Read A Time to Kill for Free Online

them?”
    “Huey’s.”
    “That figures.” Jake drank his coffee and thought of Hanna.
    “Sick, sick, sick,” Looney mumbled.
    “How’s Carl Lee?”
    Prather wiped syrup from his mustache. “Personally, I don’t know him, but I ain’t ever heard anything bad about him. They’re still at the hospital. I think Ozzie was with them all night. He knows them real well, of course, he knows all those folks real well. Hastings is kin to the girl somehow.”
    “When’s the preliminary hearing?”
    “Bullard set it for one P.M. today. Ain’t that right, Looney?”
    Looney nodded.
    “Any bond?”
    “Ain’t been set yet. Bullard’s gonna wait till the hearing. If she dies, they’ll be lookin’ at capital murder, won’t they?”
    Jake nodded.
    “They can’t have a bond for capital murder, can they, Jake?” Looney asked.
    “They can but I’ve never seen one. I know Bullard won’t set a bond for capital murder, and if he did, they couldn’t make it.”
    “If she don’t die, how much time can they get?” asked Nesbit, the third deputy.
    Others listened as Jake explained. “They can get life sentences for the rape. I assume they will also be charged with kidnapping and aggravated assault.”
    “They already have.”
    “Then they can get twenty years for the kidnapping and twenty years for the aggravated assault.”
    “Yeah, but how much time will they serve?” asked Looney.
    Jake thought a second. “They could conceivably be paroled in thirteen years. Seven for the rape, three for the kidnapping, and three for the aggravated assault. That’s assuming they’re convicted on all charges and sentenced to the maximum.”
    “What about Cobb? He’s got a record.”
    “Yeah, but he’s not habitual unless he’s got two prior convictions.”
    “Thirteen years,” Looney repeated, shaking his head.
    Jake stared through the window. The square was coming to life as pickups full of fruits and vegetables parked next to the sidewalk around the courthouse lawn, and the old farmers in faded overalls neatly arranged the small baskets of tomatoes and cucumbers and squash on the tailgates and hoods. Water melons from Florida were placed next to the dusty slick tires, and the farmers left for an early-morning meeting under the Vietnam monument, where they sat on benches and chewed Red Man and whittled while they caught up on the gossip. They’re probably talking about the rape, Jake thought. It was daylight now, and time for the office. The deputies were finished with their food, and Jake excused himself. He hugged Dell, paid his check, and for a second thought of driving home to check on Hanna.
    At three minutes before seven, he unlocked his office and turned on the lights.
________
    Carl Lee had difficulty sleeping on the couch in the waiting room. Tonya was serious but stable. They had seen her at midnight, after the doctor warned that shelooked bad. She did. Gwen had kissed the little bandaged face while Carl Lee stood at the foot of the bed, subdued, motionless, unable to do anything but stare blankly at the small figure surrounded by machines, tubes, and nurses. Gwen was later sedated and taken to her mother’s house in Clanton. The boys went home with Gwen’s brother.
    The crowd had dispersed around one, leaving Carl Lee alone on the couch. Ozzie brought coffee and doughnuts at two, and told Carl Lee all he knew about Cobb and Willard.
________
    Jake’s office was a two-story building in a row of two-story buildings overlooking the courthouse on the north side of the square, just down from the Coffee Shop. The building was built by the Wilbanks family back in the 1890s, back when they owned Ford County. And there had been a Wilbanks practicing law in the building from the day it was built until 1979, the year of the disbarment. Next door to the east was an insurance agent Jake had sued for botching a claim for Tim Nunley, the mechanic down at the Chevrolet place. To the west was the bank with the mortgage on