Part Thirty
By black cab taxi, by private car or the much trodden uneven steps up from the nearest Underground station, all roads mentally and physically converged on the imposing archway entrance of the Old Bailey court. These trails focus in from all points of the compass to this one fixed point like the spokes of a wheel does to the hub.
Cassie always walked boldly arm in arm with Roisin, the first there after the lunchbreak, her sharp blue eyes on the lookout of three increasingly familiar friends of theirs and, sure enough Yvonne, Lauren, Karen Babs and Henry's faces had been spotted in the foyer of, the Old Bailey. It was now Henry's turn to testify in court while the others testified with their presence, by being there to see the trial through to the end. All of them knew that they took the place of those at Larkhall who were locked up behind bars and could only follow the proceedings from second hand throwaway remarks from some of the screws.
Denny as much as any of them was on tenterhooks. Her present was put on hold while justice was being fought out on the battlegrounds of carved stone and ancient mahogany, the weight of the lawbooks, and the weapons of war, the power of the spoken word.
In the break, John Deed had sellotaped a hopeful notice to his front door in chambers "Under Repair" and had strung the door handle to a discreet nail he had gingerly hammered into the door frame to shut the door as tight as he could make it and keep up appearances. He banished this from his mind and took himself to where he felt most comfortable, his judge's throne where he watched Jo prepare to call the most unusual witness ever seen in the witness box, the Rev Henry Mills, with his apologetic manner and white clerical collar.
"Reverend Mills," Jo Mills asked." Can you describe to the court the circumstances in which the defendant, Snowball Merriman, came to your notice while you were prison chaplain at Larkhall."
"Yes indeed." And Henry cleared his throat nervously. "I first met her when she introduced herself to me and asked about the Sunday morning weekly services that I run. My congregation is small, considering the size of Larkhall Prison so anyone who feels that she has a soul to be saved and actively wishes to join in, is especially welcome. Snowball Merriman stood out from any ordinary new member of the congregation, as she was very unusual and striking in her appearance. She made an immediate impact. She was an American, or so I was led to believe, and had that nationality's enthusiasm and drive…….and she was very attractive."
"He's got a lousy taste in women." Cassie snorted contemptuously. "I would never have touched her even if she was sitting up and begging for it and even if I hadn't had a shag for a year."
Roisin similarly itemised her list of Snowball's moral and physical shortcomings, all the more intriguing for Yvonne hearing a respectable mother talk that way.
"Was there any single event that made her stand out from the rest of the congregation and, if so, can you describe it." pursued Jo.
"Yes, I can remember it as if it were yesterday. One of the staunchest and most fervent members of the flock, Crystal Gordon, had sadly lost her faith and started up an "Anti Bible Class" group. I went to the group to try and reason with her and the others but I couldn't get a word in edgeways. I was in a quandary as to what to do. Then Snowball Merriman came to see me of her accord to explain that she could help me out with this problem."
"Can I stop you there Reverend Mills." Jo interposed." Can you remember if Snowball Merriman was actually at that meeting?
"I'm not sure. She may have been."
"And how did she help you out."
" Snowball Merriman conducted the next Sunday service ….."
"What?" George called out in total incredulity."You mean that you as a member of the cloth allowed a common criminal to take a service. Might as well let them take the keys to the cells and let them run the prison."
"You will have the opportunity to make these points, Ms Channing, when your turn comes to cross-examine the witness. The witness may, in any case, have a rational explanation for an apparently unorthodox course of action," John Deed cut in on George, quietly and firmly, being intrigued as to what the answer might be.
Yvonne and Karen grinned knowingly at each other. George Channing was evidently a paid up member of the "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" brigade. If she knew how close she had come to the truth at Larkhall, then her outpourings would easily upstage the most rabid 'hang them and flog them' platform speaker at the Conservative Party Conference, even Margaret Thatcher herself.
"It does seem rather unorthodox," Henry continued, clearly flustered." But I thought that I might succeed if one of the prisoners spoke to the congregation about her own experiences. Time was of the essence, especially as Crystal Gordon's influence seemed in danger of causing the limited congregation to fall by the wayside. I am not used to spurning any help offered if the intention is sincere. You will find a reference to it in the Bible in……"
"Quite," Jo Mills interposed. The Reverend Mills had temporarily forgotten which pulpit he stood in out of sheer nervousness. "Your explanation was very clear. And what happened at the service."
