Unravel a Crime - Tangle With Women (39 page)

“
No. No, not this time.”

“
O.K.” said Sophie and kissed
him lightly on the cheek. The children took it all in.

The conference with Rosemary
Lappin was due to start at 11.00.

The train from Worcester to
London started in Hereford. They arranged for Newberry to board it in Malvern
Link, while Lisa and Brakespeare caught it at 7.29 am at Foregate Street,
Worcester. They arrived at Paddington at 9.47.

A smelly and claustrophobic
journey on the Circle Line brought them to the Temple Station.

Rosemary Lappin worked from
Ram Chambers, Ram Building. Ram Building was in the centre of the Temple, in
Elm Court, at the eastern end of Fountain Court, and backing on to Middle
Temple Lane.

From the Station they went
east along the Embankment and up Middle Temple Lane and through the Middle
Temple.

The Building, although in the
17
^th
Century style of the Temple was only some forty years old, the
original building having been destroyed by enemy action in the Second World
War.

Newberry looked about him. ”Do
you know, I’ve never been here before in all my time in London.”

“
it’s pretty historic,” said
Lisa, who had been reading up on the subject as part of her application to join
the Bar. “Parts of it date from the 12
^th
century. It was the
headquarters of the Knights Templar, and in the middle is their church, the
Temple Church.

They left it though at some time
in the 14
^th
century, or about 1346 to be precise. It was leased to
lawyers and has been occupied by lawyers ever since.”

“
Well thank you for that.”
Said Newberry “I wonder how many others like me have come here over the last
700 years with churning guts to seek help and advice.”

They made their way to the
second floor of Ram Building, where the Chambers were situated. It had none of
the pretentiousness of Breezie’s Chambers. There was no receptionist. The
entrance led directly into the Clerk’s room.

The Head Clerk vaguely
recognised Brakespeare. “Good Morning, sir,” he said.

“
Mr Brakespeare with Mr.
Newberry, the client ,and Miss Barnes to see Miss Lappin.”

“
Oh, yes, sir.” Said the
Clerk, recognising the name, but uncertain as to when Brakespeare had last been
in the Chambers or for why. Take a seat.”

He gestured them into a small
but comfortable waiting room, with copies of the Times and Financial Times set
out for visitors to read. Newberry was nervously silent, and there was little
for either of the other two to say. They did not have to wait long.

“
Miss Lappin will see you
now,” said a junior clerk and took them along a corridor to a room at the end.

Rosemary Lappin stood up and
came round from behind her desk.

She was in her late forties or
even early fifties. She was smartly dressed in a black suit, with a white
blouse that buttoned up to her throat. Her greying dark brown hair was pulled
back in a bun. She erred on the masculine side of feminine, and exuded a
confident manner. Unlike her clerk, she remembered Brakespeare. Her voice was
deep and strong.

“
Mr. Brakespeare, how nice to
see you again. This must be Mr. Newberry; how do you do.” She shook his hand.

“
And this is Miss Barnes.”
Said Brakespeare, introducing Lisa.

“
Ah, Miss Barnes. I’ve been reading
your work. Excellent material.”

The group settled down. If tea
was available, it was not being offered.

“
I’ll come straight to the
point, Mr. Newberry.” Lappin said. “Thanks to your solicitors I think that you
have an excellent case.”

Newberry relaxed visibly in
his chair.

“
That does not mean to say
that I don’t think that you have not been anything but extremely foolish, but
foolishness is not yet a crime.”

Newberry went red, but said
nothing.

“
So, I understand that we are
before the Court for directions next week. Have you booked me in with my
clerk?”

Brakespeare nodded in the
affirmative.

“
Good. Can you write to the
Court however to warn them that we do intend to make an application to strike
the prosecution case out. I don’t suppose that they will deal with it then,
because we need Mr. Black in the witness box.”

“
You’re not simply going to do
it on submissions to the Court.” Asked Brakespeare.

