At this point, Viola ceases speaking. She pants softly for about forty seconds, her eyes half-closed. Just when I think she’s falling asleep, she starts awake, focuses on the camera, and begins speaking again.
“Things didn’t go too well for me up north. But how could they, when you think about what had brought me there? I did what I could to protect Tom. He sent money every month, and I never asked more of him. There were times I thought of telling him we had a child together, but I knew if he knew that, his life would be torture, the way mine was. I couldn’t do that to him. I had walked willingly into sin, and it was up to me to live with it. I may be flattering myself—and you may not believe it, seeing the way I look now—but I think Tom suffered enough all those years just from giving me up. He loved me, and he’d wanted to be with me. I was the one who ended it. So he lived with his pain, and I lived with mine.
“Henry . . . I’m about out of breath. I don’t have much strength left, and I don’t intend to hang around this earth until my sister has to wipe my backside. I can take the pain, but I can’t give up my pride. I’ve tended too many people to the bitter end. After tonight, or maybe tomorrow, I’ll be gone. So I want to say some last things.
“I’ve done what I told you about my will. I wrote it myself, and Cora witnessed it. Some hard things passed between us over the years, but we made up in the end, the way sisters should. Still . . . if there’s any problem about the money, you’ll have this tape to back you up. I also told Tom to make sure there was no trouble about you getting your money, just in case Cora gets weak, or Lincoln turns her head. As for your part, you promised you’d do all in your power to bring Jimmy’s killers to justice, and tell the world what happened to him. What happened to me, I’d just as soon keep private, but I’ll leave that to you. I want you to keep Tom’s part in Frank Knox’s death secret until after he’s dead. I don’t expect that’ll be too long. Tom’s heart is in bad shape, and he’s got other health problems. He’ll be following me pretty soon. Maybe we’ll be together after all, somewhere. Lord knows we earned it, even if we’re together in the bad place. I could have lied to protect him on here, but I’m done lying now. Even for him.”
Viola is silent for several seconds. Then she says, “Lord, I almost forgot. A few other men came and went during the questioning at the machine shop. Some came just to look at me naked, I think. Others came to see the boys naked. They made a big fuss over Luther’s private parts. But I didn’t know those men. They were familiar, like I’d seen them on the street or at the Woolco, but I couldn’t name them. They were bad men, though. One of them got the idea that Luther and Jimmy should take a turn with me.” Viola shakes her head at the memory. “That’s when they shot Luther. But he still wouldn’t do it. I hope that with God’s help you can bring those men to justice someday. I fear they’ve caused a lot of suffering in the years they’ve trod this earth. For wives and children mostly, I imagine.
“That’s really all I have the strength for, Henry. It seems strange to me that it’s a white man coming after all these years to dig up the truth. I wish it was a black man, I won’t lie. But maybe that says something about the future. I don’t really understand the world anymore. But maybe there’s some faint hope that the good people on both sides can come together. I appreciate all you’ve done. When things get hard for you, try to be strong, as I have, and don’t be afraid to lean on the Lord. I believe He sent you here for a purpose, Henry. You’ve done good work coming this far, but it won’t mean a thing if you don’t go the rest of the way. I wish I could walk it with you. God bless you and keep you.”
Viola holds up the remote, and then the screen goes black.
When the courtroom lights come up, with a harsh glare, the hush is like that in a cathedral during the funeral of a martyr. When Rusty pokes me in the side, I want to slap him. A smart-ass comment from the eternal cynic is the last thing I want to hear. But when his moist breath touches my ear, Rusty says, “If Shad stands up and says a word against that woman, the jury will rise as one and beat him to the floor.”
“Mr. Johnson,” says Judge Elder, “do you have any questions or points to make?”
“Your Honor, is there any word from the FBI on whether the Dumpster tape has been similarly restored?”
“Agent Kaiser?” Judge Elder prompts.
“Not yet, Your Honor. As the Sony engineers reported, Exhibit S-16 appears to have been much more thoroughly erased than the first. But if they make a breakthrough, clearance has been given to transmit an encrypted version of the tape to me, and I will be able to play it for the court.”
“Thank you. Mr. Johnson?”
“Your Honor, I would like to recall Dr. Cage to continue my cross-examination.”
Joe Elder glances at his watch. “Very well.”
Chapter 66
“Let’s go back to the night Viola Turner died,” Shad says, rising from his table and looking hard at my father. “Not your fantasies, just provable facts. We know that you were at Cora Revels’s house that night. We know you were alone with the victim. You have admitted injecting morphine into her. We know that you always carry adrenaline in your ‘black bag,’ as you call it. We also know that when Cora Revels returned to her house, she found her sister dead. We have no evidence indicating that anyone else was in that house between the time you left and the time Cora Revels arrived. No witnesses to intruders, no forensic evidence that arouses suspicion of anyone else. Just the dead body of a woman whom you admit you went to that house to kill.”
“Another soliloquy, Your Honor?” Quentin asks in a seemingly bored voice.
“Get to your question, Counselor,” Judge Elder admonishes.
Shad’s jaw tightens, but he focuses his anger on Dad. “On the hard-drive recording of the victim’s death, she cried out your name. Can you explain that?”
“I was her physician. I had been coming to the house almost every night for weeks. I was her former lover. I think it’s natural that she would call out to me in a moment of terror and pain. Her mother was dead. Her son was far away, at least in her mind—”
“Don’t try to change the subject, Doctor. Did you always take your medical bag with you when you visited Cora Revels’s house?”
“Not always. I kept some supplies at her house.”
“But you took it with you on that night.”
“Yes. Obviously that night was different from any other.”
“Because you intended to kill your patient.”
“To help her commit suicide,” Dad clarifies.
“Was there any adrenaline in Cora Revels’s house?”
“Not that I knew of. Viola had signed a Do Not Resuscitate order, so I didn’t keep any there.”
“Have you ever given any patient a lethal injection of drugs, Dr. Cage? I’m talking about during the usual practice of medicine, not in wartime.”