EXCERPT
Strangeways Prison, Manchester , England
I’ve
represented many murderers and am often surprised at how normal they appear.
But this one is different. As he walks into the interview room he stops dead.
His mouth drops open. His eyes bulge. His elbows clamp to his sides as though a
knife has plunged into his back. And he looks straight at me unlike most who
bow their heads till I say something to make them feel at ease, and who look
past me when they tell me their stories. Not this one.
‘Please
sit down,’ I say. His name is Smith. Sam Smith. This is what it says on his
file cover. It’s what he called himself when he was interviewed by the police.
‘I
know it seems stupid,’ I say, ‘but can I ask you to confirm your name. Your
full name.’
I
don’t know. I just don’t see him as a Sam Smith. Stupid name anyway. Nobody
calls their kid that. Maybe I’ll know from the way he tells me. The name, when
he says it himself, will either sound like it belongs or like he’s pretending.
‘Sam
Smith,’ he says, and something in the timbre of his voice gels with the curve
of his lips and the way his slightly protruding eyes follow mine …
And
now he’s nodding his head. Or am I imagining it? And there’s an almost
imperceptible smile on his face. That smile. And those eyes. I grip the desk. I
can’t breathe. My skin turns cold, clammy. My fingers tingle. A fragment of
long forgotten memory skitters through my head then vanishes …
There’s
only one person I’ve ever known with eyes like those. And my darling twin brother
died twenty-six years ago. Before my real life began.
Scary
coincidence.
But
let’s get on with it and start the job - it’s going to be a long haul, and he’s
got a lot to do to beat the charge. Murder. Horrible, cold-blooded,
psychopathic, sexually motivated sadism.
And
I think I know him.
FRIDAY
Eight
Months Later
-
1 -
The
door to the jury room swung open. The seven men and five women filed in and
took their seats. Julia Grant glanced at the dock. Perched behind the thick
protective glass Sam Smith looked immaculate in a fresh white shirt, the blond
beard newly trimmed, nothing moving except those marble-blue eyes.
She
noticed that Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Moxon was already back with
the small group of officers who had gathered, sitting opposite the jury benches
and eyeballing the jurors throughout the trial. Old trick, hard to get the
judges to move them away, to persuade them that they are engaging in deliberate
psychological warfare for the jury’s votes. Paul smiled at her - a slow half
smile and a slightly raised eyebrow, as if to say that for only one of them
would today's verdict spell success.
She
smiled back. Defence versus Prosecution. Part of the day's work. Only this time
the stakes were higher than usual.
She
looked towards the dock and saw that Sam Smith was also watching her. Their
eyes met, but there was not a blink of recognition, his face so alien it was
hard to imagine how the thoughts haunting her in the eight months she had been
preparing his defence had ever entered her mind. Eight months studying his face
across the narrow interview table for some tell-tale sign. But right now there
was nothing in that face she could relate to. Nothing that even hinted at a
link. Nothing that drew her to him. Good-looking men seldom delivered what
their looks promised, she thought. Some unsuspecting female might be attracted
until she looked into his eyes. Fish eyes. Cold and hard. Shut off from the
rest of the world except for rare fleeting expressions of sadness when they seemed
to drift into the past - and drag Julia with them.
The
Clerk of the Court rose to his feet. ‘Court stand,’ he blurted in his usual
offhand way.
The
door opened. Mr Justice Dale strode to his red leather chair, scarlet and
ermine robes flowing, wig well down his forehead. He nodded to the crowded
court and sat down.
Julia
pressed her shoulders against the back of the solicitors’ bench. Another five
minutes and it would all be over. And what then?
He
might be free, but would she ever be?
The
Clerk of the Court cleared his throat. ‘Will the foreman of the jury please
stand.’ He looked directly at the foreman. ‘To the charge of murder, have you
reached a verdict upon which all of you are agreed?’
‘Yes.’
Something
made her glance at Smith again as if he’d called her name out loud. Instead of
looking at the foreman, who was the person about to pronounce on the rest of
his life, his gaze was fixed on her, waiting for her to turn and look at him,
knowing that she would. Oh, that stare. That look. He thinks he has some power
over me, she thought. Some right of claim. Men always expect to have power over
women. One way or another. Even Sam Smith.
Or
whoever he really was.
‘Do
you find the defendant guilty, or not guilty?’ the Clerk of the Court asked in
his precise, clipped voice.
Even
a hardened criminal like Smith must surely feel some trepidation now. But there
was not even a flicker to show he registered one iota of emotion.
Julia
sat back in her seat, determined not to look at Smith again.
The
hushed court waited.
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