The Chamber (Page 31)

"It was a half a million."

"And at first the family tried to raise the money to bail him out. Mother, of course, wanted me to convince Phelps to write a check. Phelps, of course, said no. He wanted no part of it. We fought bitterly, but I couldn’t really blame him. Daddy stayed in jail. I remember one of his brothers trying to borrow against some land, but it didn’t work. Eddie didn’t want to go to jail to see him, and Mother wasn’t able. I’m not sure Sam wanted us there."

"When did we leave Clanton?"

Lee leaned forward and took her wineglass from the table. She sipped and thought for a moment. "He’d been in jail about a month, I believe. I drove down one day to see Mother, and she told me Eddie was talking about leaving. I didn’t believe it. She said he was embarrassed and humiliated and couldn’t face people around town. He’d just lost his job and he wouldn’t leave the house. I called him and talked to Evelyn. Eddie wouldn’t get on the phone. She said he was depressed and disgraced and all that, and I remember telling her that we all felt that way. I asked her if they were leaving, and she distinctly said no. About a week later, Mother called again and said you guys had packed and left in the middle of the night. The landlord was calling and wanting rent, and no one had seen Eddie. The house was empty."

"I wish I remembered some of this."

"You were only three, Adam. The last time I saw you you were playing by the garage of the little white house. You were so cute and sweet."

"Gee thanks."

"Several weeks passed, then one day Eddie called me and told me to tell Mother that you guys were in Texas and doing okay."

"Texas?"

"Yeah. Evelyn told me much later that y’all sort of drifted westward. She was pregnant and anxious to settle down some place. He called again and said y’all were in California. That was the last call for many years."

"Years?"

"Yeah. I tried to convince him to come home, but he was adamant. Swore he’d never return, and I guess he meant it."

"Where were my mother’s parents?"

"I don’t know. They were not from Ford County. Seems like they lived in Georgia, maybe Florida."

"I’ve never met them."

He pushed the button again and the video continued. The first trial started in Nettles County. The camera panned the courthouse lawn with the group of Klansmen and rows of policemen and swarms of onlookers.

"This is incredible," Lee said.

He stopped it again. "Did you go to the trial?"

"Once. I sneaked in the courthouse and listened to the closing arguments. He forbade us to watch any of his three trials. Mother was not able. Her blood pressure was out of control, and she was taking lots of medication. She was practically bedridden."

"Did Sam know you were there?"

"No. I sat in the back of the courtroom with a scarf over my head. He never saw me."

"What was Phelps doing?"

"Hiding in his office, tending to his business, praying no one would find out Sam Cayhall was his father-in-law. Our first separation occurred not long after this trial."

"What do you remember from the trial, from the courtroom?"

"I remember thinking that Sam got himself a good jury, his kind of people. I don’t know how his lawyer did it, But they picked twelve of the biggest rednecks they could find. I watched the jurors react to the prosecutor, and I watched them listen carefully to Sam’s lawyer."

"Clovis Brazelton."

"He was quite an orator, and they hung on every word. I was shocked when the jury couldn’t agree on a verdict and a mistrial was declared. I was convinced he would be acquitted. I think he was shocked too."

The video continued with reactions to the mistrial, with generous comments from Clovis Brazelton, with another shot of Sam leaving the courthouse. Then the second trial began with its similarities to the first. "How long have you worked on this?" she asked.

"Seven years. I was a freshman at Pepperdine when the idea hit. It’s been a challenge." He fast-forwarded through the pathetic scene of Marvin Kramer spilling from his wheelchair after the second trial, and stopped with the smiling face of a local anchorwoman as she chattered on about the opening of the third trial of the legendary Sam Cayhall. It was 1981 now.

"Sam was a free man for thirteen years," Adam said. "What did he do?"

"He kept to himself, farmed a little, tried to make ends meet. He never talked to me about the bombing or any of his Klan activities, but he enjoyed the attention in Clanton. He was somewhat of a local legend down there, and he was sort of smug about it. Mother’s health declined, and he stayed at home and took care of her."

"He never thought about leaving?"

"Not seriously. He was convinced his legal problems were over. He’d had two trials, and walked away from both of them. No jury in Mississippi was going to convict a Klansman in the late sixties. He thought he was invincible.

He stayed close to Clanton, avoided the Klan, and lived a peaceful life. I thought he’d spend his golden years growing tomatoes and fishing for bream."

"Did he ever ask about my father?"

She finished her wine and placed the glass on the table. It had never occurred to Lee that she would one day be asked to recall in detail so much of this sad little history. She had worked so hard to forget it. "I remember during the first year he was back home, he would occasionally ask me if I’d heard from my brother. Of course, I hadn’t. We knew you guys were somewhere in California, and we hoped you were okay. Sam’s a very proud and stubborn person, Adam. He would never consider chasing you guys down and begging Eddie to come home. If Eddie was ashamed of his family, then Sam felt like he should stay in California." She paused and sunk lower into the sofa. "Mother was diagnosed with cancer in 1973, and I hired a private investigator to find Eddie. He worked for six months, charged me a bunch of money, and found nothing."

"I was nine years old, fourth grade, that was in Salem, Oregon."

"Yeah. Evelyn told me later that you guys spent time in Oregon."

"We moved all the time. Every year was a different school until I was in the eighth grade. Then we settled in Santa Monica."

"You were elusive. Eddie must’ve hired a good lawyer, because any trace of Cayhall was eliminated. The investigator even used some people out there, but nothing."

"When did she die?"

"Nineteen seventy-seven. We were actually sitting in the front of the church, about to start the funeral, when Eddie slid in a side door and sat behind me. Don’t ask how he knew about Mother’s death. He simply appeared in Clanton then disappeared again. Never said a word to Sam. Drove a rental car so no one could check his plates. I drove to Memphis the next day, and there he was, waiting in my driveway. We drank coffee for two hours and talked about everything. He had school pictures of you and Carmen, everything was just wonderful in sunny Southern California. Good job, nice house in the suburbs, Evelyn was selling real estate. The American dream. Said he would never return to Mississippi, not even for Sam’s funeral. After swearing me to secrecy, he told me about the new names, and he gave me his phone number. Not his address, just his phone number. Any breach of secrecy, he threatened, and he would simply disappear again. He told me not to call him, though, unless it was an emergency. I told him I wanted to see you and Carmen, and he said that it might happen, one day. At times he was the same old Eddie, and at times he was another person. We hugged and waved good-bye, and I never saw him again."