Cora’s reply hits me like a line drive in the solar plexus. I can only imagine the horror my mother must be feeling now, for if this is true, who can believe that Dad wasn’t sending that money to take care of an illegitimate child? A married man might send his old lover money for a few months, maybe even a year or two. But nearly thirty years? My God. Even with Mom’s iron constitution, how can she sit in that courtroom without staring at Dad in shock and fury? After what he told me about being ignorant of Lincoln’s existence until the night Viola died, I know I couldn’t.

“There was many a month that Viola and that boy would have gone hungry without that money,” Cora goes on. “Later on, it helped with Lincoln’s schooling. Sometimes Junius drank up every cent Cora earned as a nurse. Or used it in some scam of his, some get-rich-quick scheme. That was probably the thing that made me keep the secret so long. I thought if it ever came out that Dr. Cage was Lincoln’s father, that money might stop coming. So I kept quiet.”

“I understand, Miss Cora. Lord, Lord. Any sister would have done the same.”

Shad’s attempt to emulate Quentin’s folksy manner is clumsy, but without the genuine article to compare him to, the jury might just be buying it. How the hell can Quentin sit quiet through all of this?

“So when,” Shad asks, “did Junius Jelks learn that Lincoln was not the son of a Vietnam war hero, as he’d been told?”

“Oh, that was a few years after Mama passed. About 2001, or the year after. Junius found an old newspaper notice of James’s death. Maybe somebody from Natchez sent him one, I don’t remember. Anyway, Junius knew right away that James Turner couldn’t have fathered that boy. James had been killed eighteen months before Lincoln was born.

“What did Mr. Jelks do when he learned about this?”

“First, he beat Viola, for lying to him.”

“Did Viola tell him the truth at that point?”

“No, sir. She tried to tell him that old story of a one-night stand, but Junius didn’t believe it. He just kep’ on beating her.”

“What did she tell him then?”

“She told him about the Klan rape back here in Natchez.”

“And did Mr. Jelks believe that story?”

“Yes, sir. He did.”

“Did he come to you for confirmation?”

“Sho’ did.”

“What did you tell him?”