by Abi Silver
‘But completely irrelevant, your honour, please,’ Celia was leaning heavily on her lectern, her brow knitted tightly, her right forefinger tapping out her frustration.
‘Ms Mansome is right, please move on, Ms Burton.’
‘Have you ever seen an autonomous vehicle being driven around in London?’
‘Me, personally, no.’
‘Can you describe, in general terms, what Mr Salisbury’s car looks like. We will go to some photos later.’
‘It’s a large, blue hatchback and it has lots of apparatus on the roof.’
‘Apparatus?’
‘It has roof bars and then a big cylinder mounted on top.’
‘Is that apparatus small or prominent?’
‘It’s prominent. You can’t miss it.’
‘You interviewed Mrs Layton the day after the accident?’
‘Yes. At the hospital.’
‘How was she?’
‘Very upset. Very angry. In pain.’
‘What did she tell you about the accident?’
‘Just what I said already. That she had seen the car coming at her too fast and she remembered seeing Mr Salisbury looking at his phone, holding it up in his hand.’
‘Did she say anything to you about the car?’
‘No.’
‘About its size or colour?’
‘No.’
‘Or about the “prominent apparatus” on the roof?’
‘No.’
‘She didn’t ask you what that was?’
‘No.’
‘Thank you. No more questions.’
***
‘Inspector?’ Judith called out to Dawson, in the mid-morning break, but he persisted in his conversation with two journalists. ‘Connie. He’s ignoring me,’ she muttered to Constance. ‘Any chance you could see if you can get him to speak to me before he leaves. Go on. Work your magic.’
Constance approached Dawson. She waited, at a polite distance, for him to finish.
‘I don’t want to talk to her,’ he muttered to Constance after his companions had gone. ‘Tell her. She really stitched me up.’
‘If it’s any consolation she does it to me too,’ Constance mumbled, rolling her eyes skyward. ‘But I think it’s probably something important she wants to talk to you about,’ she said aloud.
‘All right. But let’s go in one of your lawyers’ cubby holes. I don’t want us overheard or even seen together.’
***
‘Why didn’t you give us the evidence about the old man and the traffic light before now?’ Judith began as Dawson entered the room.
‘Whoah!’ Dawson’s hand returned to the door handle. Constance flashed Judith an angry look.
‘What? I’m not supposed to ask a pertinent question for fear of offending a serving police officer?’ Judith said.
Dawson spun around.
‘Well done. I thought you’d forgotten. I am a serving police officer. Me and my officers, we put our necks on the line to keep you and yours safe at night. So ask away, but first you apologise. You criticised my officers and then you twisted what I said. You made it look like I was saying that Mrs Layton caused her own accident. No wonder her husband nearly thumped me. Even the judge thought you were out of order, but he didn’t have the balls to say it.’
‘I’m sorry if you feel aggrieved but I didn’t mis-characterise your words,’ Judith stood her ground. ‘You know that’s what you meant. You were saying that the people who put up road signs do their best to keep us safe, but it’s up to us to be sensible. She should never have crossed the road there with three children in tow, with cars veering round her. That’s what you meant and you were right, so don’t talk to me about who has the balls to say what they mean.’
Dawson bit his lip and sat down.
‘It wasn’t my decision to keep the bit about the traffic light out of my statement. The prosecution lawyer said it wasn’t relevant.’
‘How could it not be relevant?’
‘Because it didn’t make any difference, she said. If the light was red, your client should have stopped, so he’s in the wrong and, if the light was green, he should have driven slowly and carefully, which he didn’t do either. Then the expert report arrived and confirmed what we thought. I have two other homicides on the go at the moment, so I moved on. I didn’t waste time trying to track down an irrelevant member of the public. Anything else, whilst I’m wasting my time in here, when I should be back at my desk?’
‘She didn’t remember the accident at all, did she, Therese Layton? All that stuff about speed and mobile phones. If she’d remembered she would have asked you about the car.’
‘I reported what she said and I reported it accurately. Anything else would be my opinion, which, you’ve made clear on more than one occasion, isn’t something you value.’
Judith was silent. Dawson stood up and opened the door.
‘I’ll be going now, then.’
‘Yes. Thank you. I appreciate you making time to speak to us when you have so much going on.’
***
‘Well. I seem to have quite upset Charlie, this time.’ Judith scratched underneath her horsehair wig.
‘You did lay it on a bit thick, and he hated the suggestion they had ignored James.’
‘They were out of order. What if James had suffered a worse head injury? He would never have survived. You’ve seen the timing; they deliberately overlooked him for at least half an hour. But, as Judge Wilson reminded me, we have only one enemy in that court room. And she hasn’t improved with age.’
‘Do you think it was the right decision to keep the information about the traffic light quiet?’
‘No. It was part of the factual matrix. They should have told us, so we could make of it whatever we wished.’
‘And what do you make of it?’
