Deposition of Howard Franklin Temple
taken at the Sheriff’s office in
St. Augustine, January 28, 1892.
When I got home I ate a little stew that Julie Ann had made the day before, and I just kept thinking about her and those books. I washed, dressed, and walked over to her house a little after seven.
From the street I could see Julie Ann and the Reverend and Mrs. Mays sitting at dinner. Actually I think they were finished eating. They seemed to be sitting around the table talking, but the table had not been cleared. At one point while they were talking it looked like the Reverend was the only one talking, maybe shouting. Julie Ann stood up and walked out of the room really fast. I really wanted to know what they were saying to each other, but I couldn’t hear but I thought I could guess.
It had to be that guy and his boat. Him, his books, his stories and his money. I’d seen him at the hotel that same day talking to a couple of men, all of them smoking cigars. I was working not more than ten feet from where they stood and talked and they never so much as looked at me.
I had not seen Julie Ann that day at work. Usually I only see her when she arrives and leaves, because of that rule about yard-help not going in the lobby. Julie Ann is in the lobby all day at the front desk, I just know that’s where Connors first saw her and started talking to her. And I can’t even go in the building.