inside. She led him to the last one on the left. She rapped on the door.
“Judge Robie, you got you a visitor.”
She looked at Robie, hiked her eyebrows, pointed a finger at him, and said in a low voice, “Ten minutes. That’s it.”
She opened the door and Robie walked through. A second later the door was shut and locked. He heard her booted feet going back down the hall.
The next instant Robie was slammed up against the wall. His cheek hit the brick and he felt it start to swell.
“What the hell are you doin’ here?” barked Dan Robie right in his son’s ear.
Robie broke his father’s grip, with some difficulty, circled him, bent Dan’s arm back and then behind the older man, and wrenched it upward, but not enough to do any permanent damage.
“You going to calm down?” asked Robie quietly. “Or do I have to break it?”
“I told them I didn’t want to see you.”
“But here I am. Can we talk this out?”
“You’re assaultin’ me.”
“I’m acting in self-defense. You jumped me first. Now we can just stand here looking stupid or we can do something productive.”
“Well, you can start by lettin’ go of my damn arm!”
Robie released his father and stepped back.
Dan Robie rubbed his limb and turned to look over at his son.
“Why are you here?” he barked.
“I got word that you were in trouble.”
“I’ve been in a lot of trouble over the last twenty-two years. I didn’t see you show up then.”
Dan Robie sat down on his bunk, which gave Robie a chance to observe his father more closely. The man was sixty-four now. He was still taller than his son, still lean with broad shoulders and ropy muscles. His hair was all white and starting to thin a bit, and his face was weathered in the way that only living near the ocean can inspire.
“No, you didn’t,” replied Robie.
“So why now?”
“Maybe it has more to do with me at my stage of life than you.”
“Okay, you’ve seen me. We’ve talked. Now leave.”
His father turned away from him.
“Did you kill Sherman Clancy?”
His father said nothing.
“If you didn’t, and I don’t think you did, then the person who did kill him is out there. Maybe it’s the same person who killed Janet Chisum.”
His father didn’t break his silence.
“I thought a Marine and a judge would not want to see a killer or killers walk free.”
“I don’t. But that’s not my job, is it? And I’m hardly in a position to find out who it might be.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
His father turned to him. “You?” he scoffed. “What makes you think you can do anythin’ about it? Where have you been? What have you been doin’ with your life?”
“Things. I’ve been doing things with my life.”
“You think you can just waltz back in here and—”
“I left you a phone number where you could reach me,” broke in Robie. “As soon as I got to where I was going. Twenty-two years ago.” He paused. “You never called.”
“Why the hell should I? You left home. Snuck off in the middle of the night like the damn coward you were. Could never face nothin’ head-on, boy. Nothin’.”
“If I remember right you left home when you were seventeen, lied about your age, and joined the Marines. Did you ever go back home? Because I don’t recall you ever mentioning that you did.”
“That’s none of your damn business.”
Robie ignored this and said, “I wondered why I never met my grandfather. Why you never even mentioned him. Did he beat the shit out of you? Did he insult you every day of your life? Because if he did, we have a lot of things in common.”
Dan Robie looked across the narrow width of the cell at his son.
“So you’re here to what? Vent? Stand up to me? Kick my ass to show you’re a man in your own eyes?”
“I know I’m a man. I don’t have to vent or kick your ass to prove anything.”
“Then why are you here?” snapped Dan.
“Because you’re in trouble. And I help people who are in trouble. Even if they don’t deserve it.”
“Oh, so you’re some kind of Good Samaritan?” his father said sarcastically.
“I don’t think anyone who knows me would describe me that way.”
A long moment of silence passed between the two men.
“Did you kill Sherman Clancy?”
“Well, if I did, it’s doubtful I would confess it to you.”
“Did you think Victoria had slept with him?”
“You stay the hell out of my life.”
“I’m staying at the Willows.”
Dan Robie looked like he might attack his son again.
“The hell you are! I forbid you to stay in my house. You have no right to be there.”
“I don’t think you have any say in it, what with your ass being locked up in here.”
“I won’t be locked up in here forever.”
“No. If you’re convicted they’ll send you to the state pen. Doubt it’s as nice as this place. By the way, you need a lawyer.”
“I’m actin’ pro se. Do you even know what that means?”
“Yeah, it’s Latin for ‘dumbass.’ I’ll ask around and find you somebody.”
“You will do nothin’ of the kind, boy.”
“And I’ll protect your family from harm.”
Dan started to say something but then stopped. He looked at his son warily. “What do you mean by that?”
“Credible threats? I’ve already met some folks down here that could constitute that. And I’ve also met some other folks who think the credible threat could be coming from a pretty dangerous source. If so, I doubt they’ll give a shit who they kill. So who do you want to rely on to protect them, the police force of Cantrell, Mississippi?”
“And you think you’re any better?” his father said dismissively.
“I don’t think. I know I’m better. That’s what I’ve been spending my life doing, Dad.” He rolled up his sleeve to expose the burn. “Sometimes it gets a little hairy. But you just keep soldiering on. And now that I know Ty is my little brother, it will take an army of them to get past me.”
His father ran an eye up and down his son’s lean, muscled physique, but he came away looking unsatisfied.
“Hell, you even know how to use a gun? Because everybody around here does.”
Robie said, “You’re the second person in Cantrell to ask me that. And yes. I know how to use a gun. Better than anyone you’ll ever know.”
Chapter
26
THINK OF THREE lawyers and then tell me the one you’d want to hire if your butt was on the line.”
Robie was staring at Sheila Taggert as she sat behind her desk.
She looked back at him, her gaze resigned.
“Toni Moses is who you want.”
Robie gazed skeptically at her. “Toni Moses? Is that a real name?”
“Couldn’t tell you. But if you need a kickass lawyer, she is it.”
“A woman, then?”
“A black woman, then,” amended Taggert. “And the other good thing is she and Aubrey Davis can’t stand the sight of each other. I bet she’d do anythin’ to get this case.”
“She’s that good?”
“Thirteen capital cases in the last dozen years. Here and over to Biloxi and up on to Hattiesburg and even one in Jackson. She won ’em all. I’d say that was pretty damn good, considerin’ none of her clients were exactly upstandin’ citizens. And almost all of ’em were the same color she was. Which in Mississippi ain’t just good. It’s a damn miracle. So I’d say she’s aptly named. Least the Moses part. Leadin’ people to the promised land.”
“Where can I find her?”
“Right next door. She says she likes being next to the jail ’cause she can
just walk over and pick up clients. Only exercise she gets, so she claims, anyhow.”
“You know her well?”