Jennifer closed her eyes, trying to shut out the sight of Rebecca and the ring and the court: shut out everything to curl up into the smallest ball that no-one could see and die. Why fight any more? No point. Give up. Plead however Jeremy Hall wanted her to plead and be sent somewhere as a sex toy, to be played with. Emily, she remembered. Had to survive – to fight – so there was someone to look after Emily. Jennifer waited for the taunt but Jane put no thoughts in her head.
‘ You’re doing fine, torturing yourself. ’
‘Who bought that ring for you, Ms Nicholls?’
‘Gerry.’
‘Does it have a particular significance?’
‘He bought it for me when we talked of getting married.’
‘An engagement ring, in fact?’
‘Yes.’
‘What did you think, when you saw what Jennifer Lomax did to her husband that dreadful day in the office of Euro-Corps?’
‘That he had told her.’
‘And were you too frightened to go up to where your lover – your future husband – lay dying because you were afraid she’d try to kill you, too?’
‘Yes.’ Rebecca looked away from the press gallery, to stare directly and accusingly at Jennifer.
‘There is a child, a daughter, from Mr Lomax’s marriage to the accused, isn’t there?’
‘Emily,’ confirmed the woman.
A fury, a hatred, boiled up within Jennifer. She began physically to shake, without encouragement from Jane.
‘ That’s how I felt, Jennifer. Worse than you, even. That’s why I killed Gerald and why I’m doing what I am to you. Balancing the score. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Only fair, after what you did .’
‘Steady,’ hissed Ann, close beside her. ‘Calm down.’
‘You are, in fact, Emily’s godmother, are you not?’
‘Yes.’
‘A child you love, like your own.’
‘Yes.’
Jennifer’s shaking worsened and she felt Ann’s hand on her arm, restraining her.
‘Was there any discussion between you and Mr Lomax about Emily?’
‘He said whatever happened he couldn’t give her up: that Emily was his life. And that he’d make Jennifer agree to his having Emily with us.’
Jennifer felt an emptiness, a void. He couldn’t have been this cruel. He would have had to hate her to be this crueclass="underline" to have used her, like the matron and Emma and Fran and Harriet used her.
‘ That’s it, Jennifer: that’s what it was, all the time. Still think you’re the luckiest woman in the world?’
‘What was Mr Lomax’s intention, as far as you were aware?’
Rebecca remained staring straight at the dock, the look of contempt on her face again. ‘As far as I was aware Gerald intended divorcing Jennifer and getting custody of Emily. And then we would marry.’
‘ Left with nothing! Tossed out, with the garbage. ’
‘And for the three of you to become a family?’
‘Yes.’ Rebecca’s voice was soft again, trembling with the uncertainty of a happiness she’d now never achieve.
‘Gerald would have told Mrs Lomax what he intended with the child, as well as wanting a divorce, wouldn’t he?’
‘Objection!’ protested Hall. ‘There is no way the witness can speculate about a conversation, if any, between Mr and Mrs Lomax.’
‘Mr Keflin-Brown,’ rebuked the judge, mildly.
‘I beg the court’s indulgence and of course withdraw the question
…’ apologized the older barrister.
‘ Too late. Motive all sorted and made perfectly clear. You’re for the drop, Jennifer. Would have been if they still hanged murderers.’
‘… and I have no further questions,’ the man concluded, surrendering Rebecca Nicholls to cross-examination like a well-chewed bone upon which there was no meat left.
‘You haven’t the slightest idea – any way of knowing – if Gerald Lomax confessed his adultery to his wife, have you?’ attacked Jeremy Hall, at once.
‘We’d talked about his doing so.’
‘But you don’t know that he had done it?’
‘No.’
Hall lifted Rebecca’s statement from the mound of papers in front of him, hefting it as if testing its weight to attract the jury’s interest. ‘What you’ve told the court today is at considerable variance with what you told Superintendent Bentley, isn’t it?’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘You don’t remember?’
‘I had just seen the man I loved slaughtered, in front of my eyes! Seen his blood burst everywhere!’
‘No, you hadn’t! Your full statement was made to Superintendent Bentley several days after that.’
‘I still don’t remember.’
There was a tug at Jennifer’s elbow, with the hand offering the handkerchief. Hurriedly she dried herself. Jane said, ‘ I’m not going to have you taken out of court but everyone’s still got to think you’re a drooling idiot.’
‘Then let me help you, Ms Nicholls,’ offered Hall, beckoning the usher. ‘I’ve marked a section, at the top of the third page: the page of a statement you’ve signed and agreed as an accurate account of your conversation with Superintendent Bentley. Doesn’t that marked section say, and I quote, “But Jennifer never knew”?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s very different from what you’re asking the jury to believe today, isn’t it, Ms Nicholls?’
‘I was still in shock. I’ve had time to think about it, since.’
‘I quote again, from a paragraph marked just a little lower from that to which I’ve referred. Doesn’t that say “She didn’t kill Gerry because of me”?’
‘Yes. But I told the police he’d promised me he would get a divorce.’
‘But didn’t you also say, in the third marked passage, that Gerald Lomax had not told his wife of your affair. Or asked for a divorce. And didn’t you go on to say – and again, my Lord, I quote – “He said he’d tell me before he did. But he didn’t say anything. So he didn’t”?’
‘I may have done.’
‘Ms Nicholls, it’s in a statement you signed as an accurate account of your conversation with the superintendent.’
‘I’ve told you, I was still shocked!’
‘You’d been with Gerald Lomax the night before he was killed, hadn’t you? Like you were every night when he remained in London?’
‘Yes.’
‘In his flat?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you make love?’
‘Mr Hall!’ interrupted the judge, while Keflin-Brown was still only halfway to his feet. ‘Is there a point to this line of questioning?’
‘An extremely important one,’ insisted Hall. He had no intention of considering it after the inevitable result of the trial, because it would not be in Jennifer Lomax’s interest, but he was convinced that by now the transcript would already show sufficient unfair bias for an appeal to be lodged.
‘Be very careful, Mr Hall. I shall be paying particular attention,’ said Jarvis.
‘You slept with Gerald Lomax the night before he died?’ resumed Hall.
‘Yes.’ Rebecca was tiny-voiced again.
‘You had no secrets from each other, did you?’
‘No.’
‘And he’d promised to tell you, before he asked Jennifer for a divorce?’
‘Yes.’
‘And he did want to marry you?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘To clear the way for you and he to marry, a divorce would have been the most important thing in Gerald Lomax’s life at that moment, wouldn’t it! He’d promised to tell you. You had no secrets from each other. Yet the night before he was murdered – by a woman it is being suggested was driven to kill by insane jealousy – in the intimate surroundings of the bedroom, he said nothing to you whatsoever about having confessed his adultery to his wife?’
‘No.’ There was very little defiance any more and practically no voice.
‘So he hadn’t told Jennifer Lomax what would have caused her to commit this terrible crime, had he? This whole-’
‘My Lord,’ broke in Keflin-Brown. ‘How can this witness testify to what might or might not have taken place when she was not in Hampshire the previous weekend?’
‘That was an inept question, Mr Hall,’ criticized the judge.
‘Questioning an inference that the jury have been asked to draw from uncorroborated testimony in Ms Nicholls’ evidence-in-chief,’ fought back Hall, refusing to be bullied. ‘But let me try to find my answer from a different direction. To your knowledge, had Gerald Lomax ever deceived you?’