Crown Court by Follett James

Author:Follett, James [Follett, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Published: 2012-08-13T00:58:43+00:00

Another hesitation. Anders realised that he was moving into a sensitive area.

Golding noticed the hesitation too. It might have a bearing on some information that his instructing solicitor had, by sheer coincidence, unearthed about Police Sergeant Leonard Stacy.

"It means they were lovers," Stacy said curtly. His eyes moved to a fresh spot on the wall.

"Have you evidence of that?"

"The evidence of my own eyes."

"Please tell the court."

Stacy's eyes left the wall and glanced briefly at the two in the dock. Rosemary Richards was sitting tensely on the edge of the bench paying close attention to everything said. Colin Freeman was gazing at Stacy with an expression of loathing and contempt.

The prisoners looked at each other and smiled. The atmosphere between the dock and the witness box was electric.

Anders felt his hackles, finely tuned after twenty years at the Bar, beginning to rise. Something was wrong. Desperately wrong. But evidence that the two in the dock were lovers was crucial to his case. He had to push on - ignoring his nerves that were screaming at him not to.

"Please tell the court," Anders prompted.

Stacy licked his lips. "Last year, after a dive which the deceased didn't attend, I saw the two accused sitting in a car outside a pub. They were in a compromising position." Stacy stopped.

No doubt the collective mind of the jury is boggling, thought Anders. But what worried him was the almost imperceptible giggle he heard from Rosemary Richards behind him.

"Will you describe this position please."

There was another hesitation before Stacy answered. "The male accused had his hand on the female accused's thigh. Both of them were giggling and laughing. She had her arms round his neck."

Anders saw Golding give a faint nod of approval. What the devil was up? Anders turned round on the pretext of obtaining a paper from a junior counsel. He glanced quickly at the dock.

Both of them were smiling at Stacy. Gamesmanship? Anders wondered. Maybe, but he had to press on.

"Now this isolated incident --"

"It wasn't isolated. There were others. One evening, when the deceased was out of the country, I called on the female accused in her capacity as club secretary to ask her to photocopy the new training schedule. The house was in darkness but a light went on upstairs when I rang the bell. The female accused answered the door. The male accused was in the house with her."

Anders worried about the affect all this 'male accused' and 'female accused' was having on the jury. It was only a matter of time before Sinclair commented on it. What was worse was Stacy's uneasy behaviour as he recollected these events. His hands were now grasping the sides of the box instead of being clasped behind his back. Like most experienced counsels, Anders knew that witnesses rarely lied when holding their hands behind their back. Lying required a support - something to hold on to. There was no doubt that Stacy was jealous of Colin Freeman. It would be better to cut his examination of the witness short.

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