Decision (34 page)

At once a deathly silence fell over the crowd, which already numbered perhaps two thousand with more arriving constantly at its outer edges.

“Listen to me!” Regard shouted through the bullhorn. “Listen to me, you good people! I want to talk to you and I’ve brought two other men who want to talk to you.” Abruptly he leaned down to the window and hissed to Debbie,
“You
stay in there, you bothersome woman!” Then he turned again to the crowd, which had begun to murmur uneasily. “Jenkins!” he shouted up to the top of the van. “Jenkins Terwilliger, is that you? I’d know you anywhere, you hotheaded bastard! Help me give a hand up to our two distinguished visitors here!”

And with an elaborate gesture he turned back, opened the door of the car and bowed low as he whispered urgently, “Make it good, now, you two! You’re dignified as hell, remember. Be that way!”

As Tay emerged, obediently straightening to his full six feet three and looking out upon the crowd with a gravely challenging air, he was greeted with a shout of surprise—not hostile, but, as Regard was pleased to note, uncertain. When Moss followed and stood for a moment surveying them with equal gravity, face almost expressionless, the shout was louder, warmer—and increasingly uncertain.

“Come on!” Regard whispered. “Upsy-daisy!”

And with Jenkins Terwilliger pulling above and Regard giving a helping shove from below, first Tay, then Moss climbed up the ladder to the top of the van.

“Now, Jenkins,” Regard ordered, using the bullhorn so that his voice boomed over the field, “it’s gettin’ mighty crowded up there. I want you and your friends to come down here and guard this van while I go up there with my friends from the Supreme Court of the United States and say a few words to these good, law-abidin’ folks.”

There was a movement of protest from the four black-suited men, a turn toward ugliness in the murmur of the crowd. Regard was ready for them.

“I want you to stand guard, I said! I didn’t say I wanted you to run off and leave this—this
individual
alone. He can’t escape anyway, you’ve got him tied like a hog at bacon-time, but the Justices and I will vouch for him, I can promise you that. So y’all just come on down, now, and let us handle it. All right, Jenkins? This isn’t doin’ anybody any good, and you know it. Come on down, now!
Right
now!”

For what seemed an interminable time but could only have been a few seconds, the four atop the van hesitated while the crowd grew very still. Tay and Moss, staring out with determined calm, did not dare move. Behind them the prisoner was equally still. Regard said nothing, just continued to stare up with an air of impatience; and in a moment the gamble worked. Slowly and reluctantly, but obeying, the four black-suited figures clambered down. As each reached the ground Regard shook hands with vigorous and elaborate approval.

“Thank y’all,” he said when all were down. “Thank you for complyin’ with the law, which is what Justice NOW! is all about, remember. Now I’ll just get myself up there”—which he did with several grunts that he was careful to utter over the bullhorn, so that first a few, then many, began to laugh, and with their laughter began to dissolve the tension.

“Whooo-eeee!” he exclaimed when he finally stood on top. “That’s too much exercise for a country boy who doesn’t get any except mebbe liftin’ a jug and chasin’ women or mebbe I should say chasin’ women and liftin’ a jug.”

This time many more laughed and the tension eased still further. Tay began to realize that his respect for Regard Stinnet was rapidly going up. He glanced sideways at Moss and saw that he, too, was relaxing just a little; and although he did not dare turn and look at the prisoner, he could sense that even he was less tense. He was, in fact, Tay knew, becoming watchful. He hoped fervently that Regard knew what he was doing. He did.

