"Thank you, Your Honor, that won't be necessary. I know that my client pleaded guilty. Mr. Crook admits to making a mistake in judgment, although we do not concede that the motivation behind that mistake was thievery as the court suggests. This is my client's first offense."
"On record," Fargo said in a droll tone.
"Which should be the only consideration," Kendal, .. retorted. "Are we to assume that this court is prejudiced against my client?"
Fargo's face turned red. "You're to assume nothing about this court." He shook his gavel in stern admonishment.
"You're skating on dangerously thin ice, Counselor. Is that all?"
"No, it is not. For the record, I want to express how unfair and unjustified I believe this ruling is. Billy Joe Crook has shown remorse for his actions, and, since this is his first offense, I feel that a period of probation would be much more in keeping with accepted standards."
"Well, I'm trying to improve the accepted standards. Your client is hereby remanded into the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice. Sentencing will be based on their report."
He banged his gavel. "Case dismissed."
When the bailiffs approached Billy Joe to place him in handcuffs, he put up such a fight that they were forced to try to subdue him. That was all the encouragement his brothers needed. Both vaulted over the railing.
Kendall placed herself directly in their path, hoping to slow them down and give the bailiffs enough time to snap the handcuffs on Billy Joe's wrists.
"Please, Luther, Henry, you're not helping!"
But they weren't listening. Nor were they letting her stand in their way. One pushed her aside. She fell back, striking her hip on the corner of the table. As she pulled herself up, she saw Billy Joe being dragged, kicking and screaming, through the side door. Luther and Henry were in hot pursuit.
Suddenly, someone else ran past Kendall. It was Matt. He reached the twins before they reached the door. Grabbing Luther from behind, he slammed him into the wall. When Henry leaped to his twin's defense, Matt assumed an attack stance. His expression was so chilling that it instantly doused Henry's bloodlust.
"You boys heard the judge's ruling," Matt said. "Case dismissed. Billy Joe's on his way to jail."
"Thanks to her." Luther threw Kendall a murderous glance.
"Our quarrel's not with you, Matt. It's with your wife. She landed our baby brother in jail."
"Your baby brother landed himself in jail when he shoplifted those CDs. That aside, if you ever touch my wife again, I'll slit your throat."
"Matt, please." Kendall limped toward them.
The ruckus had drawn a crowd. The doorways were clogged with courthouse employees who had rushed from their offices to see what all the commotion was about. Kendall didn't want an audience witnessing her disgrace. If word got around that her husband had come to her rescue, it would damage her credibility and jeopardize the respect she had worked so hard to gain. Naysayers would have support for their argument that a woman can't handle a tough job.
She touched Matt's arm and looked at him imploringly.
"This is my arena. I'll fight my own fight." She could tell he didn't like it and was about to object. "I must take care of this myself, Matt. Please."
He shot the Crook brothers a silent warning glance, then stepped aside.
Kendall approached them. "If you will recall, I cautioned you that there were risks to pleading guilty." She shook her head remorsefully. "Believe me, I'm as shocked and disappointed as you."
"Like hell you are."
Kendall turned at the sound of a new voice, which was about as soft and delicate as steel wool.
Unlike her slender offspring, Mrs. Crook was a large woman, her bulk consisting more of muscle than fat. She wore a shapeless, ill-fitting cotton print dress and had velour bedroom slippers on her wide, gnarled feet. Hard living had carved deep lines into her leathery complexion. Crevices radiated from her thin lips, as though they'd been pursed for several decades.
"I'm very sorry, Mrs. Crook," Kendall said. "It didn't go as I had expected."
"On account of you, my baby is being sent off."
"It's temporary. Billy Joe hasn't been in serious trouble before. The recommendation that comes back will surely be for probation. And although the judge doesn't have to abide by the recommendation, I'm certain he will."
"Like you were certain 'bout this?" she asked scornfully.
