Hal Gremillion

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Armand Lazare Broussard Gremillion (born May 29, 1945) owns the Sadie Daily Mail and is a significant figure in the town, serving on the board of the hospital. He owns a considerable amount of land in the town.

• Hal is motivated by _____.
• Hal wants _____.
• Hal is challenged by _____.
• Hal will discover _____.

When Hal first learns that Cash is asking around about Verge, he panics, having convinced himself that he had successfully hidden that part of his life from everyone. Despite his panic, he pretends that there is not much to worry about, trying to maintain the composure he always presents to the world. As Cash makes progress, though, Hal takes increasingly aggressive action.

Biography

Early life

Hal was the only child of Josette (Broussard) and Lazare Gremillion, two members of founding families of Sadie. He grew up on his parents' substantial farm outside of town and always knew that he held a place of privilege. When Hal was young, Sadie was still in its heyday, growing like many small towns throughout the US.

After high school, Hal worked on his father's farm, intending on following his father's footsteps. However, in 1965, when he was 21, he enlisted in the Marines. He served a total of 13 months in Vietnam. During his time in Vietnam, he decided to become a writer, and after returning to the states and shifting into the reserves corp, he enrolled at LSU as a Journalism major.

After returning from Vietnam in 1967, Hal married his high school girlfriend, Eliza Macintire, whose family owned much of the pine lands in the region.

Professional life

He tried repeatedly to sell stories based on his time in Vietnam while enrolled in college but always without success. After graduating, and after not getting any other job offers, he accepted a position as a reporter with the Sadie Daily Mail, owned by Frances J. Poder, a longtime friend of Hal's father. While working as a reporter, he continued to write stories but still never had any success getting them published.

In 1982, after the retirement of longtime editor Edward "Sully" Sullivan, Hal was promoted to General Editor of the newspaper by Mr. Poder.

During the late 80s and early 90s, Hal believed Sadie to be on the Verge of a rebirth. He felt certain that by the turn of the century, the small milltown would become a rustic extension of both New Orleans and Baton Rouge, an exurb for the upper class who did not want to live within the cities where they worked. He began to by up derelict properties without telling anyone, using the name of a corporation he established: Sunshine Properties. His plan was to demolish the houses, clean up the land, and hold onto it until the prices soared. By the mid-90s, he had purchased some 50 properties, draining much of his family's savings in the process. When the housing bubble burst in the late 90s, the values of his holdings collapsed, and he was left with a substantial collection of cheap land with run-down houses.

By the early 90s, the paper was struggling, even though it was the only local paper in the area. Concerned that the paper would be purchased by some outside interest following the death of Mr. Poder, Hal sold off a considerable amount of the land he had inherited from his parents, who had both recently died, as well as land Eliza had inherited from her parents, to purchase the newspaper and to update the systems and the press, believing Sadie to be on the Verge of a rebirth.

By the early 2000s, Hal was land-rich but Cash-poor, owning a significant amount of worthless property, and again the paper was struggling, leaving Hal to lay off most of the staff he had hired in the 90s. He had overused his funds to buy the properties and did not even have enough to have the buildings torn down. One night while visiting with Fred Wilson, whom he had known since childhood, and watching the projected path of Tropical Storm Bertha in August 2002, they remembered that three houses had burned down following Tropical Storm Allison the previous year. Hal had one property in particular that he always wanted to watch burn, an Acadian shack that was at least 40 years old. He brainstormed his plan with Wilson, who thought it was for a story Hal wanted to write. During the calm of Bertha, Hal left his farm, telling his wife he was going to drive around to assess any damage. Instead, he snuck to the old house and lit a fire at the electrical box. The house burned up quickly, as Hal had hoped it would, and as the storm intensified again, the fire department was unable to get there in time. The next day, Hal found the property covered with parts of the tin roof and the cinder block supports. Little else remained. There was no investigation into the cause of the fire. Hal paid his cousin Charly to clean up the property. That year, he burned down two more properties, one during TS Hannah; the other during Isidore.

For the next two years, Hal plotted how he could accomplish more in less time. One house per hurricane really was not enough to do what he needed in a few years. Meanwhile, the newspaper continued to struggle as the Internet quickly dominated. By March 2005, the paper was is serious financial crisis, and Hal was being encouraged to close it.

That spring after hearing the predications about the intensity of the hurricane season, he told his cousin Charly what he'd done in 2002 and how well it had worked, although much too slowly. Charly said he would need help and discussed a newcomer named Verge, someone few people in town knew. Hal and Charly worked out a plan. Verge, who struggled with complex thought, followed orders. With Cindy headed toward the region, Hal directed Charly to burn down two adjacent properties, following the same MO, starting a fire by the electrical box during as the eye of the storm passed through town. Frustrated as so many storms went north before crossing into the Gulf, Hal recognized the opportunity Katrina would give him. Although Charly resisted the plan at first, Hal offered enough Cash to convince him to start five different fires during the storm. The plan again went off without a hitch, and Hal boldly started two other fires himself in the days following Katrina's landfall. However, he spent most of his time in the weeks after the storm, cleaning up the town, checking on people, bringing in gasoline and water, and writing stories that he couldn't publish because of the lack of electricity. A few months later, in recognition for his valiant efforts to help save Sadie, he was named king of the Krewe of Odin, Sadie's biggest and oldest Mardi Gras krewe.

