Bold Counsel (The Trials of Sarah Newby) Page 5

  ‘In a fox’s gob.’ He launched into an elaborate tale of how he and Declan had been attacked in their caravan by a fox at night. With superhuman courage they had fought it off, chased it back its lair, and found this, the sole physical remains of its last victim who had paid the ultimate price.

  ‘But Sean, this is an adult hand. A fox couldn’t kill a grown person.’

  Sean’s eyes narrowed. ‘It was a big fox, miss. Huge. Jaws like Dracula.’

  ‘I’m ... I’m sorry. I’m going to have to show this to the head.’

  ‘Hey, no, miss, you can’t have that. It’s my hand. I found it.’

  ‘It’s a human hand, Sean. It came from a dead person.’ Shuddering slightly, she picked it up.

  ‘Yeah, well, he don’t need it no more, does he? Give it here - it’s mine.’

  ‘Yeah, miss, you can’t just take things. We got rights.’

  ‘Stealing, that is. There’s laws about that.’

  ‘This hand’s going to the head. Sean, you’d better come too. Mr Hudson will want to hear your story for himself.’

  8. Cross Examination

  AS ROBERT Baxter took the stand Sarah reflected that he was, indeed, a powerfully built man. In his late sixties, he was over six foot, with broad shoulders and a boxer’s flattened nose. The only sign of weakness was a slight tremor in the liver-spotted hand that held the Bible as he took the oath - but that might have been anger rather than age. He would have looked a formidable interrogator in his younger days, she thought, to a young tearaway like Jason Barnes - five foot ten on tiptoe and only nineteen years old at the time of his arrest.

  Gareth Jones took him smoothly and efficiently through the relevant points. Yes, he had led the investigation into the murder of Brenda Stokes. Yes, he knew that Brian Winnick was a police informer. Yes, it was true that Brian Winnick was a drug dealer who had been sentenced three weeks after Jason Barnes. No, it was quite wrong to suggest that any pressure had been put on Brian Winnick to manufacture evidence.

  Gareth Jones sat down, and Sarah rose to her feet.

  ‘Inspector Baxter, when Brian Winnick was held in custody with Jason Barnes, what was he charged with?’

  ‘Possession of Class A drugs with intent to sell.’

  ‘What was the quantity of those drugs, do you recall?’

  ‘Four ounces of cocaine, I believe.’

  ‘A significant amount, then?’

  ‘Significant, but not unusual. He argued that it was for his own personal use, but we didn’t believe him. However, we reduced the charges later, before it went to court.’

  ‘Yes, quite. Why did you do that?’

  ‘For two reasons, really. Partly because we didn’t think we had enough evidence to get a conviction for supply. And secondly because he’d been helpful to the police.’

  ‘By acting as a witness against Jason Barnes, you mean?’

  ‘That and other matters. His evidence against Barnes was important, of course. It was a very serious case.’

  ‘Indeed. When he eventually came to court, what sentence did he receive?’

  ‘Three months.’

  ‘But he’d already been in custody for that time, so he was immediately released?’

  ‘That’s right, yes.’

  ‘So this reduction in sentence was in part, a reward for his evidence against Jason Barnes.’

  ‘In part, yes.’

  ‘I see. Inspector Baxter, how did it come about that Brian Winnick was placed in the same cell on remand as Jason Barnes?’

  ‘I’ve no idea. That was a matter for the prison authorities.’

  ‘You had no influence over it?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Really? You’re quite sure?’

  ‘Perfectly sure, yes.’

  ‘Inspector, could I direct your attention to paragraph 4 of Brian Winnick’s statement in the original trial. Would you read it out for us, please?’

  Robert Baxter fumbled for a pair of reading glasses in his breast pocket, and began to read. ‘”When I was on remand I was placed in a cell with a man called Jason Barnes. He told me he was charged with the murder of a girl called Brenda Stokes. He said he’d met her at a party and driven her away in a car that he’d stolen. He said when she wouldn’t have sex with him he got angry and killed her with a torch he found in the car. He told me he dumped her body in the river so the police would never find it.”’

  ‘You took that statement from Mr Winnick yourself, did you, in Wakefield prison?’

  ‘I did, yes.’

