‘I’ve been a nurse for a long time, sir, and I would say these bruises were the result of fairly violent sex.’
‘Thank you, Mrs Gifford.’
Boyd Simmonds made his way back to his seat as the prosecutor stood up.
‘Mrs Gifford, did you ask Miss Clarke if she had been raped?’
For the first time, the woman looked slightly uncomfortable.
‘Not in so many words, no. But I did say to her that if someone was mistreating her, she could tell me.’
‘And did she?’
‘No. She repeated that she had fallen off her bike. Twice!’
Devisha gave the witness one of her most glowing smiles.
‘In your experience as a nurse, would you say that there are some people – both men and women – who enjoy rough sex?’
‘Well, yes. I suppose so. Each to their own.’ Mrs Gifford gave a slight shudder.
‘And is there any reason to suppose Miss Clarke could not have been one of those people – that in fact the bruises were the result of rough sex, but that she had been a fully active participant?’
‘I can’t say, obviously. But she didn’t look happy at what I’d seen.’
‘Thank you, Mrs Gifford. I have no further questions.’
Stephanie glanced sideways at Gus again.
‘Well?’ she asked.
‘Too close to call.’ He pushed himself up from his seat and headed for the exit.
He was right. She had no idea which way this was going to go either.
44
Cleo had been dreading the moment when Aminah took the witness box. It was still hard for her to believe that her friend was being called by the defence, and she wondered if their friendship would ever recover. She tried to imagine a life without Aminah in it, and it was nearly impossible. She had already lost Mark, and if she lost Aminah too she would be completely alone.
For a moment last night she had seriously considered rekindling her relationship with Joe, but whatever she had felt for him in the past, she was certain he wasn’t her future.
She no longer felt particularly sad about him. She had no room for any other grief. The agony of losing Mark rippled through her body constantly, sometimes building into great waves of sorrow that threatened to engulf her and drag her down into the depths of a despair from which she might never surface. It was hard enough to lose her brother – but to lose him like this, with the publicity and the accusation that he was an abusive bully, was unbearable.
And now, suddenly, her best friend was being sworn in to give evidence against him.
The questioning started, the QC’s apparently affable manner suddenly becoming the focus of Cleo’s anger. What right had he to drag her brother’s name through the mud over and over again?
‘Mrs Basra, I’d like to take you back to the afternoon of 7th July, if I may?’
Cleo watched Aminah’s face. Usually so cheerful, today she looked as if she was struggling not to cry. She glanced up to the gallery and met Cleo’s eyes just as Cleo felt someone slip into the seat beside her and reach for her hand. Aminah was looking at the newcomer and trying to smile. Cleo turned her head. It was Zahid.
‘Aminah wanted you to have someone with you,’ he whispered. He gave her hand a squeeze between his two palms and held it there, his attention turning to his wife.
Cleo felt a huge surge of emotion for her friend. Even after the way she had behaved yesterday, Aminah and Zahid’s big hearts weren’t going to let her go through this alone.
‘You went round to Mr North’s house to see Miss Clarke. Is that correct?’
‘Yes. She had originally invited me to lunch, but then she cancelled.’
‘But you went anyway?’
‘I was concerned about her. She sent me a text message and I tried to call her, but she didn’t answer.’
‘Why did that concern you? Surely it’s not so unusual for people to cancel arrangements?’
‘I’d been a bit worried about her for a while. I’d only recently taken her to the hospital to have the plaster cast taken off her hand, and I wondered if she was coping okay. I knew Mark had gone away the night before, you see, and if she was struggling a bit – her hand was still sore, I’m sure – I wanted her to know that I was there for her.’
‘And what happened when you arrived at the house?’
‘I rang the doorbell over and over but she didn’t answer. I called her on the house phone and on her mobile, and she didn’t pick up. So by now I was really worried, and was tempted to phone Cleo – Mark’s sister – when I noticed the garage door was open.’
Cleo sat up straight. That couldn’t be right. It didn’t make sense.
‘And does the garage lead straight into the house?’
‘No, but there’s a door at the back that lets you through into the side garden that runs level with the top floor of the house. So I went through. Evie was in the kitchen, by the window. She was staring into thin air. I don’t think she noticed me.’
‘And what happened then?’
‘She turned towards me. She looked shocked, and I only saw her for a minute before she pulled the blind across.’
‘Even though she had seen you, she closed the blind?’
‘Yes – I don’t think she wanted me to see that she had a black eye. The whole of one side of her face was swollen – purple and red. It looked very sore.’
‘Did she let you in then?’
‘No. I tried to get to speak to her for a couple of days after that, sending her texts, calling, dropping round unannounced. Finally she answered.’
‘And did you ask her about the black eye?’
Aminah gave an uneasy smile. ‘Yes, of course. She said Lulu had kicked her while she was changing her nappy. That’s why she had been confined to the house for the last few days. She hadn’t wanted anyone to see her.’
‘And you find that excuse unconvincing?’
‘Look, I’ve got four kids and I’ve changed more nappies than I can count. And I’ve had feet in my face – of course I have. But have you seen Lulu, Evie’s little girl? She’s a skinny little mite, and even my infinitely more hefty brutes would never have made a mark like that on my face. She was making it up.’
