A Time to Kill (57 page)

She could stay at Lucien’s, but needed to change clothes. Her friend Nesbit would drive her to Oxford, but she was sober. Plus, Jake needed all the protection he could get. She locked the front door and walked to her car.

Ellen almost made it to Oxford when she saw the blue lights behind her. As usual, she was driving seventy-five. She parked on the shoulder and walked to her taillights, where she searched her purse and waited on the trooper.

Two plainclothesmen approached from the blue lights.

“You drunk, ma’am?” one of them asked, spewing tobacco juice.

“No, sir. I’m trying to find my license.”

She crouched before the taillights and fished for the license. Suddenly, she was knocked to the ground. A heavy quilt was thrown over her and both men held her down. A rope was wrapped around her chest and waist. She kicked and cursed, but could offer little resistance. The quilt covered her head and trapped her arms underneath. They pulled the rope tightly.

“Be still, bitch! Be still!”

One of them removed her keys from the ignition and opened the trunk. They threw her inside and slammed it shut. The blue lights were unplugged in the old Lincoln and it roared away, trailed by the BMW. They found a gravel road and followed it deep into the woods. It turned into a dirt road that led to a small pasture where a large cross was being burned by a handful of Kluxers.

The two assailants quickly donned their robes and masks and removed her from the trunk. She was thrown to the ground and the quilt removed. They bound and gagged her, and dragged her to a large pole a few feet from the cross where she was tied, her back to the Kluxers, her face to the pole.

She saw the white robes and pointed hats, and tried desperately to spit out the oily cotton rag crammed in her mouth. She managed only to gag and cough.

The flaming cross illuminated the small pasture, discharging a glowing wave of heat that began to roast her as she wrestled with the pole and emitted strange, guttural noises.

A hooded figure left the others and approached her. She could hear him walking and breathing. “You nigger-loving bitch,” he said in a crisp Mid western voice. He grabbed the rear of her collar and ripped the white silk blouse until it hung in shreds around her neck and shoulders. Her hands were tied firmly around the pole. He removed a bowie knife from under the robe, and began cutting the remainder of the blouse from her body. “You nigger-loving bitch. You nigger-loving bitch.”

Ellen cursed him, but her words were muffled groans.

He unzipped the navy linen skirt on the right side. She tried to kick, but the heavy rope around her ankles held her feet to the pole. He placed the tip of the knife at the bottom of the zipper, and cut downward through the hem. He grabbed around the waist and pulled it off like a magician. The Kluxers stepped forward.

He slapped her on the butt, and said, “Nice, very nice.” He stepped back to admire his handiwork. She grunted and twisted but could not resist. The slip fell to mid-thigh. With great ceremony, he cut the straps, then sliced it neatly down the back. He yanked it off and threw it at the foot of the burning cross. He cut the bra straps and removed it. She jerked and the moans became louder. The silent semicircle inched forward and stopped ten feet away.

The fire was hot now. Her bare back and legs were covered with sweat. The light red hair was drenched around her neck and shoulders. He reached under his
robe again and brought out a bullwhip. He popped it loudly near her, and she flinched. He marched backward, carefully measuring the distance to the pole.

He cocked the bullwhip and aimed at the bare back. The tallest one stepped forward with his back to her. He shook his head. Nothing was said, but the whip disappeared.

He walked to her and grabbed her head. With his knife, he cut her hair. He grabbed handfuls and hacked away until her scalp was gapped and ugly. It piled gently around her feet. She moaned and did not move.

They headed for their cars. A gallon of gasoline was splashed inside the BMW with Massachusetts tags and somebody threw a match.

When he was certain they were gone, Mickey Mouse slid from the bushes. He untied her and carried her to a small clearing away from the pasture. He gathered the remains of her clothing and tried to cover her. When her car finished burning beside the dirt road, he left her. He drove to Oxford, to a pay phone, and called the Lafayette County sheriff.

38

__________

S
aturday court was unusual but not unheard of, especially in capital cases where the jury was locked up. The participants didn’t mind because Saturday brought the end one day nearer.

