Sycamore Row - John Grisham

40
Lucien shuffled the deck and deftly dealt ten cards to Lonny and the same to himself. As
usual now, Lonny slowly lifted his cards from the top of the folding table and took
forever arranging them in his preferred order. His hands and words were slow, but his
mind seemed to be clicking right along. He was up thirty points in this their fifth game
of gin rummy; he’d won three of the first four. He was wearing a saggy hospital gown
and an IV hung just over his head. A nicer nurse had given him permission to leave his
bed and play cards in front of the window, but only after Lonny had raised his voice. He
was sick and tired of the hospital and wanted to leave. But then, he really had no place
to go. Only the city jail, where the food was even worse and the cops were waiting with
questions. In fact, they were waiting just outside his door now. Thirty kilos of cocaine
will always create problems. His new pal Lucien, who said he was a lawyer, had
guaranteed him the evidence would be tossed on a motion to suppress. The cops had no
probable cause to enter Lonny’s room at the flophouse. Just because a man gets hurt in
a bar fight does not give the police the right to rummage through his locked living
quarters. “It’s a slam dunk,” Lucien had promised. “Any half-assed criminal lawyer gets
the coke thrown out. You’ll walk.”
They had talked about Seth Hubbard, with Lucien throwing in all the facts, gossip,
fabrications, speculations, and rumors that had been roaring through Clanton during the
past six months. Lonny claimed to be only mildly curious, but he seemed to enjoy
listening. Lucien did not mention the handwritten will, nor the black housekeeper.
Expansively, he recounted Seth’s amazing ten-year run from a man broken by his second
nasty divorce to a high-flying risk taker who parlayed his own mortgaged property into
a fortune. He described Seth’s zeal for secrecy, his offshore bank accounts and maze of
corporations. He told the amazing historical anecdote of Seth’s father, Cleon, hiring
Lucien’s grandfather Robert E. Lee Wilbanks to handle a land dispute in 1928. And they
lost!
Lucien talked almost nonstop in an effort to gain Lonny’s trust, to convince him there
was no harm in telling secrets from the past. If Lucien could open up so completely,
then Lonny could too. On two occasions during the morning, Lucien had gently poked
into the business of Lonny knowing anything about Ancil, but neither punch had landed.
Lonny seemed to have no interest in that subject. They talked and played throughout the
morning. By noon, Lonny was fatigued and needed rest. The nurse enjoyed telling
Lucien to leave.
He did so but was back two hours later to check on his new friend. Lonny now wanted