Lincoln looks down into his lap, as though genuinely lost in thought. Then he looks up and says, “I wanted his acknowledgment. When Mama told me he was my father, what I really wanted was to hear that he wasn’t ashamed of me. That I meant something to him. But that ain’t nothing but a little boy’s dream.” Lincoln gives me a baleful glare. “Tom Cage had his white son over there, the mayor. What would he want with me? The truth is, he wished I’d never been born—and he still does.”

A pall of ill will toward the Cage family falls over the court. I can feel it like a sudden drop in temperature, like the shadow of storm clouds passing overhead.

Quentin regards Lincoln for several seconds in silence. Then, after glancing up at Judge Elder, he rotates his chair and whirs back toward the defense table. Just before reaching it, he rotates to face Lincoln again.

“If you didn’t want anything from Dr. Cage—nothing but his acknowledgment, as you claim—then why do you think your mother hid his identity from you all those years?”

Lincoln blinks slowly in the face of Quentin’s question. At length, he says, “I think she was more worried about protecting him than helping me. But I don’t know for sure. And thanks to Tom Cage, I never will.”

Quentin smiles faintly, as though in appreciation of a fine line heard at a play. “No further questions, Judge.”

“Redirect?”

“No, Your Honor,” Shad replies.

Quentin’s suddenly truncated cross-examination leaves everyone perplexed, including Lincoln Turner.

Judge Elder recovers first, and says, “It’s past twelve o’clock. Let’s all have some lunch. We’ll resume at one fifteen.”

Chapter 38

Rusty and I are escorting my mother and sister out of the courthouse through the side door that leads to City Hall when my cell phone pings to alert me to a text message. Checking the screen, I see danforth washington on the LCD. Dan Washington is Jewel Washington’s son. I hate to be rude to my own mother, who is talking, but I can’t afford to ignore a message from the county coroner, a staunch ally of both me and my father.

“Just a second, Mom. This is important.”

Darting through the jostling people to the wall, I read Jewel’s text.

Urgent we talk f2f. Mrs. Petros is out of town. I’ll be in the courtyard behind her house in five minutes. Can u get there?

The antebellum home Jewel is referring to stands only two blocks from the courthouse. I type: On my way, then press send.

“What is it, Penn?” Mom asks, reaching the wall at last. “Not trouble, I hope?”

“No, I just need to talk to somebody. I’ll be home soon,” I promise. “Let Mia take some time for herself, if she will.”

Mom nods, but she can’t manage a smile.