"She was a revelation." Henry explained enthusiastically. "She retold how she had gone out to Hollywood and had turned to drugs and had become, errm, a loose woman."
"Pray be precise in your wording, Reverend Mills." John Deed's voice smoothly inserted itself into the cross examination to save Henry's embarrassment. "The language may be uncommon for a man of the cloth but it will assist the deliberations of the court to have the words quoted verbatim."
He smiled down kindly and reassuringly on the man.
"As far as I can recall, Snowball had said that she had been a 'junkie and a whore'," Henry swallowed at this point "but she explained that she had had a spiritual revelation and prayed to the Lord for forgiveness. She said that she felt so ashamed as she had let the Devil use her body for his evil work and wanted to let him into her life. And she invited the congregation to go down on their knees to pray and ask for the Lord's forgiveness And she asked first Al McKenzy, then the rest of the congregation to hold their lighted cigarette lighter in the air and blow them out and to relight them as an illustration of God's forgiveness."
"Can I stop you at this point, Reverend Mills. Can you demonstrate this to the court so that they can picture this in the light of Snowball's later crimes?" Jo Mills asked Henry pleasantly. The only point of difference is that you should hold the cigarette lighter as Snowball Merriman would otherwise have done and imagine that we are your congregation. Imagine your lesson for today is the Parable of the Cigarette Lighter.""
"You mean, me?" Henry asked rather bashfully.
"My lord," George chimed in."I object to this. I do not see why this trial should be degraded to the level of the local amateur theatrical society?"
"My lord, the main thrust of the case for the prosecution is that the defendant, Snowball Merriman, is a consummate actress with an ability to fool and deceive those around her to achieve her end. An enactment of this scene will demonstrate exactly the way she did not stoop even to exploit religious susceptibilities for her own ends and is obviously material to the trial."
"Your objection is overruled, Ms Channing. You may proceed, Mrs Mills but obviously within reasonable limits."
"Henry'll go through with this one. After all these years of standing in the pulpit, there's more confidence in him than there appears to be." Babs nodded confidently.
Henry accepted Jo Mill's gold cigarette lighter and looked thoughtfully at his feet for a bit. He glanced sideways at Snowball's angry glare and remembered the beguiling smiles of before. Wrong move, Babs thought, that glare will finally make Henry go for it.
Henry searched back into his memory and latched onto one of the most repellent principal figures of the theological college he had attended. A playoff of him against that deceitful woman, Snowball Merriman, gave him the mental frame of reference he desperately needed to lock into.
"Show me a flame" And Henry flicked a flame from Jo's gold lighter and held it aloft, arms and eyes pointing skywards.
"Now blow it out." Henry spoke shortly to himself and blew the flame out."
"That's what we've all done to God, just because some voice told us to do. But it doesn't matter how many times we've blown him away, we can still light up again, if we want to, yeah. Anyone else want to light up again with God?" Henry's tone lifted up the scale in an exaggerated slow paced, amazed theatrical delivery in a voice alien to his nature as he held the lighter flame aloft.
'Let's all sing Hymn 37, Snowball Merriman said ……………and how bitterly do I ever regret listening to that voice," Henry's real angry voice dropped down to his normal modest delivery as he first quoted Snowball and then the real man spoke for himself, ,cutting through all the high flown, cloudy fake religiosity.
"Thank you very much, Reverend, for making that event so very real both for the court and for myself." Jo said very softly to Henry who looked all round him as he resumed his position in the witness stand. Jo Mills turned and stared at that brassy haired woman with a contempt that glanced off her.
"When and in what circumstances did the defendant, Snowball Merriman, ask to borrow your room?" Jo resumed.
"It was very soon after the service, that Snowball Merriman came to me to ask me for a favour. Her mother had been taken ill. She explained that her mother was the only member of the family in her life as her father had cruelly abandoned her mother when she was very young, had beaten and abused her mother. She had always been close to her and that she had tried to get through on the phone but the hospital kept passing her from one person to another …….."
"Not at any hospital I've worked at, you lying cow," Karen's incensed voice muttered in Yvonne's ear. She had worked in public institutions all her life and was ready to accept any reasonable criticism but any malicious or ignorant name calling of hard worked dedicated overworked staff roused her anger almost in the same way that Sylvia reacted. "The women on a hospital switchboard have a bloody difficult job to do."
"Really breaks your heart to hear her sob story, Karen."Yvonne sneered in reply."Brings tears to your eyes, doesn't it."
