‘Mr Reid?’ invited Pullinger.
‘If I am allowed to continue, with the expectation of receiving the toxicology and blood analysis findings upon the deceased Ms Borowski, I hope to show that it is of crucial importance to the outcome of this matter, particularly the transmission of disease,’ insisted Reid.
‘Then it will continue,’ decided Pullinger.
‘I asked you how you met Ms Borowski,’ repeated Reid.
‘I told you, at a party.’
‘That was where you met her. How?
‘I was introduced to her, by a mutual friend.’
‘Towards the end of March, last year?’
‘Yes,’ replied Appleton, too quickly.
‘Was that when your affair began, that night?’
Appleton re-gripped the edge of the witness stand. ‘It might have been.’
‘Might have been! Was it or wasn’t it, Mr Appleton?’
‘I think it was.’
‘You think it was,’ echoed Reid. ‘You did know Ms Borowski before you were formally introduced to her at the end of March last year, didn’t you?’
‘I didn’t know her,’ insisted Appleton.
‘But you’d seen her before? Been to parties where she was?’
‘I may have done.’
‘May have done,’ echoed Reid again, going unerringly into his tumbled papers to bring out a neatly prepared, individually separated batch of papers, beckoning the usher to give him the majority to distribute, but personally delivering their packages to Beckwith, Bartle and Wolfson. ‘I would ask that these be placed before the jury and yourself, your honour.’
‘These are copies of newspaper cuttings!’ objected Bartle. ‘These can’t be admissible!’
‘What’s the purpose of this introduction, Mr Reid?’ demanded the judge, stopping the usher before he reached the jury box.
‘They feature photographs of Ms Borowski, in the diaries and social columns of certain New York newspapers, some with caption references to her which might give some indication of the occupation of which Mr Appleton appears unsure,’ said Reid.
‘I object to their introduction,’ insisted Bartle. ‘This court was given no indication or warning of their being presented.’
‘We’ve already touched upon your dismissal of Mr Reid’s enquiries concerning this lady,’ reminded Pullinger. ‘I will not recess the court but read them here at the bench. Attorneys will read them, too, but not yet the clients they represent or the jury.’
There were shuffles throughout the court, mostly from the jury. Alyce remained head bent. Behind her, Dr Harding was leaning solicitously forward.
The three lawyers were still reading when Pullinger finished. He said, ‘Mr Beckwith?’
‘I have no objection to their introduction,’ replied Jordan’s attorney.
‘Mr Wolfson?’
‘I have no objection,’ said the man.
‘I will allow them, Mr Bartle, but warn you, Mr Reid, to be extremely careful in whatever it is you have to say,’ ruled the judge. ‘The usher will deliver the copies to the jury and to the plantiff.’
‘From the photographs Ms Borowski was obviously an extremely attractive girl, Mr Appleton?’
‘Yes,’ agreed Appleton. The copies fluttered slightly from the tremor in the man’s hand.
‘In the copy number one, in the New York Daily News, Ms Borowski’s age is given as twenty-three. Was that how old she was?’
‘I did not know her age.’
‘Or her occupation,’ reminded Reid. ‘If she was twenty-three that would make her younger than you by almost twenty years?’
‘Your honour!’ protested Bartle.
‘Quite so,’ agreed the judge. ‘Careful, Mr Reid.’
‘My apologies, your honour,’ said Reid, with no obvious apology in his voice.
‘The Daily News suggests an occupation for Ms Borowski, does it not? On the marked line it describes her as “a party girl”, doesn’t it?’
‘Yes.’
‘And there is something similar in the New York Observer, isn’t there? On the marked line of the cutting, numbered two, she is described as “a regular party person”, isn’t she?’
‘Yes.’
‘What do you take “party girl” and “regular party person” to mean, Mr Appleton?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t think it means anything.’
‘That is you in the background of the cutting from the New York Observer, isn’t it, Mr Appleton?’
‘Yes.’
‘The date of that cutting is February eighth last year, isn’t it?’
