Sycamore Row - John Grisham

handshake while shapely Kamila watched close by. The three employees stared at him,
obviously wishing to discuss something important. Dewayne was a wiry, hyper sort,
who, as it turned out, chain-smoked Kools with little regard for where his fumes drifted.
“Can we talk to you?” asked Arlene, the unquestioned leader. Dewayne fired up a
Kool, his hands palsy-like as he arranged the cigarette. Talk, as in a serious
conversation, not just a chat about the weather.
“Sure,” Jake said. “What’s on your mind?”
Arlene thrust forward a business card and asked, “Do you know this man?” Jake
looked at it. Reed Maxey, Attorney-at-Law, Jackson, Mississippi. “No,” Jake said. “Never
heard of him. Why?”
“Well, he dropped by last Tuesday, said he was working on Mr. Hubbard’s estate, and
that the court was concerned about the handwritten will that you’ve filed or whatever
it’s called; said the will is probably invalid because Seth was obviously doped up and out
of his mind when he was planning to kill himself and at the same time writing that will;
said that the three of us would be crucial witnesses because we saw Seth the Friday
before the suicide and it would be up to us to testify as to how doped up he was; and, to
boot, the real will, the one prepared by real lawyers and such, leaves some money to us
as friends and employees; so, he said, it would be in our best interests to tell the truth,
tell how Seth lacked—what was the term—”
“Testamentary capacity,” Dewayne said from deep within the menthol fog.
“That’s it—testamentary capacity. He made it sound like Seth was crazy.”
Stunned, Jake managed to maintain a grim face and give away nothing. His first
reaction was anger—how dare another lawyer step into his case, tell lies, and tamper
with witnesses. There were so many ethical violations Jake couldn’t think of them all.
His second reaction, though, was more restrained—this lawyer was a fraud, a fake. No
one would do this.
He kept his cool and said, “Well, I’ll have a talk with this lawyer and tell him to butt
out.”
“What’s in the other will, the real one?” Dewayne asked.
“I haven’t seen it. It was prepared by some lawyers in Tupelo, and they have not yet
been required to show it.”
“Do you think we’re in it?” Kamila asked without the slightest effort at subtlety.
“Don’t know.”
“Can we find out?” she asked.
“I doubt it.” Jake wanted to ask if such knowledge might affect their testimony, but he
decided to say as little as possible.
Arlene said, “He asked a lot of questions about Seth and how he was acting that
Friday. He wanted to know how he was feeling and all about his medications.”
“And what did you tell him?”
“Not much. To be honest, he was not the kind of person I wanted to talk to. He was
shifty-eyed and—”
“A real fast talker,” Dewayne added. “Too fast. At times I couldn’t understand him
and I kept thinking, This guy’s a lawyer? Hate to see him in court, in front of a jury.”