Both of them were starting to wonder just how much self control they would have next week when that tart watching from the sidelines came to take the stand.
"………….so I offered her my room to phone from. She was very reluctant to take up my offer……"
"I'll bet," Babs snorted, easily able to visualise Snowball's tear jerking performance.
"………but I persuaded her in the end and she thanked me from the bottom of her heart and her fetching smile quite touched me."
"How many times did you let Snowball Merriman have access to your room, Reverent Mills."
"Two or three times as far as I can remember." Henry replied………..
George Channing's approach to her cross examination started out more muted than normal. There was something about a man of the cloth that made her usual tactics of sarcastic verbal thrusts seem indecent, even to her own ears and so, unusually, she was forced to rely on understated logic.
"I have a number of questions to ask of you, Reverend Mills. You must be aware that, when you took up a post as the resident Vicar of Larkhall Prison, you became part of the prison establishment, were you not, and as much responsible for the security of the prison as anyone."
"I am aware that I have a secular responsibility to the Prison authorities."
"So were you not guilty of a lapse of judgement when you granted the defendant rather unusual privileges. And cannot the court conclude though, admirable though your knowledge might be on religious matters, your grasp of more secular matters might be a little shaky. I trust that you do not take offence if I put it this way?" George's bright white smile was but a white painted steel trap.
"It did seem unusual but Snowball Merriman is a very persuasive woman. This all happened early in my stay at Larkhall and I may have been somewhat naïve. The elderly congregation at Chipping Norton, my last parish were of a different composition as you might appreciate." Henry added rather shortly.
For a vicar, he is hitting back at that cow barrister better than I would have thought, Yvonne grinned. Then again, he's been with Babs who's tougher than she looks and she's
probably influenced him over the last few months.
"Precisely what were the motives for your unusual generosity and favours that you bestowed on a very attractive woman and I quote your words whose "fetching smile quite touched you." George Channing's aristocratic tones reverted to her normal bitchiness as she felt out the Reverend Mill's weaknesses.
"If, by that question, you are insinuating that there was any impropriety between myself and Miss Merriman, then, madam, you are very much mistaken." Henry's tones hardened up into offended middle class respectability."I resent your attitude very much."
"Ms Channing "John Deed intervened, "I think that you will recall that the witness has given a very frank and free explanation of his actions. I would caution you from badgering the witness."
"I withdraw the question, "George snapped. She moved back to her accustomed place to pretend to consult her notes while the court and gallery alike wondered what fresh stratagem she would employ. In reality, she was buying time and waiting till her temper had cooled down.
"I understand that you are now married to the previous witness Barbara Mills, Barbara Hunt as she then was at Larkhall. Can you tell the court when your association with Barbara Mills started and in particular, was it before or after her release from Larkhall, reverend?"
George's bright smile and final words held no respect for Henry, rather she intended to let him trip himself up with his own feelings of guilt.
"I have no hesitation in saying that I first became romantically involved with my dear wife Barbara when she was at Larkhall. And nothing in my experience since then has caused my confidence in her to waver as there are no secrets between us….……."
"Let's have a little less of the Mills and Boon dialogue," George struck back, rattled at Henry's forceful rejoinders to her questions. "I put it to you that the value of your evidence is diminished in the same way that your position as the Vicar of Larkhall Prison is diminished. I ask you, was this the act of a responsible clergyman to take up with a bigamist who was convicted of manslaughter."
Henry paused a moment, very wisely, to answer the question to himself so that he could answer in court.
"I may have a problem in facing the archbishop on the matter but I will have no hesitation in facing my Maker when the time comes. That is, to me, what matters most."
The short and simple declaration of religious faith caused a spontaneous burst of clapping from the gallery at the way Henry, the archetypal self effacing man finally came out on top in the cross examination by the barrister who, on the face of it, looked certain to eat him up for breakfast.
John Deed silenced the applause by a gracious hand gesture.
"No more questions, my lord." George Channing muttered sulkily.
"Court is adjourned." intoned John Deed which released everyone out into the outside world.
Karen made her way out into the foyer , caught up with Yvonne and touched her arm to gain her attention.
"Yvonne, we need to talk"
Yvonne turned round to look into Karen's eyes. A sixth sense told her that this was one moment in her life where the right choice had to be made despite her doubts and fears.
"I guess so," she said casually and they threaded their way through the crowds and made their way to the nearest pub.
