Part Twenty Eight
As soon as the court chamber was cleared, John Deed scuttled over to his chambers, his sanctuary from all the outside pressures of the world. All through his chequered career, the only certainty and convention in his life was that no unwelcome visitor could or would harangue him about one of his many alleged misdeeds, public or private.
Lying back in his reclining chair, he smiled wickedly to himself that the one day, Sir Ian Rochester and Lawrence James, his faithful and loyal family retainers, had been absent from the gallery. For once, they had missed out on one of his most spectacular and outrageous theatrical performances. He was touched by the way that they put their concerns for him above their own business and he was tempted to phone them up at home and keep them abreast of the latest news. Or perhaps not, he thought to himself, why cause them unnecessary suffering? After all, he had feelings for his human beings, even them.
His smile faded when he thought back to George's adolescent temper tantrum at the end of the court session. He was outraged that that infernal woman had the affrontery to drag their personal life into the majesty and dignity of court proceedings and was just on the point of publicly naming Jo Mills as his mistress. Worse still, she was making a direct attack on his integrity. At that point he'd snapped. In a flash of instinct, he'd decided to shut her up for once and all and make her behave herself rather than suffer George's outrageous behaviour in silence. At moments like this, Brian Cantwell, reactionary and racist though he was, had a few redeeming qualities.
Of course, Jo Mills's soft and gentle tap at his door was not an intrusion any more for him than it was for her in the way that he turned up at her tasteful mews cottage. His reflections of his many pleasures with Jo which a knock at the door heralded mutated into his half awake ears detecting the here and now knock at the door which must be her.
"You don't normally keep me waiting, John." Jo smirked at him after he had kissed her on the cheek."Going off me?"
"You're never more welcome than right now, Jo," sighed John gesturing her towards a chair. "Want a drink." he indicated his well-stocked drinks cabinet.
"Well, if I wanted a knight in shining armour to defend me against the fearsome female dragon, Georgia, as she breathes fire and destruction at me, then you would make a good St George. Got the figure, too." Jo's slightly mocking tones were belied by an underlying layer of tenderness in her voice.
"Yes well, Jo, I needed to shut her up once and for all." John Deed sighed wearily as he reached towards the rapidly emptying packet of Paracetamol and Codeine tablets.
Jo shook her head incredulously at the man. She still remembered the feelings of admiration which first struck her when she became John Deed's pupil. The man was a young Olympus and stood head and shoulders over the stuffy crabbed old barristers that made the Bar an insufferable gentleman's club when she first started in her career. Yet why oh why does John have the ridiculous blind illusion that he could tame that female incarnation of fire and brimstone with a tongue that could cut like a knife. Why should he succeed now when he had totally failed for years? There was this one frailty about him that made him so touching and appealing.
"Just as you say, John." Jo said tactfully. Then after a pause she asked the one question that had intrigued her that afternoon "Incidentally, what did you say to George in the cell?"
" I made her say that 'I unreservedly and humbly apologise for my disgraceful, scandalous and personally abusive behaviour and I promise never again to disrupt the good running order of the court.' That will keep her within limits for the forseeable future. You saw how she was after the court hearing resumed," John Deed said in a satisfied tone.
Jo turned her head away in complete despair. Surely John should see that all he had done was to light the very short fuse that would ignite the mixture of petrol and gelignite that was in George's nature. The only question was when the explosion would happen. Jo started to feel uncomfortable, feeling that John Deed's cosy chambers weren't quite as safe as it appeared.
"Have you noticed, John how close Karen Betts and Yvonne Atkins are getting?" Jo asked, reaching out for a lighter topic of conversation.
"Well, they do seem to get on well with each other." John replied.
"That is not what I meant, John. I would say that there is definitely romance in the air ………..between the two of them." Jo's final words spelled it out in black and white to John.
"You've mentioned that before. That's logically impossible. Only this afternoon, Ajit Khan said that Yvonne Atkins is 'hot stuff', or so I recall. I also had a talk with Karen Betts in private on a strict professional basis to find out the background of her rape allegation against James Fenner.. She came over as a very attractive woman to me and I suspect that she felt the same about me. What you suggest is as impossible as the prospect of you and George working amicably on a case together." John Deed finished smugly, laughing to himself at the total surrealistic absurdity of George and Jo ever agreeing on anything.
