The Appeal (21 page)

“What’s this?” she asked, holding the bottle.

“Water,” Babe said with a puzzled look.

Sheila held it closer, allowing Babe to take charge of the conversation. “All our water here in Bowmore is bottled. Trucked in from Hattiesburg. Can’t drink the stuff they pump here. It’s contaminated. Where you from?”

“The Coast.”

“You ain’t heard about the Bowmore water?”

“Sorry.” Sheila unscrewed the cap and took a swig. “Tastes like water,” she said.

“You oughta taste the other stuff.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Good Lord, honey,” Babe said and glanced around to see if anyone else had heard this shocking question. There was no one else, so Babe popped the top on a diet soda and sidled up the counter. “You ever heard of Cancer County?”

“No.”

Another look of disbelief. “That’s us. This county has the highest rate of cancer in the country because the drinking water is polluted. There used to be a chemical plant here, Krane Chemical, buncha smart boys from
New York. For many years—twenty, thirty, forty, depending on who you believe—they dumped all kinds of toxic crap—pardon my language—into some ravines behind the plant. Barrels and barrels, drums and drums, tons and tons of the crap went into the pit, and it eventually filtered into an underground aquifer that the city—run by some real dunces, mind you—built a pump over back in the late eighties. The drinking water went from clear to light gray to light yellow. Now it’s brown. It began smelling funny, then it began stinking. We fought with the city for years to clean it up, but they stonewalled us. Boy, did they ever. Anyway, the water became a huge fight, and then, honey, the bad stuff started. Folks started dying. Cancer hit like the plague around here. Folks were dying right and left. Still are. Inez Perdue succumbed in January. I think she was number sixty-five. Something like that. It all came out in the trial.” She paused to examine two pedestrians who were strolling along the sidewalk.

Sheila carefully sipped the water. “There was a trial?” she asked.

“You ain’t heard of the trial either?”

Sheila gave an innocent shrug and said again, “I’m from the Coast.”

“Oh, boy.” Babe switched elbows and leaned on the right one. “For years there was talk about lawsuits. I get all the lawyers in here for their little coffee chats and no one taught those boys how to whisper. I heard it all. Still hearing it. Big talk for a long time. They’re gonna sue Krane Chemical for this and for that, but nothing happened. I think that the suit was just too big, plus you’re
taking on a big chemical company with lots of money and lots of slick lawyers. The talk died down, but the cancer didn’t. Kids were dying of leukemia. Folks with tumors in their kidneys, liver, bladder, stomach, and, honey, it’s been awful. Krane made a fortune off a pesticide called pillamar 5, which was outlawed twenty years ago. Outlawed here, but not down in Guatemala and places like that. So they kept making pillamar 5 here, shipping it off to the banana republics, where they sprayed it on their fruits and vegetables and then shipped ’em all back here for us to eat. That came out in the trial, too, and they tell me it really ticked off the jury. Something sure ticked ’em off.”

“Where was the trial?”

“You sure you don’t have any kinfolks here?”

“I’m sure.”

“Any friends here in Bowmore?”

“None.”

“And you ain’t no reporter, are you?”

“Nope. I’m just passing through.”

Satisfied with her audience, Babe took a deep breath and plunged on. “They moved it out of Bowmore, which was a smart move because any jury here would’ve handed down a death penalty for Krane and the crooks who run it, and they tried the case over in Hattiesburg. Judge Harrison, one of my favorites. Cary County is in his district, and he’s been eating here for many years. He likes the ladies, but that’s okay. I like the men. Anyway, for a long time the lawyers just talked, but no one would dare take on Krane. Then a local girl, a young woman,
mind you, one of our own, said to hell with it and filed a massive suit. Mary Grace Payton, grew up a mile out of town. Bowmore High School class valedictorian. I remember when she was a kid. Her daddy, Mr. Truman Shelby, still comes in from time to time. I love that girl. Her husband is a lawyer, too, they practice together in Hattiesburg. They sued for Jeannette Baker, sweet girl, whose husband and little boy died of cancer eight months apart. Krane fought like hell, had a hundred lawyers, according to the traffic. The trial lasted for months and damned near broke the Paytons, from what I hear. But they won. Jury threw the book at Krane. Forty-one million dollars. I can’t believe you missed it. How could anyone miss it? It put Bowmore on the map. You want something to eat, honey?”