“Now, first of all,” he said through the bullhorn in a familiar but still emphatic tone, “I want y’all to understand that you’ve got friends here who sympathize with how you feel—not,” he added quickly as Tay stirred a little at his side, “with the methods y’all seemed gettin’ ready to adopt to do somethin’ about it. No, sir, I’ve got to tell you honestly that all three of us up here represent the law—even though,” he added sarcastically as four or five television vans and half a dozen automobiles screamed to a stop off on the edge of the crowd and their occupants began to scramble frantically through the crowd with their gear—“our good friends from the media who are just arrivin’, a little late as usual”—there was a scornful hoot from the crowd—“may not give us much credit for law and order, down here in South Carolina. Whether they do or not,” he declared, his voice rising emphatically, “that is the sole point and purpose of Justice NOW!, that great movement to which many of you belong, and to which I hope many, many millions more soon will belong. We’re growin’, friends, we’re growin’! And they aren’t goin’ to be able to stop us, because all across this great land our strength is as the strength of millions, yea hundreds of millions of good, God-fearin’, law-abidin’,
law-respectin’
citizens. And that’s why I’m up here right this minute talkin’ to you, and why our two great friends from the Supreme Court of the United States are goin’ to be speakin’ to you shortly, too. Because we, like you,
respect and abide by
the law; and what some few folks might have been contemplatin’ here before we arrived just doesn’t have any place in the law, or any place in a decent, God-fearin’ America or any place in this great state of South Carolina. We don’t need that! We’ve got our strength in Justice NOW! Justice NOW! wants law and order! Justice NOW!
is
law and order—a great, spontaneous outpourin’ of love and respect and
obedience
to the law! That’s what you want and I want and these whole great United States want. Isn’t that right, now, my friends?
ISN’T THAT RIGHT?”

With a great shout the crowd responded
“RIGHT!”
Under its cover Regard dashed a hasty hand that Tay and Moss could see was trembling across a forehead that they could see was beaded with sweat. Tay’s respect continued to rise.

“Now,” Regard said, his voice becoming steadily more assured, “let me just warn you one thing about our friends from the media, here. Their whole job is to get you riled up again, you know. They can’t be content with folks just quietin’ down and behavin’ themselves, that doesn’t look good on the evenin’ news. They want wild-eyed people and wild-eyed statements, that’s what they live on. So I’d suggest, for the sake of Justice NOW! and for the sake of the dignity of the sovereign state of South Carolina which we all love, that y’all just refuse ’em any interviews out there when they stick their damned microphones and writin’ pads in your faces. You tell ’em to pack up and
git!
Right?”

“RIGHT!” the crowd shouted and there was much laughter and applause. They were with him one hundred percent now, and the famous commentator who audibly exclaimed, “Damned rabble-rousing son of a bitch!” was promptly shoved around and had to be rescued by nearby police.

“Now,” Regard said, gesturing scornfully over his shoulder toward the prisoner. “I’m goin’ to get this worthless piece of human junk back to jail where he belongs, so if you and your friends will assist me, Jenkins—I’m trustin’ you now, and bear in mind the world is watchin’ and we want to do things right, for all our sakes, so you help me out, now—I’m goin’ to untie his legs so he can walk, and then we’ll get him down the ladder. And then I want you and your friends to put him in the back seat of my car and stand guard over him until I get down there, at which time we’re goin’ to form us a little escort-party and get him back to jail in the style to which he’s accustomed. How about that?”

Again there was a wave of laughter, applause and approving shouts across the crowd; and Regard, though the sweat was starting again on his forehead and his hands were once more trembling slightly, turned and moved firmly and with absolute outward assurance toward the prisoner.

For a second Earle Holgren’s eyes glared, his head came back, his mouth began to pucker.

“You spit on me, you piece of shit,” Regard hissed, so low that only Earle and Tay and Moss, instinctively moving to help him, could hear, “and you’ll be torn limb from limb so fast you won’t have time to turn your head before it’s off. Now,
stand still!
Gentlemen, you keep an eye on him while I do this.”

“I can barely stand to look at him,” Moss murmured in a voice of such contempt that even Earle Holgren’s endless insolence appeared shattered for a second. Tay nodded.

“But we’ll help,” he said. And they moved closer to the prisoner while the crowd again became deathly still as Regard knelt down and swiftly untied the rope around his ankles.

“Stomp your feet,” he ordered in a low voice. “Get the circulation goin’. And hurry it up, because I don’t know how much longer we can keep these good folks from cookin’ your evil flesh for dinner… Now, move!” And he gave Earle Holgren a savage shove toward the ladder as the Justices stepped back and watched with expressions that justified Moss’ comment: they really could hardly bear to look at him.

Carefully, with Regard steadying his shoulders from above and Jenkins Terwilliger reaching up with conspicuous roughness to grasp his legs from below, they eased the defendant down: and again, as he reached the ground and Jenkins and his friends stepped forward to surround him, the crowd became deathly still. In the stillness Regard said calmly through the bullhorn, “I’m trustin’ you boys. For Carolina and Justice NOW!, get him into that car and close the door on him.
Fast.”