  ‘Thank you. Could you tell us, please, how long after the arrest of Jason Barnes this statement was made?’

  ‘About six months, I believe. It was roughly seven months after Brenda Stokes disappeared.’

  ‘So you had already conducted extensive searches for the body by that time?’

  ‘We had indeed, ma’am, yes.’

  ‘Where did you look?’

  Robert Baxter sighed. ‘We used police divers to search the river Ouse all the way from York to Selby, fifteen miles or more. We used motorboats and helicopters to search further downstream, all the way to the Humber estuary. We searched the riverbank, too, and many areas in the surrounding countryside. It was a very difficult, tedious, and expensive process, as you can imagine. But unfortunately we did not find a body.’

  ‘Why did you search the river Ouse in particular?’

  ‘Because, under questioning, Jason Barnes told us he had driven Brenda to a secluded spot called Landing Lane near the river. When we searched the surrounding area we found a bloodstained torch with his fingerprint on it. A torch which came from the stolen car.’

  ‘Were you certain it was her blood, at the time?’

  ‘As certain as we could be, ma’am. We didn’t have the benefit of DNA in those days, but it matched her blood group. Since then, DNA tests have revealed that the blood does indeed bear a close family resemblance to that of her mother.’

  ‘So you assumed from this that Brenda Stokes had been murdered, and the killer had thrown her body in the river?’

  ‘That seemed highly likely, yes.’

  ‘And you assumed that Jason Barnes was her killer?’

  ‘I was sure of it, ma’am. All the evidence pointed that way.’

  ‘Nonetheless, your case was rather thin, Inspector, wasn’t it? One fingerprint, and some blood on a torch. Which Mr Barnes explained quite plausibly by saying that he and Miss Stokes had a violent argument, during which he got blood on his hands from her nosebleed. Then when she ran off into the night he searched for her with the torch.’

  ‘I didn’t believe that tale for a minute.’

  ‘But you were worried that the jury might believe him, weren’t you, Mr Baxter? Without a body, you couldn’t even prove for certain that Brenda Stokes had been killed, let alone dumped in the river, could you? It was only an assumption on your part.’

  Robert Baxter sighed. ‘You must remember there was an inquest, which returned an open verdict. The coroner accepted that it was possible she had been murdered, and her body washed out to sea. That was the basis on which we proceeded to trial.’

  ‘Nonetheless, you were desperate for more evidence, Inspector Baxter, weren’t you? Without this alleged confession, you would never have obtained a conviction.’

  The old policeman shook his head forcefully. ‘I disagree. We already had a lot of other evidence against Jason Barnes. He was the last person seen with Brenda. We had the torch, and the lies he told about the car. He admitted himself that he had quarrelled with her and attempted to have sex with her against her will. He also had a string of convictions for theft and violence, including violence against women.’

  ‘None of which you could lay before the jury, of course.’

  ‘No, but all the same ...’ Baxter shrugged.

  ‘He was a useful suspect, wasn’t he?’ Sarah sneered.

  It was an unwise comment, she realised, as soon as she made it. Robert Baxter drew himself up to his full height,
and turned, with great dignity, towards the judges. ‘He was the obvious suspect, Mr Lords. All the evidence pointed clearly in his direction. The jury recognised this in their verdict.’

  ‘Let’s return to this alleged confession, shall we?’ Sarah said, trying to recover. ‘You must have been hugely relieved when it confirmed all your previous assumptions.’

  ‘I was pleased, naturally.’

  ‘Were you surprised?’

  ‘Not really, no.’ A wary look crossed Robert Baxter’s face, as if he guessed what was coming. But Sarah was not ready, yet, to make the obvious accusation.

  ‘Presumably you confronted Jason Barnes with it, before the case came to trial?’

  ‘We did, ma’am, yes.’

  ‘And what did he say?’

  ‘He denied it. He refused to admit that he’d confessed to Brian Winnick at all.’

  ‘Is that all? Did he say nothing else?’

  The question had a gratifying effect on the burly policeman. Baxter’s ruddy face darkened noticeably, and his massive hands gripped the lectern as though they would tear it in two.

  ‘He said if had killed her, he wouldn’t have dumped the body in the river. He would have dumped it in a slurry pit.’