By black cab taxi, by private car or the much trodden uneven steps up from the nearest Underground station, all roads mentally and physically converged on the imposing archway entrance of the Old Bailey court. These trails focus in from all points of the compass to this one fixed point like the spokes of a wheel does to the hub.
Cassie always walked boldly arm in arm with Roisin, the first there after the lunchbreak, her sharp blue eyes on the lookout of three increasingly familiar friends of theirs and, sure enough Yvonne, Lauren, Karen Babs and Henry's faces had been spotted in the foyer of, the Old Bailey. It was now Henry's turn to testify in court while the others testified with their presence, by being there to see the trial through to the end. All of them knew that they took the place of those at Larkhall who were locked up behind bars and could only follow the proceedings from second hand throwaway remarks from some of the screws.
Denny as much as any of them was on tenterhooks. Her present was put on hold while justice was being fought out on the battlegrounds of carved stone and ancient mahogany, the weight of the lawbooks, and the weapons of war, the power of the spoken word.
In the break, John Deed had sellotaped a hopeful notice to his front door in chambers "Under Repair" and had strung the door handle to a discreet nail he had gingerly hammered into the door frame to shut the door as tight as he could make it and keep up appearances. He banished this from his mind and took himself to where he felt most comfortable, his judge's throne where he watched Jo prepare to call the most unusual witness ever seen in the witness box, the Rev Henry Mills, with his apologetic manner and white clerical collar.
"Reverend Mills," Jo Mills asked." Can you describe to the court the circumstances in which the defendant, Snowball Merriman, came to your notice while you were prison chaplain at Larkhall."
"Yes indeed." And Henry cleared his throat nervously. "I first met her when she introduced herself to me and asked about the Sunday morning weekly services that I run. My congregation is small, considering the size of Larkhall Prison so anyone who feels that she has a soul to be saved and actively wishes to join in, is especially welcome. Snowball Merriman stood out from any ordinary new member of the congregation, as she was very unusual and striking in her appearance. She made an immediate impact. She was an American, or so I was led to believe, and had that nationality's enthusiasm and drive…….and she was very attractive."
"He's got a lousy taste in women." Cassie snorted contemptuously. "I would never have touched her even if she was sitting up and begging for it and even if I hadn't had a shag for a year."
Roisin similarly itemised her list of Snowball's moral and physical shortcomings, all the more intriguing for Yvonne hearing a respectable mother talk that way.
"Was there any single event that made her stand out from the rest of the congregation and, if so, can you describe it." pursued Jo.
"Yes, I can remember it as if it were yesterday. One of the staunchest and most fervent members of the flock, Crystal Gordon, had sadly lost her faith and started up an "Anti Bible Class" group. I went to the group to try and reason with her and the others but I couldn't get a word in edgeways. I was in a quandary as to what to do. Then Snowball Merriman came to see me of her accord to explain that she could help me out with this problem."
"Can I stop you there Reverend Mills." Jo interposed." Can you remember if Snowball Merriman was actually at that meeting?
"I'm not sure. She may have been."
"And how did she help you out."
" Snowball Merriman conducted the next Sunday service ….."
"What?" George called out in total incredulity."You mean that you as a member of the cloth allowed a common criminal to take a service. Might as well let them take the keys to the cells and let them run the prison."
"You will have the opportunity to make these points, Ms Channing, when your turn comes to cross-examine the witness. The witness may, in any case, have a rational explanation for an apparently unorthodox course of action," John Deed cut in on George, quietly and firmly, being intrigued as to what the answer might be.
Yvonne and Karen grinned knowingly at each other. George Channing was evidently a paid up member of the "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" brigade. If she knew how close she had come to the truth at Larkhall, then her outpourings would easily upstage the most rabid 'hang them and flog them' platform speaker at the Conservative Party Conference, even Margaret Thatcher herself.
"It does seem rather unorthodox," Henry continued, clearly flustered." But I thought that I might succeed if one of the prisoners spoke to the congregation about her own experiences. Time was of the essence, especially as Crystal Gordon's influence seemed in danger of causing the limited congregation to fall by the wayside. I am not used to spurning any help offered if the intention is sincere. You will find a reference to it in the Bible in……"
"Quite," Jo Mills interposed. The Reverend Mills had temporarily forgotten which pulpit he stood in out of sheer nervousness. "Your explanation was very clear. And what happened at the service."
