"What do you do in this country when it's Sunday, George." Kay asked after a soothing morning cup of coffee, which felt all the better as a biting winter wing whipped round the house outside.
"You're worse than I am, Kay, unable to wind down when you've got the chance to." Came the quizzicst won't let me be till I'm done"
"Well, I have the answer to what to do today. Do you want to come with me to Daddy's"
Kay pricked up her ears. On one word, this very sophisticated English woman betrayed a total unselfconsciousness and affection for her father. She was lucky, she ruefully reflected as her own father had died when she was twelve and her feelings for her own mother weren't exactly in the same league to say the least.
"Are you sure he won't mind some perfect stranger landing on his doorstep?" Kay queried.
"No Daddy's"
Kay pricked up her ears. On one word, this very sophisticated English woman betrayed a total unselfconsciousness and affection for her father. She was lucky, she ruefully reflected as her own father had died when she was twelve and her feelings for her own mother weren't exactly in the same league to say the least.
"Are you sure he won't mind some perfect stranger landing on his doorstep?" Kay queried.
"Not at all. He'll love it. It gives him a chance to bask in female company."
"So tell me more about him."
"He's an Appeal Court judge, a totally old fashioned man with strong opinions but curiously enough has always been fond of John even if he's seen him as a dangerous Bolshevik in judge's robes"
"I'll come with you, George. He sounds kind of interesting"
"One thing about Daddy is that he's never boring." George laughed, showing her shining white teeth and her eyes alight. It struck Kay that George had come alive when she talked and thought of him. She was brighter in her spirits than she had seen George and she realized that this visit would do George good at the very least.
Kay opened her eyes wide when her car crunched its way at the end of the broad gravel drive as it curved its way to the end. A huge building spread its way either side of her, a supreme indulgence in gothic architecture in the buttresses of ancient stone, which thrust its roots deep into the soil. To complete the picture, an elderly square sided Rolls Royce occupied its rightful place. It made no concession to modernity and was spotless and gleaming. Many years ago, she had watched old black and white English films and the view in front of her was that movie comes to life in full colour.
"Hey," She exclaimed. "This is some home"
"I'll lead the way. I grew up here"
They found themselves by stages and through various rooms in the sitting room, a large, high ceilinged room with a large, well padded three piece suite and lesser satellite armchairs and, to one side a wall to ceiling bookcase stuffed with well worn hardback books from down the ages. The whole room had that comfortable, lived in feeling. Fittingly, a large lurcher dog sprawled himself by the fireplace like a contented old man, happy to take life easy. While Kay stood there, taking in the whole ambience, Joe came bustling over.
"George. I'm delighted to see you as always. But perhaps you could introduce me to your friend." Joe beamed, greeting Kay as equally as his daughter. He liked the look of this elegant woman with very styled ash blond hair.
"Let me introduce you to Dr. Kay Scarpetta. She's over here from America as she's helping me out as a trial witness and doing some teaching while she's here. She's been staying at my house"
"A doctor eh?" Joe asked
"Not quite the regular doctor, I'm afraid." Kay clarified. "I'm the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia in the field of pathology. My business is more with the dead than the living and in trying to get them justice"
Joe was charmed by Kay's cultured American accent, which nevertheless had that element of the exotic. The last word intrigued him as it had strong resonances of John but then again, in some perverse fashion in such a conformist age, his ideas was becoming subtly contagious. Nevertheless, a mischievous instinct in him resolved to test her out, to see what made her tick.
"It's not the same as in my day. It used to be a man's job, being a top surgeon"
"And it still is, Joe. It just so happens that the field is open for woman if they've got the drive and determination. What could be fairer than that?"
"Oh and who encouraged me to become a barrister, Daddy?" George chimed in. Her darling daddy was a right one to sound off with Victorian notions of women being
in their rightful place. He had positively encouraged her to seek out her own career with no thought of her possibly compromising her femininity.
"You're different, George." He rumbled. "You're my daughter. You have always had a talent in that direction and I was only doing my duty in doing my best for you"
"Meaning that I've always been argumentative, daddy, so I might as well be encouraged to make a respectable living out of it"
"Something like it"
It was obvious to Kay that the verbal sparring between father and daughter was a fixed feature of their relationship and that there was a real affection between them.
"But I have been forgetting my guest. Kay, do you want a cup of coffee or is it too early for something more warming than that"
"A cup of coffee would be fine"
"Then in that case, I'll have a glass of port." Joe said with complete aplomb as if daring George to disapprove of him. Kay saw with a little amusement his slight disappointment that, for once, she declined to rise to the bait. As they sipped their drinks, Joe took out a silver cigarette case and offered it to Kay.
"By the way, do you mind if we smoke or are you a smoker yourself"
"I have spent the last twenty years intermittently giving up smoking"
"…….and failing, I'll bet. One more time won't hurt." Joe added with a conspiratorial smile. He accepted one of his own and, as he gently puffed at his cigarette, rashly ventured into the most forbidden topic of conversation in George's book.
"Talking about accomplishments, I simply must play you a CD recording of a recording that all of us in the judiciary and friends outside of an amateur orchestral performance of Haydn's "Creation." My daughter George took the part of 'Eve' and she turned in a magnificent performance. You must listen to it"
"Oh, Daddy, not now. Must you embarrass me?" Blurted a hugely embarrassed and blushing George.
"I cannot see why. The performance of all of us, even that wretched weasel, Sir Ian, was superb even though I say it myself." Boomed Joe heartily and proudly. Kay noticed a ring of pride in all of them and noted that, in Joe's world, the word 'amateur' was shorn of modern associations of relative incompetence. It simply meant that professionals in one calling performed in another area for the sheer love of it and not to make money out of it. It didn't devalue that activity as far too many of her fellow countrymen were apt to think.
