Part Forty Three
As they walked down in to the foyer, they were approached by Jo.
"Karen, I need to talk to you," She said without any preamble.
"Do you want me to stay?" Asked Yvonne. Karen shook her head.
"I'll give you a ring later," Karen said softly, briefly touching her hand to Yvonne's cheek. The feeling of such chemistry, such completeness between these two slightly softened Jo's mood. Karen followed Jo as she walked back upstairs and down a couple of corridors until she opened a door on to a large, airy room with comfortable chairs and a couple of tables. Jo closed the door and gestured for Karen to sit down. She came straight to the point.
"I need to recall you as a witness."
"Why?" Asked Karen, getting a very bad feeling about this.
"I hadn't intended to recall you," Said Jo, "But as the law stands, both the prosecuting and defending barristers must agree if a witness is to be recalled. There were enough discrepancies in the evidence this morning that I applied to the Judge to recall James Fenner. The only way George would agree, is if you were also recalled."
"That's nice of her," Commented Karen dryly. "And you think she wants to haul me over the coals about Ritchie."
"I'd say that's a fair possibility," Said Jo, not liking what she had to do next. There was a knock at the door and Coope put her head round.
"The Judge asked me to see if you wanted coffee," She said. Karen shook her head, knowing that caffeine would only make her more on edge.
"No thank you," Said Jo, "But please could you find us an ashtray." Coope returned quickly with one and both Karen and Jo lit up.
"I need to know everything about your brief affair with Ritchie," Said Jo, biting the bullet. Then, at Karen's silence she said, "You can be pretty sure that everything you know about your encounters with Ritchie, George will know too, and she'll have no qualms about focussing on every irrelevant, salacious detail possible. She'll want to give the jury any reason not to trust your earlier evidence. I know how much you won't want to do this, but I need to know as much as you can tell me about Ritchie Atkins, mainly so that I can work out what George is likely to ask you and be ready to object to it."
"Forewarned is forearmed as they say," Was Karen's reply. She stood up and began pacing from one end of the room to the other, only returning to the table where Jo had put down her papers, to flick the ash from her cigarette. Jo simply sat and watched her, knowing that discussing the finer points of her private life wasn't something Karen would ever feel comfortable doing.
"It was on the fifth of May last year," Karen began. "Ritchie came to Larkhall to see Yvonne. When he was being searched, he made the usual crack about preferring the feminine touch. I said if I'd had a pound for every time I'd heard that old line, and he said what about the one with nice legs. Not the first time I'd heard that before, and it won't be the last. It sounds ridiculous I know, but he reminded me I was still attractive. When he was with Yvonne in the visiting room, he asked for a pen so she could write down his phone number. I'd never be able to prove it, but I know he purposefully said his number loud enough for me to hear."
"Why did you choose to follow it up?" Asked Jo, feeling like she was breaking in on a solo virtuoso performance. This was taking a lot of effort for Karen, and Jo didn't want to interrupt her in her stride.
"At the time," Said Karen, "A perfect stranger was what I wanted. Someone who didn't know anything about me, who knew nothing about my life, my career, about a lot of things," She finished lamely.
"Someone who knew nothing about what had happened with James Fenner," Suggested Jo. Karen recoiled as if from a slap, and Jo metaphorically bit her tongue.
"That's the irony of the whole thing," Said Karen bitterly. "I literally threw myself at Ritchie as a way of moving on from someone who'd been playing me for a fool since day one, and yet Ritchie ends up doing exactly the same." Karen lit another cigarette.
"Tell me about the text message you sent him?" Prompted Jo gently. Karen walked over to an open window and stood looking out on to the surroundings of the court.
"I don't really know why I chose a song lyric," She said, "After the crack he'd made about my legs, it just seemed to fit." Jo flicked back through her notes to where she'd written it down: not much legs can do but open or close, but those things are above us whores.
"Was the reference to legs the only reason this particular line seemed right?" Asked Jo, wondering if she was treading too far across the thin ice of Karen's feelings. But Karen was no fool. She could see the real question behind what Jo had actually asked.
"Fenner made me feel about as worthless as it's possible to feel," Said Karen quietly. "I think I felt like that was all I was good for. Ritchie was mostly about taking control again."
"What was his reply to the message you sent him?"
"It quite literally said, want a screw."
"That's to the point, I suppose," Said Jo.
