The Brief

by Simon Michael

  ‘May I take it that Sands is prepared to give evidence to this effect for the prosecution?’ asked Charles trying to appear unconcerned.

  ‘You may,’ answered Hogg.

  ‘May I also take it that the Crown is proposing to call him as a witness of truth?’

  ‘You may,’ repeated Hogg. ‘We shall offer no evidence against him on the murder, and I shall apply to the Judge to sentence him for the robbery before he gives evidence against your client.’

  ‘I’d better get some instructions,’ said Charles. ‘If you’ll excuse me…’

  Charles went to the public canteen where he found Ralph Cohen and his son, Daniel, at a table.

  ‘Good morning – ’ started Cohen senior. Charles silently put the new statement in his hands. Daniel craned his neck to read over his father’s shoulder.

  ‘Fucking hell!’ he breathed.

  ‘Language,’ chided Ralph quietly as he continued reading. ‘So,’ he continued, when he had finished.

  ‘Yes. It’s clever. As long as the two defendants stuck to their stories the Crown was always likely to fail on the murder charge. No jury could be sure which one of them did it and would have to acquit both. This way the prosecution at least has a shout at getting one of them.’

  ‘But probably the wrong one,’ said Daniel.

  Charles nodded, but shrugged. ‘But it’s not for us to say, is it? That’s for the jury. Have you seen Mr Rhodes Thomas?’

  ‘We agreed to meet him outside the cells – ’ Daniel looked at his watch ‘ – right now.’

  ‘Let’s go then,’ said Charles.

  The three men descended to the basement. Michael Rhodes Thomas was waiting for them outside the main door.

  ‘Well met,’ he said as the others arrived.

  ‘Wait till you’ve seen this,’ said Charles heavily, indicating that Ralph should hand the QC the new statement. Rhodes Thomas read it while they waited for the gaoler to arrive. ‘Well, we did suspect they might try this tactic, didn’t we Charles?’ He handed the document back to Ralph.

  ‘Yes. Poor Derek Plumber is now facing the gallows on his own.’

  ‘Indeed. He’s going to need very gentle handling. And we may have to reconsider our tactics.’

  The door opened. ‘Good morning gentlemen,’ said the prison officer. The door was locked behind them, and they followed the officer up a short corridor to another locked door. The air was redolent of frying bacon.

  ‘I swear, the food down here smells better than that in the Bar Mess upstairs,’ said Rhodes Thomas, echoing Charles’s comment of only a few minutes before.

  ‘Oh yes, sir. We’re the first Michelin starred restaurant in HM Prison Service,’ said the gaoler with a grin.

  Five minutes later Plumber was shown into the tiny cell already cramped with the three lawyers. Without speaking, Rhodes Thomas gave him Sands’s statement. Plumber read it, his face growing ashen, his slack jaw dropping.

  ‘Jesus Christ,’ he whispered, ‘I’m done for.’

  ‘Sit down Derek,’ said Rhodes Thomas. ‘Take a few deep breaths, and start telling us the truth.’

  Plumber sat, but his hands holding Sands’s statement shook violently and he was gasping for air. ‘I’m getting dizzy,’ he said, and indeed he was swaying like a plant blowing in a breeze. ‘I think I’m having a heart attack!’

  Charles scanned the cell quickly and saw Daniel’s open briefcase. He reached in and took out a large crumpled manila envelope. He tipped out the contents, colour photographs of the Express Dairy building, and handed them to Daniel.

  ‘May I?’ he asked, holding up the envelope.

  ‘Sure.’

  Charles compressed the opening of the envelope and blew into it, forming a bag. He held it out to Plumber.

  ‘Put that in front of your mouth and breathe in and out of the envelope. Go on!’ Plumber put up a trembling hand, took the envelope, and applied it to his mouth. ‘Either cover your nose or just breathe through your mouth,’ ordered Charles.

  Plumber did as instructed, and within a few seconds his breathing began to return to normal.

  ‘Better?’ asked Charles.

  Plumber nodded.

  ‘He was hyperventilating, that’s all,’ explained Charles.

  The other lawyers looked at Charles in surprise. ‘I didn’t know you had any medical experience,’ commented Rhodes Thomas.

  ‘I don’t. I grew up with a hysterical mother.’

  It took Plumber a couple of minutes to calm down sufficiently to talk.

