The Silver Knot (Forest of Dean Investigations Book 1)

by T J Harris

  A door opened in the wooden panelling and in walked the judge. He was a serious looking man of sixty or so, Sean thought. He settled himself in his chair and the clerk instructed everyone to sit. After settling his papers he brought the court to order and had the charge read out to Sean who was asked to stand while the accusation was made. He was asked for his plea and his barrister stood and replied “Not guilty, your honour.” There was a quiet murmur from the gallery.

  The judge took the first hour to carefully explain to the jury exactly what their duties were and how the trial would proceed. He then invited the prosecution barrister to make her opening address.

  Aaloka Khurmi stood, gave the judge a winning smile, then crafted her face into a serious frown as she spun to addressed the jury. The picture that she constructed for them stunned Sean. She stated that she would prove that the defendant was a letch with a history of mental health issues that had initiated an adulterous affair with a patient at his practice, someone who had come to him for help. When she had wanted to end the relationship, the defendant had reacted with rage, strangling her in her car and leaving her for dead. He had consistently lied to the police in trying to cover his tracks before his lies had caught up with him. She would present evidence that the victim was not the first vulnerable woman he had targeted, but that the victim’s death had been the culmination of a pattern of abuse and perversion that had gone on for years. The man needed to be stopped for good before anyone else died. As she sat, she gave Sean a look of such loathing that it winded him. He glanced at the jury and received several similar looks, especially from the female jurors. He lowered his head towards the floor and tried to fight back the tears.

  James Davis had his work cut out if he was going to match the impact of the prosecution’s statement. He stood purposefully and did the best he could. He belittled the prosecution case pointing out that all the evidence was circumstantial and that they did not have a single conclusive piece of proof against his client. He gently explained that the victim had not been innocent in encouraging the affair and that although his client regretted what had happened, he strenuously denied having anything to do with her death. He could see more reasoned expressions spread across the faces of the jury and was pleased when he had finished and sat back down.

  The judge called a recess for lunch and Sean was led back to his cell. A tray of food was brought in but he couldn’t face it.

  When the court session continued in the afternoon, the prosecution case started by covering the facts of Helen Brooks’s death. Khurmi continually referred to the victim as Helen in a blatant attempt to humanise her and remind the jury that she had been a real person rather than a statistic or an object of interest. She started with the scene of the crime officers and proceeded to the post-mortem, expertly eliciting responses from the pathologist in plain English so that all the jury members could follow the evidence and be in no doubt as to the horror of Helen’s suffering as she had died. She dwelled on the toxicology just long enough to paint Helen as a clean living, health conscious woman.

  Davis was not able to add much in his cross-examination, the expert witness testimony was not biased one way or the other but was simply a factual account of what had happened back in that forest car park in July. He was able to confirm for the jury that there was no forensic evidence that put Sean at the scene. He could see Khurmi bristling, but she could not contest that fact.

  Mrs Hawkes, who had found the body, spent only a few minutes in the witness box. She was obviously nervous and leaned forward to speak too loudly into the microphone. She described the scene and the events that morning. She was cross examined about the position of the body in the back of the car but confirmed that all she had done was check for a pulse. Khurmi praised here for her presence of mind and swift actions and she looked pleased as well as relieved as she left the witness box.

  The judge adjourned the court for the day before the testimony shifted to the evidence against Sean. He was led back to his cell where his legal team soon joined him.

  “Their barrister is a bit fierce.” Carmicheal said as they all sat down.

  “Hmm” replied Davis. “She has a strong reputation I’m afraid. Word is she is going for Silk this year so every case is a fight to the death.” He laughed lightly, “I’ve got a Hindu friend who told me her first name means ‘cry of victory’. Quite appropriate really, but she has the same facts to work with as us so don’t you worry.” he slapped Sean’s knee.

  The three men talked for the next hour about what they expected the following day’s evidence to reveal before they left Sean for the evening.

  As expected the second day started with Steve Hunter the digital forensics expert giving his testimony about the drafts box and other computer data that he had gleaned from both Helen and Tony Brooks’s computers and that of Sean’s home computer. Khurmi dwelled on the pornographic sites that Sean’s home computer remembered visiting, making sure the jury was aware that these were not just run of the mill, vanilla sex sites, but many of them specialised in bondage and fetish scenes involving ropes, restraints and what she described as perverted and deviant sex acts including multiple and anal penetration. The jury looked suitably appalled.

  She then moved onto the draft messages which Hunter had safely copied from the cloud based server before the defendant had had a chance to delete them, something he had later admitted to doing, but too late as it had turned out.

  She had him explain clearly how the dead drop system had worked and carefully picked messages to be read out through the chronology, messages which painted Sean as the predator and Helen as the gullible victim. Davis was able to rectify some of the damage in his cross examination by pointing to other messages where it was abundantly clear that Helen was a more than willing protagonist.

  There was little Davis could do with the later messages however. The messages in which Helen had talked of ending the affair were critical to the prosecution. Even though his client had denied their authenticity, he had deliberately deleted all the evidence so there could be no corroboration.