"Oh, that's Ritchie all over," Said Karen sardonically. "He once said that my knowing exactly what I wanted turned him on, but he was just as bad." Karen laughed mirthlessly. "You heard what he said in court yesterday, I liked it as rough as he would give it. That hardly makes me look innocent in the eyes of the jury where the supposedly fake rape allegation is concerned, does it."
"Actually," Said Jo, "That's open for debate. All Ritchie is trying to do is to damage your reputation and threaten your credibility as a witness. But I wouldn't put it past George to focus on something like this."
"Did Ritchie say anything I need to know after I walked out?"
"Nothing important," Said Jo, not relishing the idea of telling Karen how Ritchie had described her.
"Really," Said Karen, "So why did Yvonne get a warning from the Judge?" Jo grinned.
"Not for anything Ritchie said about you. John isn't used to so much audience participation."
"Knowing Yvonne and Cassie as I do, there was bound to be more than usual."
"Tell me about the second time you saw Ritchie," Prompted Jo.
"He turned up at work with a rose, on the day I got back from holiday. He said he'd missed me. I told him I didn't want him turning up at work. One of the other officers had a hen party that night. I wasn't especially looking forward to it, and when Ritchie sent me a text saying come any time, it provided me with a good excuse for leaving. Defense will probably say that this made me look desperate. I remember the next morning he tried to make me late for work." Jo held up a hand to stop Karen in her tracks.
"Could this have been a way to try and discredit you with your boss?"
"I don't know. Jesus, I trusted every bloody word he said!"
"There wasn't any reason for you not to trust him," Said Jo quietly.
"He was the son of Charlie Atkins. At the time, I held the keys to his mother's cell, a woman who was doing time for conspiracy to murder. What more reason could there have been. I don't think I cared one way or the other. Any goodlooking stranger would have done, as long as they didn't know about Fenner."
"Going on that line of philosophy," Said Jo conversationally, "What makes you trust Yvonne Atkins?"
"I've spent the last year getting to know Yvonne. Oh, she's got the Atkins charm coming out of her ears, but that's the only thing that makes her one of them. By that I'm assuming you know about me and her?" Jo smiled.
"I'm not blind," She said matter-of-factly.
"What about the defense? And if so, will it be used to further blacken my professional integrity."
"Yes, George is aware of it," Said Jo, cursing herself for having drawn it to George's attention in the first place. "But I'll appeal to any better nature she still has. What did Ritchie say to try and make you late for work?"
"I told him that I did have superiors, all looking for an excuse and that I didn't want to hand them one. You know what men are like, they'll try anything to make you stay a bit longer."
"John can certainly be very persuasive on occasions," Said Jo, a soft smile lighting up her eyes.
"He suggested picking me up from work for a drink at lunchtime, and didn't seem to like the fact that I wanted to keep our relationship quiet. There was enough talk about my relationship with Fenner for me to want to be cautious."
"You were in a relationship with James Fenner?" Asked Jo in slight astonishment.
"I know," Said Karen, utterly disgusted with herself. "Hard to believe, isn't it."
"Okay, let's move on to the gun," Said Jo. "Why didn't you find it before it was discovered?"
"I was almost late for work that morning. We'd overslept. It frightened the hell out of me when Jim found it. I put it in my desk drawer because we were concentrating on finding Yvonne. I remember when I went to see her, once they'd got her in to segregation. Fenner was there as well. He asked her about the bomb, and she spelled out to us that it was Snowball. Then I asked her about the gun that her son had planted in my handbag. I think her words were, Snowball Merriman's his tart. She's the reason he came to visit me after all these years, to sting me for fifty grand for their get away plan. I thought I knew what shock was. After all, I'd been shown in no uncertain terms what Jim Fenner was capable of. Yvonne said that Ritchie had screwed us both, and she was right. He'd literally screwed the hell out of me and screwed her out of fifty grand and almost out of her release date." Jo remained totally still, though her whole brain seemed to wince at Karen's slightly blase description of her time with Ritchie.
"When did you next see Ritchie?" Asked Jo, already sure of the answer but wanting to be clear about it.
"On the day he was shot."
"And how would you describe, Snowball Merriman's demeanour?" Jo hesitated on the name Snowball, as she been used to referring to her as Ms Pilkinton. Karen suppressed a shudder.
