" And you told Mr. Marsh at that time that a refinance was impossible, did you not?”      “I did.”      Every teacher of cross-examination points out that you never ask a question that you do not know the answer to, and you never ask the question “why” because that gives the witness the opportunity to answer in a narrative, but Brent wanted the jury to hear the answer to the next question in Bernstein’s own words, so he took the calculated risk.      “Why was it impossible?”      “Because Mr. Marsh was delinquent in his loan payments.”      “But Mr. Bernstein, didn’t you tell Mr. Marsh about six months earlier that, in order to qualify for a loan modification, he had to be delinquent in his loan payments?”      “That’s for a modification, not a refinance, and that was Tentane’s policy…”      “Object "

― Kenneth Eade , Predatory Kill (Brent Marks Legal Thriller Series #2)