Nineteen times out of twenty, John Deed would have been infuriatingly and smugly right, as Jo knew from their on off relationship. But this was the twentieth time.
"I'll tell you, John. I'll make a bet with you on this. For once, I know I'm right and you're wrong."
"I'd only be taking money out of your pocket, Jo."John Deed replied in a very lordly self assured tone that fired up Jo all the more to prove herself right and John wrong for once in their lives.
"Who's talking about money? I'll bet you that if you're right, I'll cook you a three course meal of your choice, and, if by any chance that I win, you cook me a three course meal of my choice." Jo suggested in a misleadingly subdued tone, keeping a perfectly straight face.
"Done." John Deed's voice full of certainty. He certainly admired Jo for the qualities that she had in her of justice, seeking after the truth and for her incisive legal mind. But there were times that she overstepped the mark and forgot that the Old Master had the ultimate wisdom. The very idea of two very attractive women being attracted to each other was a patent absurdity, he smiled to himself.
Jo read the expression on John Deed's face as clear as pages in a nursery story. Well she who laughs last, laughs longest. They fell back into a companionable silence and an atmosphere of peace and serenity descended on the cosy room. They had that level of intimacy where they could both be comfortably silent and not need to talk.
"Talking about Karen Betts," John Deed said presently." I felt genuinely sorry for her with her past experiences at the hands of that oily man, James Fenner." John Deed skirted round the description as he found it hard to describe it and conscious of Jo's reaction. More than that, he noted the incredible effort it had taken her to publically defend James Fenner at the end of the cross examination by George. "Forget my own feelings about the matter, which you know. I know that Karen Betts has been deeply wronged and there is unfinished business there. I promised Karen that I would ensure that this type of cover up never happens again. I've thought over this one and I want to do better than this. If the chance ever came, I would urge you to represent her in court and see James Fenner brought to book."
A stray tear came to Jo's eyes which she brushed away. She knew that when John Deed talked this way, his feelings were entirely platonic and this was the John Deed, the utterly reliable and consistent champion of justice whom she'd first admired from afar many years ago.
Suddenly a loud booming crash reverberated through the cloistered chambers. The ancient sturdy door had flown back on its hinges as if a mighty force had propelled it. It crashed back against the wall, the impact jerking two medium sized pictures from off the hooks with the tinkling of breaking glass.
"John, I have to tell you that you are impossible." George Channing's voice peremptorily announced itself at operatic volume.
"Don't you normally knock first before you smash the door off its hinges, George."John Deed retorted in his dry unnaturally quiet tones. "And are you telling me anything I don't know already?"
"You know what I mean," George's outburst was accentuated by her stabbing forefinger in his direction. "I told Daddy about your latest little charade and he was positively incandescent with rage at you. Your latest pathetic attempt to defend your latest girlfriend's reputation will gain you even more enemies than you have already. Don't you care that this will find its way back to Charlie's college and expose her to ridicule."
"Now see here, you total hypocrite." John Deed flared up at the way George unscrupulously made use of Charlie. "A fine example of humanity you are for selling your wares to the highest bidder, in this case that Cabinet Minister boyfriend who you leech off. At least Ajit Khan is honest about himself which is more than you are. Why, you are not fit to stand even ankle high to Jo who has more sense of…….."
"Don't I get a word in here?" Jo Mills asked politely only for her words to be squashed underfoot by George's next incendiary remark.
"At least he is able to get out there and strive to further his career and treat a woman how she should be treated."
"Oh yes, you were never satisfied by last week's designer outfit, George. I must hand it to you, you were the woman who single handedly got the first designer shops off the ground decades ago with your personal wanton extravagance."
"Rubbish," George snorted in contempt."It was only in my attempt to be a fitting consort to you at the social affairs to further your career."
"A likely story, George. I must admit that your brazen nerve in telling outright lies is only excelled by your bombastic arrogance. It is as well that Charlie is coming under my influence in recent years and I am putting right your years of being the hopeless mother that you are."
George uttered the sort of sound that the Eastern Express made when thundering through Peterborough Station at full throttle, and desperate to make up time.
