Only his habits of punctuality brought him outside the huge, fortress like building and into the foyer. He was dressed in his smart suit and tie knotted almost painfully tightly. The hurly burly around him made his head swim and he put his hand to his ears. It was only when an echoing voice gradually worked its way through his confusion, when concerned faces swam their way through to his consciousness. There in front of him were Nikki's worried brown eyes. To her right, linking Nikki's hand was a smaller woman with an elegant brown bob, curvaceous figure and that charming smile and glint in her eyes that was larger than life, than the long remembered photo by Nikki's workplace.
"I'm sorry for my absent mindedness. You must be Helen. Nikki's told me a lot about you," Tony stammered, automatically shaking the woman's hand. At once, he felt a wave of unaccountable embarrassment come over him as this woman grinned broadly in answer.
"Nikki, you never told me how polite your friend is. Believe me, it's not very common these days."
"That's a compliment, Tony," put in Nikki, very much concerned at his nervousness as she added softly and gently. "This is Karen whose life you are about to save."
At once, Tony became aware of a tall, statuesque woman with blond hair and blue eyes. She came up to him and embraced him with her exotic perfume and overwhelming softness. To his surprise, she seemed impossibly grateful to him as her warm smile started to warm his spirits and made him feel worthwhile.
.
"Tony, I can't say how incredibly grateful I am that you're putting yourself out on my account. Believe me, I can't help but bless my luck that you were there and are kind enough to come forward. Without you and others batting for me, I'm certain to be sent down for ten years. As a one time wing governor, who better placed than me to know, except Helen and Nikki?"
The slight break in Karen's voice and the haunted look in her eyes moved Tony deeply. After all, he had his freedom. He started to feel less on his own.
"Tony, a bit of advice. You'll have a chance to get into your swing as George questions you. When you face the other barrister, remember that he didn't see the car, but you did. You have to stick to your version like glue. Above all else, you've got a kindly judge who'll see fair play." Nikki elucidated.
.
With that line up of barricades against being overwhelmed by his fears, Tony walked unsteadily through the court as if his presence were predestined.
********
Looking back on it, Tony could never recall the opening preliminaries as they passed in a blur. He looked over at George and never let his eyes leave her face. He needed that lifeline. She clicked on the screen projector, which threw up an image of the map on the wall. Nervously, he explained his background, how he happened to be in the area, what he saw and why he came forward as a witness. Secretly, George was worried about the progress of her cross-examination. It sounded flat, awkward and lacking in detail. Likewise, Brian Cantwell had marked the witness's timid manner while George gently led him through his evidence. He decided on a direct attack on the witness whose evidence was potentially the most damaging to his case."This can be disposed of very quickly. Why have you left it till this late to come forward?"
"Left it late? I don't understand?" stammered Tony. Somehow, he hadn't expected the cross-examination to be as fierce and vicious as it was.
"The tabloids have covered the hit and run accident, the Evening Standard has featured it, it has popped up on the six o clock news. So why has it taken till recently to come forward with your mighty convenient story?"
Everything in front of Tony turned blurry except for the sight of this man verbally bearing down on him. His resolution had turned to water and he felt as if he was hyperventilating. His collar and tie was far too tight around his neck as if he was being strangled. Everything that had gone round in his mind was suddenly obliterated. He was unable to see how Karen, George, Claire, Nikki and Helen were silently pleading with him to find the strength to fight back while empathizing with his feelings of helplessness. You can do it if you find the strength within you, they breathed.
"I think the witness needs a glass of water. Could one of the ushers assist him?" John's melodious voice intervened. It cut through the welter of confusion going on in his head and the usher, dressed in her black gown, came up to him and smiled kindly on him. She felt so sorry for the man being bullied by one of those high and mighty barristers, poor man. Nervously, he sipped at the glass of water with one hand while the other firmly grasped the rail. It was the one secure object he could cling to. Gradually, his mind started to clear.
"Are you feeling better, Tony?" George asked in gentle tones. Please God, let him recover, she prayed silently to herself.
"Once again, I must ask the witness why he didn't come forward earlier on. A lack of a satisfactory reason inevitably casts doubt on his credibility and tends to the suspicion that he has been 'parachuted in' at the last minute," Brian Cantwell sneered.