The locals didn’t mind either. It was their day off, and for most Ford Countians it was their only chance to watch the trial, or if they couldn’t get a seat, at least hang around the square and see it all firsthand. Who knows, there may even be some more shooting.

By seven, the cafes downtown were at full capacity serving nonregulars. For every customer who was awarded a seat, two were turned away and left to loiter around the square and the courthouse and wait for a seat in the courtroom. Most of them paused for a moment in front of the lawyer’s office, hoping to catch a glimpse of the one they tried to kill. The braggarts told of being clients of this famous man.

Upward, a few feet, the target sat at his desk and sipped a bloody concoction left from yesterday’s party. He smoked a Roi-Tan, ate headache powders, and
rubbed the cobwebs from his brain. Forget about the soldier, he had told himself for the past three hours. Forget about the Klan, the threats, forget everything but the trial, and specifically Dr. W.T. Bass. He uttered a short prayer, something about Bass being sober on the witness stand. The expert and Lucien had stayed through the afternoon, drinking and arguing, accusing each other of being a drunk and receiving a dishonorable discharge from their respective professions. Violence flared briefly at Ethel’s desk when they were leaving. Nesbit intervened and escorted them to the patrol car for the ride home. The reporters burned with curiosity as the two blind drunks were led from Jake’s office by the deputy and put in the car, where they continued to rage and cuss at each other, Lucien in the back seat, Bass in the front.

He reviewed Ellen’s masterpiece on the insanity defense. Her outline of questions for Bass needed only minor changes. He studied his expert’s résumé, and though unimpressive, it would suffice for Ford County. The nearest psychiatrist was eighty miles away.

________

Judge Noose glanced at the D.A. and looked sympathetically at Jake, who sat next to the door and watched the faded portrait of some dead judge hanging over Buckley’s shoulder.

“How do you feel this morning, Jake?” Noose asked warmly.

“I’m fine.”

“How’s the soldier?” asked Buckley.

“Paralyzed.”

Noose, Buckley, Musgrove, and Mr. Pate looked at the same spot on the carpet and grimly shook their heads in a quiet moment of respect.

“Where’s your law clerk?” Noose asked, looking at the clock on the wall.

Jake looked at his watch. “I don’t know. I expected her by now.”

“Are you ready?”

“Sure.”

“Is the courtroom ready, Mr. Pate?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Very well. Let’s proceed.”

Noose seated the courtroom, and for ten minutes offered a rambling apology to the jurors for yesterday’s delay. They were the only fourteen in the county who did not know what happened Friday morning, and it might be prejudicial to tell them. Noose droned on about emergencies and how sometimes during trials things conspire to cause delays. When he finally finished, the jurors were completely bewildered and praying that somebody would call a witness.

“You may call your first witness,” Noose said in Jake’s direction.

“Dr. W.T. Bass,” Jake announced as he moved to the podium. Buckley and Musgrove exchanged winks and silly grins.

Bass was seated next to Lucien on the second row in the middle of the family. He stood noisily and made his way to the center aisle, stepping on feet and assaulting people with his heavy, leather, empty briefcase. Jake heard the commotion behind him and continued smiling at the jury.

“I do, I do,” Bass said rapidly at Jean Gillespie during his swearing in.

Mr. Pate led him to the witness stand and delivered the standard orders to speak up and use the microphone. Though mortified and hung over, the expert looked remarkably arrogant and sober. He wore his
most expensive dark gray hand-sewn wool suit, a perfectly starched white button-down, and a cute little red paisley bow tie that made him appear rather cerebral. He looked like an expert, in something. He also wore, over Jake’s objections, a pair of light gray ostrich skin cowboy boots that he had paid over a thousand for and worn less than a dozen times. Lucien had insisted on the boots eleven years earlier in the first insanity case. Bass wore them, and the very sane defendant went to Parchman. He wore them in the second insanity trial, again at Lucien’s behest; again, Parchman. Lucien referred to them as Bass’s good luck charm.