  He was, however able to plant the first seeds of doubt in the case against his client. In his cross-examination of Hunter he quizzed him about the WiFi router log and the second, unaccounted for, computer that had been using the same connection. He established under oath that the missing computer could have been used to copy files onto Sean’s home computer in an attempt to implicate him.

  When Hunter left the witness box, the judge called for the lunch recess. Carver joined Hunter in the entrance hall but before they could talk, Khurmi marched straight up to them. “You need to find me that bloody laptop.” she instructed. “Quite how the CPS didn’t insist on it, I’m not sure.” She softened her face into a seductive smile. “You’re a clever bloke Steve, what can you do for me?”

  Hunter blushed. “I was just thinking about that.” he replied. “I did have one idea, but it’s a long shot.” He explained his thought, Carver agreed and told him to get Goldberg to help him out. Hunter beamed at Khurmi and jogged out of the court to his car.

  The prosecution spent the rest of the day making the case that Sean was a sexual predator and tormentor of women. The client who had made and then dropped the complaint of misconduct against him, Mrs Whitaker, gave her account of how Sean had groped her during a treatment session. Two of his previous assistants also testified that they had felt uncomfortable with him and that he would sometimes rub their shoulders while they sat at their desk. Davis was able to establish that although this was not to be condoned, that none of them had been attacked and as soon as they voiced their concern, the behaviour had immediately stopped.

  During all this time, Sean sat impassively on his red chair in the dock. He felt like he was in a dream watching the stream of people tear into his life, exposing his failings and his deepest pains. The only way he knew for sure that he was not dreaming was his pounding headache. He was sure you didn’t get headaches in dreams, and if you did, surely they would wake
you up. No matter how hard it pounded though, he remained stuck in the courtroom.

  Chapter 17

  The trial re-convened on the third day with Tony Brooks in the witness box. Khurmi gently led him through the events of the day Helen had died, from when she left home early in the morning, claiming she intended to visit the gym on her way to work and then through his movements up until the point the police had arrived to inform him about his wife’s murder.

  She pressed him on how happy the two of them were and dwelled on their weekend away in the Lake District. She constructed the image of this being an idyllic break, which convinced Helen to put an end to her secret and regrettable affair before hurting the man she loved. He was wearing a white linen shirt, open at the collar under a dark sports jacket. He appeared tired and sad but still looked a very handsome man. When had spoke of his wife as the love of his life, crying at exactly the right moment, half the female jurors instantly fell in love with him.

  “You had bought your wife a gift for your anniversary, could you describe it for us?”

  “It was a necklace. I had designed it myself and had a silversmith in Hereford make it for me. It was of silver rope and came down to form a reef knot at the front. It was our silver anniversary you see, so I thought it was appropriate.”

  “That’s a lovely gift.” She held her hand to her heart. “And did she like it?”

  “Oh yes. She wore it every day until…” He paused again rubbing his eyes. “I’m sorry. Yes she was wearing it that morning.”

  “You are sure.”

  “Yes, when she bent down to kiss me goodbye, it swung forward from her neck. I can remember touching it. I told her I was pleased she liked it and she…” he paused again, struggling to maintain his composure. “She said she absolutely loved it.” He rushed the last sentence out before he burst back into tears.

  Davis cross examined him trying to elicit a hint that he had found out about the affair before the murder, surely he was not that gullible, had not taken his wife for granted to such an extent that he had not noticed a change in her. Brooks could not deny the charge. He confirmed that he had no idea what was going on and still couldn’t believe that that animal had led her astray. He glared at Sean as he said it and noticed the faces of the jury do the same.

  Carver was the next to be called. Khurmi concentrated on drawing out the chain of lies that Sean had told as the investigation had proceeded. She reinforced the point that Sean had denied virtually every step in the chain of evidence until it had been proved. Davies was able to make some headway in his cross examination by pointing out that his client had indeed come clean about every stage of the affair but had not admitted to the murder.

  Having presented all their evidence and finished with a reminder of the devastation that the crime had caused, Khurmi rested her case just before lunchtime. The judge called an early recess so that Davis could start his defence in the early afternoon. Sean stood to be handcuffed and was led down the stairs on the now familiar route back to his holding cell. His team had warned him that the prosecution case and testimonies would be tough to bare. They had not been wrong. He couldn’t see how the jury were going to believe him after all they had heard. He slumped on the bed and couldn’t help but sob.

  Carmichael and Davis joined him after only a few minutes and tried to reassure him. A tray of food arrived and they coaxed him into eating a few mouthfuls, his first in days.

  “That’s the worst of it over with.” Carmichael said. “Now its our turn.” He put his hand on Sean’s shoulder as he said it and looked across at Davis. He was putting on a good show but he could see that his colleague was not at all convinced.

