Southern Justice, Part 45

I’m Fixin’ To present part 45 of Southern Justice:

Judge Hollis Garrett met Ray McKinley at Mary Mac’s Tea Room for lunch the following day, Wednesday. The judge was crumbling a cornbread muffin into his bowl of pot likker when Ray slid the fat envelope across the table.

“B. Wendell said I should give this to you and say it’s a pleasure doing business with you.”

“Why, thank you Ray,” Judge Garrett said after he slurped a spoonful of the salty green broth. After he had wiped his greasy fat fingers on the terrycloth napkin, he took a casual look around before reaching for the envelope. In one swift motion he picked it up and deposited it inside his suit coat pocket before he asked, “How is your boss?”

“B, Wendell is fine, Judge. He’s real busy right now, involved in a really big case.” Ray said as he surveyed the huge dining room, noting the local politicians and celebrities scattered throughout the lunch crowd. He was exhilarated that he was dining with Atlanta’s elite, even bribing one of them.

Ray had already benefited by using B. Wendell Hormel’s suggestion to discover that Pic-Ric Products did not have an in-house legal department. So while he was stuffing his face with baked chicken dressing, he conveyed his boss’ request concerning the name of the company’s out-side law firm.

After the judge washed his last few morsels of food down by draining his jar of sweet ice-tea he said, “Ray, you may tell B. Wendell what a wonderful lunch this was; furthermore, you can tell him the law firm of Deas, Deas, and McGarity is the firm y’all are looking for. I remember seeing that firm’s name connected with this Pic-Ric outfit on several occasions.

“I’ll make sure my clerks inform me as soon as they file any kind of motion. At that time I’ll also inform you who the individual attorney is who’s handling the case for them. Now, if you’ll please excuse me, I have a little mess to deal with this afternoon. I don’t know if you’ve seen today’s paper or not, but some associates of mine connected with the Gentlemen’s Club got themselves arrested by the FBI last night with charges ranging from racketeering, money laundering and one other unmentionable charge.”

“Yes, sir, I saw that,” Ray confirmed. The paper said the feds closed them down last night and want to keep them closed. It also reported that the mayor wants to pull their pouring licenses.”

“Yes,” Judge Garrett confirmed. “Those issues will be discussed this afternoon in a court hearing, which I’ll be presiding over. After the hearing I’ll render my decision, and you know what Ray?”

“What’s that Judge?”

Without showing any type of emotion the judge slowly rose from his chair, but before making his departure he said to Ray, “If you want to make plans to go by the Gentlemen’s Club for some entertainment and adult beverages this evening, I sincerely doubt that you will have any difficulty doing so.”

That same afternoon, it was well after lunch before Chris Adams arrived at his office. His phone rang as soon as he took a seat at his desk.

It was Jones. “Hey, Chris, I need to see you. Can you come to my office?”

Jones was sitting at his desk when Chris walked in, holding up the front page of the newspaper saying, “What do you think of this story on the front page of the newspaper this morning? You weren’t there last night, were you—at the Gentlemen’s Club?”

Chris was dumbfounded, but managed to stutter, “Uh-uh-uh, no, I haven’t been there in several days, and I haven’t seen the newspaper this morning.”

Jones spread the paper out and turned it around so that from across his desk Chris had a full view of the picture. He saw the owner, Joey Sitka, being led away in handcuffs. Behind him, even though it was slightly blurred, there were three lovely young ladies. That’s when it hit him and he blurted out, Holly hell, that’s Shanna in the middle!”

Jones let out a heavy sigh and said, “That’s your girlfriend, right?’

Still in a mild state of shock, Chris said, “Well I had been seeing her, but I don’t plan to anymore.”

Jones stood up and said, “I would certainly hope not in view of the indelicate indications mentioned in the paper. I hope you can understand how we were concerned about you after we saw the paper and you not coming in to work until just now. Your timing to ditch her was very fortunate.”

“I didn’t ditch her, Jones. I simply met another woman and decided to spend all my time with her.”

“That’s good to hear, Chris. I sincerely hope she’s not in the same line of work. Want to tell me who the new lady is?”

“Not just yet,” Chris told him.

“Why not?” Jones burst out. “What’s all this mystery about lately? You can’t tell us the good news you have for us and you now have a mysterious new girl friend!”

“I have my reasons, Jones, but I promise it won’t be a mystery for long. Neither one of them. Now, can I go to my office?”

“No. Rick Junior wants to see us in his office. He called me just before I called you.”

“What’s it about?”

“I don’t know, but he said it was important. Let’s go.

(tmdunagan@aol.com)