CHAPTER 29

I am parked in the alley between Wall and Pearl Streets, the legal center of the city. It's nearly dark and raining steadily, a drizzle with a breath of fall in it. The courthouse towers above me on its pedestal of earth, grayish-white and imposing amid the windblown oaks that surround it. Across the street, running down the block in a line, stand the offices of various law firms, all of them small, most very profitable. The most prestigious among them is Marston, Sims. Founded in 1887 by Ambrose Marston, Leo's great grandfather, the firm has handled everything from high-profile criminal cases to corporate litigation involving tens of millions of dollars. And I am parked in this alley to see whether the senior partner of the firm will commit a felony tonight.

I filed my requests for production this morning, and if Leo plans to hide or destroy any documentary evidence, the sooner he does it the better, at least from his point of view. I would like to be there when he tries. I've staked out his office because Tuscany-his fenced estate-does not lend itself to surveillance. Daniel Kelly is covering the back entrance for me, and we're in contact via handheld radios, which were among the toys he and his associates brought from Houston. Also among those toys was a Hi-8 video camera with a night-vision lens, which rests on the seat beside me. The rear entrance of the office is well lighted by a security lamp, so Kelly is using a standard camcorder borrowed from Caitlin Masters. The pistol he lent me last night lies on the seat beside the Hi-8 camera, its safety off.

"One-Adam-twelve, one-Adam-twelve." Kelly's voice crackles out of the radio. "Sitrep, please."

I laugh and press Send on my walkie-talkie. "Nothing out here but rain."

"It's like fishing. That's what my butt's telling me, anyway."

"Yeah. Maybe we'll catch something."

As I set the radio back on the passenger seat, something bangs against my window, nearly stopping my heart. I grab for the gun, knowing I'll never bring it up in time to save myself if the person outside the car means me harm.

When my eyes focus through the rivulets of water on the window, I see Caitlin Masters, her hair soaked from the rain. I let out my breath with a sigh of relief and motion for her to come around to the passenger side.

"I'm glad I wasn't trying to kill you," she says, sliding into the passenger seat. "You'd be dead."

She's wearing a windbreaker with Los Angeles Times stenciled on the chest. From the pocket she takes a barrette and puts the end in her mouth, then flips down the visor mirror above her seat. "Nothing yet?" she asks through her teeth.

"Nope."

She gathers her fine black hair and pins it in a loose bun behind her head. "There. I should have done that before I left."

She turns and gives me a dazzling smile. "Well, are you up on the day's events?"

"I'm up on my events. The rest of the world I know nothing about."

"Four TV vans covered the Whitestone suspects' walk to their arraignment. Jackson, Baton Rouge, Alexandria, and a Gulf Coast station. The courthouse looked like it was under siege. The wire services picked up all three of my stories, and they're being rerun in dozens of papers."

"That Pulitzer's getting closer every day. Which judge did the kids get?" Natchez has two criminal court judges, a white woman and a black man.

"The black one. And he gave them bail."

"On first-degree murder?"

"With a confession, no less. He set it at a million apiece, which is like a billion to those kids' families. But I heard the NAACP may put up the cash bond. Two hundred thousand."

"They might as well paint targets on the kids' backs."

Caitlin picks up the video camera, switches it on, and trains it on the polished mahogany door of Marston, Sims. It's set deep in a deep brick alcove; a brass plate on the street announces the presence of the office to the public.

"Night vision," she murmurs. "Nice. Where's Kelly?"

"Watching the back door."

She zooms in on the door, then pans the rain-slickened street. "How much are those bodyguards costing you?"

"Let's just say I'm going to have to hurry up and finish another book."

She laughs. "It's money well spent. That Kelly's been all over and done some wild things. He's cute too."

An irrational prick of jealousy irritates me. "I wouldn't know about that."

"Don't get all homophobic on me." She pokes my knee as she scans the street. "Well… here comes a familiar face."

"Where?" I turn the ignition key and flip on the windshield wipers.

"Our side of the street."

Now I see. A woman is jogging up the sidewalk in tight lycra warm-up pants and a tulane T-shirt.

"It's the waitress with the crush on you," says Caitlin.

"Jenny?" I lean forward and watch the dark-haired young woman approaching through the rain. It is Jenny. "Give me a break."

"I mean it. That chick is fixated on you."

Jenny jogs past the car at a good clip, not paying us the slightest bit of attention. The rain has soaked her T-shirt, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination.

"She ought to wear a sign," Caitlin says drily. "Please stare at my tits."

"I'm surprised you'd comment, after the blouse you wore the day you interviewed me."

Caitlin takes her eye away from the viewfinder and gives me an elfin smile. "That was different. I was trying to distract you."

"It worked."

"It always does. I'm really rather modest."

"Modesty isn't what comes to mind when I think of you."

Her smile changes subtly. "You don't really know me very well, do you?"

She reaches over and switches off the engine, killing the windshield wipers. "Any word on when Ruby Flowers's funeral will take place?"

Her quick segues are hard for me to follow. "Mose-Mr. Flowers-is thinking of Sunday, but that's not set in stone."

"Sunday? But that's… five days after she died."

"That's how the blacks do it. Haven't you read your own paper's obituary column?"

"Why do they wait so long?"

"Well, they usually have to wait days for relatives who live up North to get back to Mississippi. Sometimes they have to ride the bus. Ruby has two sons in Detroit, a daughter in Chicago, and another boy in Los Angeles."

"Can't you fly them in?"

"I'll do anything Mr. Flowers asks me to do, but he hasn't asked. My father already bought Ruby's coffin and headstone, which probably cost more than the church the funeral will be held in. Personally, I think he overdid it. Ruby never wanted to stand out from her own people in life, and I don't think she'd want to in death. Why do you care when the funeral is, anyway?"

"I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, Penn, but Ruby's funeral is going to be the epicenter of a media hurricane."

"What?"

"Shad Johnson is going to speak, and there are bound to be TV trucks there-"

"Damn it, that's all wrong."

"You should thank God for small miracles. Al Sharpton called Shad this morning and offered to come down and 'help out with the Movement.' Shad told him to stay in New York."

Even as I say a silent thank-you to Shadrach Johnson, bitter gall rises into my throat.

"Take it easy," Caitlin says, touching my arm. "Tell me what you did today."

"What I did? It isn't what I did. It's what the judge did."

"Which judge?"

"The white one. Franklin. Two hours ago she set our trial date."

Caitlin goes still. "Our trial date? The libel trial?"

"Just my part of it. You don't have to worry. But my slander trial is set for next Wednesday."

"Next Wednesday? That's only"-she counts swiftly on her fingers-"six days from now!"

"Yep."

"That's ridiculous."

"I expected a quick trial date, but I thought I'd get at least a month. Simply going through the materials I've requested under discovery could take a month."