Cleo wasn’t listening any more. The prosecution barrister had stood up and was asking one or two questions, but none of them mattered. She let go of Zahid’s hand and leaned forward, her head lowered so she could think. She quickly turned her head. Were the detectives still in the courtroom? Yes – the woman who had come to see her, Sergeant King, was sitting at the back of the gallery.
As Aminah was dismissed from the witness box, Cleo jumped up and pushed past Zahid and the other people in her row. She heard Zahid call her name, but she was heading for Sergeant King. There was something wrong with this story.
Stephanie had noticed Cleo’s agitation, and the fact that she had turned around, searching the gallery for someone. It was clear to Stephanie that she was that someone, and now as Aminah Basra left the witness box, Cleo came scurrying towards her and leaned across two spectators who were whispering to each other.
‘Can I talk to you?’ she asked, her speech fast and her voice breathy.
Stephanie excused herself as she pushed past the couple to reach the aisle. The judge was about to announce a break, so she wasn’t going to miss anything vital.
‘Let’s go and chat outside,’ she said, touching Cleo gently on the arm in a small gesture of sympathy. It felt to her that in this case there were no winners. Only losers, and Cleo was one of them.
There were signs everywhere in the court advising people not to discuss cases, and so Stephanie steered Cleo out of the building. Fortunately it was a fine, if chilly day, and they found a bench that was capturing some of the sun’s weak rays.
‘What can I do for you, Miss North?’ she asked.
‘There’s something wrong about what Aminah said in there.’
‘You mean you don’t believe her?’
Cleo sh
ook her head quickly. ‘No. Aminah wouldn’t lie. It’s not that. It’s the garage door.’
Stephanie gave Cleo what she hoped was an encouraging nod, but she had no idea where this was going.
‘Why was the garage door open?’ Cleo asked.
Stephanie shrugged. ‘I’ve no idea. Why do you think it’s important?’
‘Look, I happen to know that Mark went to the airport by taxi that morning, so he had no need to open the garage. I bet if you ask Aminah she will tell you that Mark’s car was there.’
‘You’re going to have to explain your thinking here, Miss North. I’m sorry if I’m not getting it.’
‘They always kept the garage locked, because it was the only way anyone could get into the grounds, other than through the house. It was the only weak spot in their security. So it would have been closed for sure when he left that morning. Why was it open when Aminah went round? Evie must have opened it, but why would she do that, unless she wanted Aminah to see her?’
Stephanie gave a small shrug. ‘Maybe Miss Clarke went out?’
‘No, no. That’s not right. You heard Aminah – Evie told her she was housebound because of the eye. I can’t see any reason why she would have opened the garage door.’
Cleo had grabbed Stephanie’s arm, as if to make her listen more carefully, but much as she wanted to help this woman, Stephanie couldn’t for the life of her think of any way in which this might benefit the case for the prosecution.
‘And when I went round later,’ Cleo continued, her tone urgent, ‘the garage was closed and I couldn’t get through. Look – they were so security conscious that they had changed the locks on the doors and even my key no longer worked. It doesn’t make sense.’
Stephanie spoke softly, not wanting to increase Cleo’s agitation. ‘If Evie knew that Mrs Basra had got in through the garage it might well have reminded her to close the door. That would explain why it was closed when you arrived. And there could be any number of reasons why she had opened it. I’m not sure we can go anywhere with this.’
Cleo tutted with frustration. ‘Will you do something for me? Please.’ She paused and waited until Stephanie spoke.
‘I’ll do my best, but I don’t know what I can do.’
‘Will you ask the prosecution barrister to question Evie about why the garage door was open?’
Cleo’s eyes were pleading with her, and Stephanie tried to give her a sympathetic smile, but Cleo turned away as if in disgust.
‘I’ll pass it on to her. Of course I will. But there’s no guarantee that the defence will put Miss Clarke on the stand.’
Cleo’s head spun back towards Stephanie, her mouth slightly ajar. ‘What? Are you telling me there’s a chance that she might not be called to account for what she did – that she doesn’t have to explain herself to the jury?’
Stephanie looked at the woman’s white face, the black circles under her eyes. She didn’t want to add to her distress, but she couldn’t set false expectations.
‘We interviewed her when she was arrested, and we’ve told the court everything she said. I suspect the defence will only call her if they need some part of her testimony to convince the jury of the truth of her story.’
‘Well can’t the prosecutor call her?’ Cleo’s voice was rising, and Stephanie touched her arm again.
‘I know this must be terribly upsetting for you, Miss North, but the only way she will be brought to the stand is if her solicitor and barrister think there’s something to be gained. If I had to guess right now, I would say they won’t.’
Cleo leapt up from the bench. ‘She’s got to be made to speak. The jury have to see through her. They have to know that my brother wasn’t the bully she says he was.’
She turned on her heel and marched quickly back towards the courtroom.
