Just Cause

by John Katzenbach

  “Tom’ll be home in a half hour or so. He’d like to see you. He thought you did a helluva job on those stories.”

  He continued to shake his head. “Tell him thanks. But I’ve really got to get on the road. It’ll be nearly midnight by the time I get back to Miami.”

  “I wish—” she started. Then she stopped and said, “Okay. I’ll speak with you soon.”

  He nodded. “Give me a hug, honey.” He got down on his knees and gave his daughter a squeeze. He could feel her energy flow through him for just an instant, all endless enthusiasm. Then she pulled away. “Bye-bye, Daddy,” she said. Her voice had a small crease in it. He reached out, stroked her cheek once and said, “Now, don’t tell your mother what you’ve been eating . . .” He lowered his voice into a stage whisper. “. . . And don’t tell her about all the presents you got. She might be jealous.” Becky smiled and nodded her head up and down vigorously.

  Before sliding behind the wheel, he turned and waved in false gaiety at the two of them. He told himself, You play the divorced father well. You’ve got all the moves down pat.

  His fury with himself did not subside for hours.

  At the paper, Will Martin tried to get him interested in several editorial crusades, with little success. He found himself daydreaming, anticipating Ferguson’s upcoming trial, although he did not expect it ever to occur. As the Florida summer dragged relentlessly into fall with no change in atmosphere or temperature, he decided to go back up to Pachoula and write some sort of story about how the town was reacting to Ferguson’s release.

  The first call he made from his motel room was to Tanny Brown.

  “Lieutenant? Matthew Cowart here. I just wanted to save you the trouble of having to rely on your spies and sources. I’m in town for a couple of days.”

  “Can I ask what for?”

  “Just to do an update on the Ferguson case. Are you still planning to prosecute?”

  The detective laughed. “That’s a decision for the state attorney, not me.”

  “Yeah, but he makes the decision with the information you provide him. Has anything new come up?”

  “You expect me to tell you if it has?”

  “I’m asking.”

  “Well, seeing as how Roy Black would tell you anyway, no, nothing new.”

  “What about Ferguson. What’s he been doing?”

  “Why don’t you ask him?”

  “I’m going to.”

  “Well, why don’t you go out to his place, then give me a call back.”

  Cowart hung up the phone, vaguely impressed with the thought the detective was mocking him. He drove through the pine trees and shadows down the dirt road to Ferguson’s grandmother’s house, pulling in amidst the few chickens and standing on the packed dirt for a moment. He saw no signs of activity, so he mounted the steps and knocked hard on the wood frame of the door. After a moment, he heard shuffling feet, and the door pitched open a few inches.

  “Mrs. Ferguson? It’s me, Matthew Cowart, from the Journal.”

  The door opened a little wider.

  “Whatcha want now?”

  “Where’s Bobby Earl? I’d like to talk to him.”

  “He went back north.”

  “What?”

  “He went back up to that school in New Jersey.”

  “When did he leave?”

  “Last week. There warn’t nothing here for him, white boy. You know that as well as I do.”

  “But what about his trial?”

  “He didn’t seem too concerned.”

  “How can I get in touch with him?”

  “He said he’d write when he got settled. That ain’t happened yet.”

  “Did anything happen here, in Pachoula? Before he left?”

  “Not that he talked about. You got any more questions, Mr. Reporter?”

  “No.”

  Cowart stepped down from the porch and stared up at the house.

  That afternoon, he called Roy Black.

  “Where’s Ferguson?” he demanded.

  “In New Jersey. I got an address and phone, if y’all want it.”

  “But how can he leave the state? What about the trial, his bail?”

  “Judge gave him permission. No big deal. I told him it was better to get back on with his life, and he wanted to go on up and finish school. What’s so strange about that? The state has to provide us with any new discovery material, and so far they haven’t sent over anything. I don’t know what they’re gonna do, but I’m not expecting big things from them.”

  “You think it’s just going to slide?”

  “Maybe. Go ask the detectives.”

  “I will.”

  “You got to understand, Mr. Cowart, how little those prosecutors want to get up and have their heads bashed in at trial. Public humiliation ain’t high on the list for elected officials, you know. I suspect they’d find it a lot easier just to let a little bit of time flow by, so’s people’s memories get a bit hazy about the whole thing. Then get up and drop the charges at some cozy, little old conference back in the judge’s chambers. Blame the whole failure on him for suppressing that statement. He’ll turn right around and say it was the state’s fault. And mostly the whole thing will dump on those two cops. Simple as that. End of story. That ain’t so surprising now, is it? You’ve seen things just float on out of the criminal justice system before with nary a whimper?”

  “From Death Row to zero?”

  “You got it. Happens. Not too frequent, of course, but happens. Nothing here that I haven’t seen or heard before.”

  “Just pick up life, after a three-year hiatus?”

  “Right again. Everything back to nice and quiet normal. Excepting of course one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That little girl is still dead.”

  * * *

  He called Tanny Brown.

  “Ferguson’s gone back to New Jersey. Did you know that?”