"At first, she was totally calm, like she'd planned it down to the last detail." Jo made a quick note of this. "When we were in the car, she held the gun loosely in her left hand, all the time pointing it at me. She even kept it pointing my way when she phoned Ritchie. Give him his due, I don't think he was happy about her having brought me. It might be hard to believe, but I think he felt slightly guilty."
"There's something interesting about all this," Said Jo, "When you talk about Snowball, everything in your tone of voice, your expression, is still furious at what she put you through. You loathe every thought you have of her. But with Ritchie it's different. Even though he used your profession, your connection with his mother, and to some extent your vulnerability for his own ends, you're not angry with him. You don't even despise him for what he did to you. Any criticism on that score appears to be reserved for yourself, not the man who caused all those things to happen." Karen had returned to her chair, and now sat staring at Jo.
"Did you get a degree in psychology?" She asked, as a way to cover up how thrown she was by Jo's clear insight in to her feelings.
"Human psychology is something you learn as a barrister," Replied Jo, "Often the job involves taking advantage of it. It's not something I'm especially proud of, but if you can partially understand how the opposition's mind works, the more likely you are to be able to trip them up in cross examination."
"Whatever Ritchie might have done in the past," Said Karen, "He did save my life. He didn't have to do that. I'm not entirely sure why he did it, but I think he got in over his head where his feelings for me were concerned. Originally, I was only supposed to be a source of good sex and a way to get the gun in to Larkhall. But he liked what we had too much. He still carried on with it, even after I told Yvonne and she warned him off." Jo visibly winced. Karen smiled. "Yes, that little interview with Yvonne was not one of the nicest things I've ever had to do. I think her words were, I ought to claw your bloody eyes out." Briefly thinking that Karen had far more guts than she did, Jo asked,
"How was Snowball towards you just before Ritchie was shot?"
"She was enjoying it. She was high on the power she had over me. Giving me a black eye seemed to give her so much satisfaction. I vaguely remember Ritchie saying something about her having been in too many crap movies. She hated me for having slept with Ritchie, and if he hadn't stopped her, she'd definitely have killed me. It would have been her icing on the cake of freedom. But Ritchie struggled with her, trying to get the gun away from her. It went off because she wouldn't let go." Jo wrote this down.
"That's definitely something we'll focus on in court. I'm not quite sure what else yet, but the fact that she wouldn't let go of the gun achieved the direct result of Ritchie being shot, is something I need to spell out to the jury."
"You don't seriously expect her to get off, do you?"
"The odds are in our favour," Said Jo cautiously. "But juries never fail to amaze me."
"She has to go down for this," Said Karen determinedly.
"I'll do my best," Said Jo, knowing that if Tracy Pilkinton wasn't found guilty, the legal profession would not be living up to its job to preserve justice.
"Thank you for being so open with me," Said Jo. "I know it hasn't been easy. I was brought up in front of the professional conduct committee once, for having an affair with the Judge I was before. Some of the things they asked were about as personal as its possible to get." Karen looked at Jo with interest.
"I take it judges and barristers are not supposed to be other than professionally involved if they're taking part in the same trial," Karen asked.
"Not strictly, no. John has been forced to learn the art of discretion, not something he's usually famous for." Karen was grateful to Jo for having revealed something of her own private life. It made Karen realise that even a woman in Jo's position was not above being utterly humiliated.
As they walked down the wide stone stairs in to the foyer, Jo caught sight of George making her way outside.
"George," She called, "Have you got a minute?" George didn't need to turn and see who it was. She'd know that deep, slightly husky voice anywhere. She simply turned and waited for Karen and Jo to approach her.
"George, this is Karen Betts," Jo began. "And Karen, this is George Channing QC, or should I say the former Mrs. John Deed." This riled George. She'd worn the trousers in that household, not him.
"At least I managed to get a ring on his finger," Replied George in her usual acid tones.
"This is the woman who'll be attempting to derail you on Thursday," Jo said to Karen, who was looking on with some amusement.
"I'll look forward to it," Said Karen, looking George straight in the eye and letting her know in no uncertain terms that she wouldn't give her an easy ride. As Karen walked out of the front doors of the court, Jo and George stood and watched her.
"She won't fall at the first hurdle you know, George," Said Jo.
"Is that all you wanted to keep me from my cigarette for?" Asked George in utter disdain.
"No, not quite," Replied Jo, hating to have to ask what she knew she must. George turned and walked outside, briefly gesturing to Jo to follow. When they'd both lit up, George asked,
"So, to what do I owe the pleasure?" The reference to pleasure at Jo's company was so insincere that Jo smiled, well used to George's insults by now. Then she became serious.