“How about a grilled cheese?”

“You got it.” Babe threw two pieces of white bread on the grill without missing a beat. “Case is on appeal, and I pray every night that the Paytons’ll win. And the lawyers are back, sniffing around, looking for new victims. Ever hear of Clyde Hardin?”

“Never met him.”

“He’s seven doors down, on the left, been here forever. A member of my eight-thirty coffee club, a bunch of blowhards. He’s okay, but his wife’s a snot. Clyde is afraid of the courtroom, so he hooked up with some real shysters from Philadelphia—Pennsylvania, not Mississippi—and they’ve filed a class action on behalf of a bunch of deadbeats who are trying to join the parade. Rumor has it that some of their so-called clients
don’t even live here. They’re just looking for a check.” She unwrapped two slices of processed cheddar and placed them on the hot bread. “Mayonnaise?”

“No.”

“How about some fries?”

“No thanks.”

“Anyway, the town’s split worse than ever. The folks who are really sick are angry at these new victims who are just claiming to be. Funny what money does to some folks. Always looking for a handout. Some of the lawyers think Krane’ll finally give in and make a big settlement. Folks’ll get rich. Lawyers’ll get even richer. But others are convinced Krane will never admit any wrongdoing. They never have. Six years ago, when the lawsuit talk was hot, they simply folded up one weekend and fled to Mexico, where I’m sure they’re free to dump and pollute all they want to. Probably killing Mexicans right and left. It’s criminal what that company did. It killed this town.”

When the bread was almost black, she put the sandwich together, sliced it in two, and served it with a slice of dill pickle.

“What happened to the Krane employees?”

“Got screwed. No surprises there. A lot of them left the area to find work. Ain’t much in the way of jobs around here. Some were nice folks, others knew what was happening and kept quiet. If they squealed, they’d get fired. Mary Grace found some of them and hauled them back for the trial. Some told the truth. Some lied, and Mary Grace ripped them to pieces, according to
what I hear. I never watched the trial, but I got reports almost daily. The whole town was on pins and needles. There was a man named Earl Crouch who ran the plant for many years. Made good money, and rumor has it that Krane bought him off when they tucked tail. Crouch knew all about the dumping, but during his deposition he denied everything. Lied like a dog. That was two years ago. They say that Crouch has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Mary Grace couldn’t find him to come testify at trial. He’s gone. AWOL. Not even Krane could find him.”

She let this rich little nugget hang in the air for a moment as she sauntered over to check on the Chevrolet mechanics. Sheila chewed on the first bite of the sandwich and pretended to have little interest in the story.

“How’s the grilled cheese?” Babe asked when she was back.

“Great.” Sheila took a sip of water and waited for the narrative to continue. Babe leaned in closer and lowered her voice.

“There’s a family over in Pine Grove, the Stones. Tough bunch. In and out of prison for stealing cars and such. Not the kinda folks you’d want to start a fight with. Four, maybe five years ago, one of the little Stone boys caught cancer and died quick. They hired the Paytons and their suit is still pending. What I hear is that the Stones found Mr. Earl Crouch somewhere out in Texas and got their revenge. Just a rumor, and folks here ain’t talking about it. Wouldn’t surprise me, though. Nobody messes with the Stones. Feelings are
raw, very raw. You mention Krane Chemical around here people want to fight.”

Sheila wasn’t about to mention it. Nor was she about to pry much deeper. The mechanics stood, stretched, went for the toothpicks, and headed for the cash register. Babe met them there and insulted them as she took their money, about $4 each. Why were they working on a Saturday? What did their boss think he was accomplishing? Sheila managed to choke down half the sandwich.

“You want another one?” Babe asked when she returned to her stool.

“No thanks. I need to be going.” Two teenagers ambled in and settled at a table.

Sheila paid her bill, thanked Babe for the conversation, promised to stop in again. She walked to her car, then spent half an hour crisscrossing the town. The magazine article mentioned Pine Grove and Pastor Denny Ott. She drove slowly through the neighborhood around the church and was struck by its depressed state. The article had been kind. She found the abandoned industrial park, then the Krane plant, gloomy and haunted but protected behind the razor wire.

After two hours in Bowmore, Sheila left, hopefully never to return. She understood the anger that led to the verdict, but judicial reasoning must exclude all emotions. There was little doubt Krane Chemical had done bad things, but the issue was whether their waste actually caused the cancers. The jury certainly thought so.

