Maxim Jakubowski - The Best British Mysteries III

‘Not quite the end,’ I told him. ‘I don’t think it’s quite the end of the matter yet.’

This remark did nothing to improve my relations with his Lordship, who gave me a look from which all traces of the Christmas spirit had been drained.

The jury may have had a moment of doubt during the receptionist’s evidence, but when Ricky Glossop was put in the witness box, their sympathy and concern for the good-looking, appealingly modest, and stricken husband was obvious. Graves supported him with enthusiasm.

‘This is clearly going to be a terrible ordeal for you, Mr Glossop,’ the judge said, looking at the witness with serious concern. ‘Wouldn’t you like to sit down?’

‘No, thank you, my Lord. I prefer to stand,’ Ricky said bravely. The judge gave him the sort of look a commanding officer might give to a young subaltern who’d volunteered to attack the enemy position single-handed. ‘Just let me know,’ Graves insisted, ‘if you feel exhausted or overcome by any part of your evidence, and you shall sit down immediately.’

‘Thank you very much, my Lord. That is very kind of your Lordship.’

So with formalities of mutual admiration over, Ricky Glossop began to tell his story.

He had met Honoria some ten years before when they were both cruising round the Greek Islands. ‘She knew all the classical legends and the history of every place. I thought she’d never be bothered with an undereducated slob like me.’ Here he smiled modestly, and the judge smiled back as a sign of disagreement. ‘But luckily she put up with me. And, of course, I fell in love with her.’

‘Of course?’ Soapy Sam seemed to feel that this sentence called for some further explanation.

‘She was extremely beautiful.’

‘And she found you attractive?’

‘She seemed to. God knows why.’ This answer earned him smiles for his modesty.

‘So you were married for ten years,’ Ballard said. ‘And you had no children.’

‘No. Honoria couldn’t have children. It was a great sadness to both of us.’

‘And how would you describe your marriage up to the time your wife got this terrible letter?’ Ballard was holding the letter out, at a distance, as though the paper itself might carry a fatal infection.

‘We were very happy.’

‘When she got the letter, how did she react to it?’

‘She was very brave, my Lord,’ Ricky told the judge. ‘She said it had obviously been written by some nutcase and that she intended to ignore it.’

‘She was extremely brave.’ The judge spoke the words with admiration as he wrote them down.

So Ricky Glossop told his story. And when I, the representative, so it appeared, of his wife’s murderer, rose to cross-examine, I felt a chill wind blowing through Number One Court.

‘Mr Glossop, you said your marriage to your wife Honoria was a happy one?’

‘As far as I was concerned it was very happy.’ Here he smiled at the jury and some of them nodded back approvingly.

‘Did you know that on the afternoon before she was murdered, your wife had consulted a solicitor, Mr Anthony Hawkin of Henshaw and Hawkin?’

‘I didn’t know that, no.’

‘Can you guess why?’

‘I’m afraid not. My wife had considerable financial interests under her father’s will. It might have been about that.’

‘You mean it might have been about the money?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did you know that Anthony Hawkin is well known as an expert on divorce and family law?’

‘I didn’t know that either.’

‘And you didn’t know that your wife was considering proceedings for divorce?’

‘I certainly didn’t.’

I looked at the jury. They were now, I thought, at least interested. I remembered the frightened blonde girl I had seen outside the court and the hand he had put on her as he had tried to comfort her.

‘Was there any trouble between your wife and yourself because of her secretary, Sue Blackmore?’

‘So far as I know, none whatever.’

‘Mr Rumpole, I’m wondering, and I expect the jury may be wondering as well, what on earth these questions have to do with your client’s trial for murder.’

‘Then wonder on.’ I might have quoted Shakespeare to Graves: ‘Till truth makes all things plain.’ But I did not do that. I merely said, ‘I’m putting these questions to test the credibility of this witness, my Lord.’

‘And why, Mr Rumpole, are you attacking his credibility? Which part of this gentleman’s evidence are you disputing?’

‘If I may be allowed to cross-examine in the usual way, I hope it may become clear,’ I said, and then I’m afraid I also said, ‘even to your Lordship.’

At this, Gravestone gave me the look that meant ‘you just wait until we come to the summing up, and I’ll tell the jury what I think of your attack on this charming husband’, but for the moment he remained as silent as a block of ice, so I soldiered on.

‘Mr Glossop. Your wife’s secretary delivered this threatening letter to her.’

‘Yes. Honoria was working at home and Sue brought it over from her pigeonhole at the university.’

‘You’ve told us that she was very brave, of course. That she had said it was probably from some nutcase and that she intended to ignore it. But you insisted on taking the letter to the police.’

‘An extremely wise decision, if I may say so,’ Graves took it upon himself to note.

‘And I think you gave the story to the Press Association so that this death threat received wide publicity.’

‘I thought Honoria would be safer if it was all out in the open. People would be on their guard.’

‘Another wise decision, the members of the jury might think.’ Graves was making sure the jury thought it.

‘And when the letter was traced to my client, everyone knew that it was Hussein Khan who was the author of the letter?’

‘He was dismissed from the university, so I suppose a lot of people knew, yes.’

‘So if anything were to have happened to your wife after that, if she were to have been attacked or killed, Hussein Khan would have been the most likely suspect?’

‘I think that has been obvious throughout this trial.’ Graves couldn’t resist it.

‘My Lord, I’d really much rather get the answers to my questions from the witness than receive them from your Lordship.’ I went on quickly before the judge could get in his two pennies’ worth. ‘You took your wife to the university on that fatal night?’

‘I often did. If I was going somewhere and she had work to do in her office, I’d drop her off and then collect her later on my way home.’

‘But you didn’t just drop her off, did you? You went inside the building with her. You took her up to her office?’

‘Yes. We’d been talking about something in the car and we went on discussing it as I went up to her office with her.’

‘He escorted her, Mr Rumpole,’ the sepulchral voice boomed from the bench. ‘A very gentlemanly thing to do.’

‘Thank you, my Lord.’ Ricky’s smile was still full of charm. ‘And what were you discussing?’ I asked him. ‘Was it divorce?’

‘It certainly wasn’t divorce. I can’t remember what it was exactly.’

‘Then perhaps you can remember this. How long did you stay in the office with your wife?’

‘Perhaps five, maybe ten minutes. I can’t remember exactly.’

‘And when you left, was she still alive?’

There was a small silence.

The witness looked at me and seemed to catch his breath. Then he gave us the invariably charming smile.

‘Of course she was.’

‘You spoke to Mr Luttrell at the reception area on your way out?’

‘I did, yes.’

‘He says you asked him if Hussein Khan was in the building?’