Ken McClure - Eye of the raven

‘ I see, well, I’ll just see which one of the partners might be available first.’

‘ Thanks.’

Steven only had to wait a couple of minutes before the woman reappeared and pressed a button to release the electronic door lock, which allowed him to enter the offices proper. ‘Mr Seymour will see you,’ she said, leading the way up carpeted stairs to an elegant room, which had three tall Georgian windows, all looking out on to Abercromby Place. A tall silver-haired man got up from his desk to greet him.

‘ I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Doctor,’ he smiled, showing even white teeth. He reminded Steven of advertisements for holidays in the sun for the over fifties. ‘I don’t think I’ve come across the Sci-Med Inspectorate before.’

‘ No reason why you should,’ replied Steven, saying briefly what they did.

‘ But I understood there was a problem with fire regulations,’ said Seymour, sounding puzzled and looking concerned in an exaggerated way.

‘ My business is not for your outer office,’ said Steven. ‘It concerns a man named Paul Verdi.’

Steven could have sworn that Seymour paled slightly but after faltering for a moment the urbane smile returned and Seymour said, ‘I’m afraid I can’t help you there; Mr Verdi is no longer with us. He left some… let me see; it must be seven years ago at least.’

‘ But he was a full partner in the firm?’

Seymour conceded with a shrug. ‘He was, but after a deal of heart searching, Paul felt that he’d had enough of law. I think he felt frustrated by its… constraints. He decided to embark on a change of career and went into business for himself I understand; the sort of move that takes courage.’

Steven paused before saying, ‘So Paul Verdi gave up a full partnership in an old established city law firm… to do what exactly?’

‘ I think there was some talk at the time of involvement with health clubs, gymnasiums, keep-fit, that sort of nonsense,’ Seymour added with what he obviously thought was a disarming smile. ‘Not my cup of tea at all although I believe they’ve become very popular. The truth is we’ve completely lost touch with one another. These things happen; people move on.’

‘ So you’d be amazed to learn that Paul Verdi runs a number of sauna parlours in the city?’ asked Steven.

Seymour looked uncomfortable. ‘Why are you really here, Doctor Dunbar?’ he asked.

‘ Paul Verdi was by all accounts a very successful criminal lawyer and yet he gave it all up to run a chain of knocking shops,’ said Steven. ‘Make sense to you?’

Seymour winced at the vulgarity, his mouth set into a tight, thin line. He said, ‘Mr Verdi’s business interests are of no concern to me or this firm. You still haven’t answered my question; why are you here?’

‘ I’ll be frank with you, Mr Seymour,’ said Steven. ‘I think Mr Verdi left under a cloud. I’d like you to tell me what that cloud was. I think it may have some relevance to a case I’m working on.’

Seymour considered for a moment before saying, ‘It would be true to say that we had a difference of opinion over certain matters.’

‘ What matters?’

‘ Paul was very successful but there was a question mark over how he went about things. He wasn’t…’

Steven filled in the gap with a silent, ‘One of the old school.’

‘- conventional in his handling of certain cases,’ completed Seymour.

‘ Could we be talking about witness intimidation, Mr Seymour?’

‘ There were rumours,’ admitted Seymour. ‘We simply couldn’t have anything like that associated with this firm.’

‘ Of course not,’ said Steven, waiting for Seymour to continue. When he didn’t, he said bluntly, ‘Rumours however, wouldn’t be enough to get a man like Verdi to fall on his sword and opt out of a full partnership in a firm like this, would they?’

‘ I don’t think I understand what you’re getting at,’ said Seymour.

‘ You would have needed more than rumours to confront Verdi with,’ said Steven. ‘You must have had absolute positive proof of something he’d done and I’d like to know what it was.’

‘ I really don’t know what you’re talking about,’ said Seymour, putting up mental shutters and looking at his watch.

‘ I think you do, Mr Seymour. You and your partner must have had something big on Verdi, something clearly criminal but instead of calling in the police — as you should have done — you gave him the chance of resigning in return for your silence. That way he could keep his freedom and you could get rid of a rotten apple and keep your all-important reputation. Justice would be the only thing to suffer but hey, you can’t have everything.’

‘ How dare you!’ exclaimed Seymour.

‘ Oh, I do dare, Mr Seymour,’ replied Steven calmly. ‘Now are you going to tell me what it was that Verdi was involved in?’

‘ I have nothing more to say to you,’ said Seymour.

‘ You will not be prosecuted: you have my word…’

Seymour appeared to waver for a moment but then shook his head.

‘ Verdi conducted the defence of David Little in the Julie Summers case,’ said Steven, suddenly changing tack. ‘Why?’

Seymour looked surprised. ‘It was a favour,’ he said. ‘Little’s wife worked for him: Charlotte was his secretary.’

It was Steven’s turn to be taken aback. ‘His secretary,’ he repeated.

‘ Yes, a nice woman, she’d been living in America: the whole family had. We all felt so sorry for her and the children when her husband was charged. Paul did the decent thing and offered to defend him.’

‘ But not with any great vigour,’ said Steven.

‘ He was clearly guilty,’ countered Seymour.

Steven nodded thoughtfully before changing tack again in an effort to unsettle Seymour. ‘Verdi was also involved in defending three high-profile criminals who got off through elementary errors he exposed in the forensic evidence. Did these cases have anything to do with his subsequent downfall?’ he asked.

‘ I have nothing to say,’ said Seymour.

Steven could sense that Seymour wasn’t going to budge. ‘Very well,’ he said. ‘You are obviously determined not to tell me. My previous offer of immunity from prosecution is withdrawn. When I find out what Verdi was up to and if it seems appropriate, I’ll throw the book at you and your firm.’

Seymour swallowed but didn’t respond.

As Steven left, he passed an elderly lady waiting in the outer office: she was wearing a fur coat. He couldn’t help but think of a sheep who’d come to be fleeced. Outside on the street, he was about to hail a taxi when he thought better of it. Recollections of his earlier cab ride and his recent experience of dealing with the legal profession decreed that he sample fresh air and avoid contact with humanity for a bit.

It had stopped raining so he started walking uphill towards Princes Street. Edinburgh Castle stood high on its rock, wreathed in low cloud. The citizens scurrying below would come and go but it would go on oblivious. Discovering that David Little’s wife had worked for Paul Verdi had come as a bit of a shock to Steven and was still making him feel uneasy although he couldn’t think why. He supposed that there was no reason why staff in legal offices shouldn’t get perks just like any other people in commerce. They would probably get cheap conveyancing when they bought houses just as bank staff got cheap mortgages and airline staff cheap travel. So what disturbed him so much about Verdi having taken on David Little’s defence for that reason? he wondered.

The fact that Verdi was a crook was the obvious answer. Seymour had more or less confirmed what McClintock had suspected, albeit without giving away any of the details. He felt sure that Verdi had been ousted from the partnership. The state of play was now that the evidence against Little had come from a lab run by a drunk whom no one trusted and his defence had been conducted by a crook who’d been ousted from the profession. But the evidence was sound and there was little or nothing the defence could have done against that, he reminded himself. So why did he still feel uneasy?