  ‘There was only the two of us on the job. God, I never wanted to go, I swear it. I’d gone straight for four years. I had a job and everything. But he called me, I guess within a day or so of getting out, and threatened to grass me on the last job. It was cast iron he said, this would be the last job ever, and it would set us up for life. He persuaded me to take a wossname, an imitation shooter. You can look up my record: I’ve never touched a gun – real or fake – in thirty years of being a villain till this job. I never even knew he had a sawn-off, on my baby’s life, I swear it.’

  ‘Very well,’ said Rhodes Thomas. ‘Why make up a third man?’

  ‘That was his idea. He reckoned if we both stuck to our stories, we’d neither of us be convicted.’

  ‘He was right. But he hasn’t stuck to the story. And for some reason the prosecution believes him rather than you. They’re proposing to drop the murder charge against him. Why should they believe him Derek?’

  ‘I don’t know. What’re we gonna do?’

  ‘That’s up to you. They’re obviously not going to take an offer on the robbery alone, and on your instructions, you can’t plead guilty to the murder. The case will depend on which of the two of you the jury believes.’

  ‘A cut-throat,’ said Charles.

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Rhodes Thomas. ‘A cut-throat defence: each defendant blaming the other.’

  ‘What does that mean?’ asked Plumber.

  ‘In practical terms,’ answered Charles, ‘a dirty trial. No holds barred. Your credit with the jury is all-important. Subject to what Mr Rhodes Thomas thinks, you’d be advised to plead guilty to the robbery and tell the jury the whole story. It’ll look dreadful if he admits it, and you don’t.’

  ‘I agree,’ said Rhodes Thomas. ‘The question I need to have answered now is this: do we require an adjournment? The Crown won’t oppose us asking for one, if there’s any point. But I have your instructions on this new statement, and I personally cannot see what purpose would be served by delaying the trial.’

  ‘What do you think, Mr Cohen?’ asked Plumber, turning to the man he’d known the longest.

  ‘I think counsel are right. I see no reason to delay. It’ll only give Sands the chance to make up more convincing detail.’

  ‘Okay then,’ said Plumber, sounding a lot more brave than he looked. ‘Let’s go for it.’

  The lawyers left the cells and went directly to Court Two. The prosecution team and Sands’s barrister awaited them.

  ‘Well?’ asked Hogg.

  ‘Very, thank you,’ answered Rhodes Thomas with a smile.

  ‘Still fighting?’ asked Hogg.

  ‘Oh my dear fellow,’ replied Rhodes Thomas, ‘I should hate to deprive us all of a few days’ work. We’re still fighting.’

  ‘Fair enough. I’ve asked the clerk if she can arrange for us to see the Judge in Chambers just to explain the position.’

  ‘Why?’ asked Charles.

  ‘There are other matters which you’ll understand I can’t mention now, that have to be aired in Chambers.’

  A grim-faced, grey-haired woman of about fifty wearing court robes approached the barristers.

  ‘His Lordship will see you now gentlemen, if you’re ready.’

  ‘Are we ready?’ asked Hogg, turning to Rhodes Thomas.

  ‘We are.’

  The five barristers followed the clerk to a door behind the Judge’s bench and out onto a carpeted corridor, the walls of which were h
ung with paintings. They filed down the corridor for some distance until they came to a panelled door. The clerk motioned for them to wait, and knocked.

  ‘Come,’ said a voice from behind the door.

  The clerk entered, half closing the door behind her, and then opened it wide to usher the barristers in.

  ‘Good morning Judge,’ said Hogg.

  ‘Good morning gentlemen. Do sit down if you can,’ said the Judge. His Honour Judge Galbraith Q.C. had been a recent, and popular, appointment to the bench. He was of the new generation of judges, those who were not so prosecution-minded as the old school. He was non-interventionist too; he let the barristers get on with the cases in their own way with a minimum of judicial interference. On his appointment as a full-time judge he had commissioned a small polished triangle of wood to sit on the desk in front of him with the words “Be Quiet” embossed in large gold letters. Every morning he carried the little sign into court with his case papers, and placed it carefully on his bench facing himself.

  Sir Richard Hogg introduced the other barristers, and explained who they each represented.

