by Ros Seddon
Slim looked down at the pavement and she knew then that he had taken on board what she had said. Robert Jackson would be very pleased with her. Very pleased indeed.
Chapter Eleven
Ellie was being held in a high security remand centre for women in Exeter. They had told Abi that under no circumstances could she acquire a visiting order until after the case had been heard and tried so as she sat in the waiting area with a perfectly legitimate VO in her trembling hands she knew that she was doing the right thing. How did her Father manage it? Hers wasn’t to question. Hers was to do. Do her Fathers bidding; keep her part of the deal. But her part of the deal was a prison sentence in itself. Her Father had taken on a top barrister from New York; had had him flown over on an all expenses paid trip staying at the Hilton near London’s Tower bridge with an extortionate fee to boot on the sole premise he may be able to get Ellie off on a technicality, allowing her to walk free from the court house able to begin a new life. Although the outcome wasn’t yet certain, If she was found guilty she still could be facing a prison sentence, although Kurt Leyton, the barrister was quite confident that even with a guilty verdict he could get her a conditional sentence. The terms of this contract would mean Ellie may have to move to the States and remain under the watchful eye of her Aunt Catherine under the supervision of Nicolas Debruski, a top US Nationalist Physician experienced in sleep disorders who was willing to take her on as a patient. She would become a kind of human guinea pig, whilst still living a normal life; such was their interest in the case. As tough and unorthodox as it sounded, it would be better than a life of incarceration. Abi had made a pact. After the trial she must never see Ellie again. She must marry a man of her Fathers choosing; or at least one of whom he approved, which was one and the same thing. She had given the matter serious thought. In fact, for the past week Abi had thought of nothing else. Without her Fathers help Ellie could be facing a long prison sentence as an alternative; possibly life. And life for Ellie would be life for Abi also; because without Ellie, Life meant nothing to her. At least this way she could take some comfort in the fact that the woman she loved would be able to live an alternative life with an element of freedom. They may neither of them have each other, or the lives they would choose for each other but at least they would have lives, of some description …….. not confinement.
A series of locks sounded and the huge steel doors opened. Abi was ushered to a room containing five or six booths with a thick glass wall partition between visitors on the outside………… and prisoners on the inside. She was led to booth number four where she sat down and faced the glass wall. After a few minutes when the visitors were all seated in their booths a second series of locks clattered into life and two women simultaneously breezed past the screen on the inside, presumably to booths five and six, then Ellie appeared and sat opposite her behind the glass screen, her fine blonde hair tied back in a tight ponytail; just one small wisp of hair that had broken free from its bounds fluttering gently at the side of her high flushed cheek bones. Her face was pale and drawn in. She looked awful. Abi tried in vain to fight back the tears as she spoke.
‘Hi Ell.’
Abi looked sideways and wiped a stray tear from her eye.
‘You look good.’
‘No I don’t.’
‘Are they treating you well?’
‘As well as can be expected considering the charges they’ve brought against me…. how are you coping?’
‘I’m ok Ell. Don’t worry about me. It’s you I’m concerned about. You look thinner. Are you eating properly?’
‘Who is he Abs?’
‘Who; the Lawyer?’
‘The man you’re with.’
Abi felt a cold shiver running down the length of her spine.
‘Man? I’m………. I’m not with any man Ell. Honestly. I……… I just……..’
‘I’ve seen you with him Abs. He’s older than you and ……. his heart is cold.’
Abi’s face reddened.
‘And he loves you Abs. And you love him. I’m not totally stupid you know. I’ve seen him. I’ve seen his face. His face is familiar to me.’
‘Ten minutes remain for this visit…………’ said a voice over the intercom………… ‘Please remember not to attempt to pass anything over the screens and do not leave anything in the booths when you leave………. Thank you.’
‘Christ! But we’ve only just got here! Look Ellie, we don’t have much time and I need to explain…… He’s my Father.’
‘I thought you were never having any more to do with him again? Who contacted who?’
‘Me. It was me Ell. I contacted him. I had no option.’
An uncomfortable silence ensued and lasted for longer than either of them wished as Abi shifted in her seat.
‘Look Ell…….. there’s no easy way to say this…… I was never entirely honest with you before……… about my family. When I left school I went through a rebellious stage. What I told you about my Mother is true. She is a Greek Cypriot. She was always ….. laid back…… easy going when I was growing up. Maybe too easy going. But my Father………. He….. well he did quite well for himself financially, although he was practically Elizabethan in his approach to parenting. I couldn’t take the pressure any more. The lectures; the strict schedules and the governors. My Mother left him when I was fourteen and went back to Cyprus. Going with her was not an option. I ran away. I cut off and dyed my long hair. I was with a boy of whom my Father disapproved. We didn’t last long. We moved from squat to squat living hand to mouth with no jobs and no money. Eventually we went our separate ways.
My Father searched for me for a long time……… years in fact. The rest you know…. Except for the fact that my Father has excelled himself in the last eight years and has become……….. let’s just say a very rich and powerful man. Since I contacted him I have been living and working with him in London………..’
