It was the last thing she was to say to him for some time.
Three days later they heard he had been arrested along with two others for breaking and entering a tobacconists and using threats and violence against the shopkeeper, who had come down and found them emptying his till. Gran and Doug railed against Frank and his cronies, whom they blamed for leading him astray, and wondered how he had turned out like this when they had brought him up with all the right values. Lillian sat huddled on a chair in a turmoil of anger and dread. The shame of it! She was related to someone who would tie up a helpless old man and threaten to hit him with a crowbar. What was it going to do to her family when all this got out? What was she going to say to her mother? Already she was asking where Frank had gone. Bob and Susan—they were going to be horrified, and so ashamed. And Wendy—there she came to a stop. She cut through what her father was saying.
‘I bet that Terry Dempsey is behind this,’ she said.
Doug and Gran stopped talking at each other and looked at her.
‘How do you mean?’
‘I don’t know, it’s just a feeling. Everyone says Terry’s got a protection racket going on the seafront, and I know he bailed Frank out when he couldn’t pay the HP on his motorbike—’
‘How do you know that?’
‘James told me, ages ago. At least, he said that Frank said he was going to go to Terry for a loan, and he’s still got the motorbike, hasn’t he? So he must have got the money from somewhere. I bet Terry put them up to it to frighten the old man into paying.’
‘You ought to tell the police, then,’ her father said.
‘I know, but—there aren’t any facts, are there? Nothing I can really tell them.’
‘You can tell them what you just told us.’
It was very tempting. If it could be proved that Terry was the moving force, he might be put away, and then Wendy would be safe from him for a while. But it was all so hazy, nothing but hearsay and supposition. She worried about it all through a sleepless night and the next long morning. She desperately needed someone to talk to and there was really only one person whose judgement she trusted. James. Up till now she hadn’t told him about Frank as she was too ashamed of her brother, but he was going to have to know some time. Directly after midday dinner, she rang him and arranged to meet in twenty minutes at the coffee bar nearest to While-U-Wait.
She arrived first and sat at a shiny yellow Formica table sipping a frothy coffee in a shallow clear glass cup. Somebody put Cathy’s Clown on the jukebox. The heartrending voices of the Everly Brothers soared through the steamy atmosphere, chiming perfectly with her mood. She stared out of the window, longing for James to arrive.
When he did, he ordered two more coffees and sat down opposite her, his face concerned.
‘Whatever’s the matter, Lindy? You sounded really agitated on the phone. Not like you at all.’
It was wonderful to know that she always had him to turn to.
‘Oh, James, it’s so good of you to come straight away like this. I don’t know what to do. It’s Frank—he’s been arrested.’
And, to her horror, her voice broke on the last few words and she burst into tears. James came round to her side of the table, sat next to her on the bench seat and put an arm round her shoulders, holding her and talking to her.
‘It’s all right, Lindy. It’s not the end of the world, we’ll think of something—’
‘I’m so sorry—’ Lillian sobbed.
‘Don’t worry, you cry if you want to. Here—’ He handed her a fresh handkerchief.
Lillian managed to get the tears under control, wiped her eyes and blew her nose.
‘Better now?’ James asked.
She nodded.
‘Now, tell me what’s happened.’
Lillian explained.
James nodded, his eyes narrowed in thought. ‘Has he got a solicitor?’
‘I don’t know. I shouldn’t think so. We’ve never had anything to do with them.’
‘Everyone’s entitled to legal representation. They’ll have given him the duty solicitor if he hasn’t anyone of his own. We’ll go and see the firm I go to. They handle criminal cases as well as business stuff.’
Lillian was impressed. She hadn’t realised that James was now the sort of person who knew about solicitors.
‘I’m not sure he deserves it. I’m still so angry with him. But he is my brother, so I suppose we’ve got to get him all the help we can,’ she said. ‘But there’s something else—’
She outlined her theory about Terry Dempsey’s involvement.
‘Mmm. I’m with you, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s behind it. But it’s hardly what you might call evidence, is it?’
They discussed it for some while and came to the conclusion that they should take their suspicions to the police and let them make what they could of it.
‘We’ll go straight away,’ James decided.
‘But you’re supposed to be working!’
‘It can wait. What’s the point of employing people if you can’t leave them to it in an emergency?’
They were lucky. DS Phillips was at the station. Lillian told him what she knew, James backed it up with the tale of the HP payments. Phillips looked unimpressed, but gave nothing away. Their statements were written out and they signed them. They walked out of the station, both feeling flat and disappointed.
‘He didn’t buy it, did he?’ Lillian said.
‘No, well, we did think it was a long shot. But look at it this way, Lindy—each statement against Dempsey is one brick. If they get enough of them, they might be able to build something. Now, let’s go and see about getting Frank some legal help.’
Lillian might normally have been a bit intimidated by the brown building, solid furnishings and solemn air of the solicitor’s office, but James breezed in and chatted to the stiff-looking lady at the reception desk, who melted into a smile.
‘You need to see Mr Allenby. Now let me see—’ she ran a finger down the page of an appointment book ‘—as it happens, he’s free at four. Would that be convenient?’
