A Matter of Honor

by Archer, Jeffrey

  “But why would I agree to that?” asked Harry.

  “I can think of three good reasons,” replied Jelks. “Firstly, if you don’t, you’re likely to end up spending six years in prison for entering the United States on false pretenses. Secondly, you would retain your anonymity, so the Barrington family would have no reason to believe you are still alive. And thirdly, the Bradshaws are willing to pay you ten thousand dollars if you take their son’s place.”

  Harry realized immediately that this would be an opportunity to repay his mother for all the sacrifices she’d made for him over the years. Such a large sum of money would transform her life, making it possible for her to escape the two-up-two-down in Still House Lane, along with the weekly knock on the door from the rent collector. She might even consider giving up her job as a waitress at the Grand Hotel and start living an easier life, although Harry thought that was unlikely. But before he agreed to fall in with Jelks’s plans, he had some questions of his own.

  “Why would the Bradshaws be willing to go through with such a deception, when they must now know that their son was killed at sea?”

  “Mrs. Bradshaw is desperate to have Thomas’s name cleared.

  She will never accept that one of her sons might have killed the other.”

  “So is that what Tom is accused of—murdering his brother?”

  “Yes, but as I said, the evidence is flimsy and circumstantial, and certainly wouldn’t stand up in court, which is why the DA’s office is willing to drop the charge, but only if we agree to plead guilty to the lesser charge of desertion.”

  “And how long might my sentence be, if I agreed to that?”

  “The DA has agreed to recommend to the judge that you’re sentenced to one year, so with good behavior you could be free in six months; quite an improvement on the six years you can expect if you go on insisting that you’re Harry Clifton.”

  “But the moment I walk into the courtroom, someone’s bound to realize that I’m not Bradshaw.”

  “Unlikely,” said Jelks. “The Bradshaws hail from Seattle, on the west coast, and although they’re well off, they rarely visit New York. Thomas joined the navy when he was seventeen, and as you know to your cost, he hasn’t set foot in America for the past four years. And if you plead guilty, you’ll only be in the courtroom for twenty minutes.”

  “But when I open my mouth, won’t everyone know I’m not an American?”

  “That’s why you won’t be opening your mouth, Mr. Clifton.” The urbane lawyer seemed to have an answer for everything. Harry tried another ploy.

  “In England, murder trials are always packed with journalists, and the public queue up outside the courtroom from the early hours in the hope of getting a glimpse of the defendant.”

  “Mr. Clifton, there are fourteen murder trials currently taking place in New York, including the notorious ‘scissors stabber.’ I doubt if even a cub reporter will be assigned to this case.”

  “I need some time to think about it.”

  Jelks glanced at his watch. “We’re due in front of Judge Atkins at noon, so you have just over an hour to make up your mind, Mr. Clifton.” He called for a guard to open the cell door. “Should you decide not to avail yourself of my services I wish you luck, because we will not be meeting again,” he added before he left the cell.

  Harry sat on the end of the bunk, considering Sefton Jelks’s offer. Although he didn’t doubt that the silver-haired counsel had his own agenda, six months sounded a lot more palatable than six years, and who else could he turn to, other than this seasoned lawyer? Harry wished he could drop into Sir Walter Barrington’s office for a few moments and seek his advice.

  An hour later, Harry, dressed in a dark blue suit, cream shirt, starched collar and a striped tie, was handcuffed, marched from his cell to a prison vehicle and driven to the courthouse under armed guard.

  “No one must believe you’re capable of murder,” Jelks had pronounced after a tailor had visited Harry’s cell with half a dozen suits, shirts and a selection of ties for him to consider.

  “I’m not,” Harry reminded him.

  Harry was reunited with Jelks in the corridor. The lawyer gave him that same smile before pushing his way through the swing doors and walking down the center aisle, not stopping until he reached the two vacant seats at counsel’s table.

  Once Harry had settled into his place and his handcuffs had been removed, he looked around the almost empty courtroom. Jelks had been right about that. Few members of the public, and certainly no press, seemed interested in the case. For them, it must have been just another domestic murder, where the defendant was likely to be acquitted; no “Cain and Abel” headlines while there was no possibility of the electric chair in court number four.

  As the first chime rang out to announce midday, a door opened on the far side of the room and Judge Atkins appeared. He walked slowly across the court, climbed the steps and took his place behind a desk on the raised dais. He then nodded in the direction of the DA, as if he knew exactly what he was about to say.

  A young lawyer rose from behind the prosecutor’s desk and explained that the state would be dropping the murder charge, but would be pursuing Thomas Bradshaw on a charge of desertion from the US Navy. The judge nodded, and turned his attention to Mr. Jelks, who rose on cue.

  “And on the second charge, of desertion, how does your client plead?”

  “Guilty,” said Jelks. “I hope your honor will be lenient with my client on this occasion, as I don’t need to remind you, sir, that this is his first offense, and before this uncharacteristic lapse he had an unblemished record.”

  Judge Atkins scowled. “Mr. Jelks,” he said, “some may consider that for an officer to desert his post while serving his country is a crime every bit as heinous as murder. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that until recently such an offense would have resulted in your client facing a firing squad.”

  Harry felt sick as he looked up at Jelks, who didn’t take his eyes off the judge.

  “With that in mind,” continued Atkins, “I sentence Lieutenant Thomas Bradshaw to six years in jail.” He banged his gavel and said, “Next case,” before Harry had a chance to protest.

  “You told me—” began Harry, but Jelks had already turned his back on his former client and was walking away. Harry was about to chase after him, when the two guards grabbed him by the arms, thrust them behind his back and quickly handcuffed the convicted criminal, before marching him across the courtroom toward a door Harry hadn’t noticed before.

  He looked back to see Sefton Jelks shaking hands with a middleaged man who was clearly congratulating him on a job well done. Where had Harry seen that face before? And then he realized—it had to be Tom Bradshaw’s father.