Juror #3(70)

Lee looked down, where my fist was still clutching his arm. In an offhand voice, he said, “You’re missing a button. On your jacket.”

It distracted me for a moment. I looked down at my cuff; as Lee said, a bare thread dangled where a navy button used to be. On my brand-new suit.

But if I was still Raggedy Ruby, I was also the HBIC. I reached over and jerked a brass button from his chest, then threw it across the courthouse lawn. “You’ve lost a button, too. So what? Don’t you dare dodge me, Lee. What happened with Cary Reynolds?”

His head dropped, and he didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he spoke in a halting voice.

“It was the semiformal. At the fraternity. Sophomore year.”

He paused. To prompt him, I said, “Cary Reynolds’s sophomore year.”

He shot me an impatient look. “My sophomore year. Cary was a pledge, a freshman.”

I waited for him to elaborate. What could happen at a dance that would be so terrible? Then I had an unpleasant suspicion. “Was it hazing? The university doesn’t allow it, not these days.”

He laughed, but it was a hollow sound. “Oh, Ruby. There are so many things you’ll never understand.”

I didn’t argue. “Okay. Tell me about it.”

He rubbed his thighs with the palms of his hands, which left a damp spot on the fabric. “Cary was all psyched about the dance. I asked if he needed me to fix him up—because I was his pledge father. He told me he was going to bring his old high school girlfriend from Vicksburg. Said she was a freshman at Ole Miss.”

“So what was the problem? I know you, Lee—you’re about to tell me she didn’t measure up. Not pretty enough?””

He grimaced. “She was black.”

I pulled a face of disbelief. “Oh, my God.”

“Well, she was.”

“And that was a problem?”

He looked away, defensive. “Do you want to hear this? Or do you want to preach at me?”

He had fallen silent again. I nudged him. “And?”

He looked chagrined when he spoke. “When they saw Cary’s date, the brothers were appalled. They said he had to get her out, that if he was interested in becoming a member of the fraternity, he’d never bring a black girl into the house again.”

I tried to keep my face impassive. Lee was my client, not Cary. But I couldn’t stop myself from asking: “And you went along with that? You didn’t stand up for him?”

“You don’t know what it’s like. The peer pressure in an organization like that.”

I shook my head. “Oh, Lord.”

He lowered his voice to the barest whisper. I had to bend my head to hear.

“The brothers pulled me aside, said it was up to me to drive the two of them home and make sure they didn’t return. I dropped Cary off first; his dorm was close to Greektown. When I pulled into his date’s parking lot, she was crying in the backseat.”

Oh, hell. A feeling of dread came over me. I had a pretty good idea what was coming next.

“I got into the backseat with her. Seduced her, I guess you’d say.”

I made a snort of disapproval, and he turned on me with burning eyes.

“It was consensual.”

I shook my head; my face wore an expression I didn’t try to hide. “You kicked them out and screwed his date? You’re shitting me.”

“Oh, Ruby, you’re so crass.”

I didn’t take the bait. He was going to finish telling the tale, regardless of the number of slights he launched in my direction.

When I didn’t respond, he sighed and went on. “I’m really not the villain of this tale. The girl told Cary about it—God knows why.”

“How did he react?”

He made a face of distaste. “He beat the tar out of her. Somebody reported it, and Cary was kicked out of the university. Which apparently was the end of his academic career.”

Lee let out another breath, the sound of a long-held confession finally released. I waited, wondering whether there was another horrific chapter to the episode, but none came.

I finally said, “But what about the girl? What happened to her?”

He looked at me with surprise. “Good Lord—how would I know? I never saw her again.” He paused. “I don’t even remember her name.”

Recalling the conversation at lunch, when Lee described Reynolds as a “dropout,” I felt that I should have known there was more to the story.

But I had a last question. “You knew Cary Reynolds had good reason to hold a grudge against you. So why on earth did you agree to meet up with him in Vicksburg?”

He huffed out another breath that sounded like a groan. “I know you like to think I’m a total ass. But how things went down with Cary…it’s bothered me for years. I thought I could make amends by doing him a favor, giving free representation. It could be payback. You know?”

Oh, I knew. What transpired in court today was payback, all right. Just not the kind Lee had predicted.





Chapter 63



LEE WENT IN search of his parents, leaving me alone on the bench. As he walked away, I unearthed a nugget of Nicorette and chewed down on it.

Lost in thought, I stared at the patchy grass and kicked at a clump of it with the toe of my shoe.