Blind Defence (Benson and De Vere) by Fairfax John

Author:Fairfax, John [Fairfax, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2018-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

32

‘He’s brilliant,’ said Tess, later that night.

Because of The Pirates of Penzance , the ritual of cocktails on Tuesdays had been moved to Friday, and Sally had suggested the Callooh Callay in Shoreditch. It was a Lewis Carroll-themed wonderland, with purple furnishings and candles and – according to the glowing review in Time Out – a toilet hidden behind a secret door. Tess felt she’d tumbled into a dreamscape where everything was upside down.

‘You read about these cross-examinations where the witness stumbles or folds, but nine times out of ten the questioner had loads of ammunition. Benson’s got nothing.’

‘So what does he do?’

‘He gets inside them. He uses their past to his advantage.’

With Milena Sibhatu he’d used one word and its religious associations: ‘neighbour’. Archie had found out she was an Oriental Orthodox Christian, and a one-time refugee, so Benson had drawn her into revealing what had prompted her compassion, the running away from a troubled past, which he’d then deflected from Stainsby by linking it to a stray word picked up in Dr Lowmax’s medical notes. With Rosie Heybridge, he’d used nothing but a line from a school report, a remark in the unused material and a coincidence in timings: and all at once the jury sees Diane heading to London in a state and it had nothing to do with Brent Stainsby.

‘Where’s the truth in all this?’

‘That’s the trick. It is all true. It’s what he does with it that counts.’

He makes unexpected connections. He puts things in a certain order. And no one stumbles or falls. The prosecution’s own witnesses are seen to build Stainsby’s case, and they don’t realise what they’re doing. It’s as though he was hands-off.

‘And that makes it real.’

Sally, dressed in a light blue dress (in homage to Alice) had chosen a Mad Baron – the nearest thing on the menu to a Mad Hatter. Tess had gone for a Runaway Man. They sipped their cocktails, no longer talking. After a while Sally said:

‘I’m surprised at you.’

‘Why?’ Tess didn’t like the tone. Sally was being serious. And these jaunts around London’s cocktail bars were meant to be an upmarket version of a night out with the Dover Five. They talked serious, sure, but the object of the exercise was fun. Letting off steam. Even if that steam included the odd belch of jurisprudence.

‘When I think back to that summer in Paris, all you cared about was justice. About the nightmare of guilty people being acquitted and innocent people being convicted. You wanted to get it right. I don’t hear that voice any more. You’re on about tricks and things seeming real and that doesn’t seem to bother you.’

‘It’s not like that, Sally. It’s more complex.’

‘Really? Diane Heybridge was a real person. Her mother still is. So are the others. And they’re just pieces on the board. You’re getting a thrill from how they’re moved around. It’s horrible.’

Tess couldn’t fight back because it was true. But in acknowledging the criticism, she realised it couldn’t be said of Benson.

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