Missing Witness (41 page)

“Yes, I think that's a reasonable statement. It has to be qualified, but it's reasonable.”

“Now to conclude,” Will said, “I just wanted to return to something you said on direct examination. You indicated that you were generally familiar with the
Bold Venture
exploration by Dr. Rosetti and his team. Is that correct?”

“Yes, I am familiar with that project.”

“You are not actively participating in it, correct?”

“No. But we have access to weekly reports. Dr. Rosetti, like most of us, will post general information on the status of his investigation on some of the scientific Web sites.”

“And you testified that Dr. Rosetti had discovered nothing of any particular relevance to this case—I presume, meaning dealing with the innocence or guilt of Isaac Joppa on charges of piracy, or dealing with the credibility of his claim to be innocent. Correct?”

“Yes, I did state that. And I stand by that.”

“Well, I did have the opportunity to visit that site on one occasion. And I was informed that Dr. Rosetti had discovered the presence of some storage barrels. Barrels that had been submerged and buried under the sand. Are you aware of that?”

“Yes. I was aware of that. And I took that into consideration when I gave my answer.”

“So you don't consider the presence of barrels at the
Bold Venture
site to be of any significance to the issues in this case?”

“No, I don't.”

“But you have read the testimony of Isaac Joppa?”

Now Dr. Auger was leaning slightly to the side, with his head against his hand. There was an air of impatience about him when he answered.

“Yes. I have read the testimony of Isaac Joppa. And I anticipate where you're going…”

“Oh?” Will asked. “You know where I'm heading in my questioning?”

“Exactly. You're going to direct my attention,” Auger said with a confident smile, “to the testimony of Isaac Joppa. Where he indicates he was manacled to a barrel…or barrels…in the hold of a ship under the control of Edward Teach. I read that. And it still doesn't change my mind.”

“And yet you admit that Dr. Rosetti has found barrels matching the description given by Isaac Joppa. Barrels from the site of the sunken remains of the
Bold Venture,
one of Teach's ships.”

“That is exactly correct. And that doesn't change my testimony. I do not believe the presence of such barrels adds or subtracts anything from what I said. That Isaac Joppa, in his testimony in the Old Bailey, mentions barrels in the hold where he was allegedly imprisoned, and that barrels were found in the vicinity of one of Edward Teach's pirate ships—all that is ultimately quite meaningless.”

Will knew he had gone as far as he could go with this witness. The only question now was whether MacPherson was sharp enough to come back with the rebuttal that Will knew was available to him.

Will wouldn't wait long to find out. He had not even reached the counsel table when MacPherson had already rushed to the podium and launched into his questioning.

“Would you please tell the jury,” MacPherson said with dramatic resonance, “exactly
why
Dr. Rosetti's discovery of the presence of cargo barrels at the site of the
Bold Venture
is irrelevant to the question of Isaac Joppa's fabricated story of innocence.”

“It is irrelevant,” Auger said, leaning toward the jury, “because almost every vessel on the ocean, as of 1717 through 1719, would have had barrels of some type in its hold. They kept foodstuffs there. They had commercial goods there, if it was a merchant ship. You might keep gunpowder there if you were a pirate or a military vessel. The point is, that's the purpose of a hold of a ship. Every one of them had barrels. The fact that Dr. Rosetti may have discovered some barrels at the site of the
Bold Venture
tells us absolutely nothing about whether or not Isaac Joppa was telling the truth.”

MacPherson thanked the doctor for his testimony.

Will watched him stride back to counsel table. He had the gait of a man who had the wind fully at his back.

60

D
R
. H
ENRIETTA
C
LOVER, EXPERT
in early American genealogy, was on the witness stand.

Will recalled his pretrial discussion with Virgil MacPherson regarding Clover's anticipated testimony.

According to MacPherson, she was going to give only background information on the Joppa and Willowby family tree. Will thought it odd, however, that Clover's testimony—rather than coming at the beginning where it would logically fit—was coming at the end. With an opponent like Virgil MacPherson, that gave Will a sense of genuine unease.

After going through Dr. Clover's expert qualifications, MacPherson had her produce a large blow-up chart—an enlarged replica of a family tree contained in a family Bible.

“Is there something unusual about this?” MacPherson asked.

“There is,” Clover said. “First, in that it was contained in the family Bible of Frederick Willowby—the father of Randolph Willowby, whose last will and testament is involved in this lawsuit. Although it was Frederick Willowby's family Bible, it is rather unusual. It includes not only the family tree of the Willowby side, but also the parallel Joppa family tree. It shows, all the way at the top, the conjoining point that relates the two families—the marriage of Reverend Malachi Joppa to Elizabeth Garfield. Their marriage produced Adam, the oldest, then Isaac, then Myrtle, the youngest, who married Elisha Willowby. That marriage between Elisha and Myrtle produced a line of thirteen generations of Willowbys, ending with Randolph.

“On the other side of the chart, as you can see, is the Joppa family line—descending from Adam, who married Deborah Henry. Their marriage produced, as the male heir, Jacob Joppa, and his marriage to Sally Lankin produced three children—Michael, Laura, and the oldest, Jonah. And then Jonah, of course, has a descending line—all of the other Joppas,
ending with Jonathan Joppa. Who, I'm told, is sitting at counsel table over there.”

MacPherson walked over to the chart with a laser pointer in his hand. He pointed the red beam at the spot of the family tree where Adam Joppa's marriage to Deborah Henry resulted in the birth of Jacob Joppa. Next to Jacob Joppa's name, where the date of birth should have been, was a blank line with a question mark. Then next to that was the date of death, 1781.