Her eyes narrowed with malice. "You're gonna be real sorry you ever crossed us."
Looking beyond Kendall's shoulder, she signaled her sons.
Obediently, they moved into place on either side of her, then without another word the three made their way up the center aisle to the exit. The onlookers parted to let them pass.
With a sinking heart, Kendall watched them go, knowing that she had made enemies this morning. People such as the Crooks rarely forgot slights.
And they never forgave.
Burnwood's Sporting Goods was twenty minutes away from closing when Daboey Gorn sauntered in. Gibb subtly raised his chin in greeting, but he stayed with the fisherman to whom he was selling a lure.
After ringing up a hefty sale, Gibb escorted his customer out, locked the door behind the man, and placed the Closed sign in the window. Turning out lights as he went through the store, he joined his visitor, who had made himself at home in the back room.
The prosecutor was thumbing through a firearms catalog as he spat tobacco into the three-gallon coffee can left in the back room for that purpose. "That one was a talker. Bent your ear long enough, didn't he?"
"It was worthwhile. He ran up quite a tab." Gibb lowered himself into the comfortably worn easy chair facing the one in which Gorn was lounging. He twisted the cap off a diet soda. "Drink?"
"Already had me one, thanks." Gorn belched, spat again.
then sat forward, slowly rubbing his palms together. "Gibb, you heard what happened over to the courthouse this after noon?"
"Matt called me, very upset. Justifiably so, if it's true that my daughter-in-law butted heads with everybody o ver that Crook boy."
The prosecutor gave Gibb a word-by-word, blow-by-blow account of the incident. Looking troubled, he said, "I realize she's your kin now, but she hasn't been all that long. On the other hand, you and I go way back."
The men silently acknowledged the special bond between them. It was much stronger than blood ties and longer lasting than life itself.
"What's on your mind, Daboey? You know you can speak freely."
"This girl worries me," he said.
She worried Gibb, too, but he didn't want to admit it before hearing what Gorn had to say. A great leader knows the value of holding his own counsel and listening. He doesn't reveal what he's thinking until he knows the minds of those around him.
"How so, Daboey?"
"Do you reckon she's ever going to become one of us, Gibb?
Really one of us?" He shifted in his chair, moving closer to the edge of the cushion as if to assure confidentiality.
"Prosper needed a public defender who would . . . share our views, so to speak," Gorn continued. "We all figured a little thing like her would be a pushover. After that business in Tennessee, we didn't expect her to have a conscience. If you recall, that's the main reason she was hired."
He spat another glob into the coffee can and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "She's tougher than we counted on, more committed to her beliefs. She's also more scrupulous than we bargained on. She opposes us more regular than we'd like. Some of us are beginning to think we made a mistake."
Kendall's strict adherence to lofty principles had come as a surprise to Gibb, too. So had her willfulness. He had thought the girl would be much more flexible and far less outspoken.
He was convinced that, after time, she would come around.
It would just take longer than they had anticipated. That's what he told Gorn.
But his old friend's doubts were not assuaged. "She doesn't fit in with the other women."
"Not yet, but she will. You leave her to Matt and me. Just the other day, he told me that she's been feeling a little left out. Maybe the answer to this problem is to start including her more."
Dabney Gorn showed his astonishment. "Do you think that's wise?"
Chuckling, Gibb said, "Relax. I'm not a fool. She won't be included on anything important until we're convinced that she's in total agreement with us."
"And you really believe she will be?"
"Yes," Gibb replied without hesitation. "She's still steeped in the liberal swill she was reared with. Her grandmother can't live forever. Once she's dead, her influence over Kendall will wear off."
"What if it doesn't?"
"It will," Gibb said sharply. Then, ameliorating his tone with a broad smile, he said, "But these transitions can't be rushed, Daboey. We must move slowly. We can't hit this girl over the head with everything at once. She's too reactionary."
