Chapter 8
Hez hummed as he walked down a dimly lit corridor in Connor Hall. He stopped in front of a battered office door with a gray
plastic sign in the nameplate holder that read Justice Chamber. He turned the knob and shoved with his shoulder to pop the door loose from its jamb. Then he walked into his favorite spot
on campus.
The Justice Chamber had been Hez’s dream ever since he got sober over a year ago. It was technically a legal clinic operated
by the TGU Law School, but it was Hez’s baby. He opened it in February, and he spent as much time there as he could spare.
The Chamber occupied the second-worst office in Connor Hall. It held a much-used table, a tiny desk bearing an old computer,
and a scattering of mismatched office chairs. A grandiose trefoil window did little to keep out the weather, which fortunately
was pleasant today. A plaque over the desk read: But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
—Amos 5:24. Hez flipped the light switch, tapped the plaque, and fired up his Italian coffee maker, which was probably worth more than everything else in the room combined.
He worried a little that something might happen to it, but it definitely drew people to the Chamber—including him.
With his classes over, he could enjoy a coffee reward.
“Smells good,” a familiar bass voice said behind him. “Captain Davy’s?”
“You know it.” Hez turned to greet his friend, AA sponsor, and former boss, Jimmy Little. Jimmy was an enormous man, but most
of his bulk was still muscle, and he carried it with the grace of a dancer. He was dressed for court in a navy suit and a
perfectly tailored cream shirt that complemented his dark brown skin. He also wore his 1992 national championship ring, which
only came out of its display case for special occasions. “You look like a million dollars.”
Jimmy grinned and his eyes twinkled under bushy salt-and-pepper brows. “Five million, actually.”
“Congratulations!” Hez extended a hand, which Jimmy enveloped in a meaty paw and shook. “Have a seat and tell me about it.
That’s a million more than you thought you could get, right?”
Jimmy eased into the sturdiest of the chairs. “It is, but Judge Hopkins really let the other side have it during the pretrial
conference today. Their lawyers had been getting under his skin for a while—patronizing him, ignoring his advice to consider
settling, and so on. They walked into court this morning with six lawyers surrounding the client like an entourage. The judge
looked straight at the client and said, ‘How many lawyers would you trade for one good fact?’”
Hez leaned against the rickety desk and laughed. The Honorable Achilles Hopkins was a plainspoken ex-cop, and Hez had no trouble picturing him saying that. “Ouch! Did they see reason after that?”
Jimmy shook his head. “Nope, they decided to make it worse for themselves first. Their senior lawyer started going on about
all the big cases he’d won and how he’d win this one. Blah, blah, blah. The judge let him talk for about ten minutes and then
said, ‘Let me tell you what’s going to happen at trial, Counsel. Mr. Little is going to walk in and sit at the plaintiff’s
table wearing that ring, and you’re going to lose half the jury. They’re going to like a former Crimson Tide player a lot
better than some fancy lawyer from way out of state. And that’s before you open your mouth and lose the other half.”
“Ha! What did you say?”
“Nothing. I just smiled and held up my hand so they could get a good view of the ring.” He repeated the gesture and the ring
glittered like a disco ball in the flickering fluorescent light. “The judge took them back to chambers after that, but I had
a pretty good feeling about how negotiations would go.”
“I’ll bet you did. This calls for the good china.” Hez found the only two matching and unchipped mugs in the cabinet under
the coffee maker. He filled them and handed one to Jimmy. “Thanks for stopping by. You always have solid advice.”
“Which you usually ignore.” Jimmy took a long sip. “I was down from Birmingham anyway, so it’s no inconvenience at all to
stop by TGU. And between you and me, I’m also doing a little recruiting. You’ve bragged on your students, and I’d like to
see them in action a little more.”
“Here they come now,” Hez said as voices reached them from the hall.
The three Justice Chamber student volunteers entered together.
Toni Casey, a blonde former accountant of about thirty, came in first, followed by Ed Hernandez and Dominga Steerforth.
Ed was a scholarship swimmer who was using a final year of eligibility as a law student.
Dominga was a senior history major who had an eye on law school—and Ed.
They’d been dating for the past month, and things seemed to be getting serious.
Ed helped himself to a mug of coffee. “Hello, Mr. Little. Are you here to help us brainstorm our next case?”
Jimmy nodded. “Though I’m not sure you need my help. Y’all managed to take down a major smuggling operation.”
