The Color of Law

TWENTY-FIVE

When Scott woke up on Sunday morning, his mind instantly filled with fear. The trial would begin in twenty-four hours: Was he a good enough lawyer to save Shawanda? For the last eleven years, when he needed help, Scott had always gone to Dan Ford. Now he needed help and his thoughts went to Butch Fenney: Son, when you need help, hit your knees.

Scott rolled out of bed, put on his shorts, and hurried down the hall and up the stairs to the third floor. He found the girls on the bed. Pajamae was fixing Boo’s cornrows.

“Get your clothes on, girls, we’re going to church.”

Boo’s mouth fell open.

Louis led the way up the sidewalk to the front entrance of the small church in East Dallas and Pajamae said, “I wondered why y’all never went to church. Mama and me, we go every Sunday. I figured maybe white people just didn’t go to church.”

“Why didn’t you say you wanted to go?” Scott asked.

“Wouldn’t have been polite, Mr. Fenney.”

Scott Fenney had attended church regularly with his parents, but after Butch died, he’d lost any enthusiasm he had for religion. Why would God take a good man like Butch Fenney? But he still attended church with his mother until she died. The last time he had entered this church was for his mother’s funeral.

The preacher had nothing on Big Charlie.

Before they had parted back at the stadium that day two weeks ago, Big Charlie had said, “When God gives you a gift, it doesn’t mean you’re special. It means you’re blessed.”

Scott finally understood what his mother had meant when she had said he had a gift and she didn’t mean football. He knew that his entire life had led him to this one moment, to this trial, to Shawanda Jones. The judge was right: She needed a hero. She needed him. And he needed her. But it had been a long time since Scott Fenney had been someone’s hero. And he honestly didn’t know if he had it in him to be a hero now.

He glanced down at the two little girls sitting next to him. Boo and Pajamae turned their eyes up to him, the way he had often turned his eyes up to Butch in this very church. He remembered his father’s words again, and he slid forward and knelt.

And he prayed for help.

A mile away, Bobby Herrin was sitting in his dingy office drafting a trial brief. The front door was propped open because the landlord didn’t turn on the air-conditioning on Sundays. He inhaled and caught the scent of cheap cologne. He looked up. Standing in the door was a white man, bald, burly, and thick-necked. Delroy Lund.

Carl’s more thorough background check on Delroy Lund had revealed a DEA career checkered with reprimands for unnecessary use of force. Carl said he was digging deeper, but he hadn’t reported back yet.

Bobby tried to maintain his composure, but flinched when Delroy reached into his coat.

“Don’t try anything, Delroy! I yell out, Joo-Chan will come over-and he knows karate!”

Delroy chuckled. “That gook knows how to make donuts-but not on Sunday. You’re all alone, Herrin.”

But Delroy didn’t pull out a gun; he pulled out an envelope. Bobby exhaled with relief. Delroy tossed the envelope on the desk. Bobby opened it; inside was a check made payable to Robert Herrin, Esq., for the sum of $100,000. Bobby suddenly felt better about his standing in the legal profession: finally, he was important enough to be bribed. He examined the check.

“Bank check issued by a Cayman Island bank. That’s cute, Delroy. Not traceable back to McCall.”

“We ain’t stupid.”

“That’s open for debate.”

“Here’s the deal, Herrin. That little fuckup Clark ain’t gonna cheat his dad out of the White House, alive or dead. So you got a choice: take the money and get out of town or get arrested.”

“For what?”

“Dealing drugs.”

“I don’t have any drugs.”

“You will when I’m finished. I’ll call my buddies at the DEA and they’ll bust your ass.”

“With your record at the DEA? I don’t think so. I’ll tell them you planted the drugs, take a polygraph, and they’ll arrest you. So, what, McCall thinks Scotty can’t defend her without me? Scotty doesn’t need me.”

“He proved that before, didn’t he?” Delroy grinned. “You’re the only conscience he’s got, according to Burns.”

Bobby replaced the check and tossed the envelope to Delroy.

“Get out.”

“You’re making a big mistake.”

“Won’t be the first time. See you at the trial, Delroy.”

“Sorry, I can’t make it.”

“Sure you can.” Bobby picked up a subpoena, wrote Delroy Lund in the witness blank, and tossed it to Delroy. “You’re served, asshole.”

As soon as the word was out of his mouth, Bobby knew he had pushed Delroy’s button-and that he shouldn’t have. Delroy bent over and picked up the subpoena from the floor. He glanced at it; his face changed. He came over to Bobby, grabbed Bobby by the shirt, and yanked him halfway out of his chair. Delroy’s mouth was about six inches away from Bobby’s face when he said, “You little mother-”

“Hey, hombre!”

Standing in the door was Carlos Hernandez. Carlos was six feet tall, weighed maybe one-ninety, and was dressed for church: black leather pants, black pointed boots, a black T-shirt tight on his muscular tattooed arms, and two-inch silver bracelets on each wrist. His black hair was slicked back.

“Get your stinkin’ hands off my lawyer, gringo!”

The two men glared at each other. Finally, Delroy chuckled, released Bobby, walked a few steps, then turned back.

“Oh, your star witness took her check. She figured a vacation was better than being fish bait in Galveston Bay.”

Delroy laughed as he walked out the door past Carlos’s mean face. When he was gone, Carlos broke into a big grin and said, “Good thing you got me bail, huh, Mr. Herrin?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Carlos.”

Carlos held out a twenty-dollar bill. “From my mother.”

“Can we go see Mama?” Pajamae asked.

Scott opened the car door for the girls and said, “Sure.”

The drive from the church in East Dallas to the federal building in downtown took only minutes on the vacant Sunday morning streets. Louis stayed outside in the car. Scott and the girls went inside and rode the elevator to the fifth floor. They were escorted to the small bare room and waited for Shawanda. When she entered the room, she hugged Pajamae and Boo. Then Scott hugged her.

When he released her, he held her shoulders and said, “Shawanda, don’t be afraid of what might happen at the trial. With Hannah Steele testifying, we’ve got a fighting chance. And if we lose, we’ll appeal all the way to the Supreme Court.”

Shawanda smiled softly. “I ain’t scared, Mr. Fenney. People like me, we been on the wrong side of life long enough to know what to expect in a courtroom. But most of all, I ain’t scared ’cause you my lawyer.”

An hour later, they arrived back home to Bobby’s car parked in the driveway and Bobby sitting on the back steps smoking a cigarette. Bobby said, “Hannah Steele’s disappeared. McCall bought her off or Delroy scared her off; either way she ain’t testifying. We’re screwed.”