Rex.
"Noose doesn't like you, Harry Rex. He never has. He'd have a stroke if I asked if you could go in chambers. It'd be best if you pretended we'd never met."
"Thanks."