  ‘And what was your response to that?’

  ‘I questioned him about it forcefully. I asked him if he was saying he really had dumped the body in a slurry pit. He laughed in my face and denied it. Nonetheless ...’

  Baxter paused, his face dark, scowling across the court at Jason Barnes. A little imp in Sarah’s mind longed to turn round and see the expression on her client’s face, but she resisted the temptation.

  ‘... since he occasionally worked as a tractor driver on farms, I felt duty bound to investigate this suggestion. We drained a number of slurry pits ...’ Baxter gritted his teeth. ‘... without result.’

  ‘I see.’ Sarah imagined the burly inspector towering over Jason Barnes, steaming with fury after yet another unsuccessful search of a slurry pit. She felt a twinge of pity for her unlovely client. The interrogations, she felt, would have been dramatic.

  ‘Was it as a result of these interrogations that you were accused of assault?’

  ‘What?’ Baxter’s eyes turned to her in shock.

  ‘My client lodged an official complaint against you,’ she said sweetly. ‘Don’t you remember? He claimed you handcuffed him to a boiling hot radiator and left him there, sitting on the floor, for four hours until he was forced to defecate in his trousers.’

  ‘That’s a lie.’ Baxter drew a deep breath, trying to control himself. ‘There was a full investigation which exonerated me. It was impossible, anyway, because he was interviewed in prison, not in a police station. The prison officers would have noticed.’

  ‘Whereas in a police station it would have been all right?’

  ‘No, of course not. I didn’t mean that at all.’ Baxter’s eyes met hers, with a glare that suggested that he would happily handcuff her to a boiling radiator if he could, and leave her there all night. She looked down, quietly leafing through her notes.

  ‘My client’s suggestion, you see, Inspector, is that there was collusion between yourself and the officers in Wakefield prison. You were left alone with Mr Barnes for a considerable period of time.’

  ‘That’s not true either. The prison logs totally refute it.’

  ‘So there was no collusion here, or in the placing of Brian Winnick in Jason Barnes’s cell?’

  ‘None at all.’

  ‘It just happened, did it?’

  ‘So it seems.’

  Baxter’s shrug, Sarah thought, was satisfyingly complacent. She glanced up at the bench, where the female judge was studying Robert Baxter with distaste, as if she had just sucked on a lemon.

  ‘Inspector Baxter, how well did you know Brian Winnick? Before this happened, I mean.’

  ‘Winnick?’ Baxter shrugged. ‘He was a well-known villain. I’d arrested him a number of times, I suppose.’

  ‘For what offences?’

  ‘Drug-dealing, mostly. Burglary, theft.’

  ‘He was a habitual criminal, then? Someone you knew quite well?’

  ‘You could say that, yes.’

  ‘He was a police informer, too, wasn’t he? Even before this case?’

  ‘Yes, he was, a very good one. Over a period of five years he fed us information which led to the conviction of many individuals, several of them major players in the drugs trade. All the information he gave us over that period was later corroborated by other sources, or by what we found when we made arrests. I never knew him lie to us.’

  ‘And yet he himself was a convicted drug dealer, wasn’t he?’

  Robert Baxter sighed again. It was a convincing act, clearly intended to indicate how the wealth of his experience in the real world qualified him to understand criminal activities far better than this jumped-up lady barrister. He turned away from her to address his remarks directly to the three judges.

  ‘He was, yes, my lords. By definition, an informer is only useful if he is himself part of the criminal world. So as I am sure your lordships realise, almost all police informers have a criminal record and are involved in criminal activities. If they were honest innocent citizens, they would be no use to us.’

  ‘Indeed.’ Sarah noted the wry smiles of acknowledgement from the judges. A point to him, she thought. But she hadn’t finished with this man yet. Carefully, she fished a sheet of paper out of her bundle and smoothed it on the lectern in front of her. It was an interesting result of Lucy Parson’s detailed researches. She addressed the retired detective in her most polite, disarming tone.

  ‘Detective Superintendent Baxter, when you went to Wakefield Prison to interview Brian Winnick, what was the purpose of your visit?’

  A brief frown of hesitation crossed Baxter’s brow. ‘To interview him about a crime I was investigating, of course.’

