Noll took his time and finally replied, “Hugh was the boss. The decision was his, but I agreed with him.”
Given the green light, Noll contacted a couple of his acquaintances in the Dixie Mafia. No one wanted the job, regardless of the money. Killing a public official was too risky. Killing a high-profile DA like Jesse Rudy was suicide. Eventually he got the name of Henry Taylor, a man he had heard of in the underworld. They met and agreed on the contract, $20,000 in cash. Hugh got the explosives from Eddie Morton at Keesler.
Absorbing the matter-of-fact details of the plot to kill his father was difficult for Keith to sit through. Again, he was thankful Chuck McClure was in charge and not him. In the front row, Agnes and her daughters wiped their eyes. Tim could only glare with hatred at Nevin Noll. If he’d had a gun he would have been tempted to charge the witness stand.
When the story was finished, McClure tendered the witness and sat down. The courtroom felt exhausted and Judge Roach recessed for a two-hour lunch.
* * *
The afternoon belonged to Joshua Burch. Thirty minutes into a long, brutal cross-examination, he firmly established that Nevin Noll was a career thug who’d never held an honest job and had spent his adult life beating and even killing others in the Biloxi underworld, all in service to the Malco family. Noll never tried to downplay his past. As always, he was cocky, arrogant, even proud of his career and his reputation. Burch eviscerated him and made it plain to all that the man could not be trusted. Burch even waded into the death of Earl Fortier thirteen years earlier in Pascagoula, but Noll stopped the line of questions cold when he said, “Well, Mr. Burch, you were my lawyer back then and you told me to lie to the jury.”
Burch yelled back, “That’s another lie! Why can’t you tell the truth?”
Judge Roach sprang to life and called down both men.
But Burch was undeterred. At full volume he boomed, “How many men have you killed?”
“Only one, and that was in self-defense. You got me off, Mr. Burch. Remember?”
“Yeah, and I regret it,” Burch shot back before considering his words.
“That’s enough!” Judge Roach practically yelled into his mike.
Burch took a deep breath and walked to his table where he consulted with his co-counsel, Vincent Goode. Ever the professional, though, Burch rallied nicely when he calmly walked Noll through a long series of stories about men he’d bullied, beaten, or killed. Hugh remembered them well and had fed the information to Burch. Noll, of course, denied most of the barrage, especially the killings.
How could the jury believe anything he said?
* * *
The defense began with a whimper early Thursday morning when Joshua Burch called to the stand one Bobby LaMarque, a career errand boy for the Malco gang. Burch puffed up his résumé by adding such descriptions as “executive vice president,” “manager,” and “supervisor.” The gist of his testimony was that he was extremely close to Hugh Malco and had been on the inside for years, beginning with Lance. He had dealt with Hugh and Nevin Noll on a daily basis and knew as much about the club business as anyone else. He had never heard Hugh or Nevin discuss Jesse Rudy. Period. Nothing good, nothing bad. Nothing. If there had been a plan to eliminate the district attorney, he, LaMarque, would certainly have known about it. He’d watched young Hugh grow up in the business and knew him well. He was a fine young man who worked hard running the legitimate businesses while his father was away. LaMarque had never, in fifteen years, seen a violent streak, unless, of course, when Hugh was boxing.
McClure made quick work of the witness by pointing out that he was still on the Malco payroll, as he had been for the past eighteen years. He dropped out of school after the ninth grade. Along with the highbrow jobs mentioned by Mr. Burch, LaMarque admitted to working as a cook, janitor, bartender, delivery boy, and driver. He also admitted to dealing blackjack back in the old days.