A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance #3) - John Grisham Page 0,78

not going away with a trial, Josie.”

“Oh, I know that, Jake,” she snapped. “It never goes away with me. Everything’s a mess, always has been and I guess it always will be. I’m so sorry for this. The kids were beggin’ me to leave Stu and I wanted to. If I had known about him and Kiera we would’ve fled in the middle of the night. Don’t ask me where, but we would’ve left. I’m just so sorry.”

There was another long pause as everyone—Jake, Charles, Meg, and even Kiera—tried to think of something to say that might be comforting.

Josie said, “I didn’t mean to be short, Jake. Please understand.”

“I do. It is imperative that this pregnancy be kept absolutely quiet. I’m sure you all get this, but the question is how do we go about it. Kiera is not in school so we don’t have to worry about her friends getting suspicious. What about folks around the church here?”

Charles said, “Well, we’ll have to tell Mrs. Golden, the tutor. She’s already suspicious.”

“Can you handle that?”

“Sure.”

Josie blurted, “Well, after we get the abortion we won’t have to worry about it, will we?”

Charles couldn’t hold his tongue any longer and snapped, “As long as you’re living in this church, abortion is out of the question. If she gets one, then you’ll have to leave.”

“We always leave. Jake, where’s the nearest abortion clinic?”

“Memphis.”

“How much does one cost these days?”

“Don’t know from experience, but I’ve heard it’s something like five hundred dollars.”

“Will you loan me five hundred?”

“I will not.”

“Okay, we’ll get us another lawyer.”

“I’m not sure you can find another one.”

“Oh, there are plenty out there.”

Charles said, “Everybody take a deep breath. It’s been a long day and nerves are frazzled.” A moment passed. Jake took a last sip of coffee, rose, and walked back to the sink.

He stepped to the end of the table and said, “I need to be going, but I want you to think about a scenario that’s hard to imagine. If there is an abortion, and I’m not in favor of one but that’s not my decision, then you not only destroy a life, but you also destroy valuable evidence. Kiera will be called to testify at trial. If there is an abortion, she will not be permitted to mention it, nor should she because of resentment among the jurors. She can tell the jury that Stuart Kofer raped her, repeatedly, but other than her word, she cannot prove it. The police were never called. However, if she is obviously pregnant, or if she has already given birth, then the baby will be powerful evidence of Kofer’s rapes. And Kiera will create enormous sympathy not only for herself, but, and more importantly, for her brother. Carrying the baby will be a huge factor in Drew’s favor at trial.”

“So she has the baby to save her brother?” Josie asked.

Jake replied, “She has the baby because it’s the right thing to do. And, it alone will not save her brother, but it could certainly help a very desperate cause.”

“She’s too young to get stuck raisin’ a kid,” Josie said.

“There are a lot of desperate and deserving couples, Josie,” Jake said. “I do three or four private adoptions a year and they’re my favorite cases.”

“What about its father? Not sure I’d want that gene pool.”

“Since when are we allowed to pick our parents?”

But Josie was shaking her head in disgust and disagreement. As Jake drove away, he was struck by the flashes of meanness that Josie had instinctively displayed. Not that he blamed her. She had been hardened by a life of bad choices and was desperate to provide something better for her children. She had probably gone the abortion route herself and was quietly thankful that she only had two kids to worry about. Two were proving to be enough.

* * *

—

HE ALMOST STOPPED at a country store for a beer, one for the road, a sixteen-ounce can of something ice-cold that would take him about twenty minutes to savor. Then his car phone rang. It was Carla, reminding him in clipped tones that they were supposed to leave the house in thirty minutes for dinner at the Atcavages’. He had forgotten this. She had been calling for an hour. Where had he been?

“I can explain it all later,” he said and hung up. In his sensitive cases he always struggled with how much to tell his wife. Divulging anything was technically an ethical violation, but every human, including