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‘Old Murder?’
‘Oh, sorry – that’s what they call our judge in here. They say he’s the worst of the lot. But the nickname’s pretty good, don’t you think? He looked at me today like he’d got half a mind to come down off his bench and throttle me himself. God knows why. It’s not like he even knows me.’
Stephen fell silent, as if frightened at how doubt had so quickly replaced his earlier optimism. But then his lips tightened in defiance. ‘I didn’t do it, you know,’ he said suddenly. ‘I couldn’t have killed him even if I’d wanted to. He was my father, for Christ’s sake. It’d be like murdering part of myself.’
‘You said you hated him,’ she said.
‘Yes. And I loved him too. Love and hate aren’t so far apart, you know.’
Stephen was silent again for a moment, and there was a faraway look in his eyes when he went on: ‘There’s not a day goes by that I don’t feel guilty about leaving him alone that night. Opening the door for whoever it was to walk straight in there and put a bullet through his head.’
‘How were you to know?’
‘I wasn’t. I just wish I hadn’t left him, that’s all. No one deserves to die like that.’
‘What about that family in France?’ asked Mary, leaning forward across the table. ‘He herded them into a church like cattle. That’s what you told me. Did they deserve what happened to them?’
‘No, I know. You’re right. There are just too many ghosts. That’s the trouble. Too many unanswered questions,’ said Stephen, returning to the present with a half-forced smile. ‘Like who killed my father. My defence team doesn’t seem to be getting too far with that one unfortunately. And there’s not much I can do to help them while I’m sitting here.’
‘You’ve got to trust them,’ said Mary. ‘You’ve got a good barrister. Everyone says so.’
‘I know, I know. You’re right as usual. But enough about me. Tell me about yourself. Are you working?’
‘No, of course not. How could I come to court if I was acting as well? The stress is bad enough as it is.’
‘You’re right. It’s not easy.’
Mary bit her lip, unable to understand her irritation. What was she doing complaining about stress when Stephen was on trial for his life?
‘How’s your mother?’ asked Stephen, trying to keep up the conversation. ‘Is she any better?’
‘A little, maybe.’
‘I’m sorry. Have you been to see her again?’
‘Yes.’
‘And your brother. Did he go too?’
‘No. Yes. What do you want me to say? Why do you always keep asking me about Paul?’ asked Mary, irritated again.
‘Sorry,’ said Stephen defensively. ‘I guess it just felt a bit strange that you never wanted to introduce him to me. That’s all. It doesn’t matter now. Let’s talk about something else.’
But there was no time. A speaker on the wall crackled into life giving a two-minute warning. And it had the same effect as on Mary’s previous visits, pressurizing them both into an awkward silence.
‘I love you, Mary,’ said Stephen.
‘And I love you too,’ she replied.
But it was too pat. The place robbed their words of meaning. And there was no time left to explain, to connect, to try to work out where everything had gone wrong.
Mary got up to go. And afterwards, left on his own at the table, Stephen followed her with his eyes until she disappeared into the throng of other visitors leaving through the door at the back of the hall. And involuntarily he wondered whether she would be driving away from the prison alone or whether there would be someone waiting to meet her on the other side of the high wall surmounted with barbed wire that separated him so entirely from the life he’d left behind.
CHAPTER 3
In court the next morning, Gerald Thompson watched his opposite number get slowly to his feet. John Swift was a tall, willowy, good-looking man in his late forties. He’d been a pilot in the war, one of those who’d led a charmed life, guiding his Spitfire through everything the Germans and later the Japanese had been able to throw at him without once being shot down. Things came easily to him. As a barrister, he had an instinctive ability to see what mattered, to find what was persuasive in a case and get it across to a jury in a way that they could understand. Except in this case. Here, everything seemed to point towards the defendant’s guilt, and on top of that Stephen Cade was his own worst enemy. He was headstrong and unmalleable. And his interview with the police was a disaster.
Swift was the son of the second to last Lord Chancellor, born with a solid silver spoon in his mouth. He’d been educated at Eton and Oxford. He was rich and well liked. A true war hero. He was, in short, everything that Thompson was not, and Thompson hated him for it, hated him secretly and with a passion. This high-profile case was exactly what Thompson had been praying for. He’d get his conviction, and he’d make a fool of John Swift in the process. No one would call him Tiny Thompson after this or poke fun at his working-class origins behind his back. Swift sensed the prosecutor’s malevolence, but there were other, more pressing things on his mind as he began his cross-examination of Inspector Trave. He couldn’t get a handle on the case. He needed a way in and he couldn’t find one, though it wasn’t for want of trying.
‘My client was arrested on the same night that his father’s body was discovered. Is that right, Inspector?’ asked Swift.
‘Yes. On the fifth of June. He was arrested on the basis of what we were told by Mr Ritter at the scene. That the defendant had unlocked the door of the study from the inside to let him in.’
‘And Mr Ritter was the first to respond to my client shouting in the study?’
‘I don’t think I can answer that, I’m afraid. I can only tell you the reason why we arrested Stephen Cade. I can’t give direct evidence about what happened in the house before I arrived.’
‘Of course he can’t. You shouldn’t need a policeman to tell you that, Mr Swift,’ said Judge Murdoch irritably. ‘How can the inspector know who shouted, or if anyone shouted for that matter?’
‘He can’t, my lord. I’m sorry. Let me ask you about the cause of death, Inspector. Only one bullet had been fired from the pistol that you found on the side table. Is that right?’
‘Yes.’
