by Rachel Dann
‘Sergeant?’ The Prosecutor indicates for the man to speak. ‘If you would remind us of the circumstances that led to Miss Barker’s arrest.’
‘I was working a night shift at the airport,’ begins the man, speaking Spanish with a strange accent I do not recognise from the other people I have mixed with in Quito. ‘I’d been sent up from the coast, where I usually work, to cover for a week. Several night flights were leaving for Europe, and they wanted me to go to the departure lounges to carry out final baggage checks.’ He stops and his gaze lingers for a long time on Naomi, an expression I do not like at all lighting up his eyes.
I glance at Naomi to make sure she is understanding everything, but she is staring back at Sergeant Martinez with a look of such intense hatred that I don’t think she even remembers I am there.
‘At about the same time, Miss Barker had already gone through security and was waiting by the gate to board the ten-fifty-five flight to London, via Amsterdam.’ His eyes do not leave Naomi’s, and something about the way he says her name makes me shudder.
‘However, she had flagged up a warning when passing through security.’ The slightest hint of a smile passes across his face. ‘And I was asked to go and retrieve her from the departure gate. At around ten-fifteen, not long before boarding began for the flight, I took Miss Barker into our secure detention area for…’ He openly smiles at Naomi now. ‘… Some additional checks.’
I notice Naomi has looked away and is staring at the door, facing away from everyone, wiping furiously at her eyes with her sleeve.
‘Thank you, Sergeant,’ the first judge says, his tone icy. ‘We will finish with the testimony of Inspector Ruiz, to tell us what happened subsequently.’
The woman who entered with Sergeant Martinez gets slowly to her feet. She stares at her companion for a long time, her lips pursed, before she finally speaks. When she does, her voice is clipped and her whole demeanour radiates the desire to be somewhere else, a long way from here. She keeps her eyes fixed on the wall opposite as she begins, her voice a monotone.
‘I was introduced to Miss Barker at around eleven-fifty p.m., on the day of her scheduled departure to London. By the time I arrived in the temporary detention centre, her flight had left. She had already undergone physical searches and a full body X-ray, which was being logged by Sergeant Martinez when I arrived.’ Her eyes flicker almost imperceptibly towards Sergeant Martinez beside her, then determinedly back to the middle distance again.
‘The X-ray revealed five foreign bodies in Miss Barker’s stomach.’
‘Copies of the images can be found in the annex,’ the Prosecutor interrupts, indicating the folder left on the judges’ table.
‘Miss Barker was provided with refreshment and access to facilities.’ Inspector Ruiz sounds like she is reading from an instruction manual, but the light twitch in her jaw gives her away. ‘A medical practitioner was located, following the advice of whom I remained with Miss Barker in our secure area for the next seven hours, until the objects passed naturally from her body.’
I can feel Naomi shaking with tears beside me now. ‘Pull yourself together,’ I whisper desperately, glancing at the judges, who have all turned as one to watch her. I flash her a look which I hope conveys that I cannot imagine the humiliation she is feeling, but that now, of all times, she must keep her composure. She makes a loud hiccupping noise and with visible effort sits up straighter and wipes the tears from her face.
‘Having been sent for analysis, the objects were identified as five latex condoms, coated in wax, and containing a total of 1.35 kilograms of pure cocaine powder.’
‘Itemised photographs are on page seven,’ the Prosecutor adds, leaning forward to the judges and pointing at the folder again.
Naomi’s shame utterly complete, she rests her head in her hands and sits rigid beside me.
‘Miss Barker was then immediately transported by police escort to the Flagrant Crimes Unit in the north of Quito, to await sentencing and transfer to the Central Women’s Prison.’ The Inspector sits down abruptly without waiting to be asked, letting out a sharp breath.
‘Thank you.’ The middle judge nods at her, then gathers all the papers before him together into one pile in a decisive gesture. ‘I think we’ve heard more than enough. Miss Barker – now is your opportunity if you would like to add anything.’
All eyes in the room turn to Naomi as she raises her head slowly from her hands and turns her red-rimmed eyes to me, then to Dr Vélez, then finally to the judges.