‘Absolutely,’ James agreed, before Lillian could say a word.
‘But you’re going to be away from the garage all afternoon at this rate,’ Lillian objected as they walked out of the building.
‘Don’t worry, Lindy. Tony’s got it all in hand. You were dead right about him, he’s a good manager. When While-U-Wait Chelmsford opens next week, I’ll be spending most of my time over there, leaving him in charge here, so everything’s OK, see? Now, I think you deserve a really nice cake.’
Lillian didn’t know whether she wanted to laugh or cry.
‘I don’t know what I would have done without you,’ she said.
James made a dismissive noise. ‘What are friends for?’
They ate huge slices of creamy cake at a tea shop and discussed what else could be done for Frank, before going back to the solicitor’s office to talk to Mr Allenby. To Lillian’s surprise, he turned out not to be a crusty old man, but a sharp young one, hardly ten years older than herself. He took all the details and smiled at Lillian across his shiny desk.
‘It’s a first offence, so that’s got to be in his favour. Don’t you worry, Miss Parker, I’ll get going on this case straight away. If there’s a way out, I’ll find it.’
They all shook hands and Lillian left feeling she had done all she could for her brother.
‘Now all we’ve got to do is tell the rest of the family,’ she said. ‘I don’t know how Bob and Susan are going to take it.’
‘I’ll go and break it to them, if you like,’ James offered. ‘You get back to your mum; she’ll be needing you.’
It was the start of a long anxious time of waiting and wondering.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
SO THIS was what a courtroom looked like. Lillian had seen them on TV programmes, but it wasn’t the same as actually being in one. It was smaller, more cramped, and much more frightening. Up here in th
e public gallery, you could look down on the proceedings as if you were at a play. But this was no piece of entertainment. This was Frank’s freedom and the Parker family honour at stake. She glanced along the row. Gran had come out for the occasion and was sitting beside her, very stiff and upright, dressed entirely in black with a hat and veil. Bob was on the far side of Gran. He had taken the day off work and was looking pale, his hands fiddling with his cufflinks. On Lillian’s other side was James. That was it. Just four people here to show their support for Frank and make sure that justice was done. Susan had volunteered to look after her mother-in-law for the day, and Wendy had said she would come but hadn’t showed up. The worst thing was that their father had been called as a witness for the prosecution.
‘I bet Terry stopped Wendy from coming,’ Lillian murmured to James.
‘You’re probably right.’
‘I’m so grateful to you for coming. You didn’t have to, you know. I know how busy you are with the new fitting shop.’
James had been working all hours to get While-U-Wait Chelmsford off the ground. Lillian knew he could ill afford to take time off.
‘Of course I had to. I couldn’t leave you to face this by yourself, could I?’
His concern ran over her like warm sunshine, partly quelling the churning nerves in her stomach.
‘I’ve been dreading this,’ she admitted.
It was a terrible moment when Frank and the other two defendants were brought in. Frank looked white and drawn. Lillian sat with her hands clasped tight in her lap, willing him to look up and see that his family were here for him, but he kept his eyes on his feet. She recognised the defendant on his right. It was the weasel-faced man who had come looking for him that evening the police had searched the house.
She studied the jury members as they were sworn in. Frank’s fate depended on these people. Could they be trusted to see it the right way? Some looked very solemn and earnest, others slightly bewildered. One or two just seemed bored.
The proceedings got underway. All three men in the dock pleaded Not Guilty. The lawyer for the prosecution outlined his case. Lillian listened with a growing sense of doom. The tobacconist had identified all three defendants in a line-up. Their fingerprints had been found at the scene. Cigarettes and other goods from the shop had been found, not only at Sunny View but at the houses of the other two.
James leaned towards Lillian and muttered in her ear. ‘How can they have been so stupid? Why didn’t they wear gloves, and something over their faces? You only have to watch films to know basic stuff like that.’
‘I know,’ Lillian said.
It all looked very grim.
Witnesses were called. Lillian leaned forward as the defence at last had the chance to cross-question. Under pressure, the tobacconist admitted that the men who had raided his shop had been wearing hats and scarves.
‘And you say that your spectacles were knocked off in the scuffle?’
‘Yes, sir. Smashed, they were. I had to buy another pair.’
‘And how well can you see without them?’
‘I can’t read, that’s for sure.’
‘So everything is a bit of a blur without them?’
‘Well—’
‘Yes or no?’
‘A bit, yes.’
‘Can I ask you to take your spectacles off for me now? I’m going to hold two pictures up, lifesized photographs of faces. Can you tell me which is the young man and which is the young woman?’
The woman in the photograph had a gamine haircut like Audrey Hepburn, and wore no make-up. Both people wore open-necked shirts.
‘That’s clever,’ James commented.
The tobacconist had some difficulty in telling them apart and, although he did finally choose correctly, the lawyer had made his point. The man’s sight was not reliable without glasses.
‘So he’s going for mistaken identity,’ Lillian whispered.
‘It’s about all he can go for,’ James answered.
