The Green Mile

Paul, Brutal, and Harry manage to get Coffey back into his cell. Dean reports that while everyone was gone, E Block was very quiet. They go to the restraint room to release Percy, but not before giving him stern warnings about staying out of trouble. Paul slaps Percy across the face to demonstrate his seriousness about him leaving everyone alone. Brutal adds that they will harm him if he tells anyone about being put in the restraint room. Furious, Percy agrees, telling everyone he is leaving work early. As he marches down the corridor, he has his head lowered and does not see in time that Coffey has reached a hand out to grab him. Coffey kisses Percy and appears to exhale the illness that plagued Melinda into the guard’s mouth. When Coffey releases Percy, Coffey returns to full health. Meanwhile, Percy stumbles from Coffey’s cell, walks to Wharton’s cell as the inmate is sleeping and fires six shots into him. The guards apprehend Percy but the deed is already done. Percy exhales the black insects out and they turn white before disappearing, as they have done before. Paul looks at Coffey, who nods at him. Paul nods back, seeming to agree with Coffey’s actions. Paul and the rest of the guards begin to concoct a story of the day’s events.

Paul relays the events of Coffey’s trip to Moores’ house and Percy’s murder of Wharton to Janice. In his recounting, he tells about Moores’ arrival at E Block after receiving the news of Percy’s actions. Moores tries to get Percy’s attention but Percy appears catatonic. Paul reveals that eventually Percy does end up at Briar Ridge but as an inmate, instead of a guard. The rest of the guards conceal Coffey’s actions, explaining that Percy snapped, and out of nowhere killed Wharton. They deny that it has anything to do with what happened at Moores’ house. In relaying this story to Janice, she asks him to clarify details about Coffey’s actions. Paul attempts to explain Coffey’s power of intuition and how he is able to draw people in without touch. As he talks to Janice, he thinks back on the Detterick girls and wonders why the girls did not scream at the house when surely blood near their bed suggests that the attack started there. Suddenly, Paul gets up and declares that he is going to find something out.

After Percy’s actions, there is a brief political frenzy. The Board of Enquiry investigates the shooting, which involves the participation of the governor, Percy’s uncle. Due to Percy’s culpability in Wharton’s murder as well as his mental instability following Coffey’s infection of his mind with Melinda’s illness, the governor determines that it would look poorly in the public eye for him to investigate any further. The frenzy eventually dissipates once the governor distances himself from the event.  

Soon after, Coffey’s date of execution is set for November 20th. Paul is devastated that after all Coffey has done, he is meeting his death by execution. He proceeds to get to the bottom of the case. He visits the Purdom County Courthouse to find information on Wharton and runs into Sheriff Catlett, who has heard that someone is looking for records. He relays to Paul that Wharton had a troubled youth that began with petty crimes that eventually escalated into the molestation of a young girl. The family of the young girl had gone to Catlett to handle the matter quietly. Catlett and some men assaulted Wharton as a warning not to repeat his crimes. As a result, Wharton left town and embarked on a crime spree. Suspecting that there is a connection between Wharton and Coffey’s arrest times, Paul tells Deputy Sheriff Rob McGee, Coffey’s arresting officer, to look into the possibility of Wharton coming across the Dettericks.

McGee agrees to investigate but tells Paul that he will talk privately with Klaus Detterick due to the sensitive nature of the subject. When he returns, he invites Paul to his house to talk in private. There, he relays that Klaus had hired a man to help paint the side of the barn several days before the murders. The man introduced himself as “Will Bonney” (475), which was Wharton’s real name. This puts Wharton around the time and place of the crime and would explain how the perpetrator would know that the twins were sleeping outside the night of their murder. McGee appears shaken as the information seems to point to Wharton as the likely real killer of the Detterick twins. McGee says that a new trial for a black man is unlikely and asks Paul what he intends to do. Paul tells him that he does not know.

When Paul returns home, he makes love to his wife. Before he climaxes, he starts to cry and reveals the irony of what he knows—Wharton is the killer of the Detterick twins but since Wharton is dead and there is no way to bring him back for trial, Paul will still have to execute Coffey.