He squeezed his open hand into a fist, and his eyes shone in the dim room. "But think of the asset she'll be once she's entirely Ours. Leave it to me. I know exactly how to handle her."
He stood and drew his friend up. "In fact, if you don't get out of here. I m going to be late. She's invited me to supper."
At the door, Gorn faced him, still looking worried, but for a different reason "I hope you haven't taken this the wrong way, Gibb the brothers trust you. Always have."
"Then the brothers have nothing to worry about, do they?"
"It was a very chivalrous gesture, Matt, but I had to stand on my own." Kendall reached across the dining table and took his hand, giving it a firm squeeze.
He didn't return her peacemaking smile. "You emasculated me in front of everyone., "Oh, please!"
"Well, didn't you? I was publicly humiliated."
She turned to Gibb and said defensively, "It was nothing like that."
"Sounds as though you all created quite a spectacle."
"It wasn't nearly as Sensational as Matt is making it sound."
"Damn, I thought it was sensational."
"You've spoked to him about this?"
Gibb nodded. ' He came to the store late this afternoon and told me his version."
"Which I'm sure made me out the villainess." Kendall angrily Shoved back her chair and left the table. She had hoped that inviting Gibb over for a hamburger dinner would placate Matt, whose pride had been mortally wounded because she hadn't let him defend her.
Instead, she had stacked the deck against herself. She was outnumbered. Gibb hadn't said anything critical, but she read the siren' reprimand in hiis expression.
"It wasn't as much of ;a spectacle as it would have been if Matt and the Crooks had gotten into a fistfight."
Addressing her husband, she added, "I wasn't trying to embarrass you, Matt. I was trying to avoid a disaster."
He continued to pout.
Gibb said, "I can't say I was happy to hear that my son and daughter-in-law were tangling with white trash like the Crooks, for whatever reason."
"They're Kendall's friends, not mine," Matt muttered. I Kendall braced herself against the sideboard and slowly counted to ten. When she was calm enough to speak, she said, "They're not my Orient, Matt. Billy Joe was my client.
According to the Constitution of the United States, everyone, including Billy Joe Crook, is entitled to legal representation.
If I'm not wrong, Prosper still abides by the Constitution.
Granted, my clients are rarely the creme de la creme of our society."
"Well, I don't like it. You're rubbing elbows with lowlife day in, day out."
"I'm doing my job!"
Gibb interceded. "I think the main problem here is the matter of divided loyalties. Kendall, you took the Crooks' side against your own husband's, and everybody saw it."
She gaped at him, disbelieving that he could be serious, although it was obvious that he was. "You're blowing this way out of proportion. Both of you."
"You're probably right," Gibb said congenially. "I'd like to prevent this kind of misunderstanding from ever cropping up again. And I think I've thought of a way. Please."
He indicated Kendall's empty chair. Reluctantly she re turned to it.
Like Matt, Gibb didn't let her argue her position, but rather dismissed it out of hand.
"For quite a while I've been knocking around an idea,"
Gibb began. "Now seems like an excellent time to bring it up. Kendall, have you ever thought of going back into private practice?"
"No."
"Maybe you should."
"I don't want to join another competitive, cutthroat firm, where as much energy is expended on making rank as on practicing law."
"What if it weren't so cutthroat?" Gibb said. "What if there weren't any competition? What if I were to set you up in your own office? I'd foot the bills until you got things going."
She hadn't expected that, and for a moment she was too astonished to speak. She knew that she had to decline graciously and diplomatically, and when she was able, she said, "That's an extremely generous offer, Gibb. Thank you. But I'd never be able to repay you. I'd never have enough clients to make a living."
"I have every confidence in you."
"I don't lack confidence in myself. I lack confidence in the townsfolk. I wouldn't describe the attitudes in Prosper as progressive, would you?" she asked with a rueful smile.
"The Crooks wouldn't have had me representing Billy Joe if they'd had another choice. Who around here is going to retain me, a woman, and entrust me with their legal problems? "