‘I hope you’ve got a note from your parents?’ Judith said.

  Constance was grinning broadly, despite Judith’s admonishment. ‘I’m only a bit late and it was worth it,’ she said.

  ‘All right. What have you discovered?’

  ‘I finally got Dawson to release Debbie’s phone back to us. He had said there was nothing relevant on there, if you remember. But I kept pressing and, in the end, he handed it over. I think he just wanted to get rid of me. I’ve got two trainees back at the office trawling through it now.’

  ‘Trainees? Do they know what they’re looking for?’

  ‘I’ve briefed them, don’t worry. Anything remotely interesting, they’ll leave for me.’

  ‘So why are you looking so smug?’

  ‘You remember we talked about how it was a really new phone and you said you could track them?’

  ‘Vaguely.’

  ‘So that’s what I’ve been doing. Then I had to work out how to present the results, that’s what took the time. I’ll show you now, but, well, I think it’s a big help.’

  ‘Fantastic.’

  ‘How was the neighbour?’

  Judith shrugged. ‘You can watch it back in glorious Technicolor, with a glass of wine, this evening.’

  Constance sat down. ‘I am sorry I wasn’t there,’ she said. ‘It’s not like I had a lie-in, or anything.’

  ‘I know. I know that. I just… I almost went too far with her and I’m not sure why. There’s a scene in…God, I can’t remember the name of the film. It’s one where someone’s pretending to be a lawyer and he goes really over the top explaining stuff, until the judge stops him and tells him it’s only a preliminary hearing.’

  ‘I’m sure you didn’t…’

  ‘I didn’t, but I wanted to. I really wanted to. In the end, it was OK, I think. I stopped myself. She didn’t have anything that important to say anyway, except she found the body, end of story. And why shouldn’t she want to overplay her connection with Rosie? I would probably do the same, in her place. But I looked up at that camera, which, naturally, she was playing to with her smiles and her polished nails and I felt this…desire, this impulse to destroy her, to ensure that everyone could see what a flimsy excuse for a human being Lynn Harris was.’

  ‘Well, the important thing is that you didn’t.’ Constance coughed and checked her watch. It wasn’t like Judith to have these moments of self-doubt.

  ‘No. That’s right. Although she had a key to the house.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘When they went on holiday, Rosie gave her a key.’

  ‘You think she’s a suspect?’

  ‘What better way to cover up a murder than to discover it?’

  ‘Wow! She really got to you, didn’t she?’

  Judith laughed. ‘I’m fine. You’re right. She’s just a lonely old soul, making the most of her moment of fame. I need to pace myself, not peak too early. Laidlaw asked her what the weather was like, at the end though, and when she said it was hot, he looked triumphant.’

  ‘And you don’t know why?’

  ‘No. Maybe it’s because she also said Debbie was wearing a coat, to make her look suspicious. I don’t know. Shall we head back to the action?’

  Constance picked up her bag, but hovered by the door.

  ‘There is one thing Dawson let slip this morning…but I’ll tell you after court? It doesn’t impact the phone evidence.’

  ‘I think I should know now. Never hold back bad news.’

  ‘OK.’ Constance leaned back against the door. ‘All right. Dawson also said something about Rosie’s laptop. They weren’t going to do any more data analysis, but when I asked for the phone, they reconsidered…’

  ‘Reconsidered? Did he really say that? I think he means forgot or couldn’t spare the resources or didn’t have someone with the right expertise, ’cos they’ve all been sacked as a result of cutbacks. I shouldn’t be surprised, should I?’

  ‘Well now they’ve put it under the spotlight and they think they’ve found something, after all.’

  ‘What kind of something?’

  ‘Dawson wouldn’t say, but he says it’s definitely relevant to the case. And he said to send you his best wishes, so it must be something bad.’

  Judith fingered the curls on her wig.

  ‘And when will we see it? We’re already on day two.’

