A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance #3) - John Grisham Page 0,131

headlights from the pickup and the car in front of it reflected off the bright yellow warning strips attached to each boxcar. Suddenly there was an explosion. The pickup hit the brakes, as did Nickel. He got out and raced to the crossing and saw the small car had flipped 180 degrees and was facing him, its front crumpled into an ugly mess. The train was still passing, clicking along at a reasonable speed as if nothing had happened. The driver of the truck, a Mr. Grayson, was yelling and flailing his arms as he ran around the car. Inside there was a mess. The driver—a man—and his woman passenger were crushed, mangled, bleeding. A little boy and little girl were crushed in the rear seat and apparently dead. Nickel walked to some weeds and vomited as the train finally cleared. Another car stopped, then another, and as they crowded around the wreck they realized they could do nothing. The train stopped and began to slowly come back, in reverse. “They’re dead, they’re all dead,” Grayson kept saying as he circled the wreck. The other drivers were as horrified as Nickel. Then there were sirens, and plenty of them. The responders quickly realized there was no urgency—all four were dead. Nickel wanted to leave but the highway was blocked. He wasn’t from the area and didn’t know the back roads, so he waited and watched with the crowd. For three hours he stood off to the side and watched as the firemen cut and sawed and removed the bodies. It was a horrible scene, one he would never forget. He’d had nightmares.

With this beautiful gift in hand, Sean Gilder slowly and meticulously walked Nickel through his testimony again, nailing down every detail. He handed him large photos of the crossing lights, but Nickel said he didn’t think to observe them in the chaos. They were flashing away at the time of the collision and that was all that mattered.

Sadly, at least for the plaintiffs, Nickel was far more credible than Hank Grayson, who still maintained that the lights were not flashing and he himself didn’t see the train until he almost crashed into the Smallwood vehicle.

Having far too much fun, Gilder then moved to events that took place months after the accident. In particular, the meeting with a private investigator at Nickel’s office in Nashville. Nickel had been surprised that someone had found him. The investigator said he was working for a lawyer in Clanton but did not give his name. Nickel cooperated fully and told the investigator the same story he had just testified to under oath, leaving out no details. The investigator thanked him and went away, never to be heard from again. Back in February, he had been traveling near Clanton and decided to stop by the courthouse. He asked about the lawsuit and was told that the file was a public record. He spent two hours with it and realized that Hank Grayson was sticking to his original story. Nickel was bothered by this but still did not want to get involved because he had sympathy for the Smallwoods. However, over time he felt compelled to come forward.

In the deposition game, some lawyers played all their cards and flushed out every detail. Their goal was to win the deposition. Gilder was in that camp. Better lawyers held back and didn’t reveal their strategies. They saved their best shots for trial. Great lawyers often skipped the depositions altogether and plotted brutal cross-examinations.

Jake had no questions for the witness. He could have asked Nickel why, as an eyewitness, he said nothing to the police. The scene was crawling with deputies and there were two state troopers working the crowd, but Nickel had offered nothing. He stood silently by and kept his mouth shut. His name appeared in none of the reports.

Jake could have asked him a question that was so obvious, yet had so far been missed by Gilder and his team. The train cleared the crossing, stopped, and backed up because the engineer had heard a thud. On the track, trains ran both ways. Why, then, did the lights not work when the train approached from the other direction, in reverse? Jake had statements from a dozen witnesses who swore the lights were not flashing while the train sat nearby and the rescue was underway. Gilder, either overconfident or just lazy, had not spoken to these witnesses.

Jake could have asked him about his past. Nickel