  “It wasn’t too much of a secret. The local paper did a story on his leaving. Said he wanted to continue his education. Told the paper he didn’t think he could get a job here in Pachoula because of the way people looked at him. I don’t know about that. I don’t know if he even tried. Anyway, he left. I think he just wanted to get out of town before somebody did something to him.”

  “Like who?”

  “I don’t really know. Some people were upset when he was released. Of course, some others weren’t. Small town, you know. People divided. Most folks were pretty confused.”

  “Who was upset?”

  Tanny Brown paused before replying. “I was upset. That’s enough.”

  “So, what happens now?”

  “What do you expect to happen?”

  Cowart didn’t have an answer for that.

  He did not write the story he intended. Instead, he went back to the editorial board and worked hard on upcoming local elections. He spent hours interviewing candidates, reading position papers, and debating with the other members of the board what the newspaper’s positions should be. The atmosphere was heady, collegial. The wonderful perversities of local South Florida politics, where issues like making English the official county language, or democracy in Cuba, or firearms control, provided infinite distractions. After the elections, he launched another series of editorials on water management throughout the Florida Keys. This required him to occupy his time with budget projections and ecological statements. His desk grew cluttered with sheets of paper, all covered with endless tables and charts. He had an odd thought, a pun: There’s safety in numbers.

  The first week in December, at a hearing before Judge Trench, the state dropped first-degree-murder charges against Robert Earl Ferguson. They complained to a small gathering of reporters that without the c
onfession, there was little hard evidence to go on. There was a lot of posturing by both prosecutors and the defense team about how important the system was, and how no single case was more important than the rules of law that governed them all.

  Tanny Brown and Bruce Wilcox were absent from the hearing.

  “I don’t really want to talk about it right now,” Brown said when Cowart went to see him. Wilcox said, “Jesus, I barely touched the man. Jesus. If I’d really hit him, you think he’d have no marks? You think he’d still be standing? Hell, I’d a ripped his head off. Damn.”

  He drove through a humid evening, past the school, past the willow where Joanie Shriver had stepped out of the world. He stopped at the fork in the road, staring for an instant down the route the killer had taken before turning toward the Shriver house. He pulled in front and spotted George Shriver cutting a hedge with a gas-powered trimmer. The big man’s body was wreathed in sweat when Cowart approached. He stopped, shutting down the motor, breathing in harsh gasps of air as the reporter stood by, notepad and pen poised.

  “We heard,” he said softly. “Tanny Brown called us, said it was official now. Of course, it didn’t come as no surprise or anything. Yes sir, we knew it was going to happen. Tanny Brown once told us that it was all so fragile. That’s the word I can’t forget. I guess it just couldn’t hold together no more, not after you started to look at it.”

  Cowart stood before the red-faced man uncomfortably. “Do you still think Ferguson killed your daughter? What about Sullivan? What about that letter he sent?”

  “I don’t know nothing anymore about it. I suspect it’s as confused for the missus and me as it is for everyone else. But in my heart, you know, I still think he did it. I can’t ever erase the way he looked at his trial, you know. I just can’t forget that.”

  Mrs. Shriver brought out a glass of ice water for her husband. She looked up at Cowart with a sort of curiosity in her eyes that was ridged with anger.

  “What I can’t understand,” she said, “is why we had to go through all this again. First you, then the other television and print folks. It was like she got killed all over again. And again and again. It got so’s I couldn’t turn on the television for fear that I might see her picture there again and again. It wasn’t like people wouldn’t let us forget. We didn’t want to forget. But it got all caught up in something that I didn’t understand. Like what became important was what that man Ferguson said and what that man Sullivan said and what they did and all that. Not that what was really important was that my little girl was stolen. And that was a hurt, you know, Mr. Cowart? That hurt and kept hurting so much.”

  The woman was crying as she spoke, but the tears didn’t mar the clarity of her voice.

  George Shriver took a deep breath and a long pull from his water. “Of course, we don’t blame you, Mr. Cowart.” He paused. “Well, hell, maybe we do a bit. Can’t help but think something wrong has happened somewhere. Not your fault, I guess. Not your fault at all. Fragile, like I said. Fragile, and it all fell apart.”

  The big man took his wife’s hand and, together, leaving the lawn mower and Matthew Cowart standing in the front yard, they retreated into the darkness of their home.

  When he spoke with Ferguson, he was overwhelmed by the elation in the man’s voice. It made it seem to the reporter that he was standing close by, not talking over some distance on a telephone.

  “I can’t thank you enough, Mr. Cowart. It wouldn’t of happened without your help.”

  “Yes, it would have, sooner or later.”

  “No, sir. You were the person who got it all moving. I’d still be on the Row if not for you.”

  “What are you going to do now?”

  “I have plans, Mr. Cowart. Plans to make something of my life. Finish school. Make a career. Yes sir.” Ferguson paused, then added, “I feel like I’m free to do anything now.”

  Cowart remembered the phrase from somewhere but could not place it. Instead, he asked, “How’re your classes going?”

  “I’ve learned a lot,” Ferguson said. He laughed briefly. “I feel like I know a whole lot more than I did before. Yes sir. Everything’s different now. It’s been some education.”