‘Yes.’
‘So you were already aware of Ms Borowski before you formally met in March?’
‘Yes.’
‘And that affair with party girl Sharon Borowski began the first time you met her in late March, presumably at yet another party?’
‘Yes.’
‘Would you agree with me that “an affair” is a consensual relationship – a sexual attraction – between two people?’
‘I suppose so.’
‘You suppose so,’ mocked Reid. ‘You had sex with Ms Borowski on the first night of your meeting, that’s right, isn’t it?’
‘I’ve already told you that I did,’ said Appleton, his temper flaring for the first time.
‘Did you envisage a long-term relationship?’
‘I do not intend letting this continue much longer, Mr Reid,’ warned the judge.
‘I …’ started Appleton, but stopped. Then he said, ‘I don’t know.’
‘But you do know – remember – that you continued to sleep with Ms Borowski – and have sex with her – over the course of four or five weeks?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you pay to sleep with Sharon Borowsk, the regular party girl?’
Bartle rose to protest yet again but before he could Appleton said, loudly, ‘No, I did not pay her! She was not a hooker!’
As Bartle sat, Pullinger said, ‘Have we laboured this point sufficiently, Mr Reid?’
‘I have just one further question on this particular matter, your honour. Tell the court, sworn under oath as you are to tell the truth, Mr Appleton, did you give Sharon Borowski any gifts? Jewellery, for instance? A bangle, perhaps?’
‘I think …’ stumbled Appleton. ‘I gave her a bracelet, that’s all.’
‘Let me move on to another part of your evidence-in-chief,’ said Reid. ‘You were working hard to establish your new business – despite apparently having time to party – your wife was living in the country, which she preferred but you were trying for a baby, were you not?’
‘Yes.’
‘But without success?’
‘Yes.’
‘Were you saddened, disappointed, that your wife did not conceive?’
‘Yes.’
‘Your wife suggested adoption, did she not?’
‘Yes.’
‘But you argued against that. Why?’
‘I wanted our child to be biologically ours. To carry the bloodline of our two families. It was important.’
‘Your wife also underwent medical examinations and tests to discover if there were some medical or physical reason why she was incapable of bearing children, did she not?’
Appleton had precariously lodged the newspaper cuttings on the corner of the witness stand and in reaching out yet again to grip its edge he knocked them off. Some fell inside, others outside, of the box. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, stooping to recover those inside as the usher collected those beyond. Having retrieved what he could Appleton stood uncertainly with them in his hand until the usher reached out to take them.
‘Mr Appleton?’ urged Reid.
‘Yes,’ agreed Appleton, rigidly maintaining his minimal script.
‘But you refused to undergo any medical examination, didn’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’ demanded Reid, matchingly short.
‘There is no biological or physical impediment in my
becoming a father!’ insisted Appleton.
Reid strained the maximum silence from the remark before saying, ‘Without undergoing any medical examination you know there is no biological or physical impediment to you becoming a father?’
Bartle was sitting with his head bowed, although not as deeply as Alyce and Appleton stood flushed on the witness stand, washed away by a tide he couldn’t fight against. Eventually he said, ‘That is what I believe.’
‘Believe because of some internal conviction?’ pounced Reid. ‘Something of which this court is unaware? Or because you have already been the father of a child?’
‘Your honour!’ exploded Bartle, coming finally to his feet.
Before Pullinger could respond, Reid said, ‘I am finished for the moment, your honour.’
‘What in the name of fuck was that?’ demanded Jordan, as they settled in Reid’s office. There were glasses and a bottle of Jack Daniels on the desk. Once more Alyce had insisted she couldn’t withstand a review.
‘I’ll tell you what that was,’ offered Beckwith. ‘You remember me telling you that courts were theatres, in which people performed? You’ve just witnessed a performance deserving more Oscars than there are Academy Award categories. You were brilliant, Bob. Absolutely fucking brilliant.’
