Twenty-One Days (Daniel Pitt #1)(4)

‘Have you really got a plan, young man?’ she said. Her eyes seemed to burn a hole through his head, as if she could read his mind.

He thought it was her way of hiding how afraid she was. He had a mother, too, one who could be formidable if she wished to be. He had worked at least twenty of his twenty-five years at standing up to her. He also had an elder sister, Jemima, who had given as good as she got throughout their childhoods. So he was well accustomed to fierce women.

‘Yes, I think Park may well have killed Hinton himself. I intend to make the jury very well aware of why he would do that and then try to see Roman suffer for it. In fact, the more I think of it, the more it seems a reasonable alternative. That’s all we need: someone else to be believed guilty.’ He spoke with a confidence he did not feel, but he would make himself feel it by the time he stood up in front of the jury.

He smiled, and offered her his arm.

She hesitated for a long moment, then she took it. Her acceptance of him was conditional upon his success, he knew that. But for the moment, she was giving him her trust.

He could not afford to think of failing. He forced the possibility of it out of his mind and walked into the hallway, across the paved floor, and into the court exactly as if he knew he was going to win. He must conduct himself so that Park knew that, too.

Oscar Park stood in the witness box, well above the other people in the court. He was a tall man, smartly dressed. The height of the box above the floor, up its own set of steps, made him even more imposing. Daniel preferred to use, in his own mind, the word exposed. Perhaps vulnerable would be too much?

‘Mr Park,’ he began, ‘you say that the accused, Mr Blackwell, lent the victim, Mr Hinton, a very large sum of money.’

Park nodded. ‘Yes. On the surface, it looked generous – even extravagant.’ He was very calm. He looked down on Daniel benignly. Did he know how young he was? How very inexperienced?

‘Did it surprise you?’ Daniel asked. He must establish a trust with Park, if possible. Certainly, he must with the jury. They were the ones who mattered.

‘Yes. Frankly, it did,’ Park answered. ‘I didn’t take Blackwell for such a fool.’

‘You knew Hinton well enough to distrust him?’ Daniel asked innocently.

Park tried to look modest, and failed. ‘I’m a pretty good judge of a man, if I say so as shouldn’t.’ He smirked very slightly.

‘You were right about Hinton? That he was a small-time moneylender who took too many chances?’

‘Yes. Facts have proved me so,’ Park agreed.

‘But wrong about Blackwell?’

Park looked irritated and it showed in two pink spots on his cheeks.

Daniel saw a flicker of amusement on the faces of two of the jurors.

‘He seems to have lost his grip,’ Park said tartly, putting one of his hands on the railing of the witness box.

‘Agreed,’ Daniel nodded and smiled. ‘Losing your temper and shooting a man is no way to get your money back. It will go to his heirs now, won’t it? When probate is granted of the estate, of course. However long that takes.’ Daniel kept his face as sober as he could. ‘I suppose Blackwell didn’t take that into account.’

Park was irritated. ‘He just made a bad judgement about Hinton.’

‘And about shooting him, too?’ Daniel observed wryly.

Mr Sefton, the prosecutor, rose to his feet wearily. ‘My lord, the witness has already said he did not see that the accused was so dangerous. My learned –’ he gave the word a sarcastic edge – ‘friend . . . is missing the point.’

‘Yes, yes.’ The judge raised his hand in an elegant gesture of dismissal. ‘Mr Pitt, you appear to be questioning your own conclusions. Would you like to begin that train of thought again, with rather more guidance as to its destination?’

Daniel liked this judge, but he was wary of the edge of his tongue. ‘Thank you, my lord,’ he answered. His mind was racing. He was trying to establish Park’s own debt to Blackwell, but he had to do it obliquely. ‘Thank you,’ he repeated.

He faced Park again. ‘Would it be true to say you did not warn John Hinton of any danger from Mr Blackwell because you had no cause to believe there was any?’

‘I thought I already said that,’ Park replied, raising his eyebrows.

‘Yes, you did,’ Daniel smiled back at him. ‘Even though Mr Hinton was deep in debt and had no way of repaying such an enormous sum.’

‘I have said so,’ Park shook his head.

‘No danger, because Mr Blackwell was a man of considerable means, or so you believed, and great generosity.’

Sefton stood up again. ‘My lord, the court grants that this witness did not judge Mr Blackwell’s nature accurately. Mr Pitt is labouring the point to no purpose. I am sure Mr Park regrets that he did not warn Mr Hinton, but he is not at fault. The accused had given him no cause to think he would react violently, and self-destructively, towards him.’ He looked as if his patience was worn thin by such time-wasting.

The judge looked mildly at Daniel. ‘Mr Pitt, have you a point?’

‘Yes, my lord,’ Daniel said quickly. He had made the opening, now he must get this exactly right. ‘I quite believe that Mr Park did not foresee such an extreme departure from Mr Blackwell’s usual behaviour . . .’