  ‘He’s talking to the lawyers and he knows it’s very late. Apparently, it was password-protected and it’s taken them a while to access it.’

  Judith sighed. ‘Well there’s no point worrying till we know what it is. Come. Show me what magic you’ve weaved this morning with Debbie’s mobile phone.’

  Relief flooded over Constance. Judith was concentrating on the evidence again and, as long as Constance could keep her focused and not allow any political sideshow to derail things, everything would be just fine.

  29

  Dr Theo Marcus was smartly dressed in jacket, shirt and orange tie. Judith wasn’t a fan of orange clothing. On the rare occasions she had been forced to wear it as a child, it had sucked the colour from her complexion and the energy from her body. Hunters wore orange; in some US states it was compulsory. And the Dutch. And Hindu priests, although they liked to call the colour ‘saffron’, associating it with austerity and detachment from everyday life. A good reason not to choose orange if ever there was one.

  Judith had seen Dr Marcus outside the court room, fussing with his few remaining strands of hair, smoothing his beard and re-tying his tie. If she hadn’t been a lawyer, she sometimes thought that forensic pathology would have been a reasonable alternative option. True, she wasn’t particularly attracted by blood or guts, but she wasn’t repelled either; both professions sought answers and the disciplines were not so different. She used words skilfully to peel back the layers of truth, where the pathologist wielded his scalpel.

  ‘That’s Dr Marcus,’ Constance had said, as they passed close by.

  ‘Hm. His report’s as thin as his hair,’ Judith had replied, and when they were further away, ‘Do you think he’s the kind of man who reads bedtime stories to his children?’ she had asked.

  ‘What?’

  ‘No imagination, that’s all I mean.’

  ‘Does he need imagination? He’s a pathologist.’

  Judith had stopped walking and her eyes had widened. ‘Logic will get you from A to Z. Imagination will get you everywhere!’

  ‘Did you just make that up?’

  ‘I might have, but it was actually Albert Einstein.’

  ‘You think he told good bedtime stories then?’

  ‘I think he probably did.’

  * * *

  ‘Dr Marcus. You are appearing today as our expert forensic pathologist. Can you explain your role in determining what happened to Rosie Harper, just in general terms?’ Was Judith mistaken or did Laidlaw appear a tad less exuberant this afternoon, a little more circumspect. And the ring was missing from his finger.

  ‘I attended the crime scene, examined Miss Harper, directed the collection of evidence, conducted the post mortem and reported on my conclusions. I also supervised the testing of items connected to the crime scene, like samples of hair, the leather glove and the trophy murder weapon.’

  ‘Thank you. And what did you find when you arrived at Miss Harper’s home on the evening of Monday 17th June? We have already seen a photograph of her body lying in the garden, when Inspector Dawson gave his evidence.’

  ‘I arrived at 5.40pm. I was very early on the scene, because I happened to be only a few minutes away, when I received the call. The front door is up a few steps from the road. It opens onto a hallway and, to the right is the living room. And in the living room there were signs of a struggle.’

  ‘What signs?’

  ‘The living room is a large room with a seating area at the front of the house and then a desk area in the back corner. And there is a door leading outside, into the back garden. The office chair had been knocked over, Miss Harper’s laptop lay on the floor.’

  ‘Was it broken?’

  ‘It was intact. Some papers were also spread across the floor and there were blood stains on the rug.’

  ‘Thank you. We are going to take a look at a shot of the living room now. What else did you see?’

  ‘At the far side of the living room, I could see a woman’s body on the ground, head and shoulders furthest away, protruding out into the garden. The first part of the garden is paved and that was where she was lying. Inspector Dawson identified the body as that of Miss Rosie Harper. Miss Harper was lying on her stomach, with her face turned to one side.’

  ‘Thank you, that’s the second photograph.’

  As the camera homed in on the one visible side of Rosie’s face, there were gasps and sobs from all around the courtroom. Debbie looked across at the screen, her eyes narrowed and she looked away.

