“Hell yeah. It’s Seth’s money, if he wants to leave it to the Communist Party then it’s his business. He made it all by himself, he can damned sure give it away as he pleases. Wait till you deal with those two kids, a couple of sacks-a-shit if you ask me, and you’ll understand why Seth picked somebody else.”
“I thought you hated Seth.”
“I did ten years ago, but then I always hate the jerk on the other side. That’s what makes me so mean. I get over it eventually. Hate him or love him, he wrote a will before he died and the law has got to support that will, if in fact it’s valid.”
“Is it valid?”
“That’s up to the jury. And it’ll be attacked from every direction.”
“How would you attack the will?”
Harry Rex sat back and swung an ankle over a knee. “Been thinkin’ about that. First, I’d hire me some experts, some medical guys who’ll testify that Seth was drugged up with painkillers, that his body was ravaged by lung cancer and because of all the chemo and radiation and medications that he’d been hit with over the past year he couldn’t’ve been thinkin’ clearly. He was in horrible pain, and I’d hire me another expert to describe what pain can do to the thought process. Don’t know where these experts are, but, hell, you can hire an expert to say anything. Keep in mind, Jake, the average juror in this county barely finished high school. Not that sophisticated. Get a slick expert or a whole team of them and the jury can really get confused. Hell, I could make Seth Hubbard look like a slobbering idiot as he was stickin’ his head through that noose. Don’t you have to be crazy to hang yourself?”
“Can’t answer that.”
“Second. Seth had zipper problems, couldn’t keep his pants on. Don’t know if he ever crossed the color line, but maybe he did. If a white jury sniffs even the slightest suspicion that Seth was gettin’ somethin’ more than hot food and starched shirts from his housekeeper, then they’ll be quick to turn against Miss Lettie.”
“They can’t drag up a dead man’s sex life.”
“True, but they can nibble around the edges of Lettie’s. They can imply, infer, exaggerate, and use all manner of loose language. If she takes the witness stand, which she’s bound to do, she becomes fair game.”
“She has to testify.”
“Of course she does. And here’s the kicker, Jake. It really doesn’t matter what is said in court or who says it. The truth is that if Booker Sistrunk is in that courtroom rantin’ and showin’ his black ass in front of a white jury, then your chances are zero.”
“I’m not sure I care that much.”
“You have to care. It’s your job. It’s a big trial. And it’s a fat fee. You’re workin’ by the hour now, and gettin’ paid, and that’s rare in our world, Jake. If this thing goes to trial, then an appeal and so on, you’ll make a half-million bucks over the next three years. How many DUIs you gotta do to make that kinda money?”
“Hadn’t thought about the fee.”
“Well, every other ambulance chaser in town certainly has. It’ll be generous. A windfall for a street lawyer like you. But you need to win, Jake, and to win you gotta get rid of Sistrunk.”
“How?”
“I’m thinkin’ about that too. Just give me some time. Some damage has already been done with that damned picture in the paper, and you can bet Doofus’ll do it again next hearing. We gotta get Sistrunk bounced as soon as possible.”
To Jake, it was significant that Harry Rex was now using the word “we.” There was no one more loyal, no one he’d rather have in the foxhole. Nor was there another legal mind as cunning and devious. “Give me a day or two,” he said as he climbed to his feet. “I need a beer.”
An hour later, Jake was still at his desk when the Booker Sistrunk matter took a turn for the worse. “There’s a lawyer named Rufus Buckley on the phone,” Roxy announced through the intercom.
Jake took a deep breath and said, “Okay.” He stared at the blinking light and racked his brain for any idea as to why Buckley would be calling. They had not spoken since the trial of Carl Lee Hailey, and if their paths never again crossed both would have been content. A year earlier, during Buckley’s reelection, Jake had quietly supported his opponent, as had most of the lawyers in Clanton, if not the entire Twenty-Second Judicial District. Over a twelve-year career, Buckley had managed to alienate almost every lawyer in the five-county district. The payback was sweet, and now the former hard-charging DA with statewide ambitions was stuck at home in Smithfield, an hour down the road, where he was rumored to be puttering around a small office on Main Street doing wills and deeds and no-fault divorces.
“Hello Governor,” Jake said in a deliberate effort to resume hard feelings. Three years had not diminished his low regard for the man.
“Well, hello, Jake,” Buckley said politely. “I was hoping we could forgo the cheap shots.”
“Sorry, Rufus, didn’t mean anything by it.” But of course he did. At one point not too long ago a lot of people called him Governor. “What are you up to these days?”
“Just practicing law and taking it easy. I do more oil and gas than anything else.”
Sure you do. Buckley had spent most of his adult life trying to convince folks that his wife’s family’s natural gas leases were the source of immense wealth. They were not. The Buckleys lived far below their pretensions.
“That’s nice. What’s on your mind?”
“Just got off the phone with a Memphis lawyer named Booker Sistrunk. I believe you’ve met him. Seems to be a nice guy. Anyway, he’s associating me as Mississippi counsel in the Seth Hubbard case.”
“Why would he pick you, Rufus?” Jake asked impulsively as his shoulders sagged.