‘No.’ Her voice is barely a whisper, and I can see her hands still trembling under the table. ‘I have nothing to add.’
‘WHAT?’ I hiss at her, seeing the judges already look away and back down to their papers, ready to draw everything to a close. ‘Naomi, you have to. This is your chance!’
Naomi is shaking all over and can’t even meet my eyes. I try to reach for her hand but she has her arms wrapped tightly around herself in a protective gesture and her eyes squeezed firmly shut. I realise in horror the testimonies of the two police officers and the memory of her arrest laid out in such graphic detail have reduced Naomi to pieces. But if she doesn’t say something now, it could be the end of her case… the arguments made by Dr Vélez may not be enough, Naomi deserves for the judges to hear her side, to understand what being released would mean for her and her entire family… she has waited so long for this court hearing, it just can’t end like this…
My decision is made in an instant. Getting to my feet and opening my mouth to speak before my brain has even fully engaged with what I am about to do, I hear my own voice ring out confident and clear across the baffled courtroom:
‘I will speak for Naomi.’
My cheeks burning and heart pounding in my chest, I turn to face each person in the room in turn, daring them to stop me.
‘Please sit down, Miss…’ With a mildly bored expression the first judge consults a sheet of paper in front of him. ‘Morgan.’ He leans back in his chair disdainfully. ‘Miss Morgan. You are here as Miss Barker’s translator. Your opinion is not required.’
Anger and indignation spurring me on, I pull in a breath to let rip my reply. But another voice, quiet yet firm, beats me to it.
‘Wait.’
All eyes in the room turn to gape at the owner of the voice, the hunched figure partially obscured behind the briefcase on the table in front of him. Dr Vélez.
‘As Naomi’s defence lawyer, I would like to allow Miss Morgan to speak,’ he continues in his soft, almost timid tone. ‘Not as a translator, but as her friend. A witness. Miss Morgan is Naomi’s witness and has the right to speak.’ The idea seems to be dawning on him even as he voices it, at the same time as a defiant smile begins to spread slowly across his face as he meets my eyes. We both know that, named as an official witness for Naomi’s case, the judges have to let me speak.
Thank you, thank you! I convey silently to Dr Vélez with my eyes. He nods, and dips back behind his briefcase. Naomi reaches up and grasps tightly on to my hand.
After several seconds of silence, the female judge speaks. ‘Miss Morgan.’ She looks at me evenly, her expression unreadable.
I barely breathe but continue holding on to Naomi’s hand, feeling bizarrely like we are two teenagers being pulled up in front of the headmaster for misbehaving.
‘I understand you know Miss Naomi Barker personally and have visited her several times in prison.’ The judge doesn’t wait for an answer. ‘Also that you are here today at her express request, not only as a translator but as a friend.’
The room is completely silent except for Naomi’s occasional sniffs and the sound of the Prosecutor impatiently tapping his pen on the table.
‘Therefore…’ the judge says, giving me an almost imperceptible, encouraging nod ‘…we will accept your testimony on Miss Barker’s behalf.’
A rush of adrenaline shoots through me. This is your chance. Isn’t that what I told Naomi, only moments ago?
I look at her again, hunched and defeated beside me, and realise that the chance is now mine. Not only to defend Naomi, but also to vanquish my own fears.
I give Naomi’s hand one last squeeze, take a deep breath and turn to face the judges. I can feel Liza’s shirt sticking to my arms and back.
My voice is barely more than a whisper when I begin.
‘Naomi knows that what she did was terribly wrong.’ I pause, mustering courage to continue. ‘The personal reasons she had for doing it are not something even she would be able to explain here, now, to everyone.’ I glance down at Naomi, and her minute nod is enough for me to feel able to go on.
‘But I do want everyone here to know… how very deeply she regrets the decision she made, back in her former life, six years ago.’ My own voice sounds strange to me against the silence of the courtroom. ‘And I think it is fair to say that she has regretted it in every waking moment ever since. There has not been a single minute, a single second, of Naomi’s imprisonment when she has not been thinking about her children. Her two boys… and her baby girl.’ I feel a lump form in my own throat as I realise the truth of my words.