  ‘Can you describe Rosie’s injuries please?’

  ‘You can see there is blood on her face, her hair covers some of the wound, but she had clearly been struck on the back of the head, with a heavy object.’

  ‘Did she have any other injuries?’

  ‘Two of the fingers of her right hand were broken.’

  ‘How do you think those injuries were sustained?’

  ‘My view, and it is only a view, I must emphasise, is that Miss Harper was, first of all, struck from behind and the impact was not, on its own, sufficient to kill her or even render her unconscious, so she turned and put her hands up and was struck again, breaking her fingers. And then she was struck a third time across the temple. It’s difficult to be certain regarding the order in which these blows were sustained, but there is a rule that fractures don’t cross existing fracture lines, and that bears out the sequence I have just set out.’

  ‘And the third time?’

  ‘The third blow was a massive one. She was left to die.’

  ‘Can you explain more what you mean by that?’

  ‘The blood stains and the marks on the rug were consistent with Rosie dragging herself across the floor to the back door and I can only assume that was after her assailant had left.’

  ‘And the back door was open?’

  ‘When we arrived. But she had opened it, I believe, Rosie had. There was blood on the door handle. I think once she had crawled to the door, she reached up and opened it and hauled herself outside.’

  ‘Do you have any idea how long Miss Harper might have lived after the blow to the head?’

  ‘It’s very hard to say. With subdural bleeding, you can live for minutes or hours.’

  ‘Subdural bleeding?’

  ‘Bleeding in the space between the surface of the brain and the skull. Given that Miss Harper appears to have dragged herself a distance of around five metres, it is likely to have been at least ten minutes, but I can’t say anything more than that.’

  ‘And the time of her death?’

  ‘On the basis of the medical evidence, it’s impossible to say when she died, other than it was in the six hours before she was found. However, I understand the laptop had been used up until 3.16pm and that is why, assuming it was Miss Harper using the laptop, I say death was after 3.16pm.’

  ‘And tell us about her dog.’

  ‘When I arrived, the dog had been removed by a police officer and placed in a police van, but Inspector Dawson told me the dog had been barking loudly and that had alerted the neighbours. And there were prints from the dog through the stream of blood, as if it had run in and out of the living room. Again, this is a guess. Perhaps the dog was in the garden when she was attacked and Miss Harper tried to open the door, because she wanted the dog to sound the alarm which, of course, it did. Or she might have thought she could reach the side gate herself and call out to someone?’

  ‘Where was Rosie’s phone?’

  ‘It was charging in the kitchen, in the basement.’

  ‘What about the murder weapon?’

  ‘We didn’t find it at the scene. The police carried out house-to-house enquiries and checked all the gardens locally and the weapon was found a few doors down in a dustbin, wrapped in a tea towel.’

  ‘Can you tell us what the weapon was? It’s exhibit three your honour.’

  The usher brought through another transparent plastic bag and passed it around the jury.

  ‘It’s a trophy awarded to Rosie Harper in 2011. “Best Newcomer”. It’s a TV award. I was told it was usually kept on show, above the fireplace.’

  ‘Are you certain this was the murder weapon?’

  ‘Yes. It had been wiped with a soft cloth, but it still bore traces of Miss Harper’s blood. And it is certainly of sufficient weight to have caused her injuries.’

  ‘The post-mortem you conducted confirmed the cause of death?’

  ‘Death occurred as a result of the two blows to the head.’

  ‘You took lots of samples from the room. Can you tell us what you found?’

  ‘We found some of Debbie Mallard’s DNA, mostly hair but also skin cells.’

  ‘Anything else of note at the crime scene?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Perhaps I can jog your memory a little. Was there an item of clothing found at the scene?’

  ‘Oh, yes. There was a motorbike glove. You can just see it, if you flick on a few photographs, it’s in photo number 103, …lying close to Rosie’s laptop. There it is. That contained signs of the defendant’s DNA on the inside of the glove.’

