‘You look like shit,’ my brother said as I approached.
‘Wheesht, Malky!’ my dad protested. ‘There’s women and weans present.’
Dr Di got out of her deckchair and came to meet me. ‘What happened? Are you all right?’ She examined the three stitches that had closed a cut to the corner of my mouth and the steri-strips above the opposite eyebrow.
‘Don’t bother cooking Robbie’s steak, Dad,’ Malky shouted. ‘I think he’ll want it raw and slapped across his black-eye.’
My dad walked over, gripping the wooden handle of the giant fork in a manner that made me glad I wasn’t a sausage. ‘What’s wrong with you?’ he hissed, ‘can’t you see I’ve got visitors? What are you doing coming here with a face like that?’
The kids, two girls, two boys, wandered over to see what all the fuss was about. They ranged in age from about seven or eight to a wee girl who must have been around three years old. Judging by the amount of tomato sauce on her face and down her T-shirt, it looked like the kid had eaten already.
‘Are you a boxer?’ the oldest girl asked. ‘My dad says that boxing’s bad and that if you’re a boxer, your brain will swell up and—’
‘Uncle Robbie’s not a boxer, sweetheart,’ my dad jumped in. ‘He’s just had a wee bit of an accident, that’s all. He’ll be fine.’
Uncle Robbie?
My dad grabbed me by the arm and pulled me close. ‘I don’t want to know what happened. If the kids’ mother asks, you walked into a lamppost or something. Understand?’ He laughed for the crowd, put an arm around me and led me over to the deck chairs. ‘Robbie, you know Diane, of course...’
That’s what this was all about. My Dad’s good news. He’d proposed to Dr Di. She was going to be my step-mum. Who was the other woman though? She looked around my age; young to be the doctor’s sister, old to be her daughter.
‘And this is Chloe,’ my dad continued.
I smiled and put out a hand. ‘Hi Chloe.’
The woman stood up, ignored my hand and gave me a big hug. When she released me from her embrace, she stood back and held me at arm’s length, tears in her eyes. One of the boys kicked the football. It hit me on the leg. I side-footed it down the garden and they all ran after it.
‘I hope my three aren’t being too much of a bother,’ Chloe said. ‘I wasn’t going to bring them all, but their dad had to work and I thought it would be easier for Tina.’
I nodded and smiled, still without a clue about what was going on.
‘You know who I am, right?’ the woman called Chloe said.
‘Actually...’ In the background I could see Dr Di give my dad a nudge with the point of her elbow.
‘Chloe is Zoë’s sister,’ my dad said. She’s come all the way from Kilmarnock—’
‘Ayr,’ Chloe corrected him.
I didn’t know what to say. I knew Zoë had a sister. The two of us had gone out together for less than six months and I’d never got around to meeting any of her family. ‘I’m so sorry about Zoë,’ I said, conscious that I wasn’t very good in these situations. Being sincere when you’re faking it is a lot easier than when you’re not. ‘She was such a lovely person... I didn’t even know that… I mean, I never had a chance too...’ Why hadn’t I taken the time to phone? Too busy losing my fiancée to bother about a dying ex-girlfriend.
Chloe lowered her head for a moment. When she looked up again she was blinking back tears. She tilted her head at the children. ‘It’s amazing how kids can just take things in their stride, isn’t it?’ She gripped the bridge of her nose between thumb and index finger as though trying to stem a nose bleed. She squeezed her eyes tight shut. Tears escaped between her eyelids and rolled down her cheeks. Dr Di came over, put an arm around Chloe and took her for a walk along the edge of the garden, where a dilapidated stob and wire fence marked out an uncertain boundary between my dad’s property and a field of hay.
As I watched them, I was joined either side by my father and brother.
‘What’s going on, Dad?’ I said.
My dad gazed back down across the lawn where the children played. ‘She’s yours.’
‘Who’s mine?’
‘The wee one. Tina. Zoë was a couple of months pregnant when she emigrated. She didn’t tell anyone about it. Not you, not her family, not the immigration people. She wanted to go and didn’t want anyone to stop her.’
My brain was reeling. Clyve Cree hadn’t hit me hard enough to make my head spin the way it was right at that moment. ‘No,’ I said. It wasn’t a hot day, but I could feel the cold prickle of sweat distil on my brow. ‘How can anyone be sure? This Chloe person. How do we know it’s really Zoë’s sister? It could be some kind of a scam. I’m going to need to get a DNA test done or something.’
One of the boys rolled the Mickey Mouse football towards the girl called Tina. She ran to meet it, kicked out with a pink canvas trainer, missed and fell over.
‘I’m not sure that will be necessary,’ Malky said.
Diane strolled over to us, still with a comforting arm around Chloe.
This was why my dad had been so cheery of late. Somehow he’d known about this, and I would have too, if I’d only phoned Zoë when I should have.
The toddler picked herself up and ran after the football, becoming more and more frustrated as the boys teased her by throwing it to each other, always keeping it out of her reach. Soon she gave up the chase and concentrated on her tormentors, grabbing one of the oldest boy’s legs, holding on, using her body-weight to try and bring him to the ground, a determined look on a grubby-little face. Was I really her dad? She was just a baby. She was a girl! What was I supposed to do with a baby girl?
‘Well?’ Chloe smiled bravely at me through the tears. ‘What do you think of her?’
‘I ...’My throat knotted. ‘She’s...’ It was no good. I couldn’t speak. I looked down at the wee girl through misty eyes.
My dad nudged me with his shoulder. In one hand he held a whisky glass, in the other a bottle with a dark label on which there was silver writing.
‘I’ll tell you what she is, son,’ he said. He poured a dark amber liquid and hoisted his glass at Tina, now being chased down the garden by the other kids. ‘She’s a Munro.’
