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“Since you just told everybody.”
“What is your yearly income?”
Battle once more said, “Relevancy?”
“If the witness would answer a little faster, we’d be done by now,” retorted Jack.
Both men looked at Ambrose, who slowly nodded. “Answer the question.”
“Depends on the year,” said Dobbs.
“Last year, then.”
Dobbs shifted in his seat. “Oh, ’bout two thousand dollars.”
“How about this year? You doing better or worse?”
“Little worse. Probably won’t end up makin’ fifteen hundred this year.”
“You come from money? You inherit a bunch?”
Dobbs laughed. “I wish.”
Jack didn’t crack a smile. He just stood there awaiting an answer.
Dobbs stopped laughing and said, “No, I ain’t come from no money.”
“How much do you have in the bank right now?”
“I don’t use a bank. I keep it on me.”
“Okay, how much?”
Dobbs pulled out his wallet and counted out the money. “Forty dollars, satisfied?”
“Have you taken out a loan from anyone recently? Anyone given you a gift? Anything like that?”
“No! What the hell is all this about?”
“Okay. Isn’t it true that you owed three thousand one hundred and fifty dollars in gambling debts?”
Dobbs looked wildly around the courtroom. “What?”
“Over three thousand dollars in gambling debts, you owed that to a number of individuals, correct?”
Dobbs clenched the top rail of the witness box. “I—”
“Correct?”
Dobbs swallowed heavily and nodded. “Yeah, that’s right.”
“You must be a really, really bad gambler.”
Battle rose to his feet. “Your Honor, can counsel tell us where this is going?”
“I am right now,” said Jack. “And isn’t it true, Mr. Dobbs, that those gambling debts have been satisfied in full? Shortly after you told the police and Mr. Battle that the defendant was belligerent toward the Randolphs and that he needed money?”
DuBose glanced at the jurors, to see several of them stiffen and look more attentive. Ambrose also looked concerned by this revelation.
