Executioner's Song, The - Norman Mailer [424]
She was quite surprised. Of course, there was quite a count of people you heard about through the years, who got smashed to bits flying light aircraft over the Rockies. You could even take the view there were spooks in the mountains. It was a phobia she had run across before, and normally she could almost sympathize, but right now, her problem was that she didn't know enough law. She would have to stand up and argue all by herself in Tenth Circuit Court. Never been to Tenth Circuit before, or any other Circuit. God, it was like leaving her alone on an expert trail. Hey, she felt like yelling, I'm just an ex-anthropology student. This law is too rarefied for me.
She hardly knew the man, but it was crystal clear Jinks was not going to fly in that little plane. "Nothing is worth it," he repeated quietly.
Before she left, Judy Wolbach grabbed a copy of the Tenth Circuit rules and a couple of volumes from American Jurisprudence.
That was sort of a ground-level legal encyclopedia. She and Jinks did get through on the phone to some ACLU lawyers in Denver who had considerable experience with the Tenth, and they promised to meet her at the Federal Courthouse. They would argue the technical aspects, they said. Judy was impressed with the ACLU people in Denver. What a gift to have such good lawyers ready to pitch in on short notice.
Getting to the plane, however, turned out to be gross. Hansen called to say he would pick her up and they would drive together to Judge Lewis's house, then all go out to the airport. Judy had no desire to fly with the Attorney General's people, but there was no choice. So Hansen came by, picked her up, and she began to do a slow boil. Instead of traveling west toward the airport, they had to cut back all the way across Salt Lake to the East Bench for Judge Lewis.
This was time Judith could have used doing research instead of pooting around these Ivy League streets, Harvard Avenue and Yale Crest, with these big homes patterned after New England townhouses. All Judy was seeing were a lot of empty elm tree branches waving in the middle of the night. Thought it was petty of Hansen to pull a trick like this, and almost told him so except Hansen would probably say he wanted a witness to the fact he had no prior conversation with the Judge.
Well, in the time it took him to walk up to the Judge's door, which was set back quite far on the lawn, and then chat with the man in the vestibule before they finally came out to the car, he had time to say anything he wanted. Talk of influencing the man, Hansen and Judge Lewis were into fishing, and how things were going in each other's office, and Judy was thinking, Boy, I'd really like to get a word in edgewise and tell the Judge what's going on, but no, Hansen was speaking of Judge Lewis's wooden golf clubs. Judy heard them go back and forth about drivers and niblicks, and how wood was coming into its own again. The man's world! She ought to ask the Judge about some tournaments he'd been in, and say, By the way, I've got this client I'd just as soon you didn't shoot.
She had heard Lewis was a Utah Republican appointed to the Tenth Circuit by President Eisenhower. He was sure conservatively dressed, a modest, keen-looking, clean-shaven face, a silver fox. Had the kind of gray demeanor that would make him perfectly happy in a boardroom some place. Right now, he and Bob Hansen were talking like sixty about everything but the case. All very nice and fair, but she had a recollection of Judge Lewis's being quoted in the papers about Judge Ritter. Something uncomplimentary.
At the Salt Lake Airport, they drove around the main terminal out to one of the small light plane depots. When they arrived, it was only to discover that Hansen's deputies were not yet there. Judge Lewis looked somewhat concerned about the time.
4
Dorius, Barrett, Evans, and Schwendiman had all been waiting for the last pages to be Xeroxed. At 4 A.M., Schwendiman put the documents