“
No, I want Mr. Black in the
box to explain himself if he can. I really don’t know what the prosecution are
playing at, putting forward as in independent expert witness, someone who quite
clearly had a commercial interest in these properties. I can’t think that they
have really read all the papers.”

“
Is there anything else we
need to do to prepare.”

“
Yes, these documents which
you found at Old Hill Police Station. Have you done anything with them yet?”

“
Not yet.”

“
But the Police know what you
have taken.”

“
Yes.”

“
Funny if they haven’t alerted
the Prosecution.” She looked quizzically at Brakespeare.

“
Does it matter if they have?”

“
No, of course not, but I
thought that you might have heard something from the C.P.S. by now.”

Brakespeare managed to nudge
Lisa’s foot as a reminder not to say anything about D.C. Durkin and his role.

Lappin turned to Lisa. “Miss
Barnes. I know that the computer age is with us but I have to say that these
charts and graphs you have produced – well I’ve never seen anything like it. It
is quite clear that Black is all over the place with his valuations. I also
fail to see, as I hope will the Judge, why Mr. Newberry, you have been charged
with this offence, when your professional colleagues; the other surveyors Dover
and Barnes have not. In fact what I find it quite extraordinary is that they
have called them as witnesses.”

“
Shall we need them as
witnesses?” asked Brakespeare.

“
Why not. It will underline
the futility of this case.”

“
Can I ask a question? Asked
Newberry.

“
Of course you may.”

“
Why is it that you have come
to a totally opposite conclusion to the other barrister?”

Newberry wished that the
ground would open up beneath him. Lisa wriggled uncomfortably in her chair.
They need not have worried. Lappin was too professional to be phased by the
question.

She smiled a warm smile at
him.

“
Mr. Newberry, surely you must
understand that if all lawyers agreed half of us would be out of a job!”

Newberry looked at her as her
words sunk in. He glanced at Brakespeare and Lisa who by now were looking at
the floor and trying not to smile.

“
Sorry, silly question.”

“
That’s quite alright. Is there
anything else you’d like to ask me?”

“
And you really think that I
have an excellent case.”

“
Let it put me this way, Mr.
Newberry. The Prosecution in my view have been extremely sloppy. Because of
your links with Clearfield at a time when you were working for the National,
you have, however unwittingly, put yourself in a compromising situation, and it
is not surprising that when an allegation of dishonesty is made over the
valuation of these London properties, that you should be the prime suspect. As
the Head of the Department it fell to you to ensure the proper running of the
department. That enabled you to “ensure”, to quote the charge against you, that
any dishonest valuations might be accepted.

However, thanks to the fine
detective work by Mr. Newberry and Miss Barnes, we know, and I am satisfied,
that there were no fraudulent valuations, or rather to put the issue in a legal
context, there is simply no evidence that the valuations were fraudulent, and I
remind you that it is for the Prosecution to prove fraud, not for you to
disprove it. It is because I do not think that the Prosecution will be able to
prove their case beyond all reasonable doubt, which is what the law requires of
them, that I believe that we shall be ultimately successful. The purpose of our
application to strike the case out will be an indication to the Court that the
prosecution cannot succeed. Their evidence is cannot be changed.”

Well that puts him in his
place, thought Brakespeare as Newberry mumbled a “Thank you.”

“
Well unless you have any
further questions you wish to ask of me, Mr. Newberry?” She paused and Newberry
shook his head. “There are matters of a technical nature that I would like to
discuss with Mr. Brakespeare and Miss Barnes, if you would like to wait
outside.”

She stood up and the others
followed suit.

“
You don’t need me again?”
asked Newberry.

“
Not today.”

“
Well in that case, as I’m not
going back to Malvern tonight.” He addressed Brakespeare. “I’ll catch up with
you later if that’s OK?.”

Brakespeare looked at Lisa who
raised an eyebrow.

