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."t He thumped a stack of correspondence onhis desk."Where from?""Just about everywhere but Georgia.""I'm not surprised.We've had a couple of strong nibbles on some newbusiness for the town, too.An outfit from Pennsylvania that makeswork clothes is thinking pretty seriously about us." He paused."TheTucker Watts thing is going to help you nail down the black vote, butit remains to be seen what the white vote is going to do.""To tell you the truth," Billy said, "I don't think it's going to costus much there.Mullins has already got the hard-core anti-integrationvote sewed up." State Senator Jackson Mullins would0x-mE: Tucker Watts principal opponent in the Democratic primary thefollow; September.'true.It's the middle ground that's going tothings.If Mullins can scare some of those bad enough, or can make youlook bad enough, you'll be in trouble." i Billy knew Holmes wellenough to know that he had somespedfic in mind.He waited for thebanker to go on."Skeeter Willis is a big Mullins man, you know,"Holmes"I know." "I've had some indications that Skeeter and Mullins may be iup something." "Something to do with Tucker?" Holmes nodded."Youknow about the run-in at the police and Skeeter." ,"Tucker called me about it right away.I told him to let meimmediately if Skeeter gave him any problems.""That's good, but I have an idea that when Skeeter moves, going for thehome run.Remember the thing with Marshall in '46? When somebody putthe moonshine in his"I sure do.Skeeter and Sonny were in that together, I"Not much doubt about it.I think Skeeter might go that way what is itthey call it at the picture, show"Framing.""That's it.Skeeter'Il try to frame hi nif he can.""I'll have a talk with Tucker, tell him to be especially careful.""He'd better be.Skeeter's already had somebody in the state runningbackground checks on him, his childhood in Cogot a call." Holmesshifted in his seat."Did you know that Tucker is Nellie Cole'snephew?"Billy sat up."Are you serious?""Tucker's mother was Jesse's sister.They think that after shot yourdaddy, when he and the go);, Willie, ran, that ght have gone to them.It seems logical.He was killed by that truck ove ring Alabama, andColumbus is on the way." "Well, I'll be damned.He never mentioned athing about it to me.I told him about Daddy on the way down here,when he came to meet with the city coundl."Course that's nothing against him.Even if Tucker's family350Cmos hid Willie, they're all dead now, and Tucker was only a couple ofyears older than Willie.That was nearly thirty-five years ago." "Idon't see how Skeeter can make anything of that, do you?" "No,especially since Skeeter never even bothered to go down there lookingfor Willie." "I guess nobody ever really looked for him.He was justan innocent bystander to the whole incident." "Not entirely innocent.Technically, anyway, Willie had escaped from jail.Will Henry wouldn'thave gone out there if he hadn't been looking for Willie." "You know,it's just as well Willie's gone.We played together a lot as children,when Daddy was still farming.I didn't see much of him after we movedto town.I hate to think what could have happened to him if they'dcaught him and laid some of that on him." "Skeeter sure isn't the sortto have gone light on him, if he'd of caught him.Are you going tomention this to Tucker?" Billy was quiet for a moment."I don't thinkso.I'll just tell him to be extra careful with Skeeter.There's nopoint in embarrassing him.He wasn't under any real obligation tobring up a connection with something that happened so long ago.Ican't say that I blame him." Holmes got up."Well, we'll leave it atthat, then.I better go get some work doBe." Billy sat for a while,thinking about Willie Cole.He hadn't thought about Willie for a longtime.Willie Cole sat a mile across town in his mother's living room."Did they ask specifically about.Willie Cole or Tucker Watts?" heasked."Both," Nellie said."But they seemed to mostly want to knowwhether you might have hid out at Tuck's and Sarah's in Columbus.Itwas like they wanted to blame you for hiding.yourself.I told themI never heard another word from Willie after he ran, not 'til I heardhe got killed ove ring Alabama." "Well, now, listen; don't you worryabout this.There's a birth certificate for Tucker Watts in therecords down at the Muscogee County Courthouse, and I've got athirty-year military record to back up that identity.No photographsand no fingerprints exist for Willie Cole [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]