It was a fatal mistake. Tony Foster was angered by the suggestion of dishonesty.
"If you're accusing me of lying, I deny it, sir. I live an isolated life and don't watch the news or read the papers. I read books and listen to music a lot of the time. I honestly didn't know there was anything to come forward about till I bumped into Nikki by chance. We got talking and this case came up in conversation and it sparked my memory."
This simple answer caused Brian Cantwell to momentarily recoil. He shifted his point of attack.
"Isn't it strange, for you to be friends with a lesbian?"
"Nikki has always been the best friend I could ever have. I didn't know there was anything wrong with it."
"Aren't you saying this as you have a hopeless infatuation for this 'friend' of yours. Let's face it, you hardly come over as a man of the world?" sneered Brian Cantwell.
"It never occurred to me to be in love with Nikki. She always had a photo on her desk of Helen. She was always talking about her."
"Isn't it totally laughable to common sense to hear this cock and bull yarn about this man putting on a wig?"
"It isn't anything I see every day. In any case, how did I know the car's registration number and make? Let's face it, it isn't a very common experience," Tony pursued in a more confident, even tone of voice, having stopped his voice from trembling. He saw that he was starting to rebuff this bully.
"And you say you were wandering around in the back streets of London trying to find somewhere to eat and, quite by chance, you saw this parked car and this man putting on this wig. Don't you think this was a fantastic coincidence?"
"That's what happened. After all, there was this iceberg just floating around where the Titanic was steaming and it sank the ship. These things happen," Tony flared up indignantly, hands gripping the rail tightly.
The court was stunned into silence. Tony was beginning to worry if he had gone too far. However there were no reproving words, certainly not from his opponent.
"Do you have any questions, Ms Channing?" John enquired at last.
"None at all," George said, sounding and looking as pleased as punch. "I think my client's last remark has put it in a nutshell."
***********
Tony stumbled out of court and asked the usher the way to the visitor's gallery. A huge feeling of relief and self-satisfaction was welling up in him. He felt as if he walked taller as he strode up the staircase. He passed by the solitary man who looked as if he were built of stone and was warmed by the beaming smiles from Helen and Nikki.
"Tony, you were terrific. You sit next to me," Nikki said quietly but in heartfelt tones.
As he slid past, first Helen and then Nikki, the murmuring in the courtroom during this intermission fell silent as Shirley Cheetham made her way into the witness stand. This felt like the circles in the local cinema, Tony thought, as he stared down at Karen, standing still in the dock, and all the other players in this act. Right behind them, the human statue that was Sir Ian was making furious mental calculations as to how the case was going.
George readied herself for her last session of questioning. After her closing address, it would be in the lap of the Gods. She was feeling emotionally drained and the quiet consideration of Alice had helped her immeasurably. She really wondered how she had managed before she came into her life.
"Miss Cheetham, can you explain for the benefit of the jury what your profession is."
"I'm a private investigator, not one of those sleaseballs you may have heard of that wears a pair of binoculars in messy divorce cases," Shirley explained in a rapid, confident manner, taking in all the main players in this trial. "I worked in the police force for five years, couldn't stick the closed in minds that couldn't see their backside from their elbow and struck out on my own. I learned my trade and took professional qualifications in forensic science so here I am."
"For the benefit of the jury, can you take us through your investigations and what you have discovered?"
"I'm hired to do a job. That doesn't mean I don't look all ways and that I'm told what conclusion to find. I've got an inquisitive mind and I don't go with the obvious. In Karen Betts' situation, I talked to her at length and started from the possibility that she's telling the truth. It means that if she didn't drive the car, somebody stole it. Karen said that she was in all evening except when she took a shower. It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that if she'd had the lousy day she described to me and I'm sure she described in court, she'd have a long hot soak. Stands to reason, doesn't it. ………,"
Shirley's lazily paced tone of voice suddenly caused the jury to sit up bolt upright in their seats. Amongst the mass of evidence, they vividly recalled that abiding memory of Karen's spectacular bustup with Fenner.