‘I don’t think I, or anyone in this room, could understand what it is like to miss your children for six years.’ I force my voice out loudly and clearly despite the stifling silence, and dare myself to look around the room, meeting the eyes of the judges and even the Prosecutor, defying them all to contradict me. ‘It is a special kind of hell. It is the most effective form of prison. Whether she was behind bars or not, Naomi was already in prison – because, for a mother, prison is being away from your children.’
I look at Naomi again. She has stopped crying and is staring up at me, eyes wide, her hands knitted together in her lap. As I search within myself for the adequate words to finish my speech she nods again, urging me, keep going.
‘All Naomi asks for now is compassion,’ I continue slowly, my eyes locked with hers. ‘She is not here to make excuses for herself, or say that there is any justification for the crime she committed.’ Now I turn to the judges, and muster all my strength to speak to them directly. ‘She just wants the chance to start again. Go home, get a job, spend every possible moment with her kids and never let them go again. See her dad and hold his hand one last time. It’s been six years… and Naomi has served her sentence.’
I sit down, feeling strangely calm. Naomi immediately grabs my hand again, squeezing it so tightly it hurts. As the sound of my voice fades away and silence descends in the courtroom, we sit side by side knowing the moment has come for her future to be decided.
Chapter Nineteen
Sebastian is waiting outside and looks up anxiously as we are led from the room. Somehow Naomi and I manage to maintain decorum until the Prosecutor and his assistant have departed, and the judges have exchanged a few muttered words with Sebastian before leaving also.
Then we explode.
Naomi turns and throws her arms around me, screaming ‘OhmyGod! OhmyGod!’ over and over, then we’re jumping up and down, and I’m shouting along with her ‘We did it! We did it!’ and hugging her tightly back, tears streaming down my face.
Finally we disentangle and I look up to see Sebastian, his eyes already filled with dawning realisation and a triumphant smile spreading across his face as he strides towards us. Naomi hurls herself at him and nearly knocks him to the floor with the force of her hug. He pats her on the back as she sobs on to his shoulder, all the while his eyes burning into mine. When Naomi finally releases him, wiping her eyes on her sleeve, the next thing I know Sebastian has closed the step between us and is picking me up and spinning me around, and we’re both laughing and I think I am crying, oblivious to the guards still lurking somewhere behind us.
My feet find the ground again and I can’t seem to tear my gaze away from Sebastian’s eyes as we continue laughing crazily.
‘I can’t believe it.’ He’s beaming, his whole face illuminated as he stares down at me. ‘They made the decision there and then?’
‘There and then. Sentence reduced from nine years to five, but with six already served, so instant release.’ I hear myself giggle hysterically and hardly recognise myself. ‘Did you hear that, Naomi?’ I call over Sebastian’s shoulder. ‘Instant release!’ I expect Naomi to start jumping up and down and shouting again, but instead she’s looking at me with a Cheshire Cat smile, wiggling her eyebrows at me meaningfully. I look down and realise Sebastian’s hands are still firmly gripping my waist.
‘Erm, it won’t actually be instant,’ he says, taking a hasty step back and bringing us all back down to earth with a thud. ‘There is paperwork to do now. Naomi, you’ll have to be taken back to the prison today to wait until the official release warrant is issued – that will take a couple of days, I’m afraid.’
I stare back at him, horrified. ‘What? You mean she has to go back to prison? But they just said she’s now a free woman – the revised sentence length has already been served!’ I turn to Naomi, expecting to see her distraught, but she’s rolling her eyes and smiling at Sebastian.
‘Yeah, yeah, I know how it works – seen it happen enough times to the other girls. I get to go back and say my goodbyes and pack my stuff up, not that that will take long!’ She’s still grinning exuberantly as the guards finally decide enough is enough and come back over to refasten her handcuffs and make gestures that it is time to go.
‘But… Sebastian, you’ll tell my mum, right?’ She’s suddenly serious, calling over her shoulder as the guards start to lead her towards the doorway. ‘And you’ll make sure she gets my flight details?’
