“No. At that point, I assumed she had found a way to commit suicide, possibly with help, but I didn’t know.”

“You didn’t worry that she had died from the morphine injection you gave her?”

Dad shakes his head. “I didn’t consider that a serious possibility.”

“And when did you learn she had died from an adrenaline overdose?”

“The next day. Again, from my son.”

“What did you think about that news?”

“It made no sense whatever to me.”

Here Quentin pauses, then rolls his chair to within a few feet of the jury and looks back at my father.

“Dr. Cage, who do you believe killed Viola Turner?”

Dad takes a deep breath, then answers with a cold edge of anger in his voice. “Snake Knox. I believe that Sonny Thornfield was also present, and possibly other people as well.”

“Who are Snake Knox and Sonny Thornfield?”

“Members of a violent racist group called the Double Eagles, and the investigative targets of Henry Sexton, as well as the FBI.”

“What reason would they have to kill Viola Turner?”

Shad looks like he’s gearing up to start objecting, but so far he’s held his fire.

“Viola had a long and tragic history with the Double Eagle group. Because of that history, both Knox and Thornfield had come to Viola’s house just days before her death and threatened to kill her if she continued to talk to Henry Sexton. This exchange is what Viola had recorded on the audiotape I had looked for after injecting her with the morphine.”

“Objection,” Shad breaks in. “No such tape has been entered into evidence.”

“Your Honor, the witness is testifying to what the decedent told him—”

“Hearsay, Your Honor,” Shad objects.

Quentin is prepared for this objection. He smiles and says, “Your Honor, the testimony clearly falls under 803(24). All the criteria are met.”

Judge Elder opens a small softbound book, licks his finger, and quickly pages through it. After a few seconds, he says, “Present sense impression . . . I’ll allow it.”

“Please continue, Dr. Cage,” Quentin says with satisfaction.

“The Double Eagles had traced Viola to Chicago only a year after she left Natchez, and they told her that they would kill her if she ever returned here. Will Devine actually visited her in Chicago and made the threat.”

“Objection, Your Honor,” Shad says again. “Hearsay. That allegedly happened thirty-seven years ago, and neither Viola Turner nor Mr. Devine can substantiate any such threat.”

Joe Elder reaches for his book again, but this time does not open it. “I’m going to sustain that.”