Ellie was speechless. She studied the face of the girl she had grown to know and love…...and realised in that moment that she didn’t know her at all……………
‘Anyway……’ Abi continued……. ‘Daddy has brought a top Lawyer over from the States. He has also been in touch with your Aunt Catherine and a top Physician from Iowa and we are fighting your case, and Ellie; even if you’re found guilty Leyton is ninety nine percent sure you will not be going to prison for this….. and you may even be able to walk away from this a free woman; imagine that! This guy Leyton is so clued up on this kind of thing. You wouldn’t stand a chance with one of our local solicitors.’
‘Visiting will be over in two minutes. Please prepare to leave……….’ said the Intercom….
Ellie stood up and Abi could see she was not happy.
‘You can tell your Father to send his lawyer back to America Abs. I won’t be needing him……. or you, to fight my corner. I haven’t done any of these things they say I did. I know that. The only help I want is from God. I just want justice Abi……. That’s all.’
Ellie walked behind her chair and pushed it in toward the desk.
‘I’m glad you got in touch with your Father. He must have been worried about you.’
Then she was gone. Visiting wasn’t even over but Ellie was gone, without even a backward glance……………….
‘I call Felicity Breen your Honour.’
‘Felicity Breen!’ the clerk of the court’s voice echoed through the huge hall and along the corridors. As she took the stand and swore her oath she could see Ellie sitting at a table to her right with her solicitor. Her face was pale and drawn and she looked scared. Robert Jackson asked Felicity questions about the night of the fire. The answers came easily to her as she had gone over them so many times before at the police station and in her mind. He asked her about the break in the night she had been hit over the head and about her poor little feline friend and his exhumation. It was at this point that she began to get upset and as hard as she tried, she couldn’t stop the tears that began
to trickle, slowly at first down her cheeks and then more quickly until she just couldn’t control them. Someone passed her a box of tissues and a glass of water and she dried her eyes and sipped the water eagerly. She felt a little stupid and angry having shown herself up in front of all these people.
‘It’s perfectly understandable that you should be upset Felicity after all you’ve been through. I’m sorry that we have to go over all this again but we need to establish the truth.’ Robert Jackson was saying. The court room was full of people she didn’t know; apart from DI Carter and DC Peters who were sitting in the front row, but there was no sign of David. Presumably he had to wait outside until he was called to the stand.
‘Have you ever met the defendant, Eleanor Wilson?’ said Jackson.
‘No. I…….. I’ve spoken to her on the phone, but I’ve never met her.’
‘You spoke to her on the phone?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did she phone you or did you phone her?’
‘No. She phoned David. I was at his house. It…… It was just after the fire. I was staying with him because I couldn’t go home and….. the phone rang. I answered it. I thought it was David but……’
‘And how did she seem when you spoke to her? Was she polite?’
‘No. She was quite abrupt. But then, perhaps I shouldn’t have answered the phone. It wasn’t my place to really…..’
‘What did she say? Tell the court about your conversation.’
‘She just asked for David. I said he wasn’t home yet and could I help or give him a message and she said No. I asked if I could tell him who’d called so he could ring her back and she said It’s his wife and put the phone down…… Look, I may have been imagining it but I just got the impression she was a bit cross that I was answering the telephone in David’s house at all, but……. Well, you would be wouldn’t you? It’s a perfectly natural reaction I suppose.’
Jackson scowled at her and she realised she had said the wrong thing. It was a who’s side are you on look.
‘I would say it’s only a natural reaction to someone who is angry and jealous and vengeful, wouldn’t you Miss Breen? No more questions.’ Jackson went back to his table opposite to where Ellie sat with her defence lawyer who now stood up and walked toward her. It was his turn………
‘Miss Breen. As you say, Mrs Wilson reacted in a way which would be perfectly natural to anyone in her position. Here she was phoning her husband to find another woman in the house which until recently was hers, answering the telephone which until recently was hers.’
‘Well, No. It wasn’t recent. She’d left David a year or so prior to this.’
‘Thank you Miss Breen. Now can we just go back to before the fire….to the night of this alleged break in at your cottage; the night you received a bump on the head. What do you remember of that night Miss Breen?’
‘Nothing much. I had a bath and an early night. I woke up in the morning and David was there. He’d been trying to contact me and he was worried……… after the cat thing. He’d found the back door open and I was in bed kind of unconscious with a massive bump on the side of my head. I came round just as he was about to call an ambulance.’
‘I see. So at some time during the night you believe someone broke into your house and tried to kill you by hitting you over the head? They didn’t do a very good job did they?’
A low key but evident peal of laughter spread through the room followed by intermittent whispers and giggles. The American guy was good. ‘Miss Breen, had you been drinking that night?’
‘Sorry?’
‘Had you been drinking alcohol Miss Breen, before you had this early night?’
‘I….. I may have had a small glass of wine with my evening meal, yes….. but I wasn’t drunk if that’s what you’re implying.’
‘As I understand it, there was no sign of a break in when Mr Wilson arrived the following morning. In fact, the back door was wide open and hadn’t been forced, was it not Miss Breen?’