"I thought you had purged your contempt in court, George."
"I may have publically purged my contempt but privately, I hold you in complete loathing and contempt personally." George stormed.
"Just so that we know where we are….. inside and outside court." John retorted meaningfully.
"Don't break that plate in your hand, George." John Deed spoke sharply as George made a grab for the nearest object on the sideboard . "It is a valuable ornament and was given to us as a wedding present."
Wrong move, John, Jo thought from the sidelines but salvation came for the innocent and harmless crockery just in time. She had stood on the sidelines and noticed that she, the ostensible object of their row, had been sidelined and almost totally forgotten. She had given up trying to get in on this ding dong fight which to her clearly was one involving the two of them only. She drew out a cigarette which she lit, calmly blowing smoke into the air, reclining in the armchair. What has that brazen hussy got to be so nonchalant about, George thought furiously, she ought to treat this seriously. Why on earth is Jo sitting back, John Deed's irritation matched George's, while I'm defending her honour, she ought to treat this seriously.
"I say, Deed." Niven spoke from the still wide open door."Your row can be heard all the way down the corridor. You are rather public. What's going on, old man?"
John Deed straightened his rather dishevelled clothing and adjusted his face.
"Oh, it's all right, Michael, just a normal frank exchange of views between ex-husband and ex-wife." Similarly, only George's red face which even she could not control, betrayed the signs of the recent row, though the smile on her face was rather artificial and forced.
That's a good one, John, Jo smiled to herself.
"Frank exchange of views, eh." Niven muttered to himself. "That's what the Japanese claimed when they bombed Pearl Harbour."
Michael Niven could feel the bad vibrations between John Deed and George bounce off each other from their opposing corners but he had discharged his duty and supposed wrongly that the two of them would act like responsible grownups as befits their status.
"I'm glad things have cooled down now a bit Bad form these unseemly wrangles." Was his parting remark and he wandered off.
The clock ticked from one to ten while Niven's footsteps receded down the corridor for hostilities to resume.
"You despicable man." George hissed.
"You contemptible woman." John Deed shot back.
"Children, children, you heard what Michael Niven said," Jo Mills chimed in before the name calling started to get out of proportion."We've got a trial on our hands, remember." Both John Deed and George felt as if a bucket of cold water was thrown over them. They both blinked and looked round the chamber, both of them for the first time taking in their surroundings.
George brusquely grabbed at Jo Mills cigarette packet and helped herself to a much needed hit of nicotine. Her lighter wavered around at the end of the cigarette and she inhaled deeply, for once in her life saying nothing. John Deed said nothing as, like George, they were both on unfamiliar ground outside their set piece two way arguments which they knew off by heart.
"Why did you not caution that McKenzy woman about her behaviour in court when I asked you to?" George asked John Deed.
John was unsettled partly because this was the most reasonable that George had been in decades and partly as a bit of him was inclined to think that she was right. His pride forbade him to come out and admit this.
"If it helps, George, I complained to John when he let your predecessor go too far in his cross examination of Yvonne Atkins. Perhaps you ought to make this quits, George."
Jo could see that George had understood the full force of her arguments but carried on, puffing on her cigarette.
"Both of you say sorry to each other." Jo Mills in parental mode with that determined edge to her voice.
"Sorry," John Deed said huffily.
"Sorry," George replied sniffily.
"And perhaps you ought to take my advice, George," Jo Mills persisted."Go home, have a large drink, and cool off like I advised you to." Jo smiled to herself. I bet this is the first time these two have apologised to each other in their lives.
"I don't need you to tell me what to do." George said grumpily but she turned her heel and stalked out of the door. She tried to shut the door behind her but there was a gap of about three inches between the door and the recess where the hinges, twisted out of shape by the ferocity of George's entry refused to let the door shut tight.
"You'd better get the workmen to fix that door." Jo suggested. "And I'm going home, " Jo yawned."I'm tired. You'd better get some rest, John, you're tired. And after tonight, you won't need those painkillers."
John Deed's feelings were a mixture of vexation at Jo playing mother and the realisation that without her taking charge, the situation would have spiralled out of control. They all needed a working relationship to see justice properly done. John was done in. He needed an early night.