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the newspaper did not print any editions for six months. 2006 and 2007 were again fairly quite years for storms, and Hal devoted himself to rebuilding the capabilities of the newspaper. His plan had helped stabilize his finances considerably, but he still had a number of properties he needed to burn. Again, he put more money into the newspaper despite falling circulation and ad revenue.

By 2008, the newspaper was all but a lost cause. Hal watched the storms carefully and when it was clear that Gustav was headed for the region, he told Charly to burn down the newspaper building. He explained it would be the easiest fire, given the printing supplies stored throughout the warehouse. Again, Charly resisted, but Hal made enough threats this time to push the issue. Charly and Verge followed Hal's directions, but Verge was clearly having trouble focusing. Verge made the final walkthrough before Charly started the fire and forgot to look in several rooms. Only after the fire was put out did anyone discover the body of a teenaged girl in the ashes.

Hal and Charly feared that Verge's mental instability would expose their secrets, so Hal bought a Katrina trailer and had Charly put it in his backyard so he could keep tabs on Verge. The plan seemed to work until Verge and Charly's fight on Mardi Gras 2009. After paying for Verge's medical care, Hal tried to force him to leave the area without success. Hal convinced himself that Verge was so far gone mentally that anything he said wouldn't be taken seriously. He spent the next seven years using his role as reporter to keep tabs on Verge. Eventually, Fred, who had figured out the arson scheme, convinced both Hal and Verge that installing Verge in the shack on Hal's wife's timberland would be the best solution.

Following the fire, Hal used the insurance money to stabilize his finances and rebooted the newspaper as an online only service with the help of his youngest child, Mariette, who set up a server, purchased several domain names, and installed WordPress. Hal preferred ease of use over security so that he could write and edit stories on his phone and publish them directly to the site. Within a few months, he was able to hire some of his former employees as freelance correspondents, who were paid by the word and given bonuses based on the number of hits their stories received. The focus of the paper quickly turned dark.

Characteristics

Physical Appearance

Hal has always been a fairly large figure, having grown to his full height of six-foot-one by his freshman year in high school. He played both basketball and football for the Sadie Sawyers for all four years of high school.

For the past 20 years, Hal has worn a beard. Most recently, he has let it grow out longer and fuller. His hair, once a dirty blonde, is now a mixture of grey and blonde. This too, he has recently grown out longer, slicking it back in the mornings.

He wears the clothes of a gentleman farmer, even when working on a story or doing other newspaper business. His standard costume is a dress shirt, vest, jeans, and cowboy boots, even during the hottest weather.

Personality

Hal has always had a firm belief that any idea that comes to him is the right idea. If he believes something, it must be true. This way of thinking has driven him as a report, editor, and publisher. It has also made him see himself as the man who really runs Sadie and the only person who can save the town.

Hal is also a long-term planner. He takes small steps now in an effort to achieve an outcome far in the future. This belief came from his father the farmer who always had a ten- and twenty-year plan for the farm. Hal applied this to his relationship with Eliza, and he approached his efforts to take over the newspaper the same way. While it didn't work with his efforts to become a writer, it did work with his takeover of the newspaper.

Health

Despite having spent almost his entire life in Sadie, and despite having developed a smoking habit while in Vietnam (when he turned 50, he started smoking cigars), Hal is in exceptional health.

Plot Synopsis

Get It All Back

Act Two

When Hal gets a call from Fred about someone asking questions about Verge, Hal panics and sends his nephew and another cop to scare off Cash. When Hal gets a visit from his cousin Charly, with whom he hasn't spoken in years, he learns that Cash is still snooping around and that he has made the connection between Gerry and Verge. Learning that Cash's truck is back at the hospital the next night, Hal has Charly spy on him and when it seems clear he will be there late, he tells Charly to flatten one of the truck's tires. Meanwhile, Hal drives to New Orleans and breaks into his office. Although he finds nothing related to Sadie in Cash's files, he unknowingly trips an alarm that sends a signal back to Cash's house, which scares Joey, who has just broken into the house. Desperate for information, Hal meets Cash outside the hospital the next morning and helps him get his tire replaced.

Act Three

Surprised by Cash's agressiveness at Fred's house, Hal decides he too needs to become more agressive. He is at the shack with Gerry when he gets a call from his nephew about Cash's truck heading in that direction. When Cash arrives, Hal is able to overpower him and tie him up. Fred arrives not long after, and the two argue, revealing a few bits of information to Cash in the process. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Hal has been letting Verge wander around town, in the hopes that he would contract coronavirus and finally die. Before anything else is revealed, Wilson is scared off by gunshots outside. Hal then knocks out Cash but is caught off-guard when Hélène busts into the shack and knocks him out. When Hal comes to, Cash and Gerry are gone.

Act Four

After Gerry dies, Hal considers the matter closed. A few days later, though, he finds out about the altered stories on the Daily Mail website. He returns to New Orleans and torches Cash's office, hoping to destroy any evidence linking him to the original fires. The next day, he is arrested after Charly confesses to the arson scheme.