"I need to ask you not to make any mention of the relationship between Karen Betts and Yvonne Atkins when she's on the stand on Thursday." George took a long, deep, contemplative drag.
"Is there any reason why I should agree to this ludicrous request?"
"Because it won't serve any real purpose, except to further blacken Karen Betts' professional integrity. Surely even you can see that."
"Ah, yes," Replied George, her clipped upper class drawl far more defined with the bite of sarcasm. "I'd forgotten that having been caught in the wrong bed yourself not so long ago, you'd be naturally sympathetic to others in your position."
"You won't forget about that till your dying day, George," Said Jo with scorn. "You enjoyed it too much." George was quiet for a moment, neither denying nor confirming this accusation.
"Are you still sleeping with John?" George asked quietly.
"Oh, and you think if I was I'd tell you," Said Jo in total disgust. "Only for you to set us up like you did the last time."
"Well, just be careful," Warned George, flicking her cigarette towards the middle of the carpark. "Neil still hasn't forgotten the utter humiliation of totally failing to discredit John."
"Is that a threat, George?" Asked Jo, really hoping all that wouldn't get dragged up again.
"No," Said George, "Against my better judgment, it's a friendly warning."
"Well, forgive me for not taking it at face value, won't you."
"Oh, I wouldn't expect any different," Said George, knowing she'd probably rubbed Jo's face in the mud once too often with that stunt with the photographs.
"So, do we have a deal over Karen Betts?" Asked Jo.
"Like I said, simply keeping her reputation intact isn't a good enough reason."
"Then how about the fact that John won't lose this bet if you put proof of the situation in his reach." Jo hadn't wanted to play this last card, but appealing to George's better nature hadn't worked. George's gaze followed a couple of pigeons flying over the parked cars.
"Fine," She said after a while. "But I'm only doing this because it's about time John was proved wrong." Jo smiled.
"I thought you'd see sense in the end," She said. As George walked off towards her car, she called back over her shoulder,
"You owe me for this." On hearing this, Jo was left wondering what owing a favour to Georgia Channing might involve.
As they walked down in to the foyer, they were approached by Jo.
"Karen, I need to talk to you," She said without any preamble.
"Do you want me to stay?" Asked Yvonne. Karen shook her head.
"I'll give you a ring later," Karen said softly, briefly touching her hand to Yvonne's cheek. The feeling of such chemistry, such completeness between these two slightly softened Jo's mood. Karen followed Jo as she walked back upstairs and down a couple of corridors until she opened a door on to a large, airy room with comfortable chairs and a couple of tables. Jo closed the door and gestured for Karen to sit down. She came straight to the point.
"I need to recall you as a witness."
"Why?" Asked Karen, getting a very bad feeling about this.
"I hadn't intended to recall you," Said Jo, "But as the law stands, both the prosecuting and defending barristers must agree if a witness is to be recalled. There were enough discrepancies in the evidence this morning that I applied to the Judge to recall James Fenner. The only way George would agree, is if you were also recalled."
"That's nice of her," Commented Karen dryly. "And you think she wants to haul me over the coals about Ritchie."
"I'd say that's a fair possibility," Said Jo, not liking what she had to do next. There was a knock at the door and Coope put her head round.
"The Judge asked me to see if you wanted coffee," She said. Karen shook her head, knowing that caffeine would only make her more on edge.
"No thank you," Said Jo, "But please could you find us an ashtray." Coope returned quickly with one and both Karen and Jo lit up.
"I need to know everything about your brief affair with Ritchie," Said Jo, biting the bullet. Then, at Karen's silence she said, "You can be pretty sure that everything you know about your encounters with Ritchie, George will know too, and she'll have no qualms about focussing on every irrelevant, salacious detail possible. She'll want to give the jury any reason not to trust your earlier evidence. I know how much you won't want to do this, but I need to know as much as you can tell me about Ritchie Atkins, mainly so that I can work out what George is likely to ask you and be ready to object to it."
"Forewarned is forearmed as they say," Was Karen's reply. She stood up and began pacing from one end of the room to the other, only returning to the table where Jo had put down her papers, to flick the ash from her cigarette. Jo simply sat and watched her, knowing that discussing the finer points of her private life wasn't something Karen would ever feel comfortable doing.