  ‘There are a number of matters I’d like to explain with your permission, Judge,’ he continued. ‘The indictment contains two counts, robbery and murder. As I expect you will have read, the prosecution case on the first is strong, whereas I concede we would have had difficulty on the murder. The position has now changed, in that Sands has offered to give evidence for the Crown.’ He handed to the Judge a copy of the statement. ‘That is a Notice of Additional Evidence served on the Defence this morning.’

  He paused to allow the Judge to read it. The Judge turned to Rhodes Thomas. ‘Are you asking for an adjournment?’

  ‘No, Judge.’

  ‘That presumably means that you will no longer proceed against Sands,’ said the Judge to Hogg. Charles now understood why Sands did not need a Q.C.; he wasn’t to be tried at all for the murder.

  ‘If you accept this evidence as the truth,’ continued the Judge, ‘it means that you accept that he didn’t know of the shotgun.’

  ‘It certainly means that we cannot prove otherwise,’ replied Hogg.

  ‘What gives this statement credence in your view?’ asked the Judge. ‘It might as easily have been Plumber who approached you. It’s still a cut-throat.’

  Charles smiled. This Judge was no fool.

  ‘That brings me on to the other matter that I wanted to raise, Judge, and it’s a matter that would be best not raised in open court. Sands has been of great assistance to the police in relation to other matters. He has provided information that has led to a number of arrests, and I am instructed that charges will follow. He appears to have been entirely frank in relation to those matters, some of which may result in charges against him personally.’

  ‘And of course, you, Mr Jewell, want me to take these “other matters” into account when sentencing him,’ asked the Judge.

  ‘Yes, Judge, I do.’

  ‘And I expect you both want him sentenced for the robbery before we start the trial of Mr Plumber, so there can be no suggestion that he is buying a light sentence with false evidence?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Jewell and Hogg in unison.

  The Judge leaned back in his chair and considered what he had been told. ‘If the only evidence against Plumber is that of a potential co-defendant, the jury will have to be warned in any event against convicting him on Sands’s word alone. There will have to be corroboration, won’t there, Mr Hogg?’

  ‘That’s right, Judge. The prosecution says that there is evidence capable of being corroboration, subject, of course, to your ruling.’

  ‘I see. What do you have to say about this Mr Rhodes Thomas?’ asked the Judge.

  ‘There’s nothing I can say, Judge. The prosecution have taken a view of the evidence. I cannot change that. We’re entitled to know exactly what information Mr Sands has given to the police, so we can consider if we want to cross-examine on it, and what other charges may follow.’

  ‘Yes,’ said the Judge. ‘I think that must be right. I shall need a note signed from a responsible police officer setting out what Sands has told the police, so that it may be put in the file. I shall make no express reference to it in Court. I must say that I am not entirely happy with the turn of events, Mr Hogg, but I cannot prevent you from taking this course. If you decide to offer no evidence against one of two defendants, I can’t stop you.’ Hogg did not answer. The Judge turned to Rhodes Thomas. ‘Is Plumber proposing to plead guilty to the robbery?’

  ‘Yes, Judge, he is.’

  ‘Well, thank you gentlemen. How long will you need before we can swear in a jury?’

  ‘I would have thought we’d need ten minutes before we can start,’ answered Hogg. ‘We should then be in a position to deal with the guilty pleas and the sentence of Sands. I suppose the jury in waiting could be asked to stand by for midday.’

  ‘Very well,’ said the Judge.

  Once outside the Judge’s Chambers, Rhodes Thomas winked at Charles. ‘I am beginning to think we might have some fun with this, Charles,’ he whispered. ‘I wonder if Hogg’s bitten off a bit more than he can chew.’

  They returned to the cells to see Plumber.

  ‘He’s turned grass,’ said Rhodes Thomas.

  ‘What?’ exclaimed Plumber, incredulous.

  ‘He’s given the police information regarding other crimes. That’s why they believe him.’

  ‘Where does that leave me?’ asked Plumber.

  ‘Mr Holborne and I have been chatting about it on the way down. We’re not optimistic, but we don’t think all is lost. It gives us a lever over Sands. What I’d like to do, Mr Plumber, is keep a very low profile for almost the whole of the case. You admit that you took part in the robbery, and you do not deny the witnesses’ accounts of the shooting. You simply say that it wasn’t you with the gun. The dead man can’t say which of you it was, and the other two members of Team 3, Gilsenan and…’

  ‘Barrett, or Barnett,’ offered Charles.