“Now Dr. Clover,” MacPherson continued, “let's zero in on the child of Adam Joppa and his wife, Deborah. Adam was the oldest child of Malachi Joppa, and he was the brother of Isaac. He married Deborah—and according to this they had a child, Jacob. Correct?”

“That's certainly what the family Bible of the Willowby line indicates. By the way, this Willowby Bible was donated to the county historical society by Randolph Willowby shortly before his death.”

“Is it unusual to have a question mark rather than a date of birth for a descendant on a family tree like this?”

“Well, somewhat unusual…but certainly not exceptional. We occasionally see it. Sometimes there is uncertainty about the date of birth. Sometimes you'll have two dates, two years separated by a slash mark, indicating that a person could have been born, for instance, in either 1719 or 1720. So, taking it merely as an artifact of a genealogy, we can't make any conclusions based solely on that.”

“Fair enough.”

MacPherson was at the podium with his arms crossed in front of him, and he had a smug look on his face. Will knew that whatever was about to surface in Clover's testimony was likely to come out of left field.

“Now, Dr. Clover, do you have reason to believe that one aspect of this handwritten genealogy, this family tree written in the inside of the Willowby Bible, is not accurate?”

“After my extensive research, I have come to a conclusion that there is one aspect of it that is not accurate.”

Will rose to his feet.

“Your Honor,” Will said in an even voice that disguised his concern, “may I have just one moment with opposing counsel before his examination continues?”

Judge Gadwell agreed, but reminded Will to make it short.

Will strode quickly up to the podium and addressed MacPherson in a controlled whisper.

“Virgil, what are you doing here? Where are you going with this witness? I recall distinctly your recitation in court about her anticipated testimony. You gave no proffer, no indication, that she was going to rewrite the genealogy of the Joppa line. This is coming as a complete surprise to us. And I think we're going to have a serious problem if you continue with this line of questioning.”

MacPherson smiled but said nothing.

Will decided to press the point.

“You indicated in pretrial hearing that your
only
purpose in calling this witness was to give genealogical background information—not to reconstruct the genealogy of this family.”

“And when did I say that, Will?” MacPherson said, still maintaining his grin.

“You said it at the pretrial conference as we were addressing the court.”

“Correction—” he poked a finger in the middle of Will's tie—“whatever I might have said to you was not on the record. The judge was talking with his clerk and the court reporter was taking nothing down. Frankly, I don't even remember making such a comment. If it's not on the record, it doesn't exist.”

Will stared him in the eye.

“You lied to me, Virgil!”

“Those are pretty strong words—”

But before he could say anything further, Will whirled around and strode back to his table. Something else was now clear to him.

Whatever storm was going to blow in from MacPherson's side of the case, he knew he had to batten down the hatches.

MacPherson collected his thoughts, smiled in the direction of the jury, and then addressed Dr. Clover again.

“And where, according to your expert judgment and opinion, does the error appear in this genealogy of the Joppa family?”

Clover raised the laser pointer, and a red laser dot appeared over the name
Jacob Joppa.

“And what is it that is inaccurate?”

“Not that he was born, or that he died in 1781—that is not the inaccuracy.”

“Well, perhaps you could elaborate…” MacPherson said, going in for the kill. “This chart shows that Jacob Joppa was the offspring of the marriage of Adam Joppa to his wife, Deborah. Is that correct?”

“No, it is not.”

The jury was beginning to move forward in their chairs.

Will could sense Jonathan Joppa leaning forward at counsel table, his eyes riveted on Henrietta Clover.

“Well, if Jacob Joppa is not the son of Adam Joppa, then perhaps you can show where in this chart Jacob Joppa's real father is.”

Clover turned again toward the enlarged chart on the easel, which showed Isaac Joppa with a “presumed dead” date of 1718. Having been presumed to have died in the Battle of Ocracoke Inlet, he was also presumed to have never married, and therefore to have no descendants.

“May I repeat myself?” MacPherson said dramatically. “Would you indicate with your laser pointer the identity of the real father of Jacob Joppa?”

Dr. Clover clicked the laser pointer on the name of Isaac Joppa. A few members of the jury muttered something almost audible.

Next to Will, Jonathan Joppa collapsed back in his chair, with a puzzled and stunned look on his face. He stared, now realizing the direct line of descent from Isaac Joppa to himself.

Jonathan knew that the lawsuit he had treated as an esoteric question on the life of Isaac Joppa and an ownership issue about an island, had now become something entirely different.

As he studied the family line, the blood relationship that linked him to his distant ancestor—a man who had tried to run from both family and God—he could not shake the notion that this lawsuit had suddenly become a case about himself.

“Would you explain to the jury,” MacPherson continued with an air of confidence in his voice, “why you believe that Isaac Joppa was the father of Jacob Joppa?”

“As I explained,” Clover replied, “the Willowby family Bible was the primary source of information regarding the two family lines, and specifically the identity of Jacob Joppa's father. I conducted an exhaustive search of the shipping documents from those vessels that called in the port cities of the Carolinas—documents following the year 1719, the date of Isaac Joppa's trial in London. For reasons I'll discuss in a minute, I assumed that Isaac Joppa was executed within a few months of his trial. That being the case, if you assume that Isaac was the father of Jacob, with Abigail Merriwether as the mother, Isaac only had a short window of time to have consummated a relationship with Abigail. That window of opportunity would have been the short time before he was arrested and tried. By that reckoning, Jacob Joppa would have been conceived shortly before May of 1719,
and therefore, assuming a normal term of pregnancy, could have been born around January 1720.”