‘I’m not sure. But can you follow it up with whoever was responsible for the temporary lights. See if there is a record of them malfunctioning, if they have the name of the old man. And I think we need to make a formal complaint in strong terms to your friend, Sarah, too. I’ll prepare something suitable. Shall we go back?’
‘What are you going to ask Mrs Layton?’
Judith opened her notebook and pretended to be reading from it. ‘Very little,’ she said, closing it abruptly. ‘The less time she is in the witness box the better. But I have to say something about the other point I raised with Charlie, about her not remembering the car, or it won’t hold water. No doubt her husband will hate that too.’
‘You’re not going to ask why Bertie was out in front?’
‘No. I don’t think so. That would be even more incendiary than my calling out Charlie about her choice of place to cross. If we are left blaming everything on a three-year-old boy then everyone, including the jury, will think we are desperate.’
57
THERESE APPROACHED the witness box, walking slowly and deliberately, with the aid of two crutches, which she laid down at her side. She wore a pink dress with a baby blue collar and two coloured bracelets adorned her right wrist, in matching hues.
‘Mrs Layton. Clearly this is a difficult experience for you. I will keep things as brief as I can,’ Celia began in uncharacteristically muted tones.
‘That’s all right. I’m not going anywhere today,’ Therese replied. ‘No plans for the evening.’
Celia nodded gently.
‘In your own words, tell us what you were doing, immediately before crossing Common Lane on the afternoon of 10th October.’
Therese stared over at James, although her eyes had hardly left his face all morning. As if aware of the heat of her gaze, although perhaps more likely noticing the hiatus in the proceedings, James looked up. Therese’s eyelashes fluttered rapidly and then she deliberately shifted her upper body back to focus on C
elia.
‘I used to work as a dental receptionist,’ she said, ‘just a couple of streets away. Ruby, my youngest, was four months old so I was still on maternity leave. But they rang me up a couple of weeks before and said that someone was going on holiday. Would I like to come in and cover? They said it would be a good way of getting back to work.’
‘Is that where you were, then, on 10th October?’
‘I didn’t want to do the whole week, but I thought I’d give it a go. I had a try out, the week before, that was the week of the 2nd of October and that went really well, so I said I’d cover the next week. I agreed to do mornings at the beginning of the week and afternoons on the Thursday and Friday.’
‘And where were the children when you were working?’
‘They’re at the same school. It has a nursery too. Bertie finishes at 12.15 and there was some teachers’ day, so Georgia finished the same time. They wanted me to work till 1.30 so I asked one of the other mums to take Georgia and Bertie till then. My mum came over to look after Ruby. In the end, I finished at the surgery at 1.30, ran home to feed Ruby and then went to pick up the other two.’
‘And you walked around to get them?’
‘It’s only a few streets away. Mum was tired, so she went home and I took Ruby in the pram; it was nice for her to get some fresh air. I collected Georgia and Bertie and we were walking back across Common Lane when it happened.’
‘What was the weather like?’
‘It was dry, bit windy but a nice day, sunny even.’
‘Can you describe what you saw when you crossed the road?’
‘There is a zebra but it’s much further down. I like to cross where they have a place in the centre of the road, for you to wait. Everyone crosses there. I was annoyed this time because they were doing roadworks right up against it. They’d been drilling the pavement further up all week and we’d had to walk between the cones. Now there was this big hole in the road with a concrete wall around it. The traffic had to move over onto one side, but there was a traffic light.’
‘You could see a traffic light.’
‘I could see one down the road, back the way he came.’
‘So you picked up your children?’
‘I picked up the kids, was walking back and then we crossed halfway. The traffic usually slows down, even when there’s no traffic light. And I’d seen this car, his car, but I thought it must go around us, you know, move over to the other side. But he just continued straight on, even though the road was closed. I thought, at first, he would hit the road sign but then he suddenly swerved to the other side of the road, so we…we started to cross. Then, I don’t know, suddenly he hit us.’
‘Did you see clearly who was driving the car?’
‘I saw the defendant, Mr Salisbury, in the driver’s seat and he had his mobile phone in his hand. Then I saw him grab the steering wheel… and that’s all I remember.’
‘Thank you. Please wait for Ms Burton to ask you some questions.’
‘Mrs Layton. Thank you for coming here today,’ Judith began. ‘You seem to have very good recall of the moments leading up to your accident, so I do need to ask this question. Is the account you gave here today your independent recollection of what happened, or have you, since the accident, had access to the video material of the crash?’
Therese looked at Celia.
‘I am trying to determine if you have seen other material which might have refreshed your memory of events of some months ago?’ Judith continued.
‘I have watched the video,’ Therese answered, ‘but I gave my statement to police first.’
‘Thank you. That’s clear. Now Mr Salisbury accepts that he was sitting behind the wheel of the car which collided with you and your children, and we will see recorded footage of the car travelling along the road later on, the video to which I just referred, so I am not going to trouble you with any of that. I want to ask about the mobile phone you say you saw. Can you remember how Mr Salisbury was holding the phone?’