“
Right, will you be back in
Worcester tomorrow?” Brakespeare asked.

“
After lunch”.

“
I’ll call you. Bye.”

Newberry let himself out of
the room.

Rosemary Lappin perched on the
side of her desk and took a cigarette out and lit it.

“
Jonny Brakespeare, what other
barrister?” she asked grimly. “I am instructed by you after how many years, and
I’ve been demoted to your second port of call.”

“
Rosie, I’m sorry. I didn’t
want to influence your opinion.”

“
Perhaps I can explain.” Said
Lisa, and proceeded to explain how the previous barrister was her late
employer’s brother in law, and, how he had tried to take the matter for a full
trial.

“
I see,“ said Lappin, exhaling
and stubbing out her half smoked cigarette. “OK, I’m convinced. This girl’s
saved Newberry’s bacon.”

“
She has?”

“
Could you have done this
computer work on your own, Jonny?”

Brakespeare shook his head.

“
Mind you the client’s a fool.
Where did you find him?”

Again Lisa came to the rescue
and explained the connection between the firm and Newberry.

“
And I suppose, that the
reason he is staying in London overnight is to ‘see’, to avoid a more active
verb, Mrs Potter?” asked Lappin with a smile.

“
Well I assume so. He never
said anything to us on the way down.”

“
So be it. Well. I’m going to
have to prepare a draft of our legal arguments for the Judge next week, so that
he can see the strength of our application. My clerk will send it to the Court.
I’ll get him to fax a copy to you, and you’d better fax it to the Prosecution,
so that they can’t say that they’re being ambushed. Mind you,” she warned, “it
may spur them into trying to get their case in order, but I would have thought
that if they were going to do that, we would have heard something by now. Let’s
have some fun.”

She left her perch at the side
of the desk, and smiled warmly as she held her hand out.

“
Jonny, nice to see you again.
Bye Miss Barnes. You’ve done a splendid job in this case.”

It was almost lunch time, and
Brakespeare decided to take Lisa for lunch at the Solicitors Regulation
Authority in Chancery Lane, just across Fleet Street from the Temple.

Lisa had never been in the
imposing building before. Brakespeare showed her the Library and the Tea Room,
as well as the cloakroom with it’s lines of metal pegs reminiscent of a school.

After choosing their lunch in
the self service cafeteria, they sat a table in front of the window at the
Chancery Lane end, where they had a view over the remainder of the cafeteria.
It was not yet one o’clock, and only about one third full.

They spent a few minutes
people watching. Trying to guess who were London Solicitors; who were
entertaining clients; who were solicitors up from the country like themselves,
and who perhaps ought not to be there at all.

“
Jonny.” asked Lisa, after
they ran out of subjects for observation. “What’s wrong?”

“
Pardon.”

“
Something’s wrong. “ She put
her knife and fork down and looked at him pleadingly. “You know we nearly made
it, that night after Gordon’s funeral, but since then, you’ve, well you’ve sort
of backed off me. You went away for the weekend, and something changed. Is it
to do with me.”

“
No, no of course not.”
Brakespeare put a hand on her arm to reassure her. “I think your great,
fantastic, and I like being with you, but…. look we work in the same office, on
the same case, and office romances do have a habit of ending in tears.”

He hadn’t the courage to tell
her of Sophie’s proposition, but he hadn’t realised that the doubts it had
raised in him showed in his behaviour. He realised that he had been avoiding
close contact with her in the office. He felt almost embarrassed at what had
happened. He had seen her naked, and she him for that matter. He had seen the
conical shaped breasts with large aureolae crowning them. The slight feminine
swell in an otherwise flat stomach and the plume of dark hair decorating her
mons veneris. She had shown all her secrets to him. He wanted to share them,
and would have done, but now he felt guilty at doing so. She was only one of
three that he was, in various ways, tangled with. He wasn’t ready to commit to
her, and he didn’t want to hurt her.