"She was a revelation." Henry explained enthusiastically. "She retold how she had gone out to Hollywood and had turned to drugs and had become, errm, a loose woman."
"Pray be precise in your wording, Reverend Mills." John Deed's voice smoothly inserted itself into the cross examination to save Henry's embarrassment. "The language may be uncommon for a man of the cloth but it will assist the deliberations of the court to have the words quoted verbatim."
He smiled down kindly and reassuringly on the man.
"As far as I can recall, Snowball had said that she had been a 'junkie and a whore'," Henry swallowed at this point "but she explained that she had had a spiritual revelation and prayed to the Lord for forgiveness. She said that she felt so ashamed as she had let the Devil use her body for his evil work and wanted to let him into her life. And she invited the congregation to go down on their knees to pray and ask for the Lord's forgiveness And she asked first Al McKenzy, then the rest of the congregation to hold their lighted cigarette lighter in the air and blow them out and to relight them as an illustration of God's forgiveness."
"Can I stop you at this point, Reverend Mills. Can you demonstrate this to the court so that they can picture this in the light of Snowball's later crimes?" Jo Mills asked Henry pleasantly. The only point of difference is that you should hold the cigarette lighter as Snowball Merriman would otherwise have done and imagine that we are your congregation. Imagine your lesson for today is the Parable of the Cigarette Lighter.""
"You mean, me?" Henry asked rather bashfully.
"My lord," George chimed in."I object to this. I do not see why this trial should be degraded to the level of the local amateur theatrical society?"
"My lord, the main thrust of the case for the prosecution is that the defendant, Snowball Merriman, is a consummate actress with an ability to fool and deceive those around her to achieve her end. An enactment of this scene will demonstrate exactly the way she did not stoop even to exploit religious susceptibilities for her own ends and is obviously material to the trial."
"Your objection is overruled, Ms Channing. You may proceed, Mrs Mills but obviously within reasonable limits."
"Henry'll go through with this one. After all these years of standing in the pulpit, there's more confidence in him than there appears to be." Babs nodded confidently.
Henry accepted Jo Mill's gold cigarette lighter and looked thoughtfully at his feet for a bit. He glanced sideways at Snowball's angry glare and remembered the beguiling smiles of before. Wrong move, Babs thought, that glare will finally make Henry go for it.
Henry searched back into his memory and latched onto one of the most repellent principal figures of the theological college he had attended. A playoff of him against that deceitful woman, Snowball Merriman, gave him the mental frame of reference he desperately needed to lock into.
"Show me a flame" And Henry flicked a flame from Jo's gold lighter and held it aloft, arms and eyes pointing skywards.
"Now blow it out." Henry spoke shortly to himself and blew the flame out."
"That's what we've all done to God, just because some voice told us to do. But it doesn't matter how many times we've blown him away, we can still light up again, if we want to, yeah. Anyone else want to light up again with God?" Henry's tone lifted up the scale in an exaggerated slow paced, amazed theatrical delivery in a voice alien to his nature as he held the lighter flame aloft.
'Let's all sing Hymn 37, Snowball Merriman said ……………and how bitterly do I ever regret listening to that voice," Henry's real angry voice dropped down to his normal modest delivery as he first quoted Snowball and then the real man spoke for himself, ,cutting through all the high flown, cloudy fake religiosity.
"Thank you very much, Reverend, for making that event so very real both for the court and for myself." Jo said very softly to Henry who looked all round him as he resumed his position in the witness stand. Jo Mills turned and stared at that brassy haired woman with a contempt that glanced off her.
"When and in what circumstances did the defendant, Snowball Merriman, ask to borrow your room?" Jo resumed.
"It was very soon after the service, that Snowball Merriman came to me to ask me for a favour. Her mother had been taken ill. She explained that her mother was the only member of the family in her life as her father had cruelly abandoned her mother when she was very young, had beaten and abused her mother. She had always been close to her and that she had tried to get through on the phone but the hospital kept passing her from one person to another …….."
"Not at any hospital I've worked at, you lying cow," Karen's incensed voice muttered in Yvonne's ear. She had worked in public institutions all her life and was ready to accept any reasonable criticism but any malicious or ignorant name calling of hard worked dedicated overworked staff roused her anger almost in the same way that Sylvia reacted. "The women on a hospital switchboard have a bloody difficult job to do."
"Really breaks your heart to hear her sob story, Karen."Yvonne sneered in reply."Brings tears to your eyes, doesn't it."
