Sycamore Row - John Grisham

25
For those contesting the handwritten will of Seth Hubbard, Christmas came late.
January 16, to be exact.
An investigator working for Wade Lanier struck gold. His name was Randall Clapp,
and he finally found a potential witness named Fritz Pickering, who was living near
Shreveport, Louisiana. Clapp was Wade Lanier’s top investigator and had a well-trained
nose for digging up information. Pickering was simply minding his own business and
had no idea what Clapp wanted. But he was curious, so they agreed to meet at a
delicatessen where Clapp said he’d buy lunch.
Clapp was in the process of interviewing Lettie Lang’s former employers, almost all of
whom were fairly affluent white homeowners accustomed to using black domestic help.
In her deposition, Lettie had given as many of these names as she could remember, or so
she testified. She was clear that there might have been one or two others over the past
thirty years; she didn’t keep records. Most housekeepers did not. She had failed, though,
to mention working for Irene Pickering. The name surfaced when Clapp was
interviewing another former boss.
Lettie had never worked for anyone longer than six years. There were various reasons
for this, none of which had anything to do with incompetence. Indeed, almost all of her
ex-employers gave her high marks. Pickering, though, would be different. Over soup and
salad, he told his story.
About ten years earlier, either in 1978 or 1979, his mother, a widow named Irene
Pickering, had hired Lettie Lang to clean and cook. Mrs. Pickering lived just outside the
small town of Lake Village, in an old house that had been in the family forever. At the
time, Fritz Pickering lived in Tupelo and worked for an insurance company, the one that
transferred him to Shreveport. He saw his mother at least once a month and came to
know Lettie fairly well. Everyone was pleased with the relationship, especially Mrs.
Pickering. In 1980, her health began a rapid decline and it became obvious that the end
was near. Lettie worked longer hours and showed real compassion for the dying
woman, but Fritz and his sister, the only other sibling, began to grow suspicious about
their mother’s routine financial affairs. Gradually, Lettie had taken control of collecting
the bills and writing the checks, though it appeared as if Mrs. Pickering always signed
them. Lettie kept up with the bank statements, insurance forms, bills, and other
paperwork.
Fritz got an urgent call one day from his sister, who had found an astonishing
document. It was a will handwritten by their mother, and in it she left $50,000 in cash