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“In what position?” asked Battle.
“Gal does what I tell her to do,” he said casually. “Monday to Friday. After that, guess she does what her husband tells her to.”
Now Pearl glanced up and gave Custer a look of singular disgust.
“Is she a good worker?” Battle asked.
“Yeah, she’s a good gal, knows her place.”
“Can you tell us if she was at work on June fourteenth of this year?”
“No, she was not,” answered Custer.
“Did you know she was going to be absent from work on that day?”
“No, I didn’t. I was pretty upset. I had things for her to do that day, for me.”
He grinned and Jerome glanced at Pearl in a quizzical manner.
“So, all day she was not at work?” queried Battle.
“That’s right,” answered Custer.
“And when she came in on Monday, did you ask where she had been?”
“I sure did.”
“And her answer?” asked Battle.
“She didn’t have one,” replied Custer.
DuBose said something to Pearl and she whispered back. DuBose pressed her point, but Pearl glanced fearfully at Jerome and shook her head.
Battle said, “Thank you, nothing further.”
DuBose rose and approached Custer. “You’re in the store all day?” she asked.
“I am.”
“Never take a lunch, or a break, or leave the premises?”
“I go in the back room sometimes.” He smirked at Pearl. “If there’s a reason for me to be there.”
“Did you ever have a reason to go in—”
DuBose halted and looked back at Pearl, who was staring at her with pleading eyes. She then glanced at the smug Custer and said, “Nothing further, Your Honor.”
Custer chuckled, but as his gaze roamed over the courtroom it fixed on Miss Jessup, who was staring at him with an intensity that struck the self-satisfied look cleanly off the man’s face. Then, when he glanced on either side of Miss Jessup, he saw Daniel on the left and his friend Louis Sherman on the right. They were also staring rigidly at him.
Custer started to breathe fast.
Ambrose said, “You are excused.”
“I... I...”
“You’re excused!” snapped Ambrose.
Custer got up and hurried out of the courtroom.