And I never believed the man capable of opposing a speeding ticket, thought Jordan, still needing time to properly assimilate it all. ‘We never discussed any of this! I never knew you had so much to throw at him!’
‘I don’t remember our agreeing to talk about – to discuss – everything,’ said the resistant Reid, pointedly.
Looking between the two of them Beckwith sniggered and said, ‘You play a lot of poker, Harvey, as a professional gambler?’
‘Some,’ allowed Jordan, further confused.
‘Then you know about bluff.’
Jordan looked from one lawyer to the other. ‘Will someone – either of you – tell me what the hell you’re talking about?’
‘All Bob had were the newspaper cuttings,’ explained Beckwith. ‘We don’t expect there to be any surviving toxicology evidence from Sharon Borowski. Which was why Bob delayed until the last minute asking the coroner for it, because we didn’t want to be told there isn’t any. It gives Bob the chance to recall Appleton, with whatever might arise during the hearing. Appleton and Bartle will be shitting rocks that we know more – have something – which was what I meant by Bob’s Academy Award performance.’
‘What about Appleton already having fathered a child?’ persisted Jordan.
‘Who knows whether he has or he hasn’t,’ shrugged Reid. ‘He’s admitted to not undergoing a fertility test. What more did I need?’
‘But you knew about a bracelet?’ persisted Jordan.
‘No I didn’t,’ denied Reid. ‘I just tossed it into the pond to see if I could make ripples. And I did.’
‘You mean there wasn’t any evidence for any of the inferences and innuendoes you spread around in there today?’ demanded Jordan.
‘Every question was justified from the evidence available before the court,’ insisted Reid. ‘We can’t be caught out, like the other side was caught out with chlamydia. And the opposition don’t know where we’re coming from next.’
Jordan wasn’t sure where he was coming from next, either. He’d been too confident of being dismissed from the case and had even more grossly misconceived how fully he’d thought he was being included by the two lawyers. He wasn’t the driving force any longer, he accepted. And then he further accepted that perhaps he never had been.
Twenty-Seven
‘Body language,’ said Jordan, his approach – and hopeful recovery – mentally rehearsed from the ill-tempered email exchanges he’d read between Bartle and Wolfson. And he did have to restore himself in the lawyers’ judgement, Jordan decided: recover a lot and not allow his overconfidence to imply – the overconfidence verging on conceit – that he could do Beckwith and Reid’s job better than they could.
Beckwith frowned and looked up from his Jack Daniels, with which they’d both continued at the hotel after the initial celebration in Reid’s office. ‘You want to help me with that?’
‘You asked me earlier if I played poker. There are two essentials to win at the game. You need to be able to memorize every discard, to narrow down what your opponent might be holding. And read his body language.’
‘And bluff, which Bob did so well today,’ added the lawyer.
‘I’ve been watching Leanne Jefferies,’ said Jordan, doggedly. ‘All day today she’s actually sat as if she’s trying to distance herself from Appleton.’
‘Are you surprised?’ exclaimed Beckwith. ‘If the jury finds against her she’s going to go down for big bucks. She’s got every reason to hate the guy. Certainly to despise him.’
‘Which I think is a new hate,’ urged Jordan. ‘Her lawyer’s from the same firm as Appleton’s and she went along with using a Boston venerealogist, both of which has got to be under pressure from Appleton. My impression is that she didn’t realize the shit he’d dropped her into until she ended up in court. She doesn’t know yet which way Pullinger’s going to go with what they tried with the venerealogists, and today she heard, my guess is for the first time, that before her Appleton was screwing a hooker whose infection she caught.’
Beckwith, whose cross-examination of Appleton was to begin the following day, appeared to consider the argument. ‘Could be you’re right.’ He smiled. ‘Maybe an idea to widen the rift a little, before we get her on to the stand?’
‘Better to widen it a lot.’
‘Trust me, Harvey,’ sighed Beckwith.
He was trying too hard again, Jordan accepted. Quickly he said, ‘There’s something I don’t understand.’