  ‘What does that establish?’

  ‘That Debbie Mallard had worn it.’ Debbie looked at Judith. Judith looked away.

  ‘Is it possible to say when she had worn it?’

  ‘There are some new theories about how to date DNA, I mean, how to determine how long ago it left the body of the individual it belongs to, but it’s still in the early stages. What we can say with confidence is that it had been worn by Debbie Mallard and so I can only assume it also belongs to Debbie Mallard.’

  Now Debbie stared at Dr Marcus, her lips parted, her eyes boring deep.

  ‘Thank you. Please wait for Ms Burton to ask you a few questions.’

  Judith flicked her gown out behind her and, as she rose, she fixed Dr Marcus with a thoughtful look. He shifted in his chair and scratched the top of his head.

  ‘Dr Marcus. Let’s start where you just finished with Mr Laidlaw and the glove. You are suggesting, what? That Debbie was wearing the glove when she hit Rosie over the head with the trophy, then she removed the glove from her hand, dropped it and ran off. Is that the case theory?’

  ‘I just report on what I find.’

  ‘Of course. But what you find is supposed to help this court determine what happened. That’s the value of your evidence.’

  Dr Marcus mumbled his agreement.

  ‘Thank you. You accept, then, that the prosecution is alleging and your evidence appears to confirm, that the glove, which was paraded around the court when Inspector Dawson gave his evidence, belongs to my client?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And so, assuming for a moment that my client is not deliberately leaving clues to her own guilt, the case theory must be that this incriminating glove was left behind, after the murder, by mistake?

  ‘I suppose so, yes.’

  ‘As a pathologist, it’s often important, isn’t it, that you can assess when things occurred. You’re always being asked about timing, time of death being the most obvious – and we’ll come onto that.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘This glove found at the scene, using all your modern techniques, do you have any idea when it arrived there?’

  ‘No.’ Dr Marcus frowned.

  ‘Might the glove have been lying on the floor before Rosie Harper was murdered?’

  ‘That’s possible. But it was soaked in Rosie Harper’s blood.’

  ‘Imagine this scenario, for a moment…if you can. You enter your house, wearing your gloves. You then remove them and tuck them into your pocket. As you cross your living room, one of them nudges its way out and drops to the floor, but you don’t notice. It’s been a long day, so you decide to pour yourself a large glass of red wine. As you re-cross the room, the glass slips from your fingers and crashes to the floor, producing a puddle of red liquid, which not only stains the rug you purchased on a recent trip to Turkey, but also soaks your errant glove.’

  ‘Are you asking me a question?’

  ‘I’d like you to consider and, if correct, acknowledge, that the presence of blood on this glove does not constitute any kind of proof that it was used by the murderer in the murder itself?’

  Dr Marcus moistened his lips and looked at Debbie. ‘That’s correct.’

  ‘There were no…forgive me for probing, but this is an important point…pieces of Rosie Harper’s skull embedded in the glove or splinters from the murder weapon – anything to suggest it was being worn by the assailant when Rosie was struck?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘What about the alternative interpretation – that the glove fell to the ground after the murder? It was sitting on the edge of the table, for example, and it was disturbed when the police broke down the door and burst into the room.’

  ‘That’s also possible. I can only comment on what I see myself, and I arrived after the police.’

  ‘And that photograph, number 103, can we go back to it for a moment? Thank you. It is, as you say, of the floor area near the back door. We can see a shadow which does appear to be the glove – I accept that – and Rosie’s laptop is visible, but Rosie’s body isn’t there, is it?’

  ‘That’s right. This photo was taken after her body had been removed.’

  ‘Do you know when it was taken?’

  ‘It’s written on the image at the bottom: 18th June at 19.27.’

  ‘I see. Did you see the black glove on the floor of the living room when you arrived at 5.40pm on Monday 17th June?’