But when DS Phillips and his superior were called, the evidence started stacking up. The fingerprints and the loot were impossible to explain away. Then relatives were produced to confirm that the three men had not been home on the night of the robbery. Lillian wanted to curl up and die when her father took the stand. She hated herself for it, but she just knew he was going to be made to look small by these smart-tongued figures of authority. Down in the dock, Frank looked up from the floor for the first time and stared at his father with accusing eyes.
‘Tell me, Mr Parker, what time did your son get home on the night in question?’
Doug shuffled his feet and mumbled. He was asked to speak up.
‘Don’t remember,’ he said.
Lillian squirmed inside. Why didn’t he just admit the truth? Unless he was going to lie under oath, it was going to be drawn out of him one way or another.
‘You don’t remember him coming in at all?’
‘No—yes—I mean—’
‘What do you mean, Mr Parker, no or yes?’
‘I—er—’
‘Well, Mr Parker, did your son come home that night?’
Doug avoided everyone’s eyes by doing what Frank had done—looking at his feet. ‘No,’ he admitted.
‘He was out all night?’
‘Yes.’
Lillian heard a small groan beside her. It was Gran.
‘Hopeless,’ she muttered.
Lillian wasn’t sure whether she meant her son or the case.
The defence lawyer tried to prove that it was not unusual for Frank to be out all night and that he could have been anywhere in town or even out of it, on his motorbike. It did not sound very convincing. She looked at the jury’s faces.
‘Do you think they believe him?’ she asked James.
‘We can only hope.’
He was being tactful, Lillian knew. Only a very stupid jury member would fall for the defence’s arguments.
She brightened up just a little after the lunch break, when the defence started to put its case. But the preamble was hardly halfway through when there was a small disturbance at the back of the public gallery. Two heavyweight men with cropped heads clumped in and made their way to the front, where they stood for longer than was necessary before taking their seats.
‘I know them!’ James hissed at Lillian. ‘They’re Dempsey’s men. They’re the ones who tried to warn me off Wendy.’
Down in the dock, one of the defendants had spotted them. He elbowed the other two and they all looked up. There was no doubt that they too recognised the men.
‘That’s the end of any chance of accusing Dempsey of being behind it,’ James said.
Any spark of hope that the case might take a dramatic turn for the better died at that moment. The barrister that James’s solicitor had engaged did his best to establish an alibi for Frank, producing two witnesses to say that he had been at a bikers’ café up till eleven o’clock, but they admitted under cross-questioning that, though Frank had said he was setting off for the new Ml motorway, they didn’t know for sure whether he had gone there. They even admitted that Frank was known to make empty boasts about what he had done and where he had been on his motorbike.
As it happened, there was no need for Dempsey’s men glaring down from the public gallery. The defence did not even try to suggest that the defendants had been put up to it. Lillian guessed that Frank and his friends had already denied that one and the lawyer knew it was no use going down that road.
The judge did his summing-up, the jury retired. The Parkers and James gathered in the corridor outside the courtroom, stretching their legs and discussing the case.
‘That stupid boy. How can he do this to us? I’ll never be able to hold up my head again,’ Gran said.
‘I don’t know what they’re going to say at the bank when all this comes out. Supposing they assume that I’m tarred with the same brush?’ Bob said.
‘Will it all come out?’ Lillian asked.
‘Of course it will. Did
n’t you notice the reporter sitting there writing it all down in his notebook?’
Lillian hadn’t.
‘I suppose there’s no chance of some sort of reprieve?’ she said.
Bob gave a sigh of impatience. ‘This isn’t Perry Mason, Lillian. It’s real life. Like the judge said, that old man could have had a heart attack and died when they left him tied up like that.’
‘I know,’ Lillian said miserably.
She was so ashamed of her brother. She almost wished James wasn’t here to witness all this.
They didn’t have long to wait. The jury took just fifteen minutes to decide. Everyone assembled in the courtroom again. The foreman of the jury stood up. The judge asked for their verdict.
‘Guilty.’
The word fell like a stone into Lillian’s heart. She had been expecting it, but it was still a dreadful moment. She felt a warm hand close round hers. It was James.
The judge told Frank and his cronies what a despicable deed they had done. The only factor in their favour was that this was their first offence. Frank stood in the dock stony-faced, his eyes still on his feet.
‘Eight years,’ the judge decided. ‘Take them down.’
Lillian gasped. Eight years! Down in the dock, Frank at last registered emotion. Shock was written clearly on his face. But it was too late now for any reaction. He and his partners in crime were escorted out by policemen. The door to the cells closed behind him, and he was gone from the everyday world.
‘You all right, Lindy?’
James’s voice was concerned. Lillian nodded. She felt very strange. Unreal. This could not be happening to her family. They were not criminals.
There was a low groan beside her. Lillian turned. Gran was still staring at the dock. Her face was set and grim, but she could not quite control the trembling of her chin. To her horror, Lillian realised that Gran, the hard rock, the immovable force of their family, was struggling to hold back tears. For the first time in her life, she put an arm round her shoulders.
‘Come on, Gran, there’s no more to be done. Let’s go home.’
Gran was still staring at the empty dock. ‘Who would have thought that the Parkers could sink so low?’ she said, almost to herself. ‘Thank God his grandfather isn’t here to see this.’
Follow Your Dream Page 31
