Con Law Part 11

'Both. They'll be in tomorrow's paper.'

'Mind if I read them today?'

Sam shrugged. 'Sure. Why not?'

He walked over to his desk and returned with two short articles. He placed them on the counter. Book read the first article.

LOCAL LAWYER DIES IN ONE-CAR ACCIDENT.

Nathan Jones, 29, a lawyer with The Dunn Law Firm in Marfa, was killed in a one-car accident on the north side of Highway 67 nine miles east of town Thursday night about 11 P.M. Sheriff Brady Munn investigated the accident and reported that Jones apparently fell asleep, ran off the road, lost control of his vehicle, and crashed into a pump jack. The pickup truck's gas tank ruptured and exploded. Jones died at the scene. 'Speed was a contributing factor in the accident,' Sheriff Munn said. Jones was returning to Marfa from Midland where he had business at his law firm's offices. Thomas A. Dunn, senior partner at the firm in Midland, expressed shock at Jones's death. 'He was a fine young lawyer and a fine young man. We will miss Nathan.'

'Good-looking boy,' Sam said.

A photograph of Nathan accompanied the obituary.

JONES, NATHANIEL WILLIAM, 29, went to be with his Lord and Savior on April 5th. Nathan was born on February 12, 1983. He grew up on his family's cattle ranch west of Marfa. He graduated from Marfa High School then Texas Tech University with a degree in English. He attended law school at the University of Texas in Austin and received his law degree in 2009. He was a member of the Texas Bar a.s.sociation and was employed with The Dunn Law Firm in Marfa. Nathan is survived by his wife, Brenda, who is expecting their first child, and his parents, William and Edna. Funeral services were at the First Baptist Church with burial at the Marfa Cemetery.

'Only problem with a weekly,' Sam said. 'Sometimes the deceased is already in the ground before the obituary comes out. Least he had a nice funeral.'

'We saw you there. You went even though you didn't know him?'

'When there's not but two thousand folks in town, one dies, it means something. Out here, Professor, folks aren't fungible.'

As law students often seemed to be.

Book had lost contact with Nathan after he had graduated from the law school. He viewed his role as similar to a parent's: to teach the students skills for life in the legal world so they could survive on their own. Consequently, the students leave law school and their professors behind; they get on with their lives and legal careers. They seldom have contact with their professors except to shake hands at continuing legal education seminars. They return to campus for football games, and if they're successful, to make a donation to the school. If they're very successful, their firms might endow a chair. If they become fabulously rich, they might buy the naming rights for a building or s.p.a.ce on campus. Hence, the law school had the Susman G.o.dfrey Atrium, the Joseph D. Jamail Pavilion, the Jamail Center for Legal Research, the Kraft Eidman Courtroom, and the Robin C. Gibbs Atrium. His former intern had not become a rich and famous lawyer. He had not made a donation, endowed a chair, or bought a naming right. He had simply returned home to Marfa and gotten on with his life. And now his life was over. Book could not help but feel that he owed an unpaid debt to Nathan Jones.

'And I took some photos of the funeral service,' Sam said.

'Why?'

'A life ended. Deserves to be doc.u.mented. So folks won't forget.'

'Do you have a photo of the guests at Nathan's funeral?'

Sam again went to his desk and returned with a computer-generated photograph. He placed it on the counter in front of Book.

'Who are these people?' Book asked.

Sam pointed at faces in the photo. 'She's the wife ... his parents ... lawyers, I figure, who else would wear suits? ... the sheriff ... Sadie, the court clerk ... other locals.'

'May I have this photo?'

'Sure.' Sam's eyes turned up to Book. 'You looking into his death, figure maybe it wasn't an accident?'

'What makes you say that?'

'Just hoping for a lead story better than the roller derby.'

'Sorry to disappoint you.'

'Then what brings you to Marfa?'

'We came for the art, stopped in to say h.e.l.lo to Nathan, learned he had died.'

'Same day the boy was buried?'

'Coincidence.'