It would soon be the job of Justice McCarthy and her eight colleagues to settle the matter.

__________

T
hey tracked her movements to the Coast, to her home three blocks off the Bay of Biloxi. She was there for sixty-five minutes, then drove a mile to her daughter’s home on Howard Street. After a long dinner with her daughter, son-in-law, and two small grandchildren, she returned to her home and spent the night, apparently alone. At ten on Sunday morning, she had brunch at the Grand Casino with a female acquaintance. A quick check of license plates revealed this person to be a well-known local divorce lawyer, probably an old friend. After brunch, McCarthy returned to her home, changed into blue jeans, and left with her overnight bag. She drove nonstop to her condo in north Jackson, arriving at 4:10. Three hours later, a man by the name of Keith Christian (white male, age forty-four, divorced, history professor) showed up with what appeared to be a generous supply of take-out Chinese food. He did not leave the McCarthy condo until seven the following morning.

Tony Zachary summarized these reports himself, pecking away at a laptop he still despised. He’d been a terrible typist long before the Internet, and his skills had improved only marginally. But the details could be trusted to no one—no assistant, no secretary. The matter demanded the utmost secrecy. Nor could his summaries be e-mailed or faxed. Mr. Rinehart insisted that they be sent by overnight letter via Federal Express.

I
n the old town of Natchez there is a slice of land below a bluff, near the river, known as Under-the-Hill. It has a long and colorful history that begins with the earliest days of steamboat traffic on the Mississippi. It attracted all the characters—the merchants, traders, boat captains, speculators, and gamblers—headed to New Orleans. Because money was changing hands, it also attracted ruffians, vagabonds, swindlers, bootleggers, gunrunners, whores, and every imaginable misfit from the underworld. Natchez was rich with cotton, most of which was shipped and traded through its port, Under-the-Hill. Easy money created the need for bars, gambling dens, brothels, and flophouses. A young Mark Twain was a regular during his days as a steamboat pilot. Then the Civil War killed river traffic. It also wiped out the fortunes in Natchez, and most of its nightlife. Under-the-Hill suffered a long period of decline.

In 1990, the Mississippi legislature approved a bill that allowed riverboat gambling, the idea being that a handful of fake paddle wheelers would churn up and down the river while their cargo of retirees played bingo and blackjack. Along the Mississippi River, businessmen rushed to establish these floating casinos. Remarkably, once the legislation was actually read and analyzed, it was discovered that the boats would not be required to physically leave the shore. Nor were they required to be equipped with any type of engine to propel them. As long as they touched the river, or any of its chutes, sloughs, oxbow lakes, man-made canals, or backwaters, the structures qualified as riverboats under the legislation. Under-the-Hill made a brief comeback.

Unfortunately, upon further analysis, the legislation accidentally approved full-fledged Vegas-style casino gambling, and within a few years this roaring new industry had settled itself along the Gulf Coast and in Tunica County, near Memphis. Natchez and the other river towns missed the boom, but did manage to hang on to a few of their engineless, stationary casinos.

__________

O
ne such establishment was the Lucky Jack. There, at his favorite blackjack table with his favorite dealer, Clete Coley sat hunched over a stack of $25 chips and sipped a rum and soda. He was up $1,800 and it was time to quit. He watched the door, waiting on his appointment.

Coley was a member of the bar. He had a degree, a license, a name in the yellow pages, an office with the
word “Attorney” on the door, a secretary who answered the occasional phone call with an unenthusiastic “Law Office,” and business cards with all the necessary data. But Clete Coley wasn’t a real lawyer. He had few clients to speak of. He wouldn’t draft a will, or a deed, or a contract, at gunpoint. He didn’t hang around the courthouse, and he disliked most of the other lawyers in Natchez. Clete was simply a rogue, a big, loud, hard-drinking rogue of a lawyer who made more money at the casinos than he did at the office. He’d once dabbled in politics, and barely missed an indictment. He’d dabbled in government contracts, and dodged another one. In his early years, after college, he’d done some pot smuggling, but abruptly abandoned that career when a partner was found dead. In fact, his conversion was so complete that he became an undercover narcotics officer. He went to law school at night and finally passed the bar exam on his fourth attempt.