'Indeed. Now, you're not very bright, are you, lieutenant?'
'What?'
'Smart.' Tommy fired his questions rapidly, picking up momentum and raising his voice.
'I mean, you had to go to work in the family business, weren't bright enough to do something on your own, correct? How'd you qualify for officer's training, anyway? Your daddy know somebody who pulled some strings? And that school where you said Negroes attended beside you. I bet you didn't even get grades as good as theirs, did you? And you were happy keeping those Negroes sweeping up while you made money, correct? Because if you ever gave one of them a chance, you were afraid they'd do a hell of a lot better job than you could, right?'
'Objection! Objection!' Walker Townsend shouted.
'He's asking ten questions at once!'
'Lieutenant Hart!' Colonel MacNamara started.
Tommy swung his face down toward Murphy.
'You hate them because they make you afraid, don't they?'
Again Murphy didn't reply. He simply seethed.
'Lieutenant Hart, I warn you, sir,' MacNamara said, slamming his gavel down sharply.
Tommy stepped back from the witness, staring across the small space at Murphy, looking into his eyes.
'You know. Lieutenant Murphy, I can tell what you're thinking right now.'
'What's that?' Murphy asked, between tightly clenched teeth.
Tommy smiled.
'Why, you're thinking, 'I ought to kill that son of a bitch…' aren't you?'
Murphy scowled.
'No,' he said.
'I'm not.'
Tommy nodded, still grinning.
'Sure you aren't.' He stood up straight and gestured toward the packed audience and the kriegies hanging by the windows, listening to every word.
'I'm sure that everyone here believes that denial. Absolutely.
I must be one hundred percent wrong…'
Sarcasm swirled around every one of Tommy's words.
'I'm sure you didn't think, 'I ought to kill that son of a bitch…' and you received perhaps one tenth of one percent of the abuse that
Trader Vic subjected Lincoln Scott to on each and every day since Mr. Scott first arrived at Stalag Luft Thirteen!'
'He said it,' Murphy persisted.
'I didn't.'
'Of course he did,' Tommy answered.
'But he didn't say:
' I'm going to kill that son of a bitch,' or' I must kill that son of a bitch,' or 'I plan to kill that son of a bitch tonight…' He didn't say any of those things, did he, lieutenant?'
'No.'
'He said what anyone else might have said, under the exact same circumstances.'
'Objection! Calls for the witness to speculate,' Townsend shouted.
'Ah, withdrawn, then,' Tommy interjected.
'Because we surely wouldn't want Lieutenant Murphy to speculate about anything.'
MacNamara glared down at Tommy.
'You've made your point,' he said.
'Are you finished with this witness?'
Tommy shook his head.
'Not quite.'
He walked over to the prosecution's table and picked up the knife.
'Now, Lieutenant Murphy, were you, or anyone else in the barracks room, in the habit of sharing meals with Lieutenant Scott?'
'No.'
'In every other room, people share foodstuffs and take turns doing the cooking, correct?'
'It seems that way.'
'But Scott was excluded?'
'He didn't seem to want to be a part ' 'Oh, of course. He'd rather starve on his own, all by himself.'
Murphy glared again, and Tommy continued.
'So he ate alone. I presume he fixed his own meals, as well.'
'Yes.'
'So you really wouldn't know for sure what knife he might have used at any given point to prepare his meals, would you?'
'He had a penknife. I saw him use it.'
'Did you always watch him fix his meals?'
'No.'
'So you really have no idea whether or not he might have used this homemade blade, on any occasion, do you?'
'No.'
With the blade still in his hand, Tommy walked over to the defense table. Hugh reached down by his feet and handed Tommy a small parcel.
Tommy put the knife down, and then took the parcel over to the witness.
'You are an expert on meats, lieutenant. After all, your family owns a meat-packing business. Lucky for you, I guess. I would hate to have to have you rely on your own wits to get ahead…'
'Objection,' Townsend yelled.
'Lieutenant Hart insults the witness!'
'Lieutenant,' Colonel MacNamara said coldly, 'I'm warning you. Do not persist along this road.'
'Right, colonel,' Tommy said briskly.
'I would surely hate to insult anyone…'
He sneered at Lieutenant Murphy, who eyed him with an ill-disguised fury of his own.
'Now, lieutenant, be so kind as to identify this for us.'
Murphy reluctantly reached out and took the parcel from Tommy Hart. He swiftly unwrapped it and grimaced.
'German blood sausage,' he said.
'Everyone's seen this before. Standard issue from the Krauts.'
'Would you eat this?'
'No one I know in the entire camp eats it. People'd rather starve.'
'Would you, the expert on meats and meat processing, eat this?'
'No.'
'What goes into this sausage, lieutenant?'
Murphy scowled again.
'Hard to say. The sausage we make back in the States is thick, solid, and carefully prepared.
Sanitary. No one gets sick off of what we fix and send to market. This stuff, well, who knows? Lots of pig's blood and other types of waste matter, loosely packed in sheaths of intestines.