  The defence case was not easy for Davis. His client did not have a sensible alibi for the time of the murder and the prosecution had established means, motive and opportunity. He had attacked each of their witnesses for definitive proof that pointed towards his client, but the only thing he could really do was to put Sean in the witness box and hope that the jury believed his side of the story. Seeing his client sobbing with his head in his hands did not fill him with confidence, but what choice did he have.

  Between the two of them, Carmichael and Davis chivvied Sean back to life, got him to drink some water, take a few painkillers for his headache and prepared him for the witness box. He washed down an extra Prozac tablet as well for good measure. He was almost ready by the time the tap on the door came and the guard walked in holding the handcuffs.

  Once the court was back in session, Davis called Sean as a witness and he was escorted down to the witness box. It was strange to see the room from a different perspective. This was his third day in court, but Sean had only seen it from the dock. He was now looking straight at the jury with the terrifying Khurmi sat with her team to their right.

  Davis started gently. He wanted to paint his client as a victim also. He took him through his wife’s death. He got Sean talking about the loss he had felt about losing her and the unborn child she had been carrying. How he had become depressed and just wanted to find companionship. He gave his side of the relationship with Helen, and described her as the driving force. He described how he had dared to dream of a normal life again.

  “Did Helen ever give the impression that she wanted to end the affair?” Davis coaxed.

  “Not at all, she was wanting to see me more and more. After her weekend away with her husband, she left me a message saying she wanted to see me.”

  “She wanted to see you romantically, not to break up with you.”

  “That’s right.”

  “But the message the police found, suggested she wanted to end the affair.”

  “That’s not the message I saw. It must have been tampered with. Just like the other one telling me to meet her at the wrong car park.”

  “You also deny visiting the sites that were logged on your computer. Is that right?”

  “Yes.” replied Sean, feeling more confident. “I have absolutely no knowledge of how those files ended up on my computer. I can only assume that someone was hacking me, trying to fit me up.”

  Davis took the opportunity to quiz him about the mysterious laptop that had been sharing the home network connection.

  “I’ve never owned a laptop.” he replied simply.

  “The police could find no link between you and the rope that was used to kill Helen either could they?”

  “No, I’ve never heard of love rope or even been in a sex shop.”

  “You never tied up any of your previous girlfriends or you wife.”

  The question appalled Sean. “Absolutely not. That’s just not me.”

  When Davis sat down, both he and Sean were happy with the testimony. Sean had relaxed; his head was starting to feel a little better, a little clearer.

  Khurmi stood up.

  Sean could not bring himself to look at her at first. He stared at his feet as she began her cross-examination. She surprised him by also starting gently; almost compassionately questioning him again about his lost wife and family but soon increased the tempo.

  “Most people do on-line dating if they want to meet someone new, not molest their staff and patients. How many other married women did you touch up or proposition?”

  Sean defended himself as best he could, trying to explain that Helen was a willing partner and that they were in love. Khurmi just laughed at him.

  “Are you telling us that she was going to leave her husband and move in with you?” She emphasised the last word implying that anyone would have to be mad to choose him over the handsome and successful husband.

  “Well no, but…”

  “Did she ever hint that that might be the case, did you ever discuss it?”

  “No. We never discussed it.”

  “So she wasn’t in love with you then, otherwise she would have wanted that, wouldn’t she?”

  “I don’t know, maybe it was too early.”

  “Or maybe it was too late.” she rounded on him. “Come on Mr Williams, the truth is
you were in love, she wasn’t. She wanted to end the affair and you couldn’t let that happen.”

  She was interrupted in her assassination when a door opened at the back of the courtroom and DS Goldberg made his way to the back of the prosecution benches. He handed Khurmi’s assistant a small file of paper then sat down in the gallery next to Carver.

  Khurmi turned to the judge. “One minute please, your Honour.”

  The judge nodded and Sean looked across to Carmichael who shrugged his shoulders.

  Khurmi was deep in conversation with her assistant for what seamed, to Sean, like a very long time. Eventually she turned back towards the bench, holding the new file in her hands.

  “A point of law, your honour.”

  The judge looked cross but had no choice other than to agree to the legal request. “Jury out.” he barked.

  The clerk stood and instructed the jury to file out of the court and back to their Jury Room. Once the door was closed and they were out of earshot, Khurmi addressed the judge.

  “I’m very sorry for the interruption but the police have just secured some new information which I would like to enter into evidence.” She looked at the judge, who looked at Davis. He was staring at a document from the file that the clerk had passed him from the prosecution bench.

  “This is very late your honour. They have had plenty of time to prepare the case.” He didn’t look at Sean who was now looking equally worried and confused.

  “May I see this new evidence?” The judge asked and Khurmi passed the paper in her hand to the clerk who in turn passed it up to the bench. The judge examined the paper then looked up.

  “I will admit the evidence.” He turned to the clerk. “Bring the jury back in now please.”

  When they were settled back in their box, Khurmi stood and addressed Williams who was still sat in the witness box with a baffled look on his face.

  “This is a warrantee receipt for a Dime Intellibook 310 laptop computer purchased from Currys in Hereford on February 11th of last year.” She said holding up the sheet in her hand.