  ‘The drug-dealing charge, you mean?’ Sarah smiled lightly, watching Baxter’s eyes. But the man wasn’t stupid. He knew, just as she did, that if Winnick was being held on remand for drug-dealing, he had already been charged. So it would have been against procedure to interview him further about that offence. There must have been another reason.

  ‘No, not that case. It was for a different crime.’

  What Baxter’s asking himself, Sarah thought, is whether I know what that crime was. Oh yes, I do, sunshine. Lucy Parsons has found out.

  ‘What crime was that?’

  ‘It was, er ...’ Baxter hesitated ‘... nothing to do with this case.’

  ‘Really?’ Sarah smiled sweetly. ‘It was a rape case, wasn’t it?’

  Baxter glanced towards the judges. ‘Do I have to answer that, my lords?’

  The senior judge looked at Sarah. ‘Is this relevant, Mrs Newby?’

  Oh yes it bloody well is, Sarah thought. Especially now he’s given the game away by looking flustered. But will the court allow it, that’s the question? As calmly as she could, she said: ‘I believe it is highly relevant, my lords. If you allow me just a few questions I believe the relevance will become abundantly clear.’

  ‘Very well, Mrs Newby. Just as long as we don’t go down too many side alleys.’

  ‘I am grateful to your lordships. If you could answer the question, Inspector Baxter?’

  ‘It was a rape case, yes,’ Baxter replied, rather sullenly.

  ‘Mr Winnick was suspected of rape, was he? In addition to the drug-dealing charge?’

  ‘He was, yes.’

  ‘And that was the reason you went there to interview him? Not to talk about drug-dealing, or about Jason Barnes, but about an accusation of rape?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I see.’ Sarah studied him coolly. Her fish, she hoped, was almost hooked. ‘So how did the subject of Jason Barnes come up?’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’

  ‘Well, Inspector, you say you didn’t know Mr Winnick was even in the same prison as Jason Barnes, let alone in the same cell. And y
ou went there to interview Brian Winnick about rape, a very serious charge. How did you end up talking about Jason Barnes instead?’

  Baxter flushed. His liver-spotted hands tightened on the front of the witness stand. ‘Well, it ... he mentioned it, I suppose, because it was such a dramatic thing. I mean, his cellmate had confessed to murder.’

  ‘Was this before, or after, you discussed the accusation of rape?’

  Baxter paused, thinking. Working out how to get out of the trap, Sarah thought. But there’s no exit. The doors are shut at both ends.

  ‘I don’t remember. It was a long time ago.’

  ‘Oh come now, Mr Baxter. This was an important moment - a big surprise. A breakthrough in a murder investigation. And you’re saying you don’t remember?’

  Baxter glared at her. ‘Of course I remember it. I just don’t remember exactly when it came up, that’s all.’

  ‘But you spent a lot of time on it when it did come up? You took this statement? That must have taken some time.’

  ‘Of course, yes.’

  ‘Did you have time to discuss the rape accusation, too? That was an important matter, as well.’

  ‘Of course we discussed it.’

  ‘And what was the result of that charge?’

  ‘It was later withdrawn.’

  ‘Oh? Why was that?’

  ‘The complainant withdrew the accusation.’

  ‘I see.’ Sarah paused. The atmosphere in the court had changed - everyone was suddenly listening and watching with greater intensity than before. Every tone of voice, every nuance of the witness’s body language, mattered now. Sarah had still not made the obvious accusation - that Baxter had gone to the prison with the deliberate intention of blackmailing Brian Winnick into giving false evidence against Jason Barnes. But the implication was clear to everyone in court.

  ‘You mean, the woman changed her mind and said she wasn’t raped after all?’

  ‘In effect, yes.’

  ‘And you were leading that investigation, were you, Inspector?’

  ‘I was, yes.’

  ‘You spoke to this young woman, did you?’

  Here it comes, Sarah thought. She felt the adrenalin surging through her. These were the moments of drama she lived for in court. Lucy’s suspicions were right. Ever since she’d seen Robert Baxter outside court this morning, she’d felt sure of her ground. He hesitated now, shuffling slightly in the witness stand. There was a faint tremor in his liver-spotted right hand.