'Myself, I don't believe in coincidences.'

Nadine threw her hands up. 'What does everyone have against coincidences?'

Sam picked up a digital camera from his desk.

'Mind if I take your picture? For my wall.'

He gestured to the side wall on which photos of celebrities were hung. Book shrugged an okay. He figured Sam Walker might be a friend in Marfa-and he might need a friend. Sam snapped a few photos then held the camera out to Nadine.

'Would you take one of me and the professor?'

Sam came around the counter and stood next to Book. Nadine took their photo and handed the camera back to Sam. He went over to his desk, put the camera down, and picked up a book.

'Would you sign my book? I mean, your book?'

Book autographed the t.i.tle page.

'I read that article about you in the New York Times,' Sam said. 'How people write you letters asking for help and you go off on these adventures, crusades they called them ... photo didn't do you justice.'

Book decided to take Sam Walker into his confidence.

'Sam, can I trust you?'

Sam leaned in a bit.

'Sure, Professor.'

'Nathan Jones wrote me one of those letters.'

Book pulled out Nathan's letter and handed it to Sam. He looked at both sides of the envelope then removed the letter and read it. His expression turned somber. He slowly folded the letter, put it back inside the envelope, and handed it back to Book, almost as if he didn't want it in his possession.

'Noticed the postmark,' Sam said. 'Same day he died. Another coincidence.'

Book nodded.

'So you came to Marfa because he wrote this letter, only to find him dead. Said someone followed him home, said his wife was scared. Might make a man suspicious.'

'It might.'

'You seen his proof?'

'Not yet.'

'That'd be a big story, fracking contaminating the water. Hope it's not true.'

'Because of the water?'

'Because something like that could blow this town apart.'

'Or get someone killed.'

'Might could.'

Sam studied Book a long moment.

'Professor, mind if I ask you something?'

'Shoot.'

'Why do you care so much about Nathan Jones?'

'I owe him.'

Sam nodded slowly. 'Sheriff said his death was an accident.'

'You trust him?'

'Brady Munn? He's as honest as the desert.'

'Know who Nathan's client might be?'

Sam tapped the image of a big bald man in the funeral photo.

'Gotta be Billy Bob Barnett. Why else would he be at a lawyer's funeral? Biggest fracking guy in the Big Bend. Rolled into town five years back from Odessa. Office is just down the street, oil rig on the roof, can't miss it.'

'I didn't. So Mr. Barnett is an important person in town?'

'You could say that. Twice.'

'Why?'

'Because he's got what Marfa's never had and everyone wants: jobs. Before he came to town, we had d.a.m.n near twenty-five percent unemployment. Now it's d.a.m.n near zero. We're still a poor county, just not as poor. Which makes you feel rich, after you've been so poor for so long.'

'So tell me about Marfa.'

Book had shared information with Sam Walker, and now Sam wanted to share with Book. Most lawyers view every conversation as an opportunity to practice their interrogation of a hostile witness; but Book had learned a skill most lawyers never learn: to listen to other people. Sam stepped to the wall and pointed at an old black-and-white photo. The courthouse towered over the town.

'That was Marfa back in the late eighteen-hundreds, only about eight hundred residents. Then they built the courthouse, and we became the county seat. Town started to grow. Government stationed the cavalry here during the Mexican Revolution-they called it Camp Marfa until they changed the name to Fort D. A. Russell. By nineteen thirty, we had almost four thousand residents.'

Sam tapped a framed photograph that showed cavalry soldiers in formation on horseback.

'That's the way the fort looked back then. During World War Two, the government built a POW camp out there, brought in a few hundred German prisoners from Rommel's Afrika Korps. Geneva Convention says prisoners are supposed to be detained in the same climate they were captured in, so it was desert to desert for them. Not sure those Germans might not have opted for California or Colorado if given the choice, but they got Marfa. Apparently they were well behaved, didn't try to escape. Grew vegetables in a garden and painted murals on their barracks, old Building Ninety-Eight. You can go look at it. And we had the Marfa Army Air Field east of town, brought pilots in for flight training. Can't see much from the highway, but go on that Google Earth, you can still see the runways. That was our peak time, over five thousand folks lived here.'

