A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance #3) - John Grisham Page 0,127

The private adoption would take place in Oxford, in a different judicial district, and in a closed proceeding where the file could be sealed, and there was a good chance that most of the townsfolk, the very people Jake claimed to now care nothing for, would never know the details.

Though he avoided discussing it, Jake was concerned about the expense. Hanna was nine and they had not yet started saving for her college. Indeed, their meager savings had just been raided and their financial future looked grim. Adding a child would require Carla to stay at home for at least the next year or two, and they needed her salary.

The Gambles could damn well bankrupt him. Notwithstanding Noose’s rather screwball scheme to get him compensated for the trial, he expected to be paid very little. The first loan to Josie was for $800 and a new transmission. The second was $600 to cover the deposit on the apartment, the first month’s rent, and hooking up the utilities. The landlord wanted a six-month lease, which Jake signed in his name. Same for the phone, gas, and electricity. Nothing was in Josie’s name, and he advised her to find a job as a waitress and work for cash and tips. The bill collectors would have trouble finding her. There was nothing illegal about this arrangement but he didn’t feel entirely comfortable with it. Under the circumstances, though, he had no choice.

When Josie left Ford County two weeks earlier, she was working three part-time jobs and had proven adept at hustling for low wages. She promised to repay every dime, but Jake had his doubts. Her rent was $300 a month and she was determined to pay at least half of it.

The next loan would be to cover Kiera’s medical care. She was almost seven months along and so far there had been no complications. Jake had no idea what it would cost.

On a troubling note, Josie had mentioned, on the phone, the issue of money for the adoption. Jake had explained that the adopting parents always cover the costs of the delivery and the lawyer’s fees. Josie would be expected to pay nothing. She then beat around the bush for a few minutes and asked, “Is there anything in the deal for the mother?” In other words, exchanging money for the baby.

Jake had anticipated this and quickly replied, “No, that’s not permissible.”

Although it was. He had handled an adoption years earlier in which the prospective parents agreed to pay an additional $5,000 to the young mother, which was not unheard of in private adoptions. Agencies charged a fee and some of the money was quietly routed to the mother. However, the last thing he wanted was for Josie to get wild ideas and dream of making a profit. He had assured her that he and Pastor McGarry would find a nice home for the baby. No need for her to go shopping around.

* * *

—

THEY PARKED ON the square and did a loop, checking the windows of the shops they had known in college. They browsed through Square Books and had coffee upstairs on the porch while gazing at the courthouse lawn where Mr. Faulkner once sat alone and watched the town. At noon they went to a deli and bought sandwiches for lunch.

The apartment building was a few blocks off the square, on a side street crammed with cheap student housing. Jake had lived nearby for three years during law school.

Josie answered the door with a huge smile, obviously delighted to see someone she knew. She invited them in and proudly showed off her new coffee machine, one given to her by the ladies of Good Shepherd. When Charles McGarry informed them that Josie and Kiera would be moving away and into their own apartment, the entire church gathered a collection of used bedsheets, towels, dishes, more clothing, and a few small appliances. The apartment was furnished with the bare basics—sofas, chairs, beds, and tables that had been abused by long-forgotten college students.

As they sat at the kitchen table and had coffee, Kiera appeared and gave them hugs. In a T-shirt and shorts, her pregnancy was becoming obvious, though Carla later said she was showing little to be that far along. She said she felt fine, was bored with no television, but was reading a lot of paperbacks donated by the church.

Not surprisingly, Josie had already landed a job waiting tables at a diner north of town. Twenty hours