Don Gutteridge - Minor Corruption

Marc held up his hand. “We’re getting aheadof ourselves. Remember, as Robert has told us, Uncle Seamus wasinterviewed by Cobb. If the Crown puts Cobb on the stand to helptie their story together and to provide context as to where in whatcircumstances the love letter and thank-you note were found, I’llbe able, if I’m astute enough, to get him to relate thosefavourable details he elicited from his interview with Uncle Seamusup at Spadina. The trick will be to use the Crown’s questioningsomehow as a basis to launch the subject. I could even call Cobb asa witness for the defense.” But the spectre of vigorouslycross-questioning his good friend was not a happy one.

“If they’re wise,” Sullivan said, “they won’tcall him. That’ll make him a hostile witness if we do it.”

Robert shook his head slowly. “This just getsworse and worse. We’ve got a near-revolt in Windsor – which I’lldetail later – and Francis is going to have to write to LouisLaFontaine in Montreal to apprise him of the upcoming trial beforehe hears about it from the rumour mill.”

“Have we got any actual defense at all?” Dr.Baldwin said.

Marc smiled at him. “You are it, sir.”

“Me?” Dr. Baldwin looked surprised, and alittle edgy. “Oh, as a character witness,” he said.

“Precisely. Without direct testimony from theaccused himself, we’ll need to throw doubt on the probability ofthat big-haired villain being your sweet, gentle brother.”

“And we’ve got the servants,” Robert saidhopefully. “We need to get testimony from them about his kindness,his generosity to them, and his unfailing courtesy.”

Marc sighed. “I’d like nothing better,Robert. I’ve heard about his tutoring Edie Barr and Betsy Thurgoodand his giving them extra money for their families. That testimony,especially by Edie, would be invaluable because Edie was almost thesame age as Betsy.”

“Then why can’t we use it?” Hincks asked. “Orsimilar good references from Mrs. Morrisey or the other, olderhousemaid?”

“Because the Crown will use them for its ownpurposes,” Marc replied.

“I don’t see – ”

“They’ll elicit the other, impish side of hispersonality. They’ll subject the poor servants to a barrage ofquestions about the picnics and soirées up at Spadina. Detailsabout his teasing and flirting will have to come out. Theventriloquist business will involve Betsy directly. They’ll makehim out to be a lecherous and silly old man – in his dotage anddangerous to females.”

“I see,” Hincks said. “I’ve seen that impishside myself. And we’re Irish, aren’t we? We understand and makeallowances for those traits, but others don’t – and won’t.”

“I’m afraid so,” Marc said.

“But won’t my father be subjected to the samecruel cross-examination?” Robert said, glancing at his parent androle model, who looked feverish and uncomfortable. He wouldn’t beable to stay for the political discussion to follow: they couldn’tafford to have him go down sick at this juncture.

“He will, but he’ll be better able towithstand it than the servants. And as one of the pillars of thiscommunity, you, sir, will be questioned with more circumspectionand, I trust, more respect. In addition, your words will carry moreweight.”

“And I can honestly say that I have neverseen the notorious ventriloquist act,” Dr. Baldwin smiled as besthe could. “But perhaps we won’t need a defense.”

“That’s what I’m hoping,” Marc said.” Iintend to go at every Crown witness without mercy. Seamus isinnocent, so there is a truth out there that I must get to, or inthe least point to. We may not be able to break up the neat littlenarrative outlined here in the indictment, but we can put cracks init everywhere along route and suggest some enticing alternatives.Then we’ll win it in the closing argument.”

“That’s the spirit,” Hincks said.

“Who will be arguing against you, Marc?”

It was Robert Sullivan who answered. “I’mafraid it’s Neville Cambridge.”

Both Sullivan and Marc had come up againstNeville Cambridge in the previous spring’s assizes. He was a newbreed of barrister, educated in England where he apprenticed at theOld Bailey, and newly immigrated to Toronto to take up apartnership in his cousin’s law firm. He had proved to be such aneffective courtroom performer that the Crown co-opted him to tryimportant cases. His approach eschewed the flamboyant andhyper-dramatic tactics of old-guard barristers like Doubtful DickDougherty. Instead he relied on his gentleman’s suave demeanour andsly gambits that were closer to sleight-of-hand than slick gesture.He was also a High Tory and politically ambitious. A victory overthe Baldwin clan would be a feather in his pedigreed cap.

“Then we’ll just have to try all the harder,”Marc said.

***

Reluctanty Robert set off on his trouble-shootingmission to Windsor the next day. Francis Hincks wrote immediatelyto Louis LaFontaine, explaining as best he could their view of theheinous and false charges brought against Uncle Seamus and, byextension, the Baldwins and the Reform party. He pointed out thatthe party’s grassroots support was founded on notions of equalityof opportunity and fair play under the law. These people respectedthe earned entitlements of the middle class who led them intheir political struggles: politicos like the Hincks and Baldwinsand, before them, Mackenzie and the Bidwells. If one of their ilkwere to abuse such privilege (abominably in the case of SeamusBaldwin) and disadvantage one of their own kind, then that constantsupport could be dramatically withdrawn. Three days later Hincksreceived a courteous and thoughtful reply from LaFontaine, himselfa lawyer. He sympathized with the Baldwin’s position and promisedthat he would keep a lid on speculation in Quebec among his rouge adherents. He was certain there would be no long-termeffects on their French-English alliance – if the gentleman werefound innocent. He left unsaid the awful consequences ofconviction.

Meanwhile Marc busied himself reading andre-reading the indictment and the numerous attachments: Cobb’svarious interviews and summary, and the two incriminating notes. Onthe Thursday before the trial, he rode up to Whittle’s mill andsurveyed the scene for himself. He wanted to retrace the witnesses’movements, timing, and vantage-points. From the south side of themill, if you walked ten paces farther on, you could see down intothe ravine and the trout-pool where the stream began one of itsmany loops. Unless a person in the ravine were specificallylooking for someone at that point, the latter would likely beunobserved, as Joe Mullins claimed. Uncle Seamus had been seen buthad not realized it. From the ravine Marc followed the creek’s banknorth, noting that a screen of bushes and hawthorn trees kept hismovements hidden from anyone in or around the mill. This coverlasted the hundred and twenty yards he paced off from thetrout-pool to the rear of the barn. Even today, with Seth Whittleaware of his presence and purpose, the back doors were wide open.Marc walked up towards them. A small grove of cedars to his rightwould effectively screen his movement from the two men who claimedto be working on the damaged weir above the mill itself. So, it waspossible for the Crown to claim that Uncle Seamus could have gotfrom the ravine to the barn without being seen. In less than fiveminutes.

Marc went into the barn and stood just insidethe doorway, the spot from which Jake Broom stated he had witnessedthe rape. The stall was wide open to view, as it must have been onthat terrible day. The stall itself was part of a row of stallsrunning north and south the length of the barn. But it was the onlyone visible from the eastern entrance. Broom must have entered fromthe door on the southwest corner, and then strode along to check onthe sick horse, around the corner and several stalls away from thefateful one. Then he would have decided to exit through the backdoors to go for a walk or a smoke, would have walked by the openstall without seeing or hearing anything (why there was no soundwas another matter to be considered), would have reached thedoorway, heard some small noise, and turned to discover the outragebeing perpetrated before his eyes. Instead of rescuing the girl, hepanics and runs to the mill-office. But it’s about one o’clock andeveryone has gone back to work. So he races back, only to find thestall empty. Marc spent another minute studying the peculiar playof light and shadow in the stall, and thinking hard. Then he leftthe barn.