Executioner's Song, The - Norman Mailer [279]
"Well, I think you're being unrealistic," said Susskind. "Of course, maybe you'll be lucky. Maybe you'll get the whole thing."
"I certainly hope so," said Schiller.
When Susskind spoke again to Greenberg, Stanley said, "I wouldn't feel too badly. It's not what we hoped it would be." Susskind agreed. "I don't think I'm going to bid anymore. Everybody's getting kind of crazy there. It's no longer a story about the breakdown of the criminal justice system, it's a farce, the girl's suicide, poison being slipped in." They agreed they didn't like the smell of it. Stanley said, "I think anybody who does the story now is jumping on a dead and putrefying body, It's bizarre and sick." They agreed. One of those to-hell-with-it conversations.
Still, they didn't really want to let go. Once some dust settled, the story might still have a lot to offer. They decided Stanley would try to keep himself available in case the right arrangements could yet be made.
Chapter 9
NEGOTIATIONS
Next day, Gary brought it up again. "Are you ready, Vern, to take Boaz's place?" he asked.
"I don't know," said Vern. "Am I supposed to feel ready?"
"I'm going," Gary said, "to turn everything over." He nodded. "I just want a few thousand dollars to pay off a couple of people, and a couple I want to help."
"I don't know yet," said Vern, "who to make a deal with. A lot of people are ringing my phone these days."
"Vern, it's your decision."
"Well, if you think I can handle it," said Vern.
"Being a businessman in town," said Gary, "you know the way."
"This is a different type of business."
"Hell," said Gary, "I've seen you operate in your own store. You can do it better than Boaz."
In the afternoon, Vern got a call from Dennis. "Did you know Gary is talking of firing me?" he asked.
"Well, why did he do that?" asked Vern. "You mean he came right out and said it?"
"Between us," asked Dennis, "do you think you can take my place?"
Vern said softly, "I think I can do as well as you have."
After this conversation, Vern spent a couple of hours in thought.
Then he called a few friends in Provo to ask advice about a lawyer.
That evening around ten, he phoned one fellow at home that they all recommended, a lawyer named Bob Moody. Vern could practically hear Moody think about the proposition. Then he answered, "I would be happy to take the case. I'll help you all I can. Do you want to get together tonight, or tomorrow morning, or Monday?"
"Monday's good enough," said Vern.
He felt as if he were moving an immense weight. Nothing was ever going to be the same again.
Nicole's cigarettes were becoming a problem. They had a lot of oxygen tanks around in Intensive Care, and wouldn't let her strike a match. She kept complaining, "I want a cigarette." They couldn't do much with her. "You had one a few hours ago," they would tell her.
"Well, I want another."
Finally, they let Kathryne take her out to the utility room where, among the laundry sinks and old dirty cloth mops soaking in the bowl, Kathryne could sit with Nicole while she smoked. There they would relax. Once Nicole even said, "Maybe I'm glad I'm here. I don't know." Nicole never admitted it exactly, but Kathryne decided she hadn't really wanted to die, just had to prove to Gary she loved him enough. Finally, Nicole did say right out loud, "I thought it was wrong to take my life, and if God thought so also, then I'd stay alive. But if it wasn't a sin, I would die." Kathryne felt close to her then.
Naturally, next thing, this awful jumbled-up mess had to begin.
The doctors wanted Kathryne to sign papers putting Nicole in Utah State Hospital. In the administrator's office, Kathryne tried to argue, but the man there said, "It isn't going to make any difference. There are already two physicians' signatures that she's incompetent and suicidal, and Nicole has also signed." Kathryne didn't know what to do. She didn't think Nicole was ready to come home. Come home to where? On the other hand, she was afraid that once they put Nicole in the nuthouse, she might never get out. Kathryne