THE BEST DEFENCE SERIES
#1 RELATIVELY GUILTY
Follow the trials of Scots criminal lawyer Robbie Munro as he joins battle in the fight for truth and justice - hoping truth and justice don't win too often because it's terribly bad for business.
A policeman with a caved-in skull, his young wife found clutching the blood-stained murder weapon; it all looks pretty open and shut until Robbie detects the faint whiff of a defence and closes in on a witness who might cast a precious doubt on proceedings.
So why is it, the nearer he gets to the truth and a possible acquittal, that Robbie's murder client becomes more and more eager to opt for a life sentence?
Short-Listed for the Dundee International Book Prize
#2 DUTY MAN
Justice is blind - which is handy because sometimes you need to pull a fast one.
Continuing the trials of Scots defence lawyer, Robbie Munro.
Local lawyer Max Abercrombie is gunned down in cold blood, and the historic town of Linlithgow is rocked by its first assassination in five hundred years. Robbie, Max's childhood friend, is duty-bound to act in the accused's defence, and when investigations reveal a link between his friend's murder and that of a High Court judge many years before, he wonders if his client might actually be an innocent man.
The more Robbie digs into the past, the closer he gets to the truth and the more the bodies pile up.
#3 SHARP PRACTICE
A good criminal lawyer seeks after the truth.
A great criminal lawyer makes sure the jury doesn’t hear it.
Scotland's favourite criminal defence lawyer, Robbie Munro, is back and under pressure to find a missing child, defend a murdering drug-dealer and save the career of a child-pornography-possessi
ng local doctor.
Add to that the antics of his badly-behaving ex-cop dad, the re-kindling of an old flame and a run-in with Scotland's Justice Secretary and you'll discover why it is that, sometimes, a lawyer has to resort to Sharp Practice.
#4 KILLER CONTRACT
It’s 99% of lawyers that give the other 1% a bad name.
It’s the trial of the millennium: Larry Kirkslap, Scotland’s most flamboyant entrepreneur, charged with the murder of good-time gal Violet Hepburn. He needs a lawyer and there’s only one man for the job – unfortunately it’s not Robbie Munro. That’s about to change; however, more pressing is the contract out on the lives of Robbie and his client, Danny Boyd, who is awaiting trial for violating a sepulchre.
Who would anyone want to kill Robbie and his teenage client?
While Robbie tries to work things out, there are a couple of domestic issues that also need his urgent attention, like his father’s surprise birthday party and the small matter of a marriage proposal.
#5 CRIME FICTION
If the ink is in your blood...
Desperate for cash, Robbie finds himself ensnared in a web of deceit spun by master conman Victor Devlin. What is Devlin’s connection with the case of two St Andrew’s students charged with the murder of a local waitress?
Enter Suzie Lake, a former-university chum of Robbie, now bestselling crime fiction author, who regards Robbie as her muse. Lois has writer’s block and turns to Robbie for inspiration. She’s especially interested in the St Andrew’s murder and wants some inside information. How can Robbie refuse the advances of the gorgeous Suzie, even if they threaten to scupper his pending nuptials? And yet, the more Robbie reveals to her, the more he finds himself in a murky world of bribery, corruption and crime fiction publishing.
#6 LAST WILL
Blood is thicker than water - but it's not as hard as cash.
The trial of Robbie Munro's life; one month to prove he's fit to be a father.
No problem. Apart, that is, from the small matter of a double-murder in which Robbie's landlord, Jake Turpie, is implicated. Psycho-Jake demands Robbie's undivided attention and is prepared to throw money at the defence - along with some decidedly dodgy evidence.
Robbie has a choice, look after his daughter or look after his client. Can the two be combined to give the best of both worlds? Robbie aims to find out, and his attempts lead him into the alien worlds of high-fashion, drug-dealing and civil-litigation.
It's what being a father/lawyer is all about. Isn't it?
#7 PRESENT TENSE
'Crime with an edge of dark humour. The Best Defence series could only come out of Scotland.'
Tommy Flanagan, Braveheart, SOA, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Criminal lawyer Robbie Munro is back home, living with his widowed, ex-policeman dad and his new found daughter, Tina. Life at the practice isn’t going well, neither is the love life he regularly confesses to his junior, Joanna. Then again, on the subject of Joanna, Robbie may be the last to know... When one of his more dubious clients leaves a mysterious box for him to look after, and a helicopter comes down with two fatalities, events take a much more sinister turn, and all of this is complicated by the rape case he has to defend.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
William McIntyre is a partner in Scotland's oldest law firm Russel + Aitken, specialising in criminal defence. William has been instructed in many interesting and high-profile cases over the years and now turns fact into fiction with his string of legal thrillers, The Best Defence Series, featuring defence lawyer, Robbie Munro.
Based in Scotland and drawing on William's thirty years as a criminal defence lawyer, there is a rich vein of dry-humour running through the series, which he describes as an antidote to crime fiction that features maverick cops chasing a serial killers, and in it he emphasises that justice is not only about convicting the guilty, but also about acquitting the innocent.
William writes from the heart and from his own experiences. Robbie Munro, is very much a real life lawyer, juggling a host of cases, dealing with awkward clients and battling an at times Kafkaesque legal system, all while trying to retain some form of personal life. Notwithstanding their relatively light-hearted approach, the books deal with some very serious issues, each story raising an interesting philosophical or ethical issue. Though the plots are often complex, they are never confusing such is William's deftness of touch.
The books, which are stand alone or can be read in series, have been well received by many fellow professionals, on both sides of the Bar, due to their accuracy in law and procedure and Robbie's frank, if sardonic, view on the idiosyncrasies of the Scots criminal justice system.
William is married with four sons.
www.bestdefence.biz
Crime Fiction (Best Defence series Book 5) Page 29