As soon as the court chamber was cleared, John Deed scuttled over to his chambers, his sanctuary from all the outside pressures of the world. All through his chequered career, the only certainty and convention in his life was that no unwelcome visitor could or would harangue him about one of his many alleged misdeeds, public or private.
Lying back in his reclining chair, he smiled wickedly to himself that the one day, Sir Ian Rochester and Lawrence James, his faithful and loyal family retainers, had been absent from the gallery. For once, they had missed out on one of his most spectacular and outrageous theatrical performances. He was touched by the way that they put their concerns for him above their own business and he was tempted to phone them up at home and keep them abreast of the latest news. Or perhaps not, he thought to himself, why cause them unnecessary suffering? After all, he had feelings for his human beings, even them.
His smile faded when he thought back to George's adolescent temper tantrum at the end of the court session. He was outraged that that infernal woman had the affrontery to drag their personal life into the majesty and dignity of court proceedings and was just on the point of publicly naming Jo Mills as his mistress. Worse still, she was making a direct attack on his integrity. At that point he'd snapped. In a flash of instinct, he'd decided to shut her up for once and all and make her behave herself rather than suffer George's outrageous behaviour in silence. At moments like this, Brian Cantwell, reactionary and racist though he was, had a few redeeming qualities.
Of course, Jo Mills's soft and gentle tap at his door was not an intrusion any more for him than it was for her in the way that he turned up at her tasteful mews cottage. His reflections of his many pleasures with Jo which a knock at the door heralded mutated into his half awake ears detecting the here and now knock at the door which must be her.
"You don't normally keep me waiting, John." Jo smirked at him after he had kissed her on the cheek."Going off me?"
"You're never more welcome than right now, Jo," sighed John gesturing her towards a chair. "Want a drink." he indicated his well-stocked drinks cabinet.
"Well, if I wanted a knight in shining armour to defend me against the fearsome female dragon, Georgia, as she breathes fire and destruction at me, then you would make a good St George. Got the figure, too." Jo's slightly mocking tones were belied by an underlying layer of tenderness in her voice.
"Yes well, Jo, I needed to shut her up once and for all." John Deed sighed wearily as he reached towards the rapidly emptying packet of Paracetamol and Codeine tablets.
Jo shook her head incredulously at the man. She still remembered the feelings of admiration which first struck her when she became John Deed's pupil. The man was a young Olympus and stood head and shoulders over the stuffy crabbed old barristers that made the Bar an insufferable gentleman's club when she first started in her career. Yet why oh why does John have the ridiculous blind illusion that he could tame that female incarnation of fire and brimstone with a tongue that could cut like a knife. Why should he succeed now when he had totally failed for years? There was this one frailty about him that made him so touching and appealing.
"Just as you say, John." Jo said tactfully. Then after a pause she asked the one question that had intrigued her that afternoon "Incidentally, what did you say to George in the cell?"
" I made her say that 'I unreservedly and humbly apologise for my disgraceful, scandalous and personally abusive behaviour and I promise never again to disrupt the good running order of the court.' That will keep her within limits for the forseeable future. You saw how she was after the court hearing resumed," John Deed said in a satisfied tone.
Jo turned her head away in complete despair. Surely John should see that all he had done was to light the very short fuse that would ignite the mixture of petrol and gelignite that was in George's nature. The only question was when the explosion would happen. Jo started to feel uncomfortable, feeling that John Deed's cosy chambers weren't quite as safe as it appeared.
"Have you noticed, John how close Karen Betts and Yvonne Atkins are getting?" Jo asked, reaching out for a lighter topic of conversation.
"Well, they do seem to get on well with each other." John replied.
"That is not what I meant, John. I would say that there is definitely romance in the air ………..between the two of them." Jo's final words spelled it out in black and white to John.
"You've mentioned that before. That's logically impossible. Only this afternoon, Ajit Khan said that Yvonne Atkins is 'hot stuff', or so I recall. I also had a talk with Karen Betts in private on a strict professional basis to find out the background of her rape allegation against James Fenner.. She came over as a very attractive woman to me and I suspect that she felt the same about me. What you suggest is as impossible as the prospect of you and George working amicably on a case together." John Deed finished smugly, laughing to himself at the total surrealistic absurdity of George and Jo ever agreeing on anything.