'I don't see why not? The whole performance was superlative even if I say it myself"
"But now is not the time or place. If we listen to the CD, it would mean that we would have to be silent to listen to it properly .We came here to talk to you, not to sit like Trappist Monks." George reasoned with more fluency and assurance now that she had got into her stride.
Joe thought carefully for a moment before he delivered judgment. There was something in what George was saying but he was determined to secure something of his wishes. He knew full well that there was more than one way of killing a cat and inspiration came to his rescue.
"I'll agree to it on conditions. One is that Kay simply must hear the CD with you when you get home. Is that an agreement?" Joe finished on a determined note.
"All right, Daddy, just as you say," Came George's slightly brusque reply, as she knew only too well how firm her father was in sticking to agreements. It was one thing to cut a deal, it was quite another to be on the receiving end of it.
As Joe's housekeeper served an excellent roast beef dinner, conversation tailed off while they ate heartily and it was only over the cheese and biscuits that Joe's active mind questioned Kay of matters American as it was very rare for Joe to come across anyone of that nationality and it gave an excellent opportunity for that verbally combative side of him to be given full rein. She surely couldn't lock horns with him as tenaciously as John, that bastion of willful obstinacy, couldn't she?
"Does your state have capital punishment, Kay"
"We do, indeed"
"I am happy to say that that was done away with, many decades ago though there are still some of us who have experience of that era"
"I'm surprised that someone so obviously conservative is such a liberal in that one particular area," Kay questioned.
"Liberalism be damned." Came Joe's perverse reply. "The abolition of capital punishment gives something for the Court of Appeal to get its teeth into. It's no good telling an innocent man who is six feet under that we're sorry, we got it wrong and wish to say we're sorry. Even Enoch Powell, as true blue a politician as you could get, was against capital punishment as he knew full well that there but for the grace of god, he might sign somebody's death warrant"
"I'm against capital punishment myself but I have to work within the system as best as I can. I have to autopsy every person who comes from the electric chair within the state of Virginia so I come up against it, personally."
"Of course, if capital punishment still existed we wouldn't have had an enlightening new face on the staff of Larkhall prison." Ventured Joe in a more apparently conciliatory tone of voice.
"How do you mean"
"Nikki Wade a wing governor who works for Karen. I met her once at the party after the performance of the creation and had a very enlightening discussion as to the merits of custodial sentence. Some years ago, she received a life sentence for taking the life of that vile policeman who was on the point of seriously molesting her partner before she intervened. Between you and me, that judge who first tried the case was toadying to the Home Office in a most shameless fashion. His judgments were as sound as a typical slipshod second hand car salesman. Whenever a case came up for appeal with his name on it, I always had that sinking feeling inside of me of a screw loose somewhere. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the case was taken to the Court of Appeal where her sentence was knocked down to three years for manslaughter. She appealed against that judgment as it left a mark on her name. The appeal was successful and wiped her record clean. The basic case was that that animal was deliberately provoking her. Her barrister very cleverly added on top a plea of defending another human being against attempted criminal assault as analogous to self defence. In making great play on the fact that the dead man was a policeman, the very person employed to stop crime, not commit it, the cumulative weight persuaded the establishment to cut their losses. It was a landmark case and much talked about by the brethren.' I know that John had strong feelings of sympathy with Nikki but even if he had been a high court judge at the time, I'm sure that her case would have been kept out of his hands for obvious reasons"
"So how and why did she choose to work in the prison service? That sounds very unusual"
"From what I understand, I think she wants to give back some of the good fortune to others that she received. She's an incorrigible left winger like John but I must say that she has real spirit. I met her partner, Helen at the same time and they are definitely well suited and well settled." replied Joe.
He had directed a meaning glance at George and there was a very mischievous twinkle in his eye .Kay was surprised by the matter of fact attitude of this very archetypal elderly upper class very English gentleman. Outward appearances could certainly deceive and she couldn't help but make comparisons with her sister, that selfish unmotherly monument of platitudes. Not only did she actively dislike her personally but also she had no respect for her neglectful attitude to her niece Lucy, that erratic genius whose vulnerabilities she knew far better than her sister did. But then again, she ought to remember what a perceptive investigative mind made Marino a very fine policeman despite his outrageously redneck exterior. Her eyes stared into the distance in contemplation.
When Kay had slipped off to the toilet up the north face of the Eiger that was the main staircase, Joe seized the chance to collar George about a matter that had come to his attention by the ever reliable jungle telegraph.
"I've had word that you've not only been skating on thin ice during the trial you're handling with Jo but daring the ice to crack"
"What do you mean, daddy?" she asked unnecessarily as she put two and two together straightaway.
"Your hounding of the witness for the prosecution, that very attractive female surgeon, or so I hear. You've got away with it before but you must not push your luck. The presence of Monty on the bench makes it doubly difficult if you fall off that high wire. It's a long way down. You must act with more restraint in future"
That worried expression on her father's face and the knowledge that he was right made George own up.
"All right, I admit that I did push her further than I should have done but I won't do it again. I'll be more careful….look here, is this in any way official?" George continued with a questioning look on her face.
"The matter is entirely unofficial and private so far but only you have the power to keep it that way, George"
"I promise not to be rash or foolhardy and I'll behave myself in future. I've visited Larkhall prison and I have absolutely no intention of ending up as an inmate." George reasoned with more forceful conviction than before. Her father took one look at her and believed her.
The day resumed its relaxed course and finally George and Kay made their departure.
"Of course, I won't hold you to the agreement but I would like to hear it." Kay offered
in a conciliatory fashion.
"If you listen to it on her own, that's fine by me"
George had other worries on her mind and the matter of potential public embarrassment wasn't such a monumental event after all.