45
The last witness for the defence was about to be called, and Harriet was still not sure whether they had done enough. Surely the jury would believe by now that Mark had been hurting Evie? The rest of it, though, was so much harder to prove. How could you demonstrate conclusively that someone lost control, rather than planned to kill? There were points in Evie’s favour – and Boyd would use these in his summing-up – but even if the defence was successful they would need to be sure the evidence of brutality was strong enough to limit the custodial sentence, and that decision was down to the judge.
The prosecution were going to play heavily on the fact that Evie took the knife into the bedroom, but until now they hadn’t been able to make much of it, other than to state the facts. They’d had nobody to ask. If Evie took the stand, that would be their chance. So she and Boyd had to balance the risk against the gains of hearing her explanation of all that had happened. So much of the court’s perception of Evie might rely on her testimony.
Harriet stopped thinking about the pros and cons of putting Evie on the stand. They had the weekend to prepare, but before that they were about to call one witness who might do their job for them, at least in part. She was introduced as Deborah May, and she looked as if a gust of strong wind would blow her away. She stared around the room as if not entirely sure how she came to be there.
‘Mrs May,’ Boyd said. ‘Can you please tell the court in what capacity you know Miss Clarke?’
The woman’s eyes flicked quickly to the dock and then away.
‘I work for the Samaritans. I spoke to Miss Clarke on several occasions on the telephone.’
‘We all know that anything said to the Samaritans is confidential, so can you please explain to the court why you’re here today.’
‘We can pass on information if we have consent from the person concerned, or if we receive a court order. In this case, the court order wasn’t necessary, because Miss Clarke gave her permission.’
‘Can you tell us about these phone calls?’
‘I volunteer one night a week, usually a Tuesday, and Miss Clarke called when I was on duty. She told me her name was Evie and she knew me as Debbie. She called again the next week and asked for me.’
She was speaking quickly, apparently anxious to get her words out. Boyd gave her a moment as he consulted the document in his hand. Harriet saw her take a deep breath and blow it out slowly through pursed lips.
‘Is that normal? To request the same Samaritan?’
‘It’s not a good idea for callers to become dependent on a single Samaritan, because if they reach a crisis and the person with whom they’ve formed the relationship isn’t there, it could be catastrophic. But Evie worked out the times I would be on duty and tried to call then.’
‘Did you always take her call?’
‘Unfortunately there were times when I was already on a call with another person, so one of my colleagues tried to speak with her. But Evie always chose to call back.’
‘How many times did you speak to her in total, Mrs May?’
‘Six times.’
‘And what can you tell us about the nature of the conversation?’
Debbie May glanced at Evie, her brow furrowing as if she was saying something she shouldn’t. ‘Evie was upset because the man she was living with was violent. Suddenly, for no reason that she could think of, he would do something so shocking, so painful that she simply collapsed.’
Boyd turned to look at Evie and the eyes of the jury followed. He shook his head slightly to indicate his sympathy.
‘Did she ever say she had challenged him about why he was hurting her?’
‘I think she tried. But she said it was as if he didn’t know he’d done anything and he always expressed horror and surprise that she’d had an accident.’
Debbie May’s lip curled slightly at the thought of Mark pleading ignorance.
‘And what was Miss Clarke’s state of mind when she called you?’
‘It was strange because she sounded bemused to start with, like she couldn’t understand what was happening and why. She said his bursts of violence seemed to be triggered by the fact that he was having to go away and she
started to dread his going while at the same time being glad he was gone, if that makes sense. It’s not our job to give advice, but I wanted to tell her to get the hell out of there – as fast as she could.’
Boyd nodded and reordered his papers again. Harriet knew he was waiting to see if Mrs May said anything else without being asked.
‘Nobody should have to put up with that,’ she said, as if to fill the silence, and Harriet almost smiled.
‘Did she ever suggest that she was thinking of leaving him?’ Boyd asked.
‘I think it was on about the third occasion. She was crying and I could hear the baby crying in the background. He had just left and she wouldn’t tell me what he had done, but she said it hurt so much. “I should leave him,” she said. “But I’ve got nowhere to go and I don’t have any money of my own.” I told her there were shelters she could go to.’
As she very well knew, Harriet thought to herself with a momentary flash of irritation. When Harriet had asked Evie why she hadn’t come to the shelter, she had said she was too ashamed and she worried about what the women that she had been helping would think of her if she was no more able to sort out her own life than they were.
‘But she stayed?’
‘Yes. He threatened her with everything if she left – from killing himself to killing her. He even said he would abduct the baby and leave the country.’
‘Did she know why he was so anxious about leaving them when he had to go on business trips?’
‘She thought it could have something to do with the death of his wife. Evie had been doing some research and thought he might be suffering from Separation Anxiety Disorder – something to do with experiencing panic attacks when forced to be separated from someone close, perhaps because of a fear that something might happen to them. But I’m not an expert.’
Harriet sat up straight. This was the first time this had been mentioned. If Mark had been suffering from some psychological disorder would it help their case? It might, if they could prove it. Evie hadn’t said anything to them about it, but abused women were often so traumatised that they couldn’t remember the finer details. They needed to understand this better. Thank God they had the weekend.
And So It Begins Page 19