Once again they hesitated for a moment and the crowd, if possible, became quieter. But Regard continued to stare down at them with apparent complete assurance that he would be obeyed; and he was. Aside from a startled “What the
hell!”
from Jenkins when they saw Debbie sitting rigidly in the front seat, her eyes carefully turned away from them, there was no disruption or outcry. Before there could be Regard turned again to face the crowd.

“And now,” he said, his voice becoming hushed but still carrying clearly, “I’m goin’ to call on two famous men to speak to you very briefly for just a minute, because you know how sad things are for them and we don’t want to keep ’em here long. Justice Barbour—?”

“Yes,” Tay said, accepting the bullhorn as Regard thrust it into his hand and stepping forward a little, though at the moment he had no idea exactly what he would say. But it came naturally enough.

“First,” he said, “I want to pay tribute to a pretty remarkable fellow, I think, and that’s your attorney general.” There was a wild burst of applause and approval. “We’ve already disagreed on a lot of things, and quite possibly we’re going to disagree on a lot more before this case is finally disposed of by all the courts that may ultimately be involved. But he’s a brave man, that’s for sure, and I congratulate him fully on that.”

There was a roar of approval from the crowd.

“I want to congratulate you, also, for responding so wisely and effectively to his appeal for calm and reason. I think the three of us up here are agreed one hundred percent on one thing: the law is the issue, and the law must be preserved. You are doing this when you peaceably accept the fact and go peaceably about your business, confident that Mr. Stinnet fully shares your feelings and will faithfully follow them as his guide when the case resumes in court tomorrow.

“I congratulate you on your patience, your restraint and your respect for the law. Justice will be done, in whatever court this case may come to. I think I can give you my word on that. Moss—?”

He held out the bullhorn while applause, full-hearted and friendly, rewarded him. It trailed off uncertainly when Moss at first made no move to accept the horn but simply stood unmoving for what seemed a very long time. His face was set and far away, his eyes tortured and unhappy as he stared out over them; and finally all sound died away.

“Moss—?” Tay said again quietly, gesturing with the horn. “Moss, these are your people. They want you to talk to them.”

Applause agreed; and suddenly it welled up into a roar, sympathetic, welcoming, overwhelmingly responsive, as Moss seemed to come out of his sad reverie and reached for the horn.

For several more seconds his gaze traveled moodily from side to side across the crowd, which swiftly quieted again to the point where only the whir of cameras and the occasional indignant cry of a reporter, jostled by some competitive colleague out of his vantage point, broke the stillness.

“My dear old friends of South Carolina,” he finally began, “you know what a—” his voice trembled a little but he went on, “what a heavy sorrow Sue-Ann and I have had to bear in these past few days—in fact, will always bear, for nothing can take the place of our bright spirit who is—is gone. But, life goes on, as it must—a cliché one doesn’t appreciate fully until one has to…

“I think what has happened here today illustrates the truth of what Justice Barbour has said. My good, close friend Regard Stinnet” (Tay felt a slight tingling of alarm, but kept his face expressionless) “deserves the highest compliments for his courage and common sense, as you deserve equal compliments for your willingness to follow his lead. Your organization Justice NOW! is indeed devoted to law and order, and only if it abides by them can it hope to hold and increase its already astonishing membership. I sincerely hope it will proceed in the spirit in which it was founded and so be able to do the great job of restoring law, and respect for law, which it has so effectively begun.”

No,
Tay cried out in his mind.
Not you, Moss.

But the crowd went wild with cheers and applause and Moss concluded gravely.

“It is true, and I think we on the Supreme Court recognize it to be true, that the criminal justice system as it now stands needs very drastic revision and speeding-up. This case may well be the symbol and the beginning of that process. It is, as Justice Barbour says, the purpose of all three of us standing before you now to uphold, defend and strengthen the law; and so it is of the Supreme Court. Justice NOW! may not be the means some of us would have chosen to do this, but it exists and in its very short life it has already become a major constructive force throughout the country looking toward the strengthening of law and order. We will ignore the sentiment it represents, I think, at our peril.”