‘Yes…… I don’t know how……..’
‘Quite. Is it not possible Miss Breen that you had slightly more than a small glass of wine that night and forgot to lock the back door or even close it properly? Is it not also possible that you fell over at some point that night and bumped your head without any help from anyone else?’
‘It…… It’s possible I suppose but…...’
‘Thank you Miss Breen. No further questions your Honour.’
The hearing was in its fourth day. Felicity and David were mentally exhausted as they made their way to their seats.
‘All rise for his Honour the right honourable Judge G Burford.’ called the Clerk of the Court.
They stood up and Felicity noticed the population of spectators had increased again today. The increase seemed to be primarily due to a small band of reporters who had grown in number since Day 1. One or two of them had dictaphones who set them to record the hearing while most just took occasional notes. The rest of the gathering were witnesses who had already given evidence or, she assumed, were acquaintances of Ellie and Abi. She glanced around the room and recognised the young man called Williams who had been called by Robert Jackson yesterday and had made them all laugh when he had made his eyes bulge to demonstrate what a person looked like when they were sleep walking. Kurt Leyton, lawyer for the defence had asked him;
‘Can you honestly tell me Mr Williams that Mrs Wilson here looks anything like the woman in Jonquils pictures?’
‘Well, when I first saw her sitting there I thought, Cor…… she’s a bit of alright and she didn’t look nothing like the girl in Jonky’s pictures so I thought you lot had the wrong girl……….’
‘Thank you Mr Williams………’
‘Oi hang on I aint finished yet……… then Vanguard explained how different someone’d look when they were walking in their sleep…….. their eyes really stare like this……..’
The courtroom had erupted with laughter as he opened his eyes so wide they looked like they were about to pop out. Leyton was shouting, ‘Thank you Mr Williams……’ but his words were lost amidst the echo of hearty laughter that just wouldn’t subside until Judge Burford raised his little wooden hammer and slammed it down hard twice on the podium before him.
‘Order!’ He shouted and a hushed quiet swept through the room and silence was resumed among the crowd.
‘Thank you Mr Williams you may step down now!’ Judge Burford had commanded.
As today’s session began both lawyers were on their feet now having a quiet discussion at the Judges stand, then Jackson went to his table and sat down. Leyton turned to face the court room.
‘I call the defendant, Eleanor Wilson.’
She left her table and walked to the stand, her knees trembling as she went.
‘Repeat after me,’ said the lawyer, ‘I swear by almighty God………’
‘I swear by almighty God……….’ Ellie began but her voice was so soft no one could hear.
‘Louder please. Let the court hear you take this oath Mrs Wilson.’
‘I swear by almighty God……….’ Repeated Ellie, her voice still shaky and her whole body trembling with fear, but her words could now be heard throughout the courtroom.
The next thirty minutes or so were spent with Leyton asking her about her background. He asked her to tell the court about the tragic accident that took her parents from her; about life with her aunt Catherine and about the visions she had had since childhood.
Occasionally Robert Jackson would stand up and shout ‘objection!’ but each time the American had an answer for him and the objection would be overruled by Judge Burford. Things certainly seemed to be going Ellie’s way. Her lawyer was smart. He was painting her whiter than white and everyone in the room including the Jury…….. and even Felicity was empathising with her. Eleanor Wilson had not had an easy life it seemed.
Then it was Jackson’s turn and he talked to her about her sleep disorder. He asked what had driven her to jump
from the bedroom window. She couldn’t answer. She had no recollection of what happened after she went to bed. The court was adjourned whilst members of the Jury were sent to watch video footage of her sleepwalking episode in Exeter hospital after the accident. When court resumed later that afternoon it became apparent they had witnessed a different Ellie to the person sitting before them now.
Leyton had one last witness to call; Dr Nicolas Debruski; neurologist, psychologist and sleep specialist. In his expert opinion, even if the court proved Ellie was guilty of these crimes, she could not be held responsible for anything that happened while she was asleep. They would have to prove, he said that she was fully conscious at the time the crimes were committed to convict her at all.
‘Dr Debruski, have you examined the defendant, Eleanor Wilson?’
‘Indeed I have.’
‘From your examination do you conclude the defendant is of sound mind?’
‘Without question.’
‘And in your opinion is the defendant suffering from any kind of medical illness?’
‘No.’
‘Is sleepwalking a medical illness or is it related in any way to a neurological illness?’
‘No.’
‘Is there any evidence to show that a person could premeditate murder while they are awake and then proceed with that plan when they are asleep?’
‘Absolutely not. The conscious decision to do something voluntarily only takes place during the conscious state. There is no evidence to show that this occurs during sleepwalking. Sleepwalking occurs during an unconscious state. It is an incomplete arousal process when the subject does not have the capacity to carry out a precipitated plan or intention and would not be able to control or understand their activity.’
‘I see. So, if indeed the defendant, Eleanor Wilson was the person driving the car when these unfortunate accidents occurred, and if she was driving whilst she was asleep, she would have had no idea what she was doing or why?’
‘None at all.’