‘No!’ said Jennifer, too loudly. She saw the matron’s head emerge questioningly from her office, at the far end of the long ward.
‘You don’t have an alternative, Jennifer,’ insisted Hall, almost as loudly. He was suddenly aware of calling her by her christian name.
‘What do the psychiatrists say?’
‘ Barking mad! The rest of your life among the loonies.’
‘There’s a conflict,’ conceded Hall.
‘No-one will definitely say I’m mad!’ seized Jennifer, triumphantly.
‘The American is prepared to testify to Multiple Personality Disorder,’ said Perry. ‘Everyone else talks of some indications of mental imbalance.’
‘But they won’t say I’m mad,’ persisted Jennifer.
‘ Of course they will. You’ve got a voice in your head.’
‘No,’ admitted Hall.
‘ Bastards! ’
It came with a roaring scream and Jennifer put her hands over her ears and kept her arms tightly against her sides, holding herself against giving in to the agony. Which she managed to do. Uneven voiced she said, ‘She’s very angry. Yelling.’
‘Jennifer, you’re not understanding the implications of what I’m saying,’ said Hall, gently. ‘Even though the experts disagree there’s enough for a defence of temporary mental instability. There’s supporting evidence to call with what happened with Emily-’
‘WHAT!’
This time the matron hurried the length of the open ward, bustling through the door at the same time as knocking. ‘What’s going on? She mustn’t be distressed.’
‘Nothing. Please leave us,’ said Perry.
‘Perhaps I should-’
‘Leave us!’ said Hall, not looking at the woman.
‘ Aren’t I doing well! Trapped whichever way you turn! ’
In her anger it was easier for Jennifer to ignore the intrusion. Tight-lipped, she said, ‘It was Jane who attacked Emily. Which you know. But I won’t have Emily brought into it. Into any of it. Which is the strongest reason I have for not agreeing to your defence, quite apart from it not being true in the first place.’
‘Jennifer, you’re not making it easy for me. For yourself.’
‘I’m not interested in making anything easy! If you won’t accept my instructions, then you’re fired.’
‘If that’s your wish then I will make the case file and notes available to you,’ said Perry, at once.
Hall wished the relief hadn’t been so obvious in the other man’s hurried voice. ‘You’ll have great difficulty getting anyone else to represent you at this late stage. You’ll probably end up defending yourself. It would inevitably mean a postponement of the trial.’
‘ How long do you think Fran and Emma and Harriet with that sharp little razor blade can be bought off! And sticky-fingered nursey? ’
‘You promised me a QC,’ reminded Jennifer, no longer strident. She didn’t want a postponement: to remain here for a moment longer than she had to. Jane was actually right. Bribery wouldn’t work for ever.
‘No QC in Mr Hall’s chambers is prepared to lead in this case,’ announced Perry, irritated that the young barrister hadn’t accepted the escape that had been offered them.
‘Help me,’ said Jennifer softly.
‘I want to,’ said Hall urgently, matching her plea. ‘But you’re making it impossible…’ He hesitated. She’d already suffered enormously – maybe in ways he didn’t know – and he was nervous how she’d react if he consciously tried to frighten her further. But he couldn’t think of another, kinder way. ‘If you don’t agree to plead guilty to a lesser charge and the case runs its full course you’ll inevitably be found guilty. As a sane person, the murder was the calculated, premeditated action of a wife being cheated by her husband. You’d probably be sentenced to at least twenty years…’ Hall paused again, remembering Julian Mason’s belief of sexual abuse. ‘… You’d probably serve a minimum of twelve. Do you think you could survive twelve years in a place like this, as opposed to a custodial sentence in a secure hospital unit, where you’d be eligible for release probably much sooner on the advice of doctors?’
Jennifer was gouged by fear and Jane said, ‘ That’s how you’re going to feel for the rest of your life ’
For the first time Jennifer responded. ‘I won’t!’ Then, quickly although spacing the words through tight-together lips, she said, ‘I – won’t – give – in!’
‘ I’m always going to be around when you do. And you will, over and over again.’
Hall slumped back in his chair, defeated. Perry actually shrugged.
‘I accept your instructions to plead not guilty to the charge of murder,’ said Hall, momentarily as pedantic as his instructing solicitor.
Perry said, ‘Don’t forget Jarvis’s religion.’
Hall nodded. ‘All the clinical and medical tests have been completed but I want to suggest something further. You’re possessed, correct?’
‘You know I am.’
‘We’d like you to undergo exorcism,’ announced Perry.
‘ Don’t bother. It won’t work! ’
‘You mean by a priest or vicar?’ queried Jennifer.
‘Yes.’
‘Who’s Jarvis? And what’s his religion got to do with it.’
Hall looked uncomfortable. ‘He’s the appointed trial judge. A very strong Anglican.’
‘Who’d be impressed by the involvement of a minister?’ recognized Jennifer.
‘Yes,’ admitted Hall.
‘I didn’t believe in any God before all this happened,’ said Jennifer. ‘I certainly don’t after what I’ve gone through.’
‘That’s not really the point,’ argued Perry.
‘So I’d go through the motions of praying and whatever else is involved to score points with a judge!’
‘Scoring points with a judge is what trials are all about,’ said Hall, matching the older man’s cynicism.
‘If I don’t believe it wouldn’t work, would it? So Jane would still be there and I’d have achieved nothing.’
‘You wouldn’t know that until you’d tried,’ said Perry.
Jennifer shook her head. ‘I’m satisfied with none of the psychiatrists being prepared to say I’m mad.’
‘She must be mad!’ erupted Humphrey Perry, when they reached the courtyard outside the main prison gates. ‘Only someone completely mad would have failed to see the only way out, with a plea to a lesser charge!’
‘I know,’ said the younger man, resigned.
‘We had a chance to get out. Why didn’t you take it?’
‘I want to help her.’
‘How the hell can you do that? She won’t let herself be helped in the only way available.’
‘I’ll enter the plea she wants, go through whatever pantomime the voice in her head causes and let Jarvis instruct the jury to return a verdict of the lesser charge made obvious from her behaviour in court. That way she’ll get the care she so obviously needs.’
Perry gazed across the car at the other man, acknowledging the ploy with an admiring nod but not immediately starting the engine. ‘Jarvis doesn’t want court time wasted on a full trial.’
‘Bugger what Jarvis wants!’ said Hall. ‘Show me a different way to achieve what has to be achieved, in the best interest of Jennifer Lomax, and I’ll take it!’
‘I wish I could,’ said Perry, solemnly.
‘So do I,’ said Hall.
‘Jarvis will feel-’
‘I don’t need to be told what Jarvis will feel,’ stopped Hall. ‘I know.’
The ponderous silence stretched interminably, Sir Ivan Jarvis staring fixedly at Hall, and even Simon Keflin-Brown, who normally would have found the temptation irresistible, didn’t attempt any courtroom idiosyncracies. There were no coughs, no foot scuffing.
At last Jarvis said, ‘Could it be that I failed to make myself clear?’
‘You made yourself abundantly clear, my Lord,’ said Hall. He’d wanted to cough but hadn’t and the assurance croaked out.
‘Then perhaps you haven’t made yourself clear to your client?’