The students beamed. “Well, we helped some,” Toni said. “But that was mostly a law enforcement operation, and the kingpin
is still—”
Running steps sounded in the hall. A breathless Simon appeared, followed by a boy and a girl Hez didn’t recognize. Both appeared
to be around Simon’s age of ten. “Sorry I’m late,” Simon panted. “One of my teachers wanted to talk to me after class.”
Hez had reluctantly allowed Simon to join the Justice Chamber to keep him out of trouble. But he hadn’t said anything about
Simon bringing classmates. “We’re just getting started. Who are your friends?”
“They’re my cousins.” Simon glanced toward the girl, a brunette with large solemn brown eyes. “That’s Olivia.” He nodded toward
the boy, a stocky youth with shaggy blond hair and hard blue eyes. “And that’s Jack.”
Hez eyed the children. “Pleased to meet you both.” He turned back to Simon. “I didn’t know you had cousins.”
“Neither did I, but Pawpaw Willard introduced me to them when he took me to get a root beer float.” Simon’s blue eyes shone. “We go to the same school too. Isn’t that great?”
So these were Willard kids, handpicked by Michael to befriend Simon. Was Michael just helping his grandson get to know family
members his own age? Or did he have other motives? “Yes, that’s great. Why did you bring them to the Justice Chamber?”
Jack shuffled his feet. “My sister Tammy brought us. We met Simon out front and came up together. Tammy works in the police
department with Aunt Nora. They say we’re too young for police stuff, but Simon told us about the Justice Chamber, so we thought
maybe we could help too.” He licked his lips. “If that’s okay with you, Mr. Hez.”
Hez hesitated. Jack’s words rang true, but he was a Willard and several Willards had been involved in the artifact smuggling.
On the other hand, Nora was also a Willard and Savannah completely trusted her. It wasn’t fair to assume everyone connected
with the sprawling Willard clan was a criminal, especially young children like Olivia and Jack. And it was good to see Simon
happy and connecting with other kids again. That tipped the scales. “It’s okay with me. Just make sure your parents know what
you’re doing.”
Olivia nodded. “We texted them and they said it’s fine.”
“Okay.” Hez turned to Toni as the children settled into chairs. “You were saying something about the smuggling ring?”
Toni shot an uneasy glance at the newcomers, but she apparently decided not to question their presence. “Well, there are some
loose ends left from that case.”
Hez sipped his coffee. “You mean the New York angle?”
She nodded. “Police raids nailed every link in the supply chain from the illegal digs in Mexico to just outside the Big Apple.”
“But the worm in the core escaped,” Jimmy said.
Toni leaned forward. “Exactly! The money trail led to James Hornbrook, but he somehow escaped the raid and got out of the
country before the DA could indict him.”
Hez shifted his weight, drawing a creak from the desk. The police raid in New York had caught Jess—but the police had assumed
she was innocent and let her go. Hez didn’t want to discuss that in front of Simon, of course. “Isn’t that an issue for the
DA and the New York authorities? The university already settled with Hornbrook and his company.”
Jimmy arched a brow. “But this isn’t really settled, is it? Hornbrook sent guys after you and your computer expert, right?
And he threatened to kill you.”
Hez’s heart rate ticked up at the memory. “True.”
“Then he’s an issue for you too.” Jimmy gestured at Hez with his mug.
Ed’s jaw muscles flexed. “If he’s an issue for you, he’s an issue for all of us.”
Nods and murmurs of agreement came from around the room.
Warmth glowed in Hez’s chest. “I appreciate the loyalty, but this is a police matter.”
Jimmy folded his tree-trunk-like arms. “And the local police are compromised, right?”
“Everyone knows there’s a mole in the Pelican Harbor department,” Hez admitted. “That’s why Hope is handling the investigation
without them.”
Jimmy sighed. “Hope is great, but the DA’s office isn’t set up to investigate crimes. They rely on the police to do that—and you know it better than me.”
Hez set his mug on the desk and stood. “Look, Hornbrook is a dangerous guy. I don’t want any of you getting hurt.”
Simon stirred. “Did he kill my mom?”
The room went silent. Hez turned toward Simon. The boy leaned forward, every muscle in his little body taut. The icy focus
in his eyes was a carbon copy of his mother’s stare. Hez held the boy’s gaze. “I don’t know.”
Determination filled Simon’s voice. “I’m going to find out.”
A chuckle rumbled in Jimmy’s chest. “Seems like everyone here is on the same page except you, Hez.”
