Cracks in the Sidewalk(55)

“Over time, Elizabeth started to show some improvement. What happened then?”

“The improvement was very slight, and the diagnosis was still the same. She was dying. By then the kids had stopped asking to visit her, and it seemed as though they’d begun to accept her absence. I figured it would be better for them to leave it that way.”

“But wasn’t Elizabeth asking to see the children?”

“Sure, because that’s what would make her happy. Me, I was more interested in doing what would be best for the kids.”

Noreen said she had no further questions and turned him over for Dudley’s cross-examination.

~

“You claim you visited your wife in the hospital and brought the children to see her,” Dudley said. “Can you recall how many times?”

“How many times I visited her?” JT asked.

“Yes,” Dudley answered. “During the period when your wife was hospitalized, how many times did you visit her?”

“It’s difficult to remember.”

“Would you say it was more or less than fifty?”

“Probably less.”

“More or less than twenty?”

“I don’t know,” JT answered impatiently.

“Would it surprise you to know the actual count was nine?”

“Yes,” JT said, fumbling to pull his thoughts together. “It would surprise me. I figured it was more. Of course, I had problems with getting someone to watch the store and paying a babysitter, so I guess that’s why I didn’t—”

“On those nine visits, do you recall the number of times you brought the children to see their mother?”

“No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me,” JT answered flippantly.

“Six,” Dudley replied. “Three times prior to Christian’s birth, once to see him in the nursery, once the day he was released into your care, and once when the primary purpose of your visit was to elicit your wife’s assistance in asking your in-laws for a loan. Six times in almost eighteen months. Is that your idea of devotion?”

“Objection,” Noreen called out. “Counselor is badgering the witness!”

“Mister Caruthers is a hostile witness,” Dudley countered, “and I’m trying to clarify the issue of visitation brought up in direct.”

“I’ll allow it,” Judge Brill said.

“You went to visit your wife on three other occasions,” Dudley said. “Do you recall the reason for any those visits?”

“Hmm,” Jeffrey said, stalling for an answer. Suddenly his expression brightened.

“Now, I recall. There was a conference with Liz’s doctor. I was going to visit anyway, but I was able to time it so that I could be there to talk with the doctor.”

“That’s right,” Dudley replied. “You were there for that one conference. But you missed all of the others, didn’t you?”

“What do you expect? I was working at the store all day and taking care of the kids all night!”

“Right, you mentioned that,” Dudley said sarcastically. “But let’s move ahead to your next visit. That one was solely for the purpose of asking Elizabeth to sign for the second mortgage you wanted to take out, wasn’t it?”

“No.” JT glared at Dudley.

“Elizabeth refused to sign that mortgage application, because she was concerned about her children not having a home. Aren’t those the same children you claim to be protecting?”

“I am protecting them!”

“And on another of your so-called visits wasn’t your intent solely to ask Elizabeth, who had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor, to play upon her father’s sympathy and suggest he give you the necessary funding for your store?”

“I didn’t want him to give me the money,” JT answered. “I wanted a loan.”

“A loan?” Dudley repeated. “A loan like the other loans he’d given you? But doesn’t the word loan infer that it’s something to be repaid?”

JT’s mouth curled into a hateful sneer.

“The answer is yes,” Dudley said. “Yet on five previous occasions you obtained loans from Charles McDermott, loans totaling one-hundred-and ten-thousand dollars, and never repaid one cent of that money. Isn’t that true?”

“I intended to,” JT said defensively. “That’s why I needed another loan, so I could keep Caruthers Couture afloat. Without that store, I can’t repay anything.”

“But didn’t your store operate at a deficit from its opening?”

“Only because I didn’t have the money to expand the way I should have.”

“Wasn’t that ongoing deficit the reason Charles McDermott refused to give you the loan you asked for last September? Wasn’t that also the reason he suggested you consider some other line of work?”

“He doesn’t know squat about fashion!” JT shouted. “What right does he have to tell me what business I ought to be in?”

“So,” Dudley said, jumping on the opportunity, “Charles McDermott’s comments made you quite angry, didn’t they?”

“Yeah, they made me angry. Anyone would get angry if somebody ran them down the way he did me.”