The Disappeared

'So you might say your response was unusually thorough?'

'I'd say so, yes.'

'That's all.' Havilland glanced sympathetically at the jury as if to say that Watkins's entire spell in the witness box had been an unnecessary waste of everybody's time.

Martha Denton once again didn't deign to ask any questions, but this time Collins got his nod in before Khan, and the quiet solicitor, more at home conveyancing than cross- examining, rose nervously to his feet.

'Mr Watkins,' Collins said, swallowing his words, then coughing nervously. 'Your statement describing the damage to the door frames of the two boys' student rooms wasn't released to my client, the late Mrs Jamal, until nearly a year afterwards, and then only when her then solicitor requested it. Why was that?'

'I wouldn't know, sir.'

Collins tugged awkwardly at the flaps of his jacket pockets, 'That damage could have been interpreted as evidence of violence,' he said, as a statement rather than as a question. 'Why on earth wasn't a full-scale investigation launched?'

'It was, sir.'

'None that was worth the name. There were no forensic tests done on the room, no dusting for fingerprints.'

'It was a missing persons, not a criminal investigation. They're two different things.'

'You seemed very uninterested in the whereabouts of two young men you had spent months observing going to and from supposedly seditious political meetings.'

'Like I said, I just did what I was asked.'

'Which, it seems, was not to try too hard,' Collins said with a forthrightness which seemed to take the other lawyers by surprise. He raised his voice even louder. 'You and your colleagues were ordered not to look for Nazim Jamal and Rafi Hassan. That's the unpalatable truth, isn't it, Mr Watkins?'

Watkins glanced uneasily at the jury. 'Those are your words, sir, not mine.'

'You have no answer - is that it, Mr Watkins? Would you have been satisfied with the police response if it had been your son or daughter who had gone missing?'

Watkins looked to Jenny, hoping to be rescued.

'It's a perfectly proper question,' Jenny said.

After a pause, in which Watkins seem to toy with the idea of going off message, he said, 'I was a detective sergeant, sir. An NCO. You're better off asking those questions of the officers.'

Fraser Havilland and Martha Denton traded a glance and went into a huddle with their instructing solicitors. The two legal teams were planning something in concert.

Khan shook his head, giving Watkins a look of undisguised disdain when Jenny invited him to cross-examine. The witness he wanted was DI Pironi. Jenny wanted him, too, but he could wait for the moment. There were others she needed to hear from first.

'You may stand down, Mr Watkins.' She turned to Alison. 'Simon Donovan, please.'

Donovan came to the witness box for the second time. He looked jaded; what little muscle tone there had once been had gone from his plump face, which sagged unhealthily from his cheek and jawbones.

'You're still under oath, Mr Donovan,' Jenny said. 'I've just a few questions to clear up following your testimony last week.' She turned back through her longhand note of the evidence and found her verbatim record of his testimony. 'You told us that you reported your sighting of the two young Asian men on the London train on the 29 June because you recognized their faces from newspaper reports.'

'That's right.'

'You went on to say that the police came round - I presume to your home - with a selection of photographs, from which you identified Nazim Jamal and Rafi Hassan.'

'I did.'

Jenny noticed Zachariah Jamal looking intently at Donovan.

'And this was prompted by your concern that they might have been involved in illegal activity.'

'Yes, ma'am.'

Jenny paused and studied Donovan carefully. He clasped and unclasped his hands.

'What was your occupation at the time, Mr Donovan?'

'I was a chartered accountant, ma'am.'

'In private practice?'

'Yes.'

'From April of that year were you under investigation for offences of fraud?'

Khan and Collins exchanged a look. Havilland and Denton appeared unmoved: Havilland engrossed in another document, Denton patiently taking a note.

'I was questioned by police, ma'am,' Donovan said, 'but completely exonerated. Not only that, I gave evidence against several of my clients and a former business associate, who as it turned out were guilty of fraud.' His answer was pre- rehearsed but confidently delivered. Jenny noticed his eyes dart towards Havilland as if he were subconsciously seeking approval.

Jenny said, 'Do you recall whether you were questioned by police as a suspect between 29 June and 20 July, the date on which you gave your statement?'

'I don't recall exact dates, but there's a good chance.'

'I won't sidestep the issue, Mr Donovan: did you strike a deal with the police over the issue of the fraud charges? Was giving a statement saying you'd seen Nazim Jamal and Rafi Hassan part of it?'

Havilland got indignantly to his feet. 'Ma'am, as counsel for the chief of the police force in question, I really must object to this line of questioning unless it's backed up by credible evidence.'

'Evidence will be called which explains the question Mr Havilland. You'll just have to be patient.'

'Ma'am, purely in the interests of fairness I must remind you of your absolute duty of impartiality. This line of questioning does sound suspiciously like a cross-examination mounted by an advocate making a partial case. That is not the manner in which a coroner is expected to conduct an inquiry.'

'I can assure you, Mr Havilland, I have no intention of compromising my impartiality,' Jenny snapped. 'If you'd kindly let me continue.'

Havilland gave way reluctantly, heaving a theatrical sigh as he sat.

'Mr Donovan,' Jenny said, 'please give a straight answer - did the police suggest you make the statement identifying Nazim Jamal and Rafi Hassan?'

'No,' Donovan replied, with almost too much force to be convincing.

'Then do you have any proof that you took this train journey - a credit-card statement perhaps?'

'I paid cash.'

'And for the ticket to the football match you were heading to?'

'That was cash, too.'

'Were you travelling with anyone who could verify your account?' 'No.'

'There must be someone who could substantiate your story?'

'You could try my ex-wife,' Donovan said, hoping to raise a smile from the jury.

Jenny tried again to shake his account by suggesting that he may have been tempted to come forward with the intention of gaining credit with the police at a time when he was facing charges, but he denied everything. His statement had been the spontaneous gesture of a concerned citizen, he insisted. That's all there was to it.

Havilland decided not to dignify Jenny's insinuations with any further inquiry, and Martha Denton again followed suit. Khan reprised his attack of the week before, implying that Donovan couldn't tell one Asian face from another, but the jury seemed visibly irritated by Khan's barracking tone: the more he railed, the harder their expressions became. Jenny was slowly learning about British juries: it didn't matter if their skins were black, white, brown or any combination, they had an instinctive dislike of sentiment. It was a paradox but, in a culture obsessed with the public parading of every shade of self-indulgent emotion, inside a courtroom the instinct to reject all overt displays of passion still held firm.

When Khan had finally run out of breath, Collins rose to ask a question of his own.

Quietly, and nervously twiddling a pen between his fingers, he said, 'Are you asking us to believe, Mr Donovan, that it never occurred to you that identifying two potential terrorists - which is what you said you thought they were - might help you in your own case? I can't imagine what sort of solicitor was advising you if it didn't.'