Jake wanted no part of the damned boots. But the jury could relate to them, Lucien had argued. Not expensive ostrich skin, Jake countered. They’re too dumb to know the difference, replied Lucien. Jake could not be swayed. The rednecks will trust someone with boots, Lucien had explained. Fine, said Jake, let him wear a pair of those camouflage squirrel-hunting boots with a little mud on the heels and soles, some boots they could really identify with. Those wouldn’t complement his suit, Bass had inserted.

He crossed his legs, laying the right boot on his left knee, flaunting it. He grinned at it, then grinned at the jury. The ostrich would have been proud.

Jake looked from his notes on the podium and saw the boot, which was plainly visible above the rail of the witness stand. Bass was admiring it, the jurors pondering it. He choked and returned to his notes.

“State your name, please.”

“Dr. W.T. Bass,” he replied, his attention suddenly diverted from the boot. He looked grimly, importantly at Jake.

“What is your address?”

“Nine-oh-eight West Canterbury, Jackson, Mississippi.”

“What is your profession?”

“I am a physician.”

“Are you licensed to practice in Mississippi?”

“Yes.”

“When were you licensed?”

“February 8, 1963.”

“Are you licensed to practice medicine in any other state?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“Texas.”

“When did you obtain that license?”

“November 3, 1962.”

“Where did you go to college?”

“I received my bachelor’s degree from Millsaps College in 1956, and received my M.D., or Doctor of Medicine, from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas, Texas, in 1960.”

“Is that an accredited medical school?”

“Yes.”

“By whom?”

“By the Council of Medical Education and Hospitals of the American Medical Association, the recognized accrediting agency of our profession, and by the educational authority of the State of Texas.”

Bass relaxed a bit, uncrossed and recrossed his legs, and displayed his left boot. He rocked gently and turned the comfortable swivel chair partially toward the jury.

“Where did you intern and for how long?”

“After graduation from medical school, I spent twelve months as an intern at the Rocky Mountain Medical Center in Denver.”

“What is your medical specialty?”

“Psychiatry.”

“Explain to us what that means.”

“Psychiatry is that branch of medicine concerned with the treatment of disorders of the mind. It usually, but not always, deals with mental malfunction, the organic basis of which is unknown.”

Jake breathed for the first time since Bass took the stand. His man was sounding good.

“Now, Doctor,” he said as he casually walked to within a foot of the jury box, “describe to the jury the specialized training you received in the field of psychiatry.”

“My specialized training in psychiatry consisted of two years as a resident in psychiatry at the Texas State Mental Hospital, an approved training center. I engaged in clinical work with psychoneurotic and psychotic patients. I studied psychology, psychopathology, psychotherapy, and the physiological therapies. This training, supervised by competent psychiatric teachers, included instruction in the psychiatric aspects of general medicine, the behavior aspects of children, adolescents, and adults.”

It was doubtful if a single person in the courtroom comprehended any of what Bass had just said, but it came from the mouth of a man who suddenly appeared to be a genius, an expert, for he had to be a man of great wisdom and intelligence to pronounce those words. With the bow tie and vocabulary, and in spite of the boots, Bass was gaining credibility with each answer.

“Are you a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry?”

“Of course,” he answered confidently.

“In which branch are you certified?”

“I am certified in psychiatry.”

“And when were you certified?”

“April of 1967.”

“What does it take to become certified by the American Board of Psychiatry?”

“A candidate must pass oral and practical exams, as well as a written test at the direction of the Board.”

Jake glanced at his notes and noticed Musgrove winking at Buckley.

“Doctor, do you belong to any professional groups?”

“Yes.”

“Name them please.”

“I am a member of the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, and the Mississippi Medical Association.”

“How long have you been engaged in the practice of psychiatry?”

“Twenty-two years.”

Jake walked three steps in the direction of the bench and eyed Noose, who was watching intently.

“Your Honor, the defense offers Dr. Bass as an expert in the field of psychiatry.”

“Very well,” replied Noose. “Do you wish to examine this witness, Mr. Buckley?”

The D.A. stood with his legal pad. “Yes, Your Honor, just a few questions.”

Surprised but not worried, Jake took his seat next to Carl Lee. Ellen was still not in the courtroom.