Sycamore Row

professor at the University of Virginia and had managed to live a peaceful, productive life, so far. Forrest, the younger, had not. Both had been shipped back east for boarding school, and thus were not well known in Clanton. Forrest was battling addictions and this weighed heavy on his father, who knocked back two whiskey sours in the first twenty minutes.
    Jake paced himself. When the timing was right, he said, “I think our jury pool is contaminated, Judge. The Lang name is toxic around here and I don’t think Lettie can get a fair trial.”
    “That convict should’ve had his license yanked anyway, Jake. I hear you and Ozzie were stalling his DUI. I don’t like that at all.”
    Jake felt stung and took a deep breath. As a Chancellor, Reuben Atlee had absolutely no jurisdiction over drunk driving cases in the county, though, as always, he assumed they were his business.
    Jake said, “That’s not true, Judge, but even if Simeon Lang had no license he would’ve been driving anyway. A valid license is not important to those people. Ozzie set up a roadblock three months ago on a Friday night. Sixty percent of the blacks had no driver’s license and 40 percent of the whites.”
    “I fail to see the relevance,” Judge Atlee replied, and Jake was not about to enlighten him. “He was caught driving drunk in October. If his case had been processed in an orderly manner through the courts,he would not have had a driver’s license. There’s a reasonable chance to believe he would not have been driving on Tuesday night of last week.”
    “I’m not his lawyer, Judge. Not now, not then.”
    Both rattled their ice cubes and let the moment pass. Judge Atlee took a sip and said, “File your motion to change venue if you wish. I can’t stop you.”
    “I’d like for the motion to be taken seriously. I get the impression you made up your mind some time ago. Things have changed.”
    “I take everything seriously. We’ll learn a lot when we start picking a jury. If it appears as though folks know too much about the case, then I’ll call time-out and we’ll deal with it. I thought I had explained this already.”
    “You have, yes sir.”
    “What happened to our pal Stillman Rush? He sent over a fax Monday and informed me he was no longer counsel of record for Herschel Hubbard.”
    “He got fired. Wade Lanier has been maneuvering for months, trying to consolidate the contestants into his camp. Looks like he scored big.”
    “Not much of a loss. Just one less lawyer to deal with. I found Stillman less than impressive.”
    Jake bit his tongue and managed to say nothing. If His Honor wanted to trash another lawyer, Jake was certainly willing to participate. But he had a hunch that nothing else would be said, not by the old guy.
    “Have you met this fella Arthur Welch, from Clarksdale?” Judge Atlee asked.
    “No sir. I just know he’s a friend of Harry Rex’s.”
    “We spoke by phone this morning and he says he’ll represent Mr. Lang in the divorce also, though there won’t be much to do. He says his client will agree to waive everything and get it over with. Not that it matters. With his bail, and the charges, he won’t be getting out anytime soon.”
    Jake nodded in agreement. Arthur Welch was doing exactly what Harry Rex told him to do, and Harry Rex was briefing Jake on all of it.
    “Thanks for granting the restraining order,” Jake said. “That certainly read well in the newspaper.”
    “It seems rather foolish to tell a man who’s in jail and locked up fora while that he can’t get near his wife and family, but not everything I do makes sense.”
    True, Jake thought, but said nothing. They watched the grass bend with the wind and the leaves scatter. Judge Atlee sipped his drink and thought about what he’d just said. Changing the subject, he asked, “Any news on Ancil Hubbard?”
    “Nothing, really. We’ve spent $30,000 so far and still don’t know if he’s alive. The pros suspect he is, though, primarily because they can find no evidence that he’s ever died. But they’re digging.”
    “Stay after it. I’m still cautious about proceeding to trial without something definite.”
    “We really should delay it for a few months, Judge, while we finish the search.”
    “And while the people around here get over the Roston tragedy.”
    “That too.”
    “Bring it up when we meet on March 20. I’ll consider it then.”
    Jake took a deep breath and said, “Judge, I need to hire a jury