Hez glanced around the room and shrugged. “Okay, I guess the Justice Chamber is going after James Hornbrook.” He waggled a
finger at Simon and the Willards. “But we’re going to be very careful about it, and you kids can’t be directly involved. In
fact, you can’t do any Justice Chamber work at all unless I have your promise to do only what I tell you and nothing more.”
“We promise,” Simon said without hesitation. Jack and Olivia nodded.
Hez wished he could trust Simon to keep his word.
“I’m sorry.” Scott Foster held his hands palms up. “I wish I had better news for you two.”
This was not what Hez wanted to hear from the family law expert he and Savannah had hired, but it wasn’t a surprise.
Hez had done some legal research on his own and knew things didn’t look good.
He’d hoped Scott would tell him he was wrong and there was some obscure statute or judicial rule that would let them keep Simon, but he hadn’t counted on it.
Still, a black fog shrouded his heart when he heard Scott’s words, and he reached to take Savannah’s hand.
“B-but Erik is a criminal.” Savannah’s voice shook as she spoke. “And he has affairs with students—we caught him on video.
Doesn’t any of that matter?”
Lines of compassion creased the weathered skin around Scott’s eyes. “It matters outside of the courthouse in the real world.
It matters a lot. But it won’t be enough in court. Alabama law is very protective of parental rights, and terminating them
is hard.”
Her eyes flashed and she tilted her chin up. “What about Simon? Isn’t the judge supposed to consider what’s best for him?”
Scott nodded, his fading reddish-brown hair turning almost yellow in the afternoon light coming through the wooden blinds
of his office in Pelican Harbor’s French Quarter. “Yes.”
She leaned forward. “So the judge should give Simon to us. We’re best for him. Erik doesn’t care about Simon at all. He didn’t
even know he had a son until a few months ago. You know what the first thing he did was? He threatened Simon and me. And then
he vanished until he smelled money. How can it be in Simon’s best interest to live with someone like that?”
Scott’s expression grew grim and his thin face looked skeletal. “Did he ever put out a cigarette on Simon’s face because the
boy talked back to him?”
Savannah gasped. “What? Of course not!”
“Or routinely lock him in a closet whenever Erik needed to go to work?”
“No.”
“Did Simon almost die from an asthma attack because Erik took money that was supposed to buy inhalers for his son and used
it to buy fentanyl?”
“No.” Savannah’s face was pale. “D-does that kind of thing happen around here?”
Scott nodded and seemed to age a decade. “All the time. Those are the sort of custody-termination cases judges are used to
hearing.”
Savannah went white and bit her lip. “I didn’t know.”
Scott sighed. “We live in a very broken world.”
“That I did know.” Savannah squared her shoulders. “And we’re going to do everything we can to protect Simon from it. We have
to at least try to get custody of him.”
Hez cleared his throat. “Let’s game that out, Scott. Before we could get custody of Simon, we’d have to terminate Erik’s rights.
We’d need to show that he’s an unfit parent, and we’d need to do it by clear and convincing evidence, right?”
“Right. And we wouldn’t have the type of evidence the judge is used to seeing—serious physical abuse, long-term incarceration,
obvious abandonment, and so on.”
Just as Hez had expected. “There would be a trial, correct?”
“Yes. This is a factual question that needs to be determined in court.”
Hez had to ask, but he didn’t want to hear the answer. “Trials are expensive, aren’t they?”
Scott nodded. “Yes, very expensive. I’ll do everything I can to keep my bills down, but set aside fifty thousand dollars. At least.”
Savannah’s sharp intake of breath revealed that this was news to her. For his part, Hez was surprised at how low Scott’s estimate
was. “And what would you say our odds of winning are?”
Scott thought for a moment, then lifted one shoulder. “Maybe 10 percent. No more than 20.”
Savannah swallowed hard. “It’s worth it if we have a chance to save Simon.”
“What’s the downside if we lose?” Hez asked.
Scott looked him in the eye. “Kids usually pay the highest price in these cases. Simon will see his father portrayed in the
worst possible light, and then he’ll have to go live with him. Also, Erik is likely to completely cut off your contact with
Simon, of course.”
Now for the question this had all been leading up to. “What do you recommend?”
“We should insist on a DNA test to prove paternity. But if that confirms that Erik is Simon’s father . . .” Scott grimaced.
“I hate to say it, but I recommend that you try to find a way to make a deal with Erik.”