‘Of course,’ Sebastian promises, ‘I’ll phone her as soon as I get back to the office, and I’ll get on the case to find out when you’ll be able to travel. We’ll push for the end of next week.’
Naomi grins at him, then turns to me and mouths ‘thank you’, before giving a little wave, then turning back to follow the guards.
I watch her being led meekly away, back to the prison, and feel overwhelmed with a childish disappointment that there wasn’t some dramatic gesture of freedom, the yanking off of her handcuffs and running out on to the street screaming ‘I’m freeeee!’ to total strangers.
‘It feels weird, doesn’t it?’ Sebastian seems to read my mind, and comes to stand close beside me as we watch Naomi get into the police car outside. ‘But she’s past the final hurdle now. Three or four days more and she’ll be on a flight home, as a free woman. I only pray her dad can hang on a little longer.’
‘Me too.’ We stand in silence for a moment in the empty reception of the courtroom, watching the police car pull out into the afternoon traffic and drive away. I feel bizarrely as if we are two parents watching their only child depart for university or a round the world voyage. Sebastian is standing close enough for me to feel the rise and fall of his breath beside me. It would only take the slightest movement, the most minimal gap to be crossed, for him to put his arm around me again… I don’t move an inch but let my eyes slide sideways towards him.
Then I jump nearly a foot in the air as I feel someone reach out and take hold of my arm.
‘Miss Morgan?’
It takes me a second or two to realise that Sebastian is still standing to my right, but the person now resting his hand on my left arm and looking up at me through thick spectacles and an anxious expression is Dr Vélez, Naomi’s public lawyer.
‘Er – yes?’ I answer a little abruptly, my heart rate gradually slowing down again from the surprise. Had he been lurking there the whole time as Naomi, Sebastian and I jumped around like maniacs?
‘I wanted to give you my card.’ The little man reaches into his shirt pocket and produces a business card. I stare down at it for a moment, uncomprehending, reading the words Dr Xavier Vélez – Public Defence Unit Quito – President.
‘I am, in fact, the head of the Public Defence Unit for this city,’ he continues, as if he almost expected my surprise at this fact. ‘And I have to say, I was
deeply impressed by your defence of young Naomi Barker today.’
I’m dimly aware of Sebastian stepping away from us to answer a phone call, and I cast around for something to say that isn’t completely inane.
‘I wasn’t actually defending her…’ I reply weakly. ‘I just wanted to support my friend.’
‘I am aware of your legal background,’ Dr Vélez continues, regardless. ‘And I wanted to tell you that if you ever wish to return to Ecuador and spend some time working in our offices – to gain experience of another country’s legal system, for example – we would be most content to have you.’
I stare back at him, feeling a spark of excitement stir inside me.
‘We could discuss salary and duration at your convenience,’ Dr Vélez goes on. ‘But our workload is such that we can always benefit from competent, legally trained individuals such as you. Even if you only wanted to come for a month or two.’
‘Thank you… that would be…’ Words fails me as his words sink in and I look around for Sebastian. I spot him pacing the other side of the room, frowning at the floor and nodding with his phone pressed tightly to his ear. ‘Dr Vélez, I don’t know what to say… only that this is a real honour, thank you.’
‘Consider it, okay?’ Dr Vélez reaches to shake my hand. ‘If you ever want to do it, just call me.’ Then with that he turns and shuffles to the door, leaving me standing open-mouthed in his wake.
Come for a few months… gain some experience… my mind starts whirling with possibilities as Sebastian strides back over, his face apologetic.
‘Kirsty, I have to run.’ He looks devastated. ‘I’m so sorry, I was going to drive you home, but I just have to get back to the office right now, and it’s in the opposite direction… there’s been an accident involving a tourist.’ He runs his hands though his hair in an agitated gesture.
‘Don’t worry, I can get a taxi.’ I smile encouragingly at him, swallowing back my irrational disappointment. What had I expected – that we’d go out for dinner, order wine and raise a toast to Naomi, then spend the evening dissecting the court hearing and reliving my final speech to the judges? Of course not. You’re being ridiculous, I tell myself firmly. And not just about Sebastian.
