Read Online An Independent Woman by Howard Fast - Free Book Online

guard at the school insults him, calls him a stinking nigger, slaps him around, and Jones blows it and lays the guard out. The guard goes down, cracks his skull on the concrete, and becomes very dead. They arrest Jones—this is down in Southern Cal—and they charge him with murder one. I read it in the papers, so I decide to do my soul some good, providing I have one, and I get the charge reduced to manslaughter, and I get him off with two years. Are you Jewish, Berman?”
    â€œNo, I’m afraid not.”
    â€œName sounds like it,” Lefkowitz said.
    â€œMy grandfather was a German. Came out here in the eighteen-eighties on a freighter and jumped ship.”
    â€œA lot of good men did. Well, there’s an old Jewish legend, out of the Talmud, I suppose, called the legend of the Lamed Vav. It holds that in all the world, there must be thirty-six good and righteous men. The existence of the world depends on them, but no one of the Lamed Vav ever knows that he or she is one of them. That’s not letting the right hand know what the left hand does, or something of the sort. I don’t volunteer myself, but when I do a decent thing, which is not so often—ah, what the hell!”
    â€œAnd what is all this Talmudic hearsay leading up to, if I may ask, Harry?”
    â€œThey don’t have to be Jewish. Maybe your Lavette lady—well, I hear she refuses to press charges, insists that she gave the jewels to Jones. I can understand that. I remember when she went to prison for contempt of Congress, some business about refusing to name names in a hospital they ran in Toulouse—so she knows a lot more than most people do, and I don’t find what she’s doing so strange. She has plenty of money, and I imagine the jewelry doesn’t mean much, as up against a man’s life. If she were a complainant, Jones would go down for fifteen years. This way, they got nothing. The talk about a grand jury is puffery. There’s nothing they can charge him with…” His low, gentle voice trailed away.
    â€œHas Jones said anything?” Abner asked.
    â€œNot a word. He called me, woke me up. I told him to keep his mouth shut. I’m going to demand his release, and I’ll get it if Barbara Lavette sticks to her story. On the other hand, you didn’t drag me in here to listen to Jewish Bubeh meises. That’s Yiddish for ‘stories.’”
    â€œNo, I didn’t. You’re good, Harry. Do you ever raise your voice in court?”
    â€œSometimes. Not often. Juries don’t like a man who bullies a witness.”
    â€œI agree with you: Jones will walk. You know what I want.”
    â€œThe jewels,” Lefkowitz said.
    â€œThat’s the deal—one hundred thousand dollars’ worth of jewels.”
    â€œAbner, I spoke to him. He’s ready to return the jewelry. But look at it another way. The whole town knows Barbara’s story. She can’t wear that stuff he took. On the other hand, I can sell them for Jones at top price. It gives him a life, a chance. He can start his own firm. Someday he’ll pay her back. This guy is something. Give him a chance. Let it stand.”
    â€œAnd how much of it is your fee?”
    â€œI don’t deserve that, Abner. I told you it was pro bono. That’s it. I don’t get a cent.”
    â€œThen I apologize,” Abner said, “and I think I believe you, but his repaying her is an article of faith. I don’t buy articles of faith, and a hundred grand is a lot of money. She’s given him fifteen years of life, and that’s a pretty damn good gift.”
    â€œAbner, listen to me. Tomorrow she’ll be all over the press and the TV. The liberals will call her a saint. The conservatives will damn her for aiding and abetting. Nobody will buy the story that she gave him the jewels. The presumption will be that she was robbed and that she refuses to send a man to jail. And more