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Jack drew a legal pad close and picked up a ballpoint pen. “So if you could tell me what happened the evening you made the arrest?”
Gene glanced sharply at LeRoy before saying, “We found him in the room with two butchered bodies. And then we arrested the n——that done it.”
Jack glanced up. “There’s no cause to use that word.”
“What word?” asked Gene with genuine confusion.
“Call him Black. Like we’re white.”
“We ain’t nuthin’ like their kind,” sputtered Gene.
“You know, the judge could look at your obvious bias and use it as an excuse to throw out your testimony, or even declare a mistrial. Do you want your boss to look upon you as the reason for that waste of time and unnecessary expense?”
Gene looked at LeRoy, who only had hateful eyes for Jack. Then he sat back and ran his fingers along the row of bullets on his gun belt. He eyed Jack shrewdly. “Okay. We arrested the... Negro and brung him in.”
“You said he was resisting arrest?”
Before Gene could reply LeRoy spoke up. “We had our guns drawn and told him to kneel on the floor, which he done. Gene cuffed him.”
“And the resisting part?” asked Jack as he wrote this down.
“Gene had a little chat with the colored boy, and he got all riled for some reason. Knocked Gene down. So naturally he had to get the situation back under control.”
Gene grinned. “Boy was strong as a gorilla. Way I see it, the problem is we coddle the negroes. They don’t know how to behave ’round white folks.”
“And how should they behave?” asked Jack.
“Well, with respect, and knowin’ they’re around their betters,” answered Gene, eyeing LeRoy. “Hell, everybody knows that.”
“And who told you to go to the Randolphs’ home?” asked Jack. “And what was the time?”
“Dispatcher,” said LeRoy. “Around six or so.”
“What did the dispatcher say exactly?”
“That two people were dead and the killer was still there. We got there real fast.”
“How fast?”
“Hell, three-four minutes,” replied LeRoy.
“You went in the front door? And you found the accused doing what?”
Gene said, “He had his arms ’round the old woman. Maybe doing somethin’ sexual. You know how those boys are ’round our women.”
“Perhaps he was lifting Mrs. Randolph into the chair?”
Gene snorted. “What for? She was dead!”
“Maybe out of respect?”
LeRoy exclaimed, “How in the hell is it respectful to kill somebody?”
“You’re presuming it was him that did it,” answered Jack.
“I got eyes that I see things with,” countered LeRoy. “And I seen him and only him in the room with two dead folks.”
“The actual killer could have already escaped.”
