The Chamber (Page 30)

"I’ll be fine. Mr. Goodman and those guys up there will help me."

Cooley jumped to his feet and rubbed his hands as if he wasn’t sure what else to do with them. "Well, uh, Darlene will be your secretary. She’s actually in a pool, but I’ve sort of assigned her to you. She’ll give you a key, give you the scoop on parking, security, phones, copiers, the works. All state of the art. Really good stuff. If you need a paralegal, just let me know. We’ll steal one from one of the other guys, and – "

"No, that won’t be necessary. Thanks."

"Well, then, let’s go look at your office."

Adam followed Cooley down the quiet and empty hallway, and smiled to himself as he thought of the offices in Chicago. There the halls were always filled with harried lawyers and busy secretaries. Phones rang incessantly, and copiers and faxes and intercoms beeped and buzzed and gave the place the atmosphere of an arcade. It was a madhouse for ten hours a day. Solitude was found only in the alcoves of the libraries, or maybe in the corners of the building where the partners worked.

This place was as quiet as a funeral parlor. Cooley pushed open a door and flipped on a switch. "How’s this?" he asked, waving his arm in a broad circle. The room was more than adequate, a long narrow office with a beautiful polished table in the center and five chairs on each side. At one end, a makeshift workplace with a phone, computer, and executive’s chair had been arranged. Adam walked along the table, glancing at the bookshelves filled with neat but unused law books. He peeked through the curtains of the window. "Nice view," he said, looking three floors below at the pigeons and people on the Mall.

"Hope it’s adequate," Cooley said.

"It’s very nice. It’ll work just fine. I’ll keep to myself and stay out of your way."

"Nonsense. If you need anything, just give me a call." Cooley was walking slowly toward Adam. "There is one thing, though," he said with his eyebrows suddenly serious.

Adam faced him. "What is it?"

"Got a call a couple of hours ago from a reporter here in Memphis. Don’t know the guy, but he said he’s been following the Cayhall case for years. Wanted to know if our firm was still handling the case, you know. I suggested he contact the boys in Chicago. We, of course, have nothing to do with it." He pulled a scrap of paper from his shirt pocket and handed it to Adam. It had a name and a phone number.

"I’ll take care of it," Adam said.

Cooley took a step closer and crossed his arms on his chest. "Look, Adam, we’re not trial lawyers, you know. We do the corporate work. Money’s great. We’re very low key, and we avoid publicity, you know."

Adam nodded slowly but said nothing.

"We’ve never touched a criminal case, certainly nothing as huge as this."

"You don’t want any of the dirt to rub off on you, right?"

"I didn’t say that. Not at all. No. It’s just that things are different down here. This is not Chicago. Our biggest clients happen to be some rather staid and proper old bankers, been with us for years, and, well, we’re just concerned about our image. You know what I mean?"

No.

"Sure you do. We don’t deal with criminals, and, well, we’re very sensitive about the image we project here in Memphis."

"You don’t deal with criminals?"

"Never."

"But you represent big banks?"

"Come on, Adam. You know where I’m coming from. This area of our practice is changing rapidly. Deregulation, mergers, failures, a real dynamic sector of the law. Competition is fierce among the big law firms, and we don’t want to lose clients. Hell, everybody wants banks."

"And you don’t want your clients tainted by mine?"

"Look, Adam, you’re from Chicago. Let’s keep this matter where it belongs, okay? It’s a Chicago case, handled by you guys up there. Memphis has nothing to do with it, okay?"

"This office is part of Kravitz & Bane."

"Yeah, and this office has nothing to gain by being connected to scum like Sam Cayhall."

"Sam Cayhall is my grandfather."

"Shit!" Cooley’s knees buckled and his arms dropped from his chest. "You’re lying!"

Adam took a step toward him. "I’m not lying, and if you object to my presence here, then you need to call Chicago."

"This is awful," Cooley said as he retreated and headed for the door.

"Call Chicago."

"I might do that," he said, almost to himself, as he opened the door and disappeared, mumbling something else.

Welcome to Memphis, Adam said as he sat in his new chair and stared at the blank computer screen. He placed the scrap of paper on the table and looked at the name and phone number. A sharp hunger pain hit, and he realized he hadn’t eaten in hours. It was almost four. He was suddenly weak and tired and hungry.

He gently placed both feet on the table next to the phone, and closed his eyes. The day was a blur, from the anxiety of driving to Parchman and seeing the front gate of the prison, from the unexpected meeting with Lucas Mann, to the horror of stepping onto the Row, to the fear of confronting Sam. And now the warden wanted to meet him, the press wanted to inquire, the Memphis branch of his firm wanted it all hushed up. All this, in less than eight hours.

What could he expect tomorrow?

They sat next to each other on the deep cushioned sofa with a bowl of microwave popcorn between them. Their bare feet were on the coffee table amid a half dozen empty cartons of Chinese food and two bottles of wine. They peered over their toes and watched the television. Adam held the remote control. The room was dark. He slowly ate popcorn.

Lee hadn’t moved in a long time. Her eyes were wet, but she said nothing. The video started for the second time.

Adam pushed the Pause button as Sam first appeared, in handcuffs, being rushed from the jail to a hearing. "Where were you when you heard. he was arrested?" he asked without looking at her.

"Here in Memphis," she said quietly but with a strong voice. "We had been married for a few years. I was at home. Phelps called and said there had been a bombing in Greenville, at least two people were dead. Might be the Klan. He told me to watch the news at noon, but I was afraid to. A few hours later, my mother called and told me they had arrested Daddy for the bombing. She said he was in jail in Greenville."

"How’d you react?"

"I don’t know. Stunned. Scared. Eddie got on the phone and told me that he and Mother had been instructed by Sam to sneak over to Cleveland and retrieve his car. I remember Eddie kept saying that he’d finally done it, he’d finally done it. He’d killed someone else. Eddie was crying and I started crying, and I remember it was horrible."

"They got the car."

"Yeah. No one ever knew it. It never came out during any of the trials. We were scared the cops would find out about it, and make Eddie and my mother testify. But it never happened."

"Where was I?"

"Let me see. You guys lived in a little white house in Clanton, and I’m sure you were there with Evelyn. I don’t think she was working at the time. But I’m not sure."

"What kind of work was my father doing?"

"I don’t remember. At one time he worked as a manager in an auto parts store in Clanton, but he was always changing jobs."

The video continued with clips of Sam being escorted to and from the jail and the courthouse, then there was the report that he had been formally indicted for the murders. He paused it. "Did any one of you visit Sam in jail?"

"No. Not while he was in Greenville. His bond was very high, a half a million dollars, I think."