‘ Wonder who else he was screwing. There would have had to be someone, wouldn’t there?’
‘No.’
‘ Doesn’t know him like we do, does she?’
‘Held anything back from you?’
‘No.’
‘Broken a promise to you?’
‘No.’
‘He had promised to alert you, in advance, of his confessing everything to Mrs Lomax and demanding the divorce that would give him custody of Emily?’
‘Yes.’
‘But had not, at any time prior to the murder, told you that he had done so?’
‘No.’
‘That is a very beautiful ring. When did you buy it?’
‘I told you, when we talked about getting married.’
‘That wasn’t the question. What was the date when you bought it?’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘Ms Nicholls! You’ve told the court it’s your engagement ring, the token of your intended marriage. Buying it was surely one of the most significant moments of your life?’
‘We are meandering towards a point, aren’t we, Mr Hall?’ demanded the judge.
Bastard! thought Hall, curbing the frustrated anger the moment it came. ‘Hopefully, my Lord.’
‘An ambition shared by us both.’
‘Then perhaps I can continue, my Lord?’ Hall allowed himself, careless of the immediate tightening of Jarvis’s face. ‘Wasn’t it a moment to remember, Ms Nicholls?’
‘Yes.’
‘So when was it?’
‘Five or six months ago.’
‘Still not sure,’ said Hall. ‘Was it a surprise, given to you over a candle-lit dinner? Or did you buy it together?’
‘We bought it together.’
‘And you’ve worn it ever since? For five or six months?’
‘Yes.’
‘So people you work with would have noticed it. It is, after all, a very distinctive piece of jewellery. They would probably be able to give an even more reliable timing than five or six months.’
‘ I can see where he’s getting to, can’t you? Clever bastard, isn’t he? Pity there’s nothing he can do to help you.’
‘Maybe. You’ll have to ask them.’
‘I intend to, Ms Nicholls. Every one of them who’s called to give evidence after you. You sure you can’t give a more specific date?’
‘No.’
‘What shop did you buy it in?’
The woman began nipping her bottom lip between her teeth. ‘Garrards.’
‘Who will, of course, have a record of the sale. So we can establish a positive date by simply approaching them, can’t we?’
‘ That’s you fucked, Rebecca. He really is a clever bastard.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Would it embarrass you if I did indeed obtain a sales receipt?’
‘No.’ There was no longer any defiance. Rebecca Nicholls was blinking a lot, constantly nibbling her lower lip, several times looking nervously towards the judge, who had stopped intervening.
‘Wouldn’t such a receipt show that your ring is a much more recent acquisition?’
‘I said I can’t be sure when I bought it.’
‘ You bought it!’ pounced Hall. ‘Remembering, before you answer, that you are on oath, Ms Nicholls, isn’t a far more accurate story of the ring that you did indeed buy it yourself, not together with Gerald Lomax. That its purpose and purchase was to strengthen the motive of jealousy for the crime of which my client stands accused?’
‘No.’
‘Speak up, Ms Nicholls,’ demanded Jarvis.
‘No,’ repeated Rebecca, only slightly louder.
‘Could I place on record, my Lord, the possibility of my seeking to recall this witness after further enquiries are made?’
‘He gave me the money!’ shouted Rebecca, her voice snatched by a sob. Then the words rushed out. ‘Gerald gave me the money and said it was for an engagement ring and when he died I bought it as he’d intended me to so I could keep it always, in his memory…’
‘I don’t think I need bother Garrards,’ said Hall, sitting down.
He did, however, ask each trader subsequently called if they remembered the ring being worn by Rebecca Nicholls. None did. There was little else he chose to examine them upon. Their accounts of Gerald Lomax being murdered were identical, as were Jane’s interventions which lessened anyway after a further warning from Jarvis to have Jennifer removed from the dock. The only variation was the evidence of Roger Jones, the trading-floor manager, who followed Rebecca into the witness-box. He testified that when he reached the office, Jennifer was cradling Gerald Lomax in her arms and said, ‘Gerald’s dead. Someone stabbed him.’
‘“Gerald’s dead. Someone stabbed him”?’ echoed Hall. ‘Not “I stabbed him, because he was deceiving me with Rebecca Nicholls” or some such words?’
‘No.’
‘Was Jennifer Lomax in any way threatening?’
‘No.’
‘You never feared she might attack you?’
‘At first, when I got there. But not when I saw what she was like.’
‘What was she like?’
‘Bewildered, as if she didn’t understand what had happened.’
Because their accounts of the killing were virtually the same and Jeremy Hall’s cross-examination so minimal the evidence from the trading floor was completed by mid-afternoon. It was the prosecution who called the hospital doctor, Peter Lloyd, whom Hall had originally seen as a defence witness. Keflin-Jones did so to establish that when Jennifer Lomax was admitted she was not suffering from shock but appeared composed and aware of her surroundings.
Lloyd had volunteered a lengthier statement than even the prosecution needed, urged to do so by a hospital management anxious against any criticism to set out in minute medical detail every aspect of the treatment Jennifer had received.
The awareness – the abrupt recognition of the nagging doubt that he’d felt but been unable to resolve – exploded in Jeremy Hall’s mind halfway through Lloyd’s evidence, which Hall was following from the copy of the doctor’s statement that had been made available under the rule of disclosure.
The significance was such that briefly the words fogged in front of Hall’s eyes. He heard Lloyd say the words, exactly as they were written down, but then closed his senses to the rest of the man’s evidence, sorting through the papers in front of him so hurriedly that Keflin-Brown paused, distracted, looking accusingly sideways. Perry leaned forward, nudging the younger man but Hall was oblivious to anything but the evidence they had already heard and the notes that he had made.
His concentration was such that he was not conscious of Keflin-Brown sitting, giving him the opportunity to cross-examine, until Jarvis said, ‘Are you with us, Mr Hall?’
‘Very much so, my Lord,’ assured Hall. He rose slowly, checking the time as he did so, calculating he had fifteen minutes to fill before the adjournment of that day’s hearing.
‘You carried out every conceivable test and examination considered necessary upon Mrs Lomax, consistent with her medical condition when she was admitted?’
‘Yes.’
‘Some of which were repeated, according to clinical practice?’
‘Yes.’
Still ten minutes to go. ‘Physical conditions – illnesses – not immediately evident can be ascertained from certain pathological examinations?’
‘Yes.’
‘Faeces and urine, for example?’
‘Yes.’
‘I think this has already been well established, Mr Hall.’
‘With the greatest of respect, my Lord, I think there is something of vital importance to this case that has not been established. And needs to be.’
‘ What the fuck’s he on about? ’
Hall welcomed the time the judge remained looking at him before nodding curtly. Five minutes, he saw. ‘Spinal fluid?’
‘Yes.’
‘Temperature?’
‘Yes.’
Three minutes. ‘Pulse?’
‘Yes.’
‘Blood?’
‘Yes.’
‘How many times, doctor, were blood samples taken from Mrs Lomax?’