Nineteen times out of twenty, John Deed would have been infuriatingly and smugly right, as Jo knew from their on off relationship. But this was the twentieth time.
"I'll tell you, John. I'll make a bet with you on this. For once, I know I'm right and you're wrong."
"I'd only be taking money out of your pocket, Jo."John Deed replied in a very lordly self assured tone that fired up Jo all the more to prove herself right and John wrong for once in their lives.
"Who's talking about money? I'll bet you that if you're right, I'll cook you a three course meal of your choice, and, if by any chance that I win, you cook me a three course meal of my choice." Jo suggested in a misleadingly subdued tone, keeping a perfectly straight face.
"Done." John Deed's voice full of certainty. He certainly admired Jo for the qualities that she had in her of justice, seeking after the truth and for her incisive legal mind. But there were times that she overstepped the mark and forgot that the Old Master had the ultimate wisdom. The very idea of two very attractive women being attracted to each other was a patent absurdity, he smiled to himself.
Jo read the expression on John Deed's face as clear as pages in a nursery story. Well she who laughs last, laughs longest. They fell back into a companionable silence and an atmosphere of peace and serenity descended on the cosy room. They had that level of intimacy where they could both be comfortably silent and not need to talk.
"Talking about Karen Betts," John Deed said presently." I felt genuinely sorry for her with her past experiences at the hands of that oily man, James Fenner." John Deed skirted round the description as he found it hard to describe it and conscious of Jo's reaction. More than that, he noted the incredible effort it had taken her to publically defend James Fenner at the end of the cross examination by George. "Forget my own feelings about the matter, which you know. I know that Karen Betts has been deeply wronged and there is unfinished business there. I promised Karen that I would ensure that this type of cover up never happens again. I've thought over this one and I want to do better than this. If the chance ever came, I would urge you to represent her in court and see James Fenner brought to book."
A stray tear came to Jo's eyes which she brushed away. She knew that when John Deed talked this way, his feelings were entirely platonic and this was the John Deed, the utterly reliable and consistent champion of justice whom she'd first admired from afar many years ago.
Suddenly a loud booming crash reverberated through the cloistered chambers. The ancient sturdy door had flown back on its hinges as if a mighty force had propelled it. It crashed back against the wall, the impact jerking two medium sized pictures from off the hooks with the tinkling of breaking glass.
"John, I have to tell you that you are impossible." George Channing's voice peremptorily announced itself at operatic volume.
"Don't you normally knock first before you smash the door off its hinges, George."John Deed retorted in his dry unnaturally quiet tones. "And are you telling me anything I don't know already?"
"You know what I mean," George's outburst was accentuated by her stabbing forefinger in his direction. "I told Daddy about your latest little charade and he was positively incandescent with rage at you. Your latest pathetic attempt to defend your latest girlfriend's reputation will gain you even more enemies than you have already. Don't you care that this will find its way back to Charlie's college and expose her to ridicule."
"Now see here, you total hypocrite." John Deed flared up at the way George unscrupulously made use of Charlie. "A fine example of humanity you are for selling your wares to the highest bidder, in this case that Cabinet Minister boyfriend who you leech off. At least Ajit Khan is honest about himself which is more than you are. Why, you are not fit to stand even ankle high to Jo who has more sense of…….."
"Don't I get a word in here?" Jo Mills asked politely only for her words to be squashed underfoot by George's next incendiary remark.
"At least he is able to get out there and strive to further his career and treat a woman how she should be treated."
"Oh yes, you were never satisfied by last week's designer outfit, George. I must hand it to you, you were the woman who single handedly got the first designer shops off the ground decades ago with your personal wanton extravagance."
"Rubbish," George snorted in contempt."It was only in my attempt to be a fitting consort to you at the social affairs to further your career."
"A likely story, George. I must admit that your brazen nerve in telling outright lies is only excelled by your bombastic arrogance. It is as well that Charlie is coming under my influence in recent years and I am putting right your years of being the hopeless mother that you are."
George uttered the sort of sound that the Eastern Express made when thundering through Peterborough Station at full throttle, and desperate to make up time.
