'I suppose,' she said, 'that lawyers have as much right to bad habits as other people, but other people don't have to like them.' She turned to me. 'What about it, Archie? Is it any of his business whom I have or haven't consulted?'
'No,' I said, 'but that's not the point. From what he said, the question is actually being asked by Jessup, through him. It certainly is none of Jessup's business, and they both have a hell of a nerve. I don't know about Montana, but in New York if a prosecuting attorney asked the person who was paying the defence counsel who she had consulted, the Bar Association would like to know about it. Since you asked my opinion, if I were you I would tell both of them to go climb a tree.'
She looked at one and then the other, and said, 'Go climb a tree.'
Dawson said to me, 'You have completely misrepresented the situation, Mr Goodwin.'
I eyed him. 'Look, Mr Dawson. I don't wonder that you fumbled it; as you said, it's a little irregular. If you hadn't been fussed you would probably have handled it fine. Obviously something has happened that made Jessup think someone has been persuaded to butt in on his case, and he suspects that Miss Rowan did the persuading, and he wants to know, and so do you. Also obviously the way to handle it would have been to tell her what has happened and ask her if she had a hand in it, and it wouldn't hurt to say please. If you don't want to do it that way I guess you'll have to look around for a tree.'
Dawson looked at the county attorney. Jessup said, 'It would have to be understood that it's strictly confidential.'
Dawson nodded. Lily said, 'If you mean we have to promise not to tell anybody, nothing doing. We wouldn't broadcast it just for fun, but no promises.'
Dawson turned to Jessup and asked, 'Well, Tom?'
Jessup said, 'I'd like to confer,' rose, and said to Lily, 'Will you excuse us briefly, Miss Rowan?'
Lily nodded, and for the conference they walked over to the hardtop and behind it, and Lily asked me if I had a guess. I held up crossed fingers and said one would get her two that there was going to be some kind of a break, but as to what kind and how much, her guess was as good as mine. I no longer had to control my face to keep it from beaming.
The conference didn't take long. I wouldn't have been surprised if Dawson had come back alone just to say he was sorry we had been bothered, but in a few minutes they both came and took their chairs, and Dawson said, 'The decision was Mr Jessup's, not mine. I want to make it clear that I am here at all only because he thought it proper, and I agreed.' He focused on Lily. 'If you won't promise, Miss Rowan, you won't, and I merely want to say that I join him in hoping that you and Mr Goodwin will regard what he tells you as a confidence. If I told you, it would be hearsay, so he will.'
In the last five days I had tried three times to get to Thomas R. Jessup for a private talk, and got stiff-armed. I'm not complaining, just reporting. There's no law requiring a prosecuting attorney to talk it over with any and all friends of the defendant. It was Morley Haight, the sheriff, who had questioned me as a possible suspect or material witness. I had seen Jessup only from a distance and was appreciating the chance to size him up.
He gave Lily a politician's smile and said, 'I'm sorry there was a misunderstanding, Miss Rowan. Mr Goodwin said it wouldn't hurt to say please, and I do say please. Please consider this a confidential communication. I confidently leave that to your discretion. Mr Goodwin said we should tell you what happened, and I'm going to. It won't take long. Early this morning I had a phone call from a state official in Helena-a high official. He asked me to come to his office at my earliest convenience and bring my files on the Harvey Greve case. I drove to Helena and was with him nearly three hours. He wanted a complete detailed report, and after I dictated it to his secretary he asked questions, many questions.'
He turned on the politician's smile again, for Lily, then for me, and back to her. 'Now that was extraordinary. As far as I know, unprecedented, for the attor-for that state official to urgently summon a county attorney to Helena to report in detail on a case he is preparing. And a murder case. Of course I asked him what had caused such sudden and urgent interest, but I got no satisfaction. When I left his office I had absolutely no idea of the reason for it; I couldn't even guess. I was twenty miles or more on my way back to Timberburg before it occurred to me that you might possibly have-er-intervened. You are concerned about Harvey Greve-properly, quite properly. You have retained Luther Dawson, an eminent member of the Montana bar, in his behalf. I know nothing of any political connections you may have, but a woman of your standing and wealth and background must be-must know many important people. So I turned around and drove back to Helena and went to see Mr Dawson and described the situation to him. He said he knew nothing of any approach to the-to that official, and after some discussion he agreed that it would be reasonable to ask you about it, and he phoned you. I am not suggesting that you may have acted improperly, not at all. But if a high state official is going to-er-interfere with my handling of an important case, I have a right to know why, and naturally I want to know, and naturally Mr Dawson does too, as counsel for the defence.' The smile again. 'Of course if what I have said was confidential, anything you say will be confidential too.'
If they had known Lily as well as I did they would have known that the little circular movement of the toe of her shoe meant that she was good and sore. Also one of her eyes, the left, was slightly narrower than the other, which was even worse. 'You're asking me,' she said, 'if I have pulled some strings with someone in Helena.'
'Well… I wouldn't put it in those terms.'
'I would and do. What I say isn't confidential, Mr Jessup. I am suggesting that you have acted improperly. You're on the other side. Why should you ask me anything at all or expect me to tell you anything? If you'll go and sit in the car, Mr Dawson will come in a minute.'
'I assure you, Miss Rowan-'
'Damn it, do you want Mr Goodwin to drag you?' She stood up, presumably to help me drag.
Jessup looked at me, then at Dawson. Dawson shook his head. Jessup, not smiling, got up and went, dignified, in no hurry. When he was in the car, some twenty paces away, Lily turned to the counsel for the defence. 'I don't know if you've acted improperly or not, Mr Dawson, and I don't care. Even if it was proper I don't like it, but I'll relieve your mind so you can use it for representing your clients, including Harvey Greve. I have approached or consulted no one 'other than local people,' no one in Helena or anywhere else, and I have no idea why a state official is interested in the case. Have you, Archie?'
'No.'
