Brian Freemantle - Dead End

‘The first time,’ quickly admitted Parnell. ‘It’s only been twice. And I want…’

The lawyer’s hands came up like forbidding shutters. ‘I don’t want any explanations for why you and Beverley saw each other. I told you, we’re good friends with separate lives, to pursue as we want… as we choose. You and I will never have a personal problem about you and Beverley…’ Jackson let a heavy moment settle. ‘But there’s a reality to talk through. Your fiancee was murdered. You almost got railroaded. You’ve got the sympathy vote, Joe Ordinary – except that you’re not that ordinary – who got caught up in a situation beyond his control. But today we might, just might…’ Jackson narrowed his forefinger against his thumb. ‘… manage to shake a few trees eventually to bring down a few forbidden apples. We got the FBI waiting, with their baskets outstretched. You and Beverley are grown-up, consenting adults, responsible for everything you choose to do. And whatever you guys choose to do is entirely your business. I’m the last one to sit in judgement. But others would and are being invited to be judges and juries. And there’s the media, before whom a feast is being laid out, with you with the apple in your mouth. If there is the faintest whisper that so very soon after the death of your young fiancee you’re involved with another woman, you lose your sympathy vote so fast there’ll be scorch marks on the ground. And quite irrespective of however much convincing law I can argue – and I can argue a hell of a lot – I need totally innocent, railroaded Joe Ordinary next to me in every court and in every witness box… you in step with me and with what I’m saying?’

‘It’s a pretty effective and convincing speech,’ said Parnell, sipping the insisted-upon mineral water but wishing it were wine.

‘It’s meant to be. I spent almost as much time rehearsing it as I did preparing for this afternoon’s conference.’

‘There’s nothing between Beverley and me!’ insisted Parnell.

‘You missed the point,’ accused Jackson. ‘It’s nothing to do with whether or not you and Beverley are into a relationship, which I know you’re not, because Beverley told me you weren’t, and she and I only ever lied to each other once and haven’t done since. It’s public perception.’

‘I do know – do hear – what you’re saying,’ assured Parnell. ‘It isn’t a problem, because it isn’t a problem – a situation that exists.’ What had Jackson meant about he and Beverley only ever having lied to each other once?

‘I’m glad that’s cleared,’ said Jackson.

‘So am I,’ said Parnell, meaning it.

‘How’s your steak? I only ordered a salad when it was your treat, remember?’

‘The steak’s great and there’s still your bill to come.’

‘With other things,’ said Jackson seriously, the brief respite over. ‘I told Beverley to talk to you about refusing a psychological assessment.’

‘She did. I told her I’d back her.’ A flicker of doubt bubbled up in his mind.

‘Why did you take the assessment?’ asked the lawyer, directly.

‘It didn’t seem important enough to refuse,’ said Parnell. ‘Being asked to undergo it was written into my contract.’

‘You still feel that it’s unimportant now?’

Parnell shrugged. ‘I’m English, not American, so I’m not protected by your constitution. It’s difficult now to know what’s important and what isn’t. But I think I’ve discovered something that is.’

‘What?’ demanded the lawyer, at once.

Parnell recounted the arrival of the remaining French samples and Harry Johnson’s easy production of the flick knife and said: ‘Which he lied about, to Dingley and Benton.’

‘Doesn’t make him guilty of anything but that,’ qualified Jackson, once more.

‘I think it’s interesting. And that Dingley will find it interesting, too.’

‘Let’s keep it until we get this over with,’ cautioned Jackson. ‘You ready for this afternoon?’

‘How the hell do I know?’

‘I’ll take all the questions,’ insisted Jackson. ‘Decide those you can answer and those you can’t. We don’t want to risk a contempt of court.’

‘Why hold a press conference at all, then?’

‘To impose pressure. That’s the object of this exercise, remember? Did you tell Newton?’

‘Of course. By email.’

‘And?’

‘When I did see him, he was only just holding on. There were times when he was practically hysterical, particularly about France becoming public.’

‘It’s enough to become hysterical about.’

‘It shouldn’t come out publicly through what we’re doing, should it?’ asked Parnell.

‘I don’t see how it impacts,’ said Jackson, shrugging again. ‘But who the hell knows?’

‘You’re talking of destroying Dubette.’

‘And you’re talking like a terrified, piss-pants employee frightened of losing his job. You forgotten being promised the joys of communal buggery and oral sex, English boy?’

‘You’re confusing the two,’ protested Parnell. ‘And that’s what I don’t want to do, confuse the two.’

‘Why not!’ demanded Jackson, aggressively. ‘You got any good reason to be concerned about Dubette and its stock-market valuation, a company prepared to put a product on to a market where, but for the fluke of your involving yourself, it would have killed God knows how many people, probably without it ever becoming known? If what they tried to market through France becomes public – which I’m not intending it to, unless it simply happens that way – then tough shit for Dubette. You got some convoluted conscience about it, with the money I’m going to get you awarded, build a hospital in Africa where the kids who would have died can be properly treated with proper drugs.’

‘I thought the money you were going to get me was to pay your bill?’ said Parnell, with attempted cynicism that didn’t work.

‘Depending on how successful I am, there might be a little left over,’ said the lawyer. ‘Get hardass, Dick. Everyone else is, and there are more of them than there are of you.’

They entered the hotel through a side entrance, avoiding the initial camera ambush, but it was duplicated inside, lights and lenses directly in front of the dais and all around the edges of the cavernous room. A hedge of microphones had already been built on the waiting table. Every seat in the room was occupied. Parnell immediately isolated Peter Baldwin. Gerry Fletcher, the initially engaged trial lawyer, was beside him. Two other men Parnell didn’t know were clearly part of the Dubette group, all in the front row. Also in the front row, although quite separate from the lawyers, was Edwin Pullinger, the Bureau attorney, with Howard Dingley and David Benton. The room was extremely noisy and questions began to be shouted the moment they entered, adding to the din. The sudden flood of television lights and camera flashes made it difficult at first to see beyond the first four or five rows.

Jackson flapped his hands up and down in a quietening gesture and eventually the row subsided, although not completely. He had convened the conference to announce a civil suit against Metro DC police department and two of its officers, Jackson announced. A claim was being made for ten million dollars for the inconvenience, humiliation and damage to the professional reputation of his client, Richard Parnell, a renowned international scientist employed by Dubette Inc. Mr Parnell had been wrongfully and very publicly arrested on insufficient and inadequate evidence following what subsequently proved to be the murder of his fiancee, Rebecca Lang. Because of some unusual circumstances, that murder was currently being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His client would take questions but respond under advisement.