Dad falls silent, as though replaying the incident in his mind is all that he can handle.
“And then . . . ?” Quentin prompts him.
“Then I watched Frank Knox die.”
“Dear God,” someone whispers behind me.
“Stop the trial,” I whisper. “You can’t let this go on.” But of course Quentin’s too far away to hear me.
“It didn’t take very long,” Dad says. “Maybe fifteen seconds.”
“Why did you do that, Dr. Cage?”
“Because I didn’t think he deserved to live.”
I glance to my right. Shad Johnson’s mouth is hanging almost slack with awe.
“What about your Hippocratic oath?” Quentin asks.
“I broke it,” Dad says flatly.
“Do you regret that?”
“I can’t say that I do. If I could live that situation over again, I’d probably do the same thing.”
Quentin draws in a deep breath, then expels it in a long sigh. “So,” he says in a conclusive tone, “Viola Turner murdered Frank Knox in your office?”
“Yes.”
“Out of a desire for revenge?”
“I suppose so. I tend to think of it as a sort of delayed self-defense. Also an effort to prevent what had happened to her from happening to others.”
“That sounds like a rationalization, Dr. Cage.”
“It may be.”
“Frank Knox was defenseless when Viola killed him, was he not?”
“As defenseless as she was when five men raped her.”
“Just answer the questions, Doctor,” Quentin says irritably. “And you stood by while he died. And then helped to conceal her crime?”
“Yes.”
Oh, Jesus, I think, my heart threatening to go to full-blown tachycardia.
Quentin lets the awestruck silence stretch for a long time. The only sound I hear is Shad’s pen scratching away on a legal pad.
“Was Frank Knox’s death ever recognized as a murder?” Quentin asks.
“Not by the medical examiner. Some of Mr. Knox’s confederates had suspicions, but nothing ever came of them.”
“Why do you think they suspected that?”
“Because they kidnapped Viola the next day.”
And with that Dad has the crowd again. The spectators behind me wouldn’t give up their seats now if BATF agents came in yelling about another bomb threat.
“How did you learn that?” Quentin asks.
“Viola didn’t show up for work. And she never missed work.”
“Did you report your suspicion that she had been kidnapped to the police?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I was the police physician. I knew that several local police officers were members of the Ku Klux Klan.”
“I see. What did you do?
“I hired a patient of mine, a former policeman named Ray Presley, to find Viola.”
An excited murmur runs through the crowd. The name Ray Presley is well known to many in the room.
“And did he? Find her, I mean?”
“Yes. Ray found Viola in a machine shop. She was being held prisoner by members of the Double Eagle group. Her brother and Luther Davis were also being held there.”
“Did Presley ever tell you which Double Eagles were there?”
“No. But Viola named them on the videotape that I erased.”
“Did she also describe the murder of Frank Knox on that tape?”
“She did. That’s one of the reasons I erased it.”
Several spectators croon with satisfaction as the pieces of the puzzle begin falling into place.
“Who did she name on the tape?” Quentin asks.
“The same men who had raped her before, plus some others. But dozens of men witnessed or took part in that crime. It was a nightmare. Frank Knox, Forrest Knox, Sonny Thornfield, and Morehouse are dead, but Snake Knox was attending these proceedings when Will Devine was murdered in this witness box.”
“Objection,” Shad snaps. “Assuming facts not in evidence.”
“Sustained.”
Joe Elder can sustain all he wants, but the jury’s memory of Will Devine six feet from where Dad is sitting must make the malevolence of Snake Knox almost tangible in this room.
“What did Ray Presley do when he found Viola?” Quentin asks.
“He broke into the machine shop and freed her at gunpoint. She was being sexually abused at the time, by that much larger group of men.”
Hisses of revulsion fill the courtroom, and I see Judge Elder’s arm moving toward his gavel.
“What about Jimmy Revels and Luther Davis?”
“Ray left them behind.”
The spectators can hardly contain themselves now. Dad’s testimony about such events in their hometown beats any movie they will ever see.
“He abandoned those boys to the mercy of known killers?” Quentin asks. “Why?”
“Ray didn’t believe he would get out alive if he tried to take them, too. Or if he did, he wouldn’t escape retribution later. Presley worked on both sides of the law, and he had complex loyalties.”
“But he was loyal enough to you to rescue Viola from the Double Eagles?”
“He owed me a favor. More than one, actually.”
“How did Viola react to the fact that her brother had been left behind?”
“It was too much for her. She snapped. Her brother and Davis had been tortured in front of her, and she was certain they would be murdered by the Double Eagles. As we know now, they were.”
“Why didn’t you contact the FBI at that point?”
“Because I was afraid that what had happened to Frank Knox in my office would be uncovered.”
“Did Viola share your concern about being charged with murder?”
Dad reflects on this. “Not at that time. She was hysterical. She would have sacrificed her life to free her brother.”
“But you wouldn’t?”
“I couldn’t take that risk. I had young children. Viola didn’t. Her husband had been killed in Vietnam. She was pretty much alone. I see now that her urge to protect her brother was as strong as my urge to protect my children. But . . .”
“Go on, Doctor.”
“I was fairly certain that her brother and Mr. Davis were already dead by the time I got the story out of her and Ray.”
“And were they?”
“I don’t think anybody knows for sure.”
“What happened after Viola was rescued, Doctor?”
“I hid her for several days. The Double Eagles were scouring the county for her.”
“Where did you hide her?”
“I enlisted the help of Nellie Jackson, a black madam who was a patient of mine. Nellie first hid Viola at her place of business, then at a rental house she owned.”
The very mention of Nellie Jackson is titillating to the Natchezians in the crowd. A soft buzz of conversation rises, then dies under Judge Elder’s glare.
“What was your intention at this time?”
“Just to keep Viola alive. I had to sedate her several times. She was going out of her mind. She said many times that she wished I’d left her to die with her brother.”
Quentin shakes his head as though he can hardly believe this tragic tale. “How was this situation finally resolved, Doctor?”
“I had about decided to take Viola to the FBI when she disappeared.”