Both of them were starting to wonder just how much self control they would have next week when that tart watching from the sidelines came to take the stand.
"………….so I offered her my room to phone from. She was very reluctant to take up my offer……"
"I'll bet," Babs snorted, easily able to visualise Snowball's tear jerking performance.
"………but I persuaded her in the end and she thanked me from the bottom of her heart and her fetching smile quite touched me."
"How many times did you let Snowball Merriman have access to your room, Reverent Mills."
"Two or three times as far as I can remember." Henry replied………..
George Channing's approach to her cross examination started out more muted than normal. There was something about a man of the cloth that made her usual tactics of sarcastic verbal thrusts seem indecent, even to her own ears and so, unusually, she was forced to rely on understated logic.
"I have a number of questions to ask of you, Reverend Mills. You must be aware that, when you took up a post as the resident Vicar of Larkhall Prison, you became part of the prison establishment, were you not, and as much responsible for the security of the prison as anyone."
"I am aware that I have a secular responsibility to the Prison authorities."
"So were you not guilty of a lapse of judgement when you granted the defendant rather unusual privileges. And cannot the court conclude though, admirable though your knowledge might be on religious matters, your grasp of more secular matters might be a little shaky. I trust that you do not take offence if I put it this way?" George's bright white smile was but a white painted steel trap.
"It did seem unusual but Snowball Merriman is a very persuasive woman. This all happened early in my stay at Larkhall and I may have been somewhat naïve. The elderly congregation at Chipping Norton, my last parish were of a different composition as you might appreciate." Henry added rather shortly.
For a vicar, he is hitting back at that cow barrister better than I would have thought, Yvonne grinned. Then again, he's been with Babs who's tougher than she looks and she's
probably influenced him over the last few months.
"Precisely what were the motives for your unusual generosity and favours that you bestowed on a very attractive woman and I quote your words whose "fetching smile quite touched you." George Channing's aristocratic tones reverted to her normal bitchiness as she felt out the Reverend Mill's weaknesses.
"If, by that question, you are insinuating that there was any impropriety between myself and Miss Merriman, then, madam, you are very much mistaken." Henry's tones hardened up into offended middle class respectability."I resent your attitude very much."
"Ms Channing "John Deed intervened, "I think that you will recall that the witness has given a very frank and free explanation of his actions. I would caution you from badgering the witness."
"I withdraw the question, "George snapped. She moved back to her accustomed place to pretend to consult her notes while the court and gallery alike wondered what fresh stratagem she would employ. In reality, she was buying time and waiting till her temper had cooled down.
"I understand that you are now married to the previous witness Barbara Mills, Barbara Hunt as she then was at Larkhall. Can you tell the court when your association with Barbara Mills started and in particular, was it before or after her release from Larkhall, reverend?"
George's bright smile and final words held no respect for Henry, rather she intended to let him trip himself up with his own feelings of guilt.
"I have no hesitation in saying that I first became romantically involved with my dear wife Barbara when she was at Larkhall. And nothing in my experience since then has caused my confidence in her to waver as there are no secrets between us….……."
"Let's have a little less of the Mills and Boon dialogue," George struck back, rattled at Henry's forceful rejoinders to her questions. "I put it to you that the value of your evidence is diminished in the same way that your position as the Vicar of Larkhall Prison is diminished. I ask you, was this the act of a responsible clergyman to take up with a bigamist who was convicted of manslaughter."
Henry paused a moment, very wisely, to answer the question to himself so that he could answer in court.
"I may have a problem in facing the archbishop on the matter but I will have no hesitation in facing my Maker when the time comes. That is, to me, what matters most."
The short and simple declaration of religious faith caused a spontaneous burst of clapping from the gallery at the way Henry, the archetypal self effacing man finally came out on top in the cross examination by the barrister who, on the face of it, looked certain to eat him up for breakfast.
John Deed silenced the applause by a gracious hand gesture.
"No more questions, my lord." George Channing muttered sulkily.
"Court is adjourned." intoned John Deed which released everyone out into the outside world.
Karen made her way out into the foyer , caught up with Yvonne and touched her arm to gain her attention.
"Yvonne, we need to talk"
Yvonne turned round to look into Karen's eyes. A sixth sense told her that this was one moment in her life where the right choice had to be made despite her doubts and fears.
"I guess so," she said casually and they threaded their way through the crowds and made their way to the nearest pub.