'What happened?'

'We won the war. The army closed up shop, and the Germans went home. Shut down the fort, except for the part used by the Border Patrol to stop bootleg coming across the border. Beer and whiskey, seems kind of quaint now, doesn't it, compared to cocaine and heroin?'

He worked the toothpick.

'And then the rain stopped. Seven years it didn't rain, in the fifties. The great drought. Destroyed cattle ranching and the local economy, such as it was. Old-timers had to sell the herds then the land. Only break from the suffering was when Giant came to town. I was fifteen back then. Exciting time. They hired locals for extras, money people d.a.m.n sure needed. My folks were in the barbecue scene, when Rock brought Liz home to Texas. Cast mingled with the locals between shots, nights at the Paisano-I watched the dailies in the ballroom every night, me and the rest of Marfa. I thought Jimmy Dean was about the coolest guy I'd ever seen, started combing my hair like him. Never knew he was gay. Or Rock Hudson till he died of AIDS.'

Nadine gasped. 'OMG-Bick Benedict was gay?'

Sam eyed her, apparently unsure if she was serious.

'She's been watching the movie at the Paisano,' Book said.

'Oh. Well, I'm afraid he was, little lady.'

'Wow. I didn't see that one coming.'

'Anyway, Giant allowed us to forget our troubles for a few months. When they packed up and that train pulled out of town, it was like Marfa's funeral procession. Population's been dropping ever since. Kids get out of high school then out of town-last census, we were down to nineteen hundred and eighty-one souls living here full time. This place was d.a.m.n near a ghost town. Last one to leave, turn out the lights.'

Sam removed the cap and scratched his head.

'That was before Judd.'

Sam pointed at a photo of an older bearded man.

'Donald Judd. Big-time artist up in New York City, decided to move his operation to Marfa in nineteen seventy-three. Wanted his art to be set in place permanently. "Installation art," they call it. Judd bought vacant buildings on Highland-there were many to choose from-the Marfa National Bank Building, the Crews Hotel, the Safeway grocery store, the Wool and Mohair Building ... renovated them into studios and galleries.'

'We checked out the Chamberlain exhibit in the Wool and Mohair Building.'

Sam gestured with the toothpick. 'I'm an open-minded sort of man. I've actually grown fond of Judd's boxes, and I'm warming up to Flavin's lights. But crushed car parts? That's art?'

'See?' Nadine said to Book. 'I'm not the only non-believer.'

'Then Judd bought the fort. Three hundred forty acres. Turned the artillery sheds and barracks into galleries, put up outside art-sixty big concrete boxes, d.a.m.nedest thing you've ever seen, right on the field where Patton played polo. He was an interesting man, Judd. Loved bagpipes. I don't know why.'

'You knew him? Personally?'

'I did. Talked to him many times. Said he moved to Marfa because he hated the show business and commerce art had become in New York. Wanted to get away from that world. And if you want to get away from the world, by G.o.d, this is your place. From here to h.e.l.l Paso-thirty thousand square miles-there's not but thirty thousand people. Judd kept to himself, and locals didn't bother him-h.e.l.l, no one knew who he was, or cared. He fell in love with this land, bought forty thousand acres south of town, called it Las Casas. He's buried out there, died in ninety-four. Lymphoma. Place was still a ghost town when he died. No jobs, no celebrities, no businesses, the Paisano was shuttered, tourists came for the Marfa Lights not the art, and Highland Avenue was nothing but vacant storefronts except for Judd's galleries.'

'People weren't coming to see his art?'

'Judd shunned publicity like the Amish shun the modern world. He lived like a monk out there on his ranch, no electricity, no hot water, no people. Like I said, he came here to escape the world, not invite it in.'

'What happened? The buildings on Highland aren't vacant now.'