"It was on the fifth of May last year," Karen began. "Ritchie came to Larkhall to see Yvonne. When he was being searched, he made the usual crack about preferring the feminine touch. I said if I'd had a pound for every time I'd heard that old line, and he said what about the one with nice legs. Not the first time I'd heard that before, and it won't be the last. It sounds ridiculous I know, but he reminded me I was still attractive. When he was with Yvonne in the visiting room, he asked for a pen so she could write down his phone number. I'd never be able to prove it, but I know he purposefully said his number loud enough for me to hear."
"Why did you choose to follow it up?" Asked Jo, feeling like she was breaking in on a solo virtuoso performance. This was taking a lot of effort for Karen, and Jo didn't want to interrupt her in her stride.
"At the time," Said Karen, "A perfect stranger was what I wanted. Someone who didn't know anything about me, who knew nothing about my life, my career, about a lot of things," She finished lamely.
"Someone who knew nothing about what had happened with James Fenner," Suggested Jo. Karen recoiled as if from a slap, and Jo metaphorically bit her tongue.
"That's the irony of the whole thing," Said Karen bitterly. "I literally threw myself at Ritchie as a way of moving on from someone who'd been playing me for a fool since day one, and yet Ritchie ends up doing exactly the same." Karen lit another cigarette.
"Tell me about the text message you sent him?" Prompted Jo gently. Karen walked over to an open window and stood looking out on to the surroundings of the court.
"I don't really know why I chose a song lyric," She said, "After the crack he'd made about my legs, it just seemed to fit." Jo flicked back through her notes to where she'd written it down: not much legs can do but open or close, but those things are above us whores.
"Was the reference to legs the only reason this particular line seemed right?" Asked Jo, wondering if she was treading too far across the thin ice of Karen's feelings. But Karen was no fool. She could see the real question behind what Jo had actually asked.
"Fenner made me feel about as worthless as it's possible to feel," Said Karen quietly. "I think I felt like that was all I was good for. Ritchie was mostly about taking control again."
"What was his reply to the message you sent him?"
"It quite literally said, want a screw."
"That's to the point, I suppose," Said Jo.
"Oh, that's Ritchie all over," Said Karen sardonically. "He once said that my knowing exactly what I wanted turned him on, but he was just as bad." Karen laughed mirthlessly. "You heard what he said in court yesterday, I liked it as rough as he would give it. That hardly makes me look innocent in the eyes of the jury where the supposedly fake rape allegation is concerned, does it."
"Actually," Said Jo, "That's open for debate. All Ritchie is trying to do is to damage your reputation and threaten your credibility as a witness. But I wouldn't put it past George to focus on something like this."
"Did Ritchie say anything I need to know after I walked out?"
"Nothing important," Said Jo, not relishing the idea of telling Karen how Ritchie had described her.
"Really," Said Karen, "So why did Yvonne get a warning from the Judge?" Jo grinned.
"Not for anything Ritchie said about you. John isn't used to so much audience participation."
"Knowing Yvonne and Cassie as I do, there was bound to be more than usual."
"Tell me about the second time you saw Ritchie," Prompted Jo.
"He turned up at work with a rose, on the day I got back from holiday. He said he'd missed me. I told him I didn't want him turning up at work. One of the other officers had a hen party that night. I wasn't especially looking forward to it, and when Ritchie sent me a text saying come any time, it provided me with a good excuse for leaving. Defense will probably say that this made me look desperate. I remember the next morning he tried to make me late for work." Jo held up a hand to stop Karen in her tracks.
"Could this have been a way to try and discredit you with your boss?"
"I don't know. Jesus, I trusted every bloody word he said!"
"There wasn't any reason for you not to trust him," Said Jo quietly.
"He was the son of Charlie Atkins. At the time, I held the keys to his mother's cell, a woman who was doing time for conspiracy to murder. What more reason could there have been. I don't think I cared one way or the other. Any goodlooking stranger would have done, as long as they didn't know about Fenner."
"Going on that line of philosophy," Said Jo conversationally, "What makes you trust Yvonne Atkins?"
"I've spent the last year getting to know Yvonne. Oh, she's got the Atkins charm coming out of her ears, but that's the only thing that makes her one of them. By that I'm assuming you know about me and her?" Jo smiled.
"I'm not blind," She said matter-of-factly.
"What about the defense? And if so, will it be used to further blacken my professional integrity."