  “Are you going to stay up in Newark?”

  “I’m not sure about that. This place is colder even than I remember it, Mr. Cowart. I think I should head back south.”

  “Pachoula?”

  Ferguson hesitated before replying. “Well, I doubt it. That place didn’t make me feel altogether welcome after I got off the Row. People’d stare. I could hear talk behind my back. Lot of pointing. Couldn’t go to the local convenience store without finding a patrol car waiting for me when I came out. It was like they were watching me, knowing I’d do something. Took my granny to services on Sunday, folks’ heads would turn when we walked through the door. Went down looking for a job, but every place I went it seemed like the job had just been filled a couple minutes before I got there, made no difference if the boss was black or white. They all just looked at me like I was some sort of evil thing walking about in their midst that they couldn’t do nothing about. That was wrong, sir. Real wrong. And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. But Florida’s a big place, Mr. Cowart. Why, just the other day a church in Ocala asked me to come give a talk on my experiences. And they weren’t the first. So there’s plenty of places that don’t think I’m some sort of mad dog. Just Pachoula, maybe. And that won’t change as long as that Tanny Brown’s there.”

  “Will you stay in touch?”

  “Why, of course,” Ferguson replied.

  In late January, almost a year after he’d received the letter from Robert Earl Ferguson, Matthew Cowart won a Florida Press Association award for his stories. This prize was swiftly followed by awards from the Penney-Missouri School of Journalism and an Ernie Pyle Award from Scripps-Howard.

  At the same time, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and sentence of Blair Sullivan. He got another collect phone call.

  “Cowart? You there?”

  “I’m here, Mr. Sullivan.”

  “You hear about that court decision?”

  “Yes. What are you going to do? All you got to do is talk to one attorney. Why not call Roy Black, huh?”

  “Mr. Cowart, d’you think I’m a man with no convictions?” he laughed. “That’s a pun. A man of no conscience? That’s another joke. What makes you think I ain’t going to stick to what I said?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I think life is worth living.”

  “You ain’t had my life.”

  “That’s true.”

  “And you ain’t got my future. You probably think I ain’t got much future. But you’re gonna be surprised.”

  “I’m waiting.”

  “You want to know something, Mr. Cowart? The really funny thing is, I’m having a good time.”

  “I’m glad to hear it.”

  “You know another thing, Mr. Cowart? We’re gonna talk again. When it gets close.”

  “Have you been told anything about when?”

  “No. Can’t imagine what’s taking the governor so long.”

  “Do you really want to die, Mr. Sullivan?”

  “I got plans, Mr. Cowart. Big plans. Death is just a little part of them. I’ll call you again.”

  He hung up and Matthew Cowart stifled a shiver. He thought it was like speaking with a corpse.

  On the first of April, Matthew Cowart was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished local news reporting.

  In the old days of wire machines that clattered and clanged out news stories in an endless flow of words, there was a sort of ritual gathering on the day the awards were to be announced, waiting for the winners’ names to move on the wires. The Associated Press and United Press International usually competed to see which organization could pr
ocess the awards announcement quickest and move the story fastest. The old wire machines were equipped with bells that would sound when a big story came over the wires, so there was an almost religious pealing when the winners’ names were produced. There was a sort of romanticism involved in watching the Teletype crunch out the names as the assembled editors and reporters groaned or cheered. All that had been replaced by instantaneous transmission over computer lines. Now the names appeared on the ubiquitous green screens that dotted the modern newsroom. The cheers and groans were the same, however.

  He had been out at a water-management conference that afternoon. When he walked into the newsroom, the entire staff rose up applauding.

  A photographer snapped his picture as he was handed a glass of champagne and was pushed toward a computer screen to read the words himself. There were high fives from the managing editor and the city editor, and Will Martin said, “I knew it all along.”

  He was swamped with congratulatory calls. Roy Black telephoned, as did Robert Earl Ferguson, who spoke for only a few moments. Tanny Brown called and said cryptically, “Well, I’m glad to see somebody got something out of all this.”

  His ex-wife called, crying. “I knew you could do it,” she said. He could hear a baby bawling in the background. His daughter squealed with pleasure when she spoke with him, not fully understanding what had happened but delighted nonetheless. He was interviewed on three local television stations and got a call from a literary agent, wondering whether he was interested in writing a book. The producer who’d purchased the rights to Robert Earl Ferguson’s life story called, intimating that he should make a deal as well. The man was insistent, talking his way past the telephone receptionist screening the incoming calls, finally getting Matthew Cowart on the line.

  “Mr. Cowart? Jeffrey Maynard here. I’m with Instacom Productions. We’re very anxious to do a movie based on all the work you’ve done.”

  The producer had a breathless, agitated voice, as if each passing second was filled with lost opportunity and wasted money.

  Cowart replied slowly, “I’m sorry, Mr. Maynard, but . . .”

  “Don’t turn me down, Mr. Cowart. How about I fly out to Miami and talk with you? Better yet, you fly here, our nickel, of course.”