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Jerome drew a deep breath and settled himself. “Look here, I ain’t never stole nothin’ from them, and I ain’t never say nothin’ angry to Mr. Leslie. Why I do that? He pay me good money that I need to help my family. With my bad leg and all, not too many jobs I can do. So I ain’t gonna do nothin’ to get me fired.”
Jack said, “I arranged the call with Pearl. Did you talk to her?”
Jerome nodded, his expression turning even more despondent. “Only time she don’t tell me the truth.”
“She wouldn’t say where she was that day?” asked DuBose.
“No, ma’am. Not one word.”
They left him there and went to visit Pearl. She was standing next to the barred window and staring out.
“You seen Jerome?” she asked anxiously turning to them. “Is he okay?”
“We just came from there,” said Jack. “He’s fine. He said he talked to you?”
She sat down on her bunk. “Yeah, he did.”
“And you didn’t tell him where you were that day?” said DuBose.
She looked up at them pleadingly. “I... I can’t.”
“Were you... were you with another... man?” asked Jack quietly.
“I ain’t never cheated on Jerome. Never, never, never,” she said emphatically.
“Then I don’t understand why you can’t tell us,” said Jack.
“I just can’t,” said Pearl miserably, not looking at them.
Jack glanced at DuBose and shook his head in frustration.
As they were heading down the hall to the prison exit Jack said, “She looks as bad as she did when I met her at my office the first time.”
DuBose stopped walking. “What do you mean ‘bad’?”
“She looked sick to her stomach and got all pale and shaky. I got her some water.”
“Wait here,” said a tense DuBose. She turned and hurried back down the hall.
Sitting next to Pearl, DuBose said, “Were you... were you pregnant?”
Pearl gasped and her eyes teared up. She put a hand to her mouth.
DuBose gripped her other hand. “I thought that might be it, when Jack said you weren’t feeling well the first time you two met.”
Pearl drew her hand away from her mouth and said in a trembling voice, “I was gonna have a baby.” She placed a trembling hand on her stomach.
“‘Was’? Did you miscarry?”
Pearl looked up at DuBose, her expression full of misery. She shook her head.
“Wait... Pearl, did you... did you have an abortion?”
The tears now streamed out of Pearl’s eyes. She bent over and pressed her thin chest to her thighs, rocking back and forth, and sobbing.
DuBose wrapped her arms around the woman and held her tightly.
Pearl finally sat up and wiped her eyes with a tissue that DuBose handed her.