"I thought you had purged your contempt in court, George."
"I may have publically purged my contempt but privately, I hold you in complete loathing and contempt personally." George stormed.
"Just so that we know where we are….. inside and outside court." John retorted meaningfully.
"Don't break that plate in your hand, George." John Deed spoke sharply as George made a grab for the nearest object on the sideboard . "It is a valuable ornament and was given to us as a wedding present."
Wrong move, John, Jo thought from the sidelines but salvation came for the innocent and harmless crockery just in time. She had stood on the sidelines and noticed that she, the ostensible object of their row, had been sidelined and almost totally forgotten. She had given up trying to get in on this ding dong fight which to her clearly was one involving the two of them only. She drew out a cigarette which she lit, calmly blowing smoke into the air, reclining in the armchair. What has that brazen hussy got to be so nonchalant about, George thought furiously, she ought to treat this seriously. Why on earth is Jo sitting back, John Deed's irritation matched George's, while I'm defending her honour, she ought to treat this seriously.
"I say, Deed." Niven spoke from the still wide open door."Your row can be heard all the way down the corridor. You are rather public. What's going on, old man?"
John Deed straightened his rather dishevelled clothing and adjusted his face.
"Oh, it's all right, Michael, just a normal frank exchange of views between ex-husband and ex-wife." Similarly, only George's red face which even she could not control, betrayed the signs of the recent row, though the smile on her face was rather artificial and forced.
That's a good one, John, Jo smiled to herself.
"Frank exchange of views, eh." Niven muttered to himself. "That's what the Japanese claimed when they bombed Pearl Harbour."
Michael Niven could feel the bad vibrations between John Deed and George bounce off each other from their opposing corners but he had discharged his duty and supposed wrongly that the two of them would act like responsible grownups as befits their status.
"I'm glad things have cooled down now a bit Bad form these unseemly wrangles." Was his parting remark and he wandered off.
The clock ticked from one to ten while Niven's footsteps receded down the corridor for hostilities to resume.
"You despicable man." George hissed.
"You contemptible woman." John Deed shot back.
"Children, children, you heard what Michael Niven said," Jo Mills chimed in before the name calling started to get out of proportion."We've got a trial on our hands, remember." Both John Deed and George felt as if a bucket of cold water was thrown over them. They both blinked and looked round the chamber, both of them for the first time taking in their surroundings.
George brusquely grabbed at Jo Mills cigarette packet and helped herself to a much needed hit of nicotine. Her lighter wavered around at the end of the cigarette and she inhaled deeply, for once in her life saying nothing. John Deed said nothing as, like George, they were both on unfamiliar ground outside their set piece two way arguments which they knew off by heart.
"Why did you not caution that McKenzy woman about her behaviour in court when I asked you to?" George asked John Deed.
John was unsettled partly because this was the most reasonable that George had been in decades and partly as a bit of him was inclined to think that she was right. His pride forbade him to come out and admit this.
"If it helps, George, I complained to John when he let your predecessor go too far in his cross examination of Yvonne Atkins. Perhaps you ought to make this quits, George."
Jo could see that George had understood the full force of her arguments but carried on, puffing on her cigarette.
"Both of you say sorry to each other." Jo Mills in parental mode with that determined edge to her voice.
"Sorry," John Deed said huffily.
"Sorry," George replied sniffily.
"And perhaps you ought to take my advice, George," Jo Mills persisted."Go home, have a large drink, and cool off like I advised you to." Jo smiled to herself. I bet this is the first time these two have apologised to each other in their lives.
"I don't need you to tell me what to do." George said grumpily but she turned her heel and stalked out of the door. She tried to shut the door behind her but there was a gap of about three inches between the door and the recess where the hinges, twisted out of shape by the ferocity of George's entry refused to let the door shut tight.
"You'd better get the workmen to fix that door." Jo suggested. "And I'm going home, " Jo yawned."I'm tired. You'd better get some rest, John, you're tired. And after tonight, you won't need those painkillers."
John Deed's feelings were a mixture of vexation at Jo playing mother and the realisation that without her taking charge, the situation would have spiralled out of control. They all needed a working relationship to see justice properly done. John was done in. He needed an early night.