‘There’s a lot I still don’t understand,’ remarked Beckwith, gesturing for refills.
Jordan hoped the lawyer wasn’t getting drunk on the basis of that day’s success. ‘Why did Appleton volunteer his affairs with both women, actually providing Alyce with the grounds for divorce? And for the claim against Leanne?’
‘I’m there ahead of you,’ insisted Beckwith, vaguely mocking. ‘It’s on my reminder list for tomorrow. But thanks.’
‘Why didn’t Bob go for it, today?’
Beckwith sighed again. ‘Because it’s not the strategy we’re following.’
Which he didn’t know about, acknowledged Jordan, wondering if it had been decided when he’d been at the ante-room window with Alyce. ‘Which is?’
‘Re-examination,’ disclosed Beckwith. ‘Bob achieved it today on a limited point. If something comes out tomorrow, he can stretch – or try to stretch – the remit. As I can if Appleton slips between his replies to me and the replies he’s already given to Bob. And we can do it all over again with Leanne when we get her on the stand.’
‘What about Alyce?’ demanded Jordan, at once. ‘Won’t she be exposed to a double act, from Bartle and Wolfson?’
‘If they work out our game plan,’ agreed Beckwith. ‘As you will.’
‘Were you going to warn me, if I hadn’t asked?’
‘Of course.’
Jordan didn’t believe the other man. ‘Is Bob going to warn Alyce?’
‘It would make good sense to do so. I don’t like how shaky she is.’
Neither did he, thought Jordan. ‘Bob should try to get her excused from the court.’
‘Too soon,’ insisted Beckwith. ‘Pullinger will have seen a lot of women break up in pieces far worse than Alyce has done so far. Divorce is never a walk in the park.’
He had all his illegal sites still to access, Jordan remembered. And he hadn’t yet helped himself to that day’s tranche of Appleton and Drake’s money. That thought prompted another. He said, ‘Are things going more slowly than you anticipated?’
‘Largely because of what the other side tried to pull,’ said Beckwith. ‘With Pullinger’s adjournment built in, an entire week has been added.’
‘So are we still looking
at a month, from now?’
The lawyer shrugged. ‘How the hell do I know? When I gave you that estimate I didn’t imagine us encountering anything of what we have so far. You got a problem?’
Yes, thought Jordan. On his current rate of the Appleton embezzlement, he could possibly amass a further half a million by the end of a month, but that was to offset any damages that might be awarded against him. But he didn’t imagine he could continue for a month without some financial controller or individual trader realizing Appleton and Drake was being milked like a milch cow. Which wasn’t the most pressing problem; even after it was suspected or proven by a snap audit it would still take at least another month – maybe even two – for an official criminal enquiry to begin, by which time he would have distanced himself untraceably from all the illegally established Appleton bank holdings, leaving only their existence as evidence of Appleton’s theft and money diversion from his own company. But Jordan intended far more. And an in-house investigation could very easily – and badly – impede his next move. To avoid his plans being disrupted he had to siphon off – although to different destinations – larger sums than his usual daily collection. But by increasing those amounts he correspondingly increased the danger of earlier discovery. Another week of simple bank transfers, Jordan decided. After that he had to begin, much more aggressively, undermining Appleton’s very foundations.
Belatedly responding to Beckwith’s question Jordan said, ‘No real problem. I undertook to stay until everything was over if we lost the dismissal and I will. I just don’t want everything to limp on, open-ended, which it seems to be doing.’
‘Pullinger won’t let anything that he controls “limp on, open-ended”,’ declared Beckwith. ‘If he suspects for a moment he’s being manipulated – as he clearly thinks he was with the venereal disease busisness – there’ll be hell to pay.’
How, wondered Jordan, could he create a situation that would appear to the judge to be precisely that, motivated by Appleton? He didn’t, at that precise moment, have the remotest idea. But he was confident he’d be able to think of one. Confident, Jordan at once qualified: not overconfident.
The Namedropper Page 29