‘He did have a phone. I saw it.’
Therese shot a glance at Neil. Judith looked across at Celia before continuing.
‘Was the mobile phone in one hand, in both hands, resting on the dashboard?’
‘He was holding it up with one hand. I suppose it was his right hand.’
‘How high was he holding it? Could you show us please?’
Therese lifted her right hand up to around the level of her nose. ‘It all happened so quickly, I can’t be sure, but I think about this high. So he could see the screen.’
‘And was it directly in front of his face or out to one side?’
‘Definitely to the side, ’cos I could see his face. And then he saw us.’
‘Mr Salisbury saw you.’
‘Yes. He looked up and saw us.’
‘Was it then you saw him grab the steering wheel?’
‘Yes, I think so.’
‘Did he drop his phone?’
‘I don’t know. I think it was still in his hands.’
‘Did he have both hands on the wheel then?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you see his hands on the wheel?’
Therese sat very still. Her eyes narrowed and she stared directly at James again.
‘I wish I could say I did, because that’s what I want to believe.’
‘I’m sorry, Mrs Layton. Are you able to answer the question?’
‘Yes I can answer. I can’t be sure now where his hands were. I saw him look at the phone, in his right hand, then we looked at each other, just like I’m looking at you now, then everything changed, forever.’
Therese steadied herself and flung back her shoulders.
‘How much space was there in the centre of the road, where you were waiting?’ Judith asked.
‘Enough.’
‘But you were there with two children and a pram.’
‘Everyone crosses there. Usually the traffic slows down when they see us.’
Judith nodded sympathetically and waited for a few seconds before continuing, for their exchange to hit home.
‘When did you find out that the car which struck you and your children was an autonomous vehicle?’
‘I’m not sure what you mean?’
‘You know now that Mr Salisbury’s car was an autonomous vehicle, a self-driving car?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you know what autonomous vehicles looked like before your accident?’
‘I don’t think so. There are lots of different kinds, aren’t there?’
‘Yes there are. I am going to show you a photograph of a car which is the same model as Mr Salisbury’s.’ Judith projected an image onto the screen next to Therese. ‘Can you see that?’
‘Yes.’
‘Is there anything unusual about that vehicle?’
‘Well, yes. Like inspector Dawson said. It has lots of things on the roof.’
‘Had you seen a car looking like this before your accident?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘When Inspector Dawson came to see you in hospital, and you told him about how fast the car was travelling and how you saw Mr Salisbury holding his mobile phone out in front of him, why didn’t you tell him that the car had “lots of things on its roof”?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Why didn’t you ask him if there was anything unusual about the car?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe I didn’t think it was important.’
‘Did you have a clear recollection of your accident at that time?’
‘Yes, very.’
‘But you didn’t remember the car looked unusual or had lots of things on the roof.’
‘No, I didn’t.’
‘Thank you, Mrs Layton. I have no further questions.’
Ther
ese Layton half stood up, then she sat back down with a bump. She looked out all around the courtroom and then she turned to Celia.
‘Is that it?’ she said.
‘Yes, thank you, Mrs Layton. You are free to go,’ Celia said.
Therese’s lip quivered. ‘You don’t want to know anything about them, do you? About my children. Georgia and Bertie. Those were their names.’
‘Thank you Mrs Layton, but please…’
‘You don’t want to know that Georgia liked to dance. She’d just started ballet and we had tickets to go and see Sleeping Beauty at Christmas. Or that Bertie already knew his tables up to five and could do a forward roll on the climbing frame.’
‘Mrs Layton…’
‘You don’t want to know any of that. Because that would make them real and then it might hurt too much. It’s easier to wheel me in and then wheel me out quickly, so you don’t have to look at my misery. You can just talk about cars and speed and where his hands were. You can be clever and say he was “entitled to chair a meeting” or try to make out that I did something wrong. I had three beautiful children! He took two of them away from me, just like that!’ She snapped her fingers and turned to face the jury.
‘Do you know, there’s a split second every morning when I wake up – that’s if I get to sleep. Usually it’s only because of the medication. There’s a split second when I wake up when everything is perfect again. It’s me and Neil, Georgia and Bertie and Ruby and we all live together in our little house. Once I even imagined Georgia was tugging at my arm and showing me her new ballet shoes. Then I remember. They’re both dead. We don’t have that life any more. And he’s the one who took them away.’ She pointed at James. ‘But you don’t want to know any of that, do you?
Neil had been easing his way towards his wife since she began her speech. Now he stood next to her and took her arm. She shrugged him off and stood up tall, flashing a defiant glance at James, who was staring at the floor. Then she took her crutches up, pressed one firmly under each arm and walked slowly across the courtroom and out of the door.
58
CELIA WAS wearing a darker shade of lipstick for the afternoon session. Judith sometimes matched her own lipstick to her mood but was fastidious about maintaining a uniform appearance for every day of a trial. She would not want to give away anything about her own emotions, when a man’s liberty was at stake.
