"Answer the question, Sergeant Rankin."
Rankin too had gone quiet, no visible motion in him except a rhythmic
twitch at the corners of his Boxer jaws. "Will you repeat the question,
Counselor?"
"I will. I ask whether Callista Blake said to you: 'Take your ugly hands
off me, you fool!'"
"She did not."
"I quote to you these words: 'Look, I can give you a lot of breaks if
you'll put out.' Did you say that to Callista Blake?"
"Objection."
"Overruled."
"I did not."
"You have no recollection of that?"
"It didn't happen, that's all. I never touched her."
"No? You didn't, a few minutes later, strike her across the face with
the flat of your hand?"
"Objection!"
"Overruled."
"I certainly did not. The whole thing is imaginary."
"Did Callista Blake, while you had hold of her, tell you that she was
ill, that she had had a miscarriage the night before?"
"Objection!"
"Overruled." _So Terry sticks his own neck way out, his own feelings
involved, his judgment slipping, and where does that take us?_
"Exception."
"She did not tell me that, Counselor. She had no occasion to tell me
that. I say again, the whole thing is imaginary. I know my duties, and
my position as a police officer. Nothing like that happened, and if the
defendant says it did, she is lying." Except for that twitch, and the
high tension of his blocky hands gripping the witness chair, nothing in
Rankin's solid front suggested he might himself be lying.
"You say the whole thing is imaginary. Really! Is it imaginary, just a
bad dream cooked up by the defense--what do you take us for,
Sergeant?--is it imaginary that you shoved Callista Blake down on the
couch in the living-room, that she then told you she was ill, that in
spite of that you went on trying to force her, that you exposed
yourself, that she then said a certain thing which frightened you, so
that you let her go, after first striking her across the face with the
flat of your hand?"
"Objection of course. Whole question improper and fantastic."
"Overruled."
_Terry, I don't know_--
"Exception."
"Nothing like that happened. I deny it absolutely."
"In that view of it, I won't question you further about this, or
anything else, I think, since the only thing of service to my client is
the truth. I dare say, in redirect examination, you'll have opportunity
to repeat your virtuous denials--"
"That's outrageous."