A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance #3) - John Grisham Page 0,74

a million-dollar verdict.”

“There’s always the first time, Pitt. I’ll bet we can find twelve people who haven’t heard about the murder.”

Doby laughed and Harry Rex was forced to do the same. “Hell, Harry Rex, you can’t find two people who don’t know about it.”

“Maybe, but we’ll do our research. Noose’ll give us plenty of time to pick a jury.”

“I’m sure he will. Look, Harry Rex, I want you to get some big bucks, some of that dirty insurance money, okay? A nice settlement that’ll take the pressure off. But to do so, Brigance has got to get rid of that kid. Right now that case is a liability, at least in the minds of Sean Gilder and Walter Sullivan.”

“We’re working on it.”

18

It was well known that the law business peaked at noon each Friday and then shut down. The lawyers who normally clogged the halls of the courthouse vanished after lunch. Most of them fibbed to their secretaries and left for the country stores where they bought cold beer and roamed the back roads in blessed solitude. With the phones silent and the bosses gone, the secretaries often sneaked away too. No self-respecting judge would be caught dead in a robe on Friday afternoon. Most went fishing or played golf. The clerks who generally milled about laden with important documents ran errands across the street and didn’t come back, instead easing away to beauty parlors and grocery stores. By mid-afternoon, the wheels of justice ground to a halt.

Jake was planning to call Harry Rex to explore the possibility of a drink to catch up on things. At 3:30, he was done for the week and contemplating which excuse to feed Portia so he could leave without appearing shiftless. He still thought it was important to lead by example and she was quite impressionable. However, after working there for two years Portia knew his schedule and his lame excuses.

She buzzed him at 3:40 and said there was someone to see him. No, the person had not made an appointment. Yes, she realized it was Friday afternoon, but it was Pastor Charles McGarry and he told her the matter was urgent.

Jake welcomed him to his office and they sat in a corner, Charles on the old leather sofa, Jake in a chair that was at least a hundred years old. The preacher declined coffee or tea and was obviously troubled. He told the story of driving Josie and Kiera to Whitfield on Tuesday, leaving them there, and fetching them the following day. Jake knew all this. He had spoken twice with Dr. Sadie Weaver and knew the family had spent almost seven hours in three sessions.

Charles said, “When we were driving down early Tuesday, Kiera got sick and threw up twice. Josie said she always got car sick real easy. I didn’t think much about it. When I went back to get them at Whitfield on Wednesday, one of the nurses told me that Kiera had been sick that morning, nausea, throwing up, you know? I thought it was unusual because she had not been in a car that morning. They had a room on the campus. Driving home Wednesday afternoon she was fine. Yesterday morning, Mrs. Golden, the lady who’s tutoring her at church, said she got sick again and threw up. And not for the first time. I told my wife, Meg, about it and, well, you know how women are usually smarter than we are? Well, Meg and I have one child and she’s due with our second in two months. We are so blessed and very excited. She had one of those home pregnancy tests left over from last year.”

Jake was nodding. He had purchased several since Hanna arrived, and the results had always been negative, to their great disappointment.

“Meg agreed to have a chat with Josie. Kiera took the test and it’s positive. I drove them to a doctor in Tupelo this morning. She’s three months along. Wouldn’t tell the doctor or his nurse anything about the father.”

Jake felt like he’d been mule-kicked in the gut.

The preacher was on a roll. “Driving back this morning, she got sick again and threw up in my car. What a mess. Poor girl. We got her back to the church and Josie put her to bed. She and Meg took turns sitting with her until she felt better. She had some soup for lunch and we all just sat around in the kitchen and she started talking, you know.