"Yes, George is aware of it," Said Jo, cursing herself for having drawn it to George's attention in the first place. "But I'll appeal to any better nature she still has. What did Ritchie say to try and make you late for work?"
"I told him that I did have superiors, all looking for an excuse and that I didn't want to hand them one. You know what men are like, they'll try anything to make you stay a bit longer."
"John can certainly be very persuasive on occasions," Said Jo, a soft smile lighting up her eyes.
"He suggested picking me up from work for a drink at lunchtime, and didn't seem to like the fact that I wanted to keep our relationship quiet. There was enough talk about my relationship with Fenner for me to want to be cautious."
"You were in a relationship with James Fenner?" Asked Jo in slight astonishment.
"I know," Said Karen, utterly disgusted with herself. "Hard to believe, isn't it."
"Okay, let's move on to the gun," Said Jo. "Why didn't you find it before it was discovered?"
"I was almost late for work that morning. We'd overslept. It frightened the hell out of me when Jim found it. I put it in my desk drawer because we were concentrating on finding Yvonne. I remember when I went to see her, once they'd got her in to segregation. Fenner was there as well. He asked her about the bomb, and she spelled out to us that it was Snowball. Then I asked her about the gun that her son had planted in my handbag. I think her words were, Snowball Merriman's his tart. She's the reason he came to visit me after all these years, to sting me for fifty grand for their get away plan. I thought I knew what shock was. After all, I'd been shown in no uncertain terms what Jim Fenner was capable of. Yvonne said that Ritchie had screwed us both, and she was right. He'd literally screwed the hell out of me and screwed her out of fifty grand and almost out of her release date." Jo remained totally still, though her whole brain seemed to wince at Karen's slightly blase description of her time with Ritchie.
"When did you next see Ritchie?" Asked Jo, already sure of the answer but wanting to be clear about it.
"On the day he was shot."
"And how would you describe, Snowball Merriman's demeanour?" Jo hesitated on the name Snowball, as she been used to referring to her as Ms Pilkinton. Karen suppressed a shudder.
"At first, she was totally calm, like she'd planned it down to the last detail." Jo made a quick note of this. "When we were in the car, she held the gun loosely in her left hand, all the time pointing it at me. She even kept it pointing my way when she phoned Ritchie. Give him his due, I don't think he was happy about her having brought me. It might be hard to believe, but I think he felt slightly guilty."
"There's something interesting about all this," Said Jo, "When you talk about Snowball, everything in your tone of voice, your expression, is still furious at what she put you through. You loathe every thought you have of her. But with Ritchie it's different. Even though he used your profession, your connection with his mother, and to some extent your vulnerability for his own ends, you're not angry with him. You don't even despise him for what he did to you. Any criticism on that score appears to be reserved for yourself, not the man who caused all those things to happen." Karen had returned to her chair, and now sat staring at Jo.
"Did you get a degree in psychology?" She asked, as a way to cover up how thrown she was by Jo's clear insight in to her feelings.
"Human psychology is something you learn as a barrister," Replied Jo, "Often the job involves taking advantage of it. It's not something I'm especially proud of, but if you can partially understand how the opposition's mind works, the more likely you are to be able to trip them up in cross examination."
"Whatever Ritchie might have done in the past," Said Karen, "He did save my life. He didn't have to do that. I'm not entirely sure why he did it, but I think he got in over his head where his feelings for me were concerned. Originally, I was only supposed to be a source of good sex and a way to get the gun in to Larkhall. But he liked what we had too much. He still carried on with it, even after I told Yvonne and she warned him off." Jo visibly winced. Karen smiled. "Yes, that little interview with Yvonne was not one of the nicest things I've ever had to do. I think her words were, I ought to claw your bloody eyes out." Briefly thinking that Karen had far more guts than she did, Jo asked,
"How was Snowball towards you just before Ritchie was shot?"
"She was enjoying it. She was high on the power she had over me. Giving me a black eye seemed to give her so much satisfaction. I vaguely remember Ritchie saying something about her having been in too many crap movies. She hated me for having slept with Ritchie, and if he hadn't stopped her, she'd definitely have killed me. It would have been her icing on the cake of freedom. But Ritchie struggled with her, trying to get the gun away from her. It went off because she wouldn't let go." Jo wrote this down.
