A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance #3) - John Grisham Page 0,118

wants a death verdict and the gas chamber. My job is to fight it.”

Atlee nodded and took another sip. “You said you needed a favor.”

“Yes sir. I don’t think it’s fair to try the kid in this county. It will be impossible to pick an impartial jury. Do you agree?”

“I don’t deal with juries, Jake. You know that.”

Jake also knew that Judge Atlee knew more about the case than all but a handful of people. “But you know the county, Judge, better than anyone. I plan to ask for a change of venue, and I need your help.”

“In what way?”

“Talk to Noose. You guys have a way of communicating that few people know about. You just said that he called you looking for advice on who to appoint. Lean on him to change venue.”

“To where?”

“Anywhere but here. He’ll keep jurisdiction because it’s his case and it’s high-profile. Doesn’t want to miss the fun. Plus, he might have an opponent next year and he wants to look good.”

“Buckley?”

“That’s the rumor. Buckley’s making noises down there.”

“Buckley’s a fool and he got slaughtered in his last election.”

“True, but no sitting judge wants an election.”

“I’ve never had one,” he said a bit too smugly. No lawyer with half a brain would challenge Reuben Atlee.

Jake said, “Noose refused to change venue in Carl Lee Hailey’s trial, and his reasoning was that it was so notorious that everybody in the state knew the details. He was probably right. This is different. A dead cop is a big story. Tragic and all, but it happens. The headlines go away. I’ll bet the folks up in Milburn County aren’t talking about it.”

“I was there last week. Not a word.”

“It’s different here. The Kofers have lots of friends. Ozzie and his boys are pissed. They’ll keep things stirred up.”

His Honor was nodding. He took another sip and said, “I’ll talk to Noose.”

28

After another round of verbal abuse from Harry Rex, Stan managed to convince his boss down in Jackson to reduce the payment to $25,000. Jake raided his savings and wrote a check for half. Harry Rex found some money and wrote his own, along with a handwritten note vowing to never speak to Stan again. He stopped just short of threatening to punch him the next time he saw him on the square.

Harry Rex was still confident they would get something out of the Smallwood case, if only a nuisance settlement to save the railroad the costs of defending a big trial. When that trial might take place no one knew. Sean Gilder and the railroad boys were up to their patented stall game and claimed to still be searching for just the right expert. Noose had pushed them hard for over a year, but since Jake’s debacle in discovery he had lost interest in a speedy trial. Gilder’s partner, Doby Pittman, had intimated that the railroad might consider a nuisance settlement to make the case go away. “Something like a hundred grand,” he whispered over more drinks in Jackson.

In the unlikely event that the railroad and its insurance company did in fact write a check, the litigation expenses—now at $72,000 and change—would be reimbursed first. Whatever was left would be divided, with two-thirds going to Grace Smallwood and one-third to Jake and Harry Rex. The fee would be paltry but at least they would have dodged a bullet with their ill-fated “Tort Sport” loan.

However, Doby Pittman wasn’t calling the shots and had been wrong before. Sean Gilder showed no signs of backing off and seemed confident of a glorious courtroom victory.

* * *

—

ON FRIDAY, June 8, Lowell Dyer and Jerry Snook, along with Ozzie and his investigator, Kirk Rady, settled into the main conference room of Jake’s office suite. Across the table, Jake sat with Josie on one side and Kiera on the other.

For the meeting, the girl was wearing a pair of loose-fitting jeans and a bulky sweatshirt. Though the temperature was close to ninety, no one seemed to notice that the sweatshirt seemed out of place. Jake and Josie assumed that everyone in the room knew that the family was wearing secondhand clothing that had been donated. She was six months pregnant with a small baby bump that was well concealed.

After an attempt at a few awkward pleasantries, Dyer began by explaining to Kiera that since she was a witness to the crime, she might be called by the State to testify. “Do you understand this?” he asked, somewhat delicately.

She nodded and softly