"The really interesting point is that if her flat was broken into, that person knew her and her habits and chanced his arm breaking in. It didn't take a professional burglar, only an average guy, reasonably dexterous, nothing special. I looked for signs of a break in and found it. The evidence shows that the front door was forced- item RB1 in the bundle which I can positively say was done the day of the accident," Shirley inferred. "I also drove along the route taken by the driver at the kind of speeds indicated and I can tell you that the driver must have been a total nutter, especially the sharp right hand turn and sharp right hand turn onto the main drag. Then again, the road where the murder took place, call it by its right name was wide by any standards. Someone would have to have worked really hard to avoid cruising past and slow down for the next sharp right hand turn but, instead, knock over a pedestrian. I suppose the local plods have given evidence on that point, have they?"
The look of baffled anger on Brian Cantwell's face told Shirley with great satisfaction that the police had indeed overlooked that one.
"One really strange point was when I checked out the car, was the position of the car seat. By my judgment, Karen over there couldn't possibly have moved the car seat like that. It would take a well built bloke, about five eleven."
"Why did you say man? It could have been a woman," Brian Cantwell said acidly.
"Did I say man? Must have slipped out. Then again, you don't see many women that size. Take a good look around you," Shirley said smiling inwardly. "There's another point. No one's found the car keys on Karen. True, she could have thrown them away. However, it's equally possible the guy in the CCTV camera has clung onto them. Check out item labelled JF1 who been positively identified as James Fenner, Principal Officer on G Wing, Larkhall Prison. He might still have them."
George was astounded by the way that Shirley had rattled through her evidence in record time, every word as clear as a bell. No more questions were needed. She was interested to see how Shirley would face up to Brian Cantwell or was it the other way round.
"Ms Cheetham, can you explain just how you were engaged by your client in the first place."
"Easy. Nikki Wade visited Larkhall in her official capacity and got talking to my aunt, Yvonne Atkins. Ms Wade put me onto Karen."
"You mean the wife of the notorious East End gangland Godfather, notorious for supplying cocaine across half of London," Brian Cantwell replied in a theatrically shocked tone of voice.
"Yeah, that side of my family is as bent as they come, I agree but do you choose your family, I ask you? Yvonne and my mother are sisters but were driven apart when Yvonne married the worst man she could find. Thank God he's out of the way and we can get to be more like family. She knows I'm straight and wouldn't do anything illegal."
"High, incorruptible moral standards, eh? Would it be true to say that you have exploited the frailties of the junior members of the police force to worm your way into police car compounds. Doesn't this taint the nature of your evidence?"
"You mean, did I slip them a fat bribe? The answer is definitely not. I treated then like a human being, not like a doormat. You try acting like a human being. It gets respect, yeah."
"Let's turn to the photograph in question. That man could be anyone from Jim Fenner to Tony Blair"
"Now there's a thought," murmured John, as he smiled impishly. A general titter rippled round the courtroom.
"It's no laughing matter, my lord," Brian Cantwell protested virtuously." I hardly think that the Prime Minister would be so foolish or venal to do anything corrupt. I put it to you that this man was not seen on CCTV coming out of the car in question."
"Neither was Karen Betts," flashed back Shirley, "You work out what really happened for yourself."
"No further questions, my lord," the barrister said in muted tones. This last encounter had been fast and furious. He has no more shots in his locker to fire.
"This is for the jury to decide tomorrow after I hear closing arguments," John pronounced in clear tones. A shiver ran up Karen's spine as the moment of decision was approaching. The daily cut and thrust of cross-examination had sustained her in some kind of limbo land. Now that had passed.
The sudden release of emotions and mutual and generous congratulation between Nikki, Helen, Tony and Karen was indescribable. George and Claire looked on, thrilled at the way the case had been made. There was no guarantees of a happy ending but they had given as much as could be expected. It was in this outpouring of emotional release that a thought suddenly struck Nikki. What about the next day? She surely couldn't break off and go back to work. Nervously, she reached for her mobile and phoned Paul Williams to tactfully explain her dilemma. He laughed aside such worries.
"I know very well that once you get immersed in the trial, wild horses wouldn't drag you and Helen away. I've already fixed up that your work is covered. Just relax. I know you, Nikki. You'll work like a slave when you get back. The only thing is, just watch out or you'll be some kind of trial junkie. Eccentric but very possible."
Nikki came off the phone with a foolish yet pleased grin on her face, silently blessing the man's understanding nature. She handed the mobile over to Helen with a meaning look. It was obvious what the smaller woman had to do.