"That's definitely something we'll focus on in court. I'm not quite sure what else yet, but the fact that she wouldn't let go of the gun achieved the direct result of Ritchie being shot, is something I need to spell out to the jury."
"You don't seriously expect her to get off, do you?"
"The odds are in our favour," Said Jo cautiously. "But juries never fail to amaze me."
"She has to go down for this," Said Karen determinedly.
"I'll do my best," Said Jo, knowing that if Tracy Pilkinton wasn't found guilty, the legal profession would not be living up to its job to preserve justice.
"Thank you for being so open with me," Said Jo. "I know it hasn't been easy. I was brought up in front of the professional conduct committee once, for having an affair with the Judge I was before. Some of the things they asked were about as personal as its possible to get." Karen looked at Jo with interest.
"I take it judges and barristers are not supposed to be other than professionally involved if they're taking part in the same trial," Karen asked.
"Not strictly, no. John has been forced to learn the art of discretion, not something he's usually famous for." Karen was grateful to Jo for having revealed something of her own private life. It made Karen realise that even a woman in Jo's position was not above being utterly humiliated.
As they walked down the wide stone stairs in to the foyer, Jo caught sight of George making her way outside.
"George," She called, "Have you got a minute?" George didn't need to turn and see who it was. She'd know that deep, slightly husky voice anywhere. She simply turned and waited for Karen and Jo to approach her.
"George, this is Karen Betts," Jo began. "And Karen, this is George Channing QC, or should I say the former Mrs. John Deed." This riled George. She'd worn the trousers in that household, not him.
"At least I managed to get a ring on his finger," Replied George in her usual acid tones.
"This is the woman who'll be attempting to derail you on Thursday," Jo said to Karen, who was looking on with some amusement.
"I'll look forward to it," Said Karen, looking George straight in the eye and letting her know in no uncertain terms that she wouldn't give her an easy ride. As Karen walked out of the front doors of the court, Jo and George stood and watched her.
"She won't fall at the first hurdle you know, George," Said Jo.
"Is that all you wanted to keep me from my cigarette for?" Asked George in utter disdain.
"No, not quite," Replied Jo, hating to have to ask what she knew she must. George turned and walked outside, briefly gesturing to Jo to follow. When they'd both lit up, George asked,
"So, to what do I owe the pleasure?" The reference to pleasure at Jo's company was so insincere that Jo smiled, well used to George's insults by now. Then she became serious.
"I need to ask you not to make any mention of the relationship between Karen Betts and Yvonne Atkins when she's on the stand on Thursday." George took a long, deep, contemplative drag.
"Is there any reason why I should agree to this ludicrous request?"
"Because it won't serve any real purpose, except to further blacken Karen Betts' professional integrity. Surely even you can see that."
"Ah, yes," Replied George, her clipped upper class drawl far more defined with the bite of sarcasm. "I'd forgotten that having been caught in the wrong bed yourself not so long ago, you'd be naturally sympathetic to others in your position."
"You won't forget about that till your dying day, George," Said Jo with scorn. "You enjoyed it too much." George was quiet for a moment, neither denying nor confirming this accusation.
"Are you still sleeping with John?" George asked quietly.
"Oh, and you think if I was I'd tell you," Said Jo in total disgust. "Only for you to set us up like you did the last time."
"Well, just be careful," Warned George, flicking her cigarette towards the middle of the carpark. "Neil still hasn't forgotten the utter humiliation of totally failing to discredit John."
"Is that a threat, George?" Asked Jo, really hoping all that wouldn't get dragged up again.
"No," Said George, "Against my better judgment, it's a friendly warning."
"Well, forgive me for not taking it at face value, won't you."
"Oh, I wouldn't expect any different," Said George, knowing she'd probably rubbed Jo's face in the mud once too often with that stunt with the photographs.
"So, do we have a deal over Karen Betts?" Asked Jo.
"Like I said, simply keeping her reputation intact isn't a good enough reason."
"Then how about the fact that John won't lose this bet if you put proof of the situation in his reach." Jo hadn't wanted to play this last card, but appealing to George's better nature hadn't worked. George's gaze followed a couple of pigeons flying over the parked cars.
"Fine," She said after a while. "But I'm only doing this because it's about time John was proved wrong." Jo smiled.
"I thought you'd see sense in the end," She said. As George walked off towards her car, she called back over her shoulder,
"You owe me for this." On hearing this, Jo was left wondering what owing a favour to Georgia Channing might involve.