Sycamore Row

most recent being last October. Misdemeanors, no felonies. Yes, they had separated several times, but never for more than two months.
    Enough of Simeon, for now anyway; Stillman wanted to follow up with Lettie’s résumé. She worked for Seth Hubbard off and on, part-time and full-time, for most of the past three years. Before that, she worked for three years as a housekeeper in the Clanton home of an old couple Jake had never heard of. Both died within three months of one another, and Lettie was out of work. Before that, she worked as a cook in the middle school cafeteria in Karaway. Stillman wanted dates, wages, raises, bosses, every minute detail, and Lettie did the best she could.
    Seriously? Portia asked herself. How could the name of my mother’s boss ten years ago possibly be important to this will contest? It would be a fishing expedition, Jake had said. Welcome to the mind-numbing dullness of deposition warfare.
    Jake had also explained that depositions drag on for days because the lawyers are being paid by the hour, or at least the ones who are asking the banal and monotonous questions. With virtually no restrictions on what can be explored, and with their meters running, lawyers, especially those working for insurance companies and big corporations, have no interest in being concise. As long as they can keep the conversation close to a person, issue, or thing remotely connected to the lawsuit, then they can peck away for hours.
    However, Jake had also explained that the Hubbard case was different because the only lawyer working by the hour was him. The others were there on a prayer and a percentage. If the handwritten will were to be invalidated, the money would revert to the family under the prior will, and all those lawyers would take a cut. Since the other lawyers had no guarantee they would be paid, he suspected their questions might not be so tedious.
    Portia wasn’t so sure about that. Tedium was closing in from all directions.
    Stillman liked to bounce around, probably in an effort to keep the witness off balance. He woke up the crowd with “Now, did you borrow money from your former attorney, Booker Sistrunk?”
    “I did.” Lettie knew the question was coming and answered it without hesitation. There was no law or rule against such a loan, not on the receiving end anyway.
    “How much?”
    “Fifty thousand dollars.”
    “Did he write you a check or was it in cash?”
    “Cash, and we, Simeon and I, signed a promissory note.”
    “Was this the only loan from Sistrunk?”
    “No, there was a prior loan for $5,000.”
    “Why did you borrow money from Mr. Sistrunk?”
    “Because we needed the money. I lost my job, and with Simeon you never know.”
    “Did you take the money and move into a larger house?”
    “We did.”
    “And how many people now live in that house?”
    Lettie thought for a moment, and said, “Usually around eleven, but the number varies. Some come and go.”
    Jake glared at Stillman as if to say, “Don’t even think about wanting all eleven names. Can we just move along?”
    Stillman was tempted, but moved along. “How much are you paying in rent?”
    “Seven hundred a month.”
    “And you’re unemployed as of today?”
    “Correct.”
    “Where is your husband working right now?”
    “He’s not.”
    “Since Mr. Sistrunk is no longer your lawyer, how do you plan to repay him?”
    “We’ll worry about that later.”

    Roxy had sandwiches and chips ready for lunch, and they ate in the conference room where Lucien joined them. “How’d it go?” he asked.
    “The usual first round of worthless questions,” Jake said. “Lettie was great but she’s already tired.”
    Lettie said, “I can’t do this for another day and a half.”
    “Modern discovery,” Lucien said in disgust.
    “Tell us how it was back in the old days, Lucien,” Jake said.
    “Well, back in the old days, and the old days were much better than all these new rules you got now—”
    “I didn’t write them.”
    “You weren’t required to divulge all of your witnesses and describe what they were going to say, no sir. It was trial by ambush. You get your witnesses, I’ll get mine, and we’ll show up at the courthouse and have us a trial. It made you a better lawyer too because you had to react on the fly. Nowadays, everything has to be fully disclosed and every witness has to be available for a deposition. Think of the time. Think of the expense. It was far better back then, I swear it