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On their way out of the courthouse Jack told DuBose, “I bet Battle is licking his wounds right now. We put a real dent in his case.”
“A dent but not a crack. And Battle could come back with something unexpected after the weekend. The people behind all this may sense vulnerability in the commonwealth’s case and want to do something about it. That’s probably the message Battle got. And why he asked for the recess. And, frankly, that has me worried, Jack.”
They drove to the men’s prison to meet with Jerome.
“It real good what you did talkin’ to Miss Christine ’bout her daddy and the pool water,” said Jerome.
“It was all outrageous is what it was, Jerome,” said DuBose sharply.
He shrugged. “Naw, it just be how Mr. Leslie was. We got cleaned up real good before we went there, but he didn’t know that.”
“You could never scrub hard enough to turn your skin white, which would have been the only thing that would have worked for that man,” commented DuBose.
Jerome glanced away as Jack said, “We’ve got some more witnesses to put on, and we have to be prepared for whatever else Battle throws at us, Jerome, but we feel pretty good about things.”
“So maybe I be outta here soon?” he said hopefully.
“We’ll have to see,” said Jack cautiously.
“But even if we lose we already have strong grounds for appeal,” added DuBose.
“How long that take?”
“It’s hard to say,” she replied.
“So maybe a week, somethin’ like that?”
Jack eyed DuBose, who said, “Let’s just take it one step at a time.”
Later, as they walked out, Jack said, “I feel like we’re misleading him, Desiree.”
“He knows we could win or we could lose. And if the latter, we appeal.”
“But he seems to think an appeal will happen in a snap.”
“And if we come to it we’ll explain all about that in greater detail. But telling him that it could take months or years now? What good will that do? For either of them?”
* * *
They walked over to the women’s prison and were escorted to Pearl’s cell. The young woman rose from her bunk and gave DuBose a hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you for what you done yesterday, not tellin’ everybody ’bout what happened.”
“I would never do that, Pearl, not unless you gave your permission.”
“You think all them white men goin’ to see the truth for what it is?”
“If they use their brains, they will,” said Jack.
“Well, from where I’m sittin’, that be askin’ a whole, whole lot,” said Pearl.
DuBose said, “We’re going by your house. Can we bring your kids anything?”
Pearl slid her hand under her thin mattress and pulled out a slip of paper. She handed it to DuBose. “This here is a letter I wrote for ’em.”
Jack looked curious because he obviously didn’t think Pearl could write.
DuBose looked at it and said, “Oh, it’s pictures.”
“Yeah, that how... that how I like to write to ’em.” She glanced anxiously at Jack, who was studying the paper.
