Read Online Nobody Said Amen by Tracy Sugarman - Free Book Online Page A

Celebrating the moment and making the others braver. Mendelsohn couldn’t take his eyes off him. When the picket line passed his part of the crowd Ted had called out “Talk to me later, I’m with Newsweek .” Billings was being hustled away by the police when Mendelsohn asked the cop, “What’s he done?” The cop shouldered his way past him. “Butt out. What the hell is it to you? You with them?”
    Mendelsohn had flashed his press card and the cop had grunted, “He’s blocking traffic.”
    Dale had grinned at him. “ Newsweek ? Why’d I think you were with the Amsterdam News or Ebony ?”
    Since Mendelsohn was the only white reporter who showed up to cover the story, it started a long friendship with Dale Billings. When he’d run into him again at the Ohio orientation, the kid was hot to trot, couldn’t wait to join the group going into Shiloh in Magnolia County. “Gonna be Communications Director, Ted!” And Ted had teased him. “Is the movement that hard up? Don’t know if you can make the weight, Dale.” And Dale had shot back “Pound for pound I’m the toughest kid on the block. But they made me Communications Director because I am so smart and communicate so well. But mostly,” he laughed, “because I know where Magnolia County is in Missafuckingsippi!”
    “What do you know about a family named Claybourne, Dale? It’s a long story, but I’ve been invited to the Claybourne house. It’s occurred to me that I may be getting set up.”
    “Invited to the Claybourne house? You kidding? Other than the Tildon place, Lucas Claybourne has the biggest plantation in Shiloh. Must have more than forty tenant families on the place. Lucas invited you?”
    “Not Lucas. I met Wilson, Mrs. Lucas Claybourne, and she recognized a gentleman and invited me to visit her on this Wednesday afternoon. It’s not talent, Dale. It’s just breeding. What I want to know is, should I go?”
    Billings cocked his head and his eyes grew serious. “Don’t rightly know. Her husband gonna be there? If he is I don’t know if you ought to go. If he ain’t, I don’t know if you ought to go. I’d watch my back, old timer. He ain’t Klan, but he knows everybody who is. His wife, Willy? Been honey to all the Shiloh bees who wear pants and want to invite her into the hive for a little sportin’. But she’s more fizz than sarsaparilla, and folks think Lucas keeps her on a pretty tight lead. But she’s been news in Shiloh since she was Magnolia Cotton Queen in ’56, first summer I came to the Delta. Beautiful chick, sexy. Got one kid, Alex, and has another on the way. What’s she want with a wanderin’ Jew like you?”
    Mendelsohn laughed and started for the door. “Age adds a certain dimension of allure, son. I explained that I was twenty years older than you agitators and that might have done it. So in my estimation as an old and very experienced journalist, I think she wants to entertain me, not kill me. However, I could be wrong. And as Communications Director, I’d like you to make sure I’m right. So if I’m not back by four o’clock, please come and get me. Or communicate with the new FBI office in Neshoba.”
    “And what will I tell Newsweek when they call askin’ what happened to old Mendelsohn?”
    “Tell them I’m on the case and the check never arrived.”

Chapter Eight
    Bobby Joe Kilbrew nodded to Luther Lonergan. “That’s him.”
    They watched from the gas station as Mendelsohn walked down the dirt road and paused at the Sojourner Chapel. When he methodically kicked broken glass from the steps, the two men grinned. “It’s too bad we missed the fucker the other night, Luther!” Minutes later they saw him start to cross Highway 49 then halt as four huge trucks carrying newly sawed pines rumbled past. Bobby Joe squinted through the waves of heat. “He looks younger than Em said.” He picked up a tire iron, swinging it like a pendulum into the hollow of his left hand, back and forth, “Let me