Brian Freemantle - A Mind to Kill

Feltham nodded, ‘I sympathize. And understand. And I’d do it as a favour, if it were possible. But look at it objectively, from my point of view. Even if the voice in her head is bullshit, we couldn’t win! I don’t take cases that are lost before they begin. I wouldn’t put this to any of my seniors. They trust me. They’d think I was the one who’d gone mad.’

‘You did do well with Hallett.’

Feltham looked steadily across the table for several moments. ‘We’ve already talked about that.’

‘There’s an Exchange inquiry going on, into some copper dealings Lomax fronted for some Far East dealers.’

‘How did it go wrong?’

‘A Tokyo dealer got over-extended. Went on buying to cover his losses, with money he didn’t have. Persuaded the finance minister in Bolivia to use government money for a private portfolio they asked Lomax to set up.’

‘Was Lomax part of it?’

‘No.’

‘Sure?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘But it’ll go to court here?’

‘Inevitably.’

‘How long?’

‘I’d say it’ll run for three months. Maybe four. Some Lichtenstein royalty were conned. And a Hollywood producer.’

‘High profile as well as a good earner?’

‘Guaranteed.’

Feltham sighed. ‘So we’ve got a problem.’

‘One that can surely be resolved.’

‘My seniors trust me,’ repeated Feltham. ‘It’s a matter of integrity.’

‘I understand,’ said Perry, who did and saw nothing hypocritical or even odd in Feltham’s remark. ‘What about Jeremy Hall?’

Feltham smiled. ‘You stay on top of things.’

‘We both do,’ said Perry, smiling back. Jeremy Hall was the newest arrival at Sir Richard Proudfoot’s chambers, the first barrister in ten years whose acceptance hadn’t been subject to Feltham’s veto. Hall was Proudfoot’s nephew.

‘He’s under my care.’

‘Aren’t all your people?’

‘Special care.’ Feltham gestured for a second port.

‘At its worst, she’s mad,’ said Perry. ‘She herself is demanding a psychiatric examination so we’ll know soon enough. At its best, it’s a cleverly planned murder. All right, so it’s guilty, whichever. But the money’s guaranteed and if there is another woman he’ll be able to push the spurned wife defence. And she is beautiful, so the publicity to the chambers is as assured as the fee. It wouldn’t hurt just occasionally to be on the side of the underdog, would it?’

‘She cut him to pieces, according to this morning’s papers!’

‘Temporary insanity. All part of the same mitigation.’

‘I’m still not totally happy.’

‘I’m not saying it’s perfect.’

‘How much prelim work would be involved in the copper case?’

‘Two months, minimum.’

‘And the case would run for four?’

‘At least. It’ll be very worthwhile.’

‘I’d have to explain the Lomax brief to Sir Richard.’

‘Of course.’

‘He was very pleased at the way the Hallett thing turned out.’

‘I’ve heard the Lord Chancellor was impressed.’

‘Sir Richard would make a good judge,’ agreed Feltham, smiling in acknowledgement of Perry’s preparation. ‘I’d be sorry to lose him, of course.’

‘Of course,’ agreed Perry. ‘The chamber accepting an obvious guilty plea wouldn’t go against the consideration, would it? The contrary, in fact.’

Feltham smiled again. ‘Good point, well made.’

‘Are we agreed then?’

‘I think so. I’m sorry if I was brusque at the beginning.’

Perry shook his head in dismissal. ‘What’s Hall like?’

‘Young. A little brash. Good pass marks. Not a bad court presence. It’ll improve when I’ve trained him up. Special case, as I said. Father was a Name at Lloyds: family was wiped out by the insurance crash. The old man killed himself. Sir Richard let Hall into the chambers literally as an act of charity: he didn’t have any money to go anywhere else.’

‘Riches to rags?’ smiled the bald-headed man.

‘Something like that,’ said Feltham, unimpressed by the attempted joke. ‘When’s the remand hearing?’

‘This afternoon, at the hospital.’

‘You want him to be there?’

Perry gave another dismissive gesture. ‘It’ll only be a formality.’

‘Properly handled, there will be some mileage in it for the chambers, won’t there?’

‘I’ll look after him,’ promised Perry.

‘It’s been a good lunch. Thank you.’

‘Best of luck with the diet.’

‘Thanks.’ Feltham rose but remained standing at the table. ‘Unwinnable cases are a bastard, aren’t they?’

‘An absolute bastard,’ agreed Perry.

‘All sixteen?’ queried Rodgers.

‘Until I get the name,’ insisted Bentley. ‘The place is a fucking goldfish bowl. Someone will know who he was screwing, like they knew he was popping Jennifer while his first wife was alive.’

‘When do you want to start?’

‘Directly after the magistrate’s hearing. It’ll be up and down, five minutes at the most.’

‘You want me to warn Lomax’s office?’

‘No,’ said Bentley. ‘Let’s surprise them.’

Jennifer was totally exhausted, eyes sunk into black-ringed hollows, skin so numb it tingled and was sensitive to touch, as if it had been burned. It was a constant effort in the daylight to retain the consciousness she’d wanted so desperately to lose during the night but hadn’t been able to. Because of the drip it hurt to reach up with her right hand and the bandages on her left made it difficult to knuckle the drooping tiredness away even to see around her. The hospital doctor, Peter Lloyd, had refused to give her the stimulant she’d asked for, saying it would counteract the painkillers she was having. He’d done so standing well back from the bed when Jane had made her call the man an awkward bastard. It had been Lloyd, whom she thought looked too young to be a doctor, who’d given her the time of the magistrate’s arrival and she’d tried, before Humphrey Perry came, to tidy herself with a brush and make-up but she couldn’t control the shake any more. Her lipstick had smudged, unevenly, and she’d had to stop where her lip was swollen and split and the liner was a mistake on eyes already too dark. The tears, when she’d cried from frustration as well as grief, had made the mascara run and she hadn’t been able to clean properly the marks from her face and knew she looked dirty and unwashed.

‘She wouldn’t let me sleep. Not at all. She kept on at me all night,’ Jennifer announced, as the solicitor came into her room. She saw one of the two departing policewomen shaking her head.

‘ Do what I like, do what I like! ’

‘It’s all right.’ Perry didn’t think he’d shown any reaction but supposed there must have been something. He felt a twitch of pity, despite what she’d done: mentally sick people weren’t responsible for their actions, however horrifying.

‘It’s not! I look like a mad woman.’

‘ You sure do, honey. ’

Perry didn’t think he would have recognized the gaunt, cadaverous-faced woman lying on the bed in front of him as the svelte, sophisticated person photographed and named as Jennifer Lomax in that morning’s newspapers. If she continued to look like this it would contribute to the only plea it was possible to enter. ‘It’ll only last a few minutes today.’

‘I’ve got to stop her! You’ve got to help me stop her.’

‘ You can’t! Neither can he! ’

‘I will,’ promised Perry, emptily. He’d probably be back in the office in time to call the psychiatrists he’d employed in the past. Mason was good. So was Denning. He’d use both. And anyone else they suggested. Get it over as quickly as possible. Bert Feltham was right: unwinnable cases were a bastard.