  ‘Yes, well, they were both unsighted by their van and by Wright himself. In my view it’s simply a question of which of the two of you the jury believe.’

  ‘Do you agree, Charles?’

  ‘Yes, I do.’

  ‘Very well,’ continued Rhodes Thomas. ‘I propose to ask no questions at all of the other prosecution witnesses. We shall save the whole attack for Sands himself.’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Sands got nine years. It would have been less but for his bad record, and it would have been more but for the assistance he had given, and had promised still to give, to the police. With remission and discounting parole he would probably serve between four and five years. By the time he had been sentenced it was almost 1 o’clock and the Judge adjourned for lunch.

  At 2 o’clock the jury was sworn in, Plumber pleaded guilty to robbery and not guilty to murder. The trial began. By the end of the afternoon, almost half of the Crown’s case had been completed, and the Defence had not asked a single question. The jury were looking decidedly puzzled. Charles looked across at them every now and then, and could see them looking at the bench where the Defence team sat, wondering what was going on. There was no doubt: by the time Mike Rhodes Thomas stood to cross-examine Sands, the full attention of the jury would be on him.

  The Judge adjourned at 4.15 pm, and Charles headed back to Chambers. He hesitated outside Mick’s, tempted to stop for a cup of tea, and saw a group of barristers at one of the tables. He was about to move on, when one of their number saw him, and waved for him to enter. Charles looked at his watch and went in.

  Charles arrived back at 2 Chancery Court at 6.30 pm. suitably warmed with several cups of tea and rounds of toast. He walked into the clerks’ room. Unusually, Sally was still there. She had bowed to the pressure and replaced the miniskirt and leather boots with her more familiar dark blue suit and cream blouse, but Charles still found her very attractive. She was petite, little more than five feet tall, but with a per
fect hourglass figure, a little turned up nose, and large brown eyes. Her hands – always instantly visible because of the ever-changing brightly coloured nail varnish she wore – were very small but extremely deft. Charles loved watching her tying the ribbon used for legal briefs – slick, efficient and effortless. More than once he had thought about those little white hands undoing the buttons of his shirt.

  ‘Hello there,’ said Charles, as he peered into the pigeon-hole reserved for his briefs (and more importantly, cheques) as they came in. ‘What are you doing here so late? We’re not paying for overtime are we?’ he joked.

  ‘You’re kidding, right? No, I’m going out tonight and me boyfriend’s picking me up. So, as I had to wait anyway, Stanley asked me to hang on for Mr Clarke’s brief to arrive. It’s being sent over by hand. Are you staying, sir?’ she asked.

  Charles didn’t answer. A large brief had been awaiting him in the pigeon-hole, and he undid the ribbon on it and skim-read the instructions. ‘Damn!’ he said softly as he read. ‘Sorry, Sally, did you ask something?’

  ‘Yes. Are you going to be staying, as I’ve locked up on the other side.’

  The set of chambers was split into two sets of rooms divided by a central landing, and each “side” required its own keys.

  ‘Well,’ answered Charles, ‘I was going to go straight home, but they want an indictment drafted by tomorrow and an Advice on Evidence,’ he said, tapping the papers in his hand. ‘Why they always leave it to the last minute I shall never understand. The sooner we get a central prosecution service, the happier I shall be.’

  He gathered the papers together and left the clerks’ room. He opened the door to the corridor, still reading as he walked, and bumped straight into someone coming in the other way. He knew by the smell who it was, without even looking up.

  ‘Evening, Kellett-Brown,’ he said, stepping back. Ivor Kellett-Brown was the oldest – and the oddest – member of Chambers. He had come to the Bar in the late 1930s having failed at a number of other careers, and had promptly failed in the Law too. However, incredible as the members of 2 Chancery Court found it, he appeared to have friends in high places. Mr Justice Bricklow, who had been head of Chambers until 1936, had brought Kellett-Brown in, and he had stayed ever since. He had no discernible practice but, unlike in most other professions, every now and then a complete duffer managed to survive at the Bar, living off the crumbs from other barristers’ tables. As long as he paid his Chambers rent – and no one knew how he managed even that, as his earnings from the Law were certainly insufficient – and he caused no one any trouble, he was permitted to occupy the corner of the pupils’ room.