‘And it had entered the professor’s forehead?’
‘Yes. And lodged in his brain.’
‘To use a popular expression, he’d been shot between the eyes.’
‘Just above a point between the eyes.’
‘Thank you. It was an execution-type shooting. That’s my point. Would you agree with that description?’
‘Yes, I suppose so.’
‘To achieve that kind of precision with a bullet, wouldn’t you need considerable skill as a marksman?’
‘I don’t know. I’m not an expert.’
‘No. Quite right, Inspector. You’re not,’ said the judge. ‘Is there evidence of the distance from which the shot was fired, Mr Thompson?’
‘About twelve feet according to the report, my lord,’ said the prosecutor, reading from one of his many files.
‘I see. Not exactly a great distance, Mr Swift.’
‘No, my lord. I’ve made my point. I’ll move on. You’ve told us about Mr and Mrs Ritter, Inspector. Who else was in the house on the night of the murder?’
‘The defendant’s girlfriend, Mary Martin; his elder brother, Silas Cade; and Sasha Vigne.’
‘Who’s she?’
‘She was Professor Cade’s personal assistant. The professor had a large collection of valuable manuscripts, which were housed in a gallery on the first floor of the main body of the house. It’s my understanding that she helped the professor with cataloguing them and with research for a book that he was writing on medieval art history.’
‘I see. Now where were these other people located in the house?’
‘Everyone was in the drawing room when I arrived. Awaiting questioning.’
‘No, that’s not what I meant, Inspector. Where were their bedrooms?’
‘All on the first floor of the west wing. Only the Ritters and Professor Cade himself slept on the east side.’
‘And what about the grounds? They’re quite extensive, aren’t they?’
‘Yes. There are stone terraces around the house with lawns beyond.’
‘And quite a lot of trees as well?’
‘Yes.’
‘The drive is tree lined, is it not?’
‘Yes, it is.’
‘We don’t need a National Trust tour of the Moreton Manor gardens, Mr Swift,’ interrupted the judge. ‘What’s the point you’re trying to make?’
‘That an intruder could hide in the trees, my lord.’
‘If there was an intruder. You’d better ask the inspector about the security system. It looks fairly state-of-the-art in the photographs.’
‘I was just about to,’ said Swift, keeping a smile stretched across his features by an extraordinary effort of will. ‘Please do as his lordship asked, Inspector. Tell us about the security system.’
‘The main gate is the only exit from the grounds,’ said Trave. ‘A Tarmac drive leads up to it from the courtyard. Otherwise there’s a high brick wall surmounted by broken glass and electric wiring surrounding the estate. The wiring is connected to an alarm system operated from inside the house.’
‘I see. The professor must have been very worried about the possibility of a break-in. Would you agree that the system would have cost a lot of money?’
‘Yes. I’d say so.’
‘And what about the main gate? How is that opened?’
‘It’s also operated electronically either from a unit beside the gate or by remote control from inside the house.’
‘Was the gate open or closed when police arrived?’
‘Officers Clayton and Watts were the first to attend. It’s my understanding that they found the gate closed.’
‘And what about the doors of the house itself?’
‘I entered through the main front door, which was half open when I arrived. All the other exit doors of the property were locked except for the French windows in the professor’s study, which were also partially open, and the door at the front of the west wing, which was closed but not locked.’
‘These French windows to the study. There are thick, floor-length curtains in front of them. Isn’t that right, Inspector?’
‘Yes. They were half drawn.’
‘And there would be space between the curtains and the doors for a person to hide if he wanted to?’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Making him invisible to a person inside the room.’
‘Yes.’
‘Thank you. Now Mr Thompson asked you some questions about my client’s interview …’
‘One moment, Mr Swift,’ interrupted the judge. ‘I’m sure you want the members of the jury to have a full picture of this security system. Isn’t that right?’
‘Yes, my lord.’
‘Well, perhaps the inspector can help us with whether there is any record of the alarm going off on the night of the murder.’
‘No record, my lord,’ said Trave.
‘And is there any forensic evidence of anyone breaking into the house or the grounds? Any disturbance to the broken glass on top of the perimeter wall that you were telling us about? Any cut wires?’
‘No, there was nothing like that.’
‘Thank you, Inspector. I just wanted to clear that up, Mr Swift.’
‘Of course, my lord,’ said the defence counsel, trying not to allow his irritation to creep into his voice. ‘Now, Inspector, you will recall that my client told you that he walked up to the main gate twice that evening.’
‘Yes. Once before his interview with his father and once afterwards.’
‘And on the first occasion he told you that he found the main gate open.’
‘Yes. He said that he closed it. And that it was still closed when he went back there after seeing his father.’
‘Thank you. Now, what else did my client tell you about his first visit to the main gate?’
‘He said that he saw a black Mercedes parked on the verge a little further down the road on the opposite side from the gate. It was parked beside a public telephone box, and the door of the kiosk seemed to be wedged open. He said that he saw the same thing when he went back there an hour later.’
‘Did he say that he saw the driver of the car on either occasion?’
‘He said he could see the figure of the driver but nothing more than that.’
‘Why are we hearing about all this now, Mr Swift?’ asked the judge. ‘Your client’s interview can be read to the jury at the appropriate time, and he himself can give evidence about what happened if he chooses to.’
The judge’s tone of voice made it clear that he thought the defendant might have very good reasons for not going into the witness box and exposing himself to cross-examination. But Swift was ready for the judge this time.
‘It’s a matter of timing, my lord.’
