Letting out the Worms: Guilty or not? If not then the alternative is terrifying (Kitty Thomas Book 1 by Sue Nicholls (primary phonics .txt) 📕

Mr Thomas (the accused) has a violent temper, was obsessed with his ex-wife’s movements and lied to his friends. Furthermore, I will demonstrate that he had the opportunity and the motive to murder her.

Judge: How do you plead, Mr Thomas?

Paul Thomas: Not guilty, My Lord.

Judge Cannon: Very well Mr Fitzsimmons, please proceed.

 

Kitty imagined the courtroom and her father standing in the dock, and her stomach gave a flip. Beside her, Sam stared at his crossed ankles, waiting for the page.

 

Fitzsimmons: Thank you, My Lord. The Prosecution calls Mr Lee Duggan.

State your name and address.

Duggan: Lee Duggan. Flat 26b, High Street, Longforth.

Fitzsimmons: And how do you know Mr Paul Thomas?

Duggan: He was my neighbour, and he beat the shit out of me.

Mr David Porterhouse (Defence): Objection my Lord.

Judge: Sustained. Mr Duggan kindly moderate your language.

Duggan: Sorry. Paul Thomas broke down the door of my flat and threw my music player down the stairs. It smashed and made dents in the walls. I thought he was gonna kill me. Still do. I can’t sleep, I’m so scared.

Porterhouse (in cross-examination): What were you doing, Mr Duggan, when the defendant broke down your door?

Duggan: I was playing music with me mate.

Porterhouse: Just sitting there, minding your own business, listening to a bit of music?

Duggan: Yeah. Then this bloke comes barging in, all threats, and thumps me.

Porterhouse: I wonder, Mr Duggan, if you can explain why the walls and floor of Mr Thomas’s flat were vibrating so much that Mr Thomas’s little girl was unable to hear the television?

Duggan: Dunno.

Porterhouse: You don’t know? Could it have been because your music was turned up to deafening proportions? Could it have been because despite being asked to turn it down, you returned the music to full volume when Mr Thomas had gone back to his flat next door?

Duggan: Might’ve. I can’t remember now.

Porterhouse: Perhaps, Mr Duggan, that is because, while you were listening to the music, you were using cocaine? May I draw your attention to exhibits 3P and 4P, my Lord - the Lymchester Police report on the arrest of Mr Lee Duggan and their subsequent decision to drop charges against Mr Thomas.

‘This brings it all back,’ Kitty said, passing the paper to Sam, who highlighted the date of the attack mentioned further down the document.

He gestured to the papers from Max. ‘Pass me those notes. I’ll check what your dad said to Max.’ He flipped to the date and read the page to himself. Then said, ‘He was annoyed at losing his rag. But he was most concerned that he’d upset you.’

Kitty nodded. ‘I should hope so.’ She thought back to that day. Left alone in Paul’s flat, she had cried, hugging Topsy for comfort and bawling into the dog’s thick fur, flinching each time she heard her father’s angry voice directed at those guys next door. For the first time in her small life, she had been frightened of him.

They read on. An incident in a Chinese take-away restaurant appeared at first to be pretty damning. While queuing for his meal, her father had broken someone’s foot and kneed him in the balls.

‘Oh Dad.’ Kitty shook her head.

But further down the document, his actions were mitigated when it emerged that he had been sticking up for the restaurant owner’s wife. Unfortunately for Paul, the proprietor called the police, when things seemed as though they might become violent.

Sam consulted Max’s notes again. After this second violent incident, Max encouraged Paul to keep a record of his emotions and responses in a book: The book Kitty found in the recycling box on the night of the engagement party.

They now shared the court case pages, each holding an edge, their heads touching, Sam, with Max’s notes on the arm of the settee.

Fitzsimmons: Mr Owen, will you please tell us about your relationship to the defendant, Paul Thomas?

Owen-Rutherford: Of course. He was my client. He came to me for anger management and counselling, after his wife left him.

Fitzsimmons: Thank you, Mr Owen. Now, on the subject of Mr Thomas’s ex-wife, is it true that you and she were married, recently?

Owen-Rutherford: Yes. Fee and I met quite by accident in a supermarket and struck up a conversation. It was only when I was talking to her in the coffee shop on that day, that it dawned on me she might have been married to Paul. Then she gave me her business card, and I was almost sure.

Fitzsimmons: Did you say anything to her?

Owen-Rutherford: How could I? I would have been breaking client confidentiality. Anyway, it was a brief meeting, and I couldn’t be sure at that time that things would progress. What would have been the point?

Fitzsimmons: ‘Today, Paul described a violent incident in a take-away shop.’ Is this a quote from your notes, Mr Owen?

Owen-Rutherford: Yes. Paul said he had broken a man’s foot and kneed him in the testicles.

Fitzsimmons: Would you say Mr Thomas is a danger to society, Mr Owen?

Porterhouse: Objection. Speculation.

Judge: I’ll allow it as Mr Owen may be viewed as an expert witness.

Porterhouse: May I remind My Lord that Mr Owen is also the only witness to the actual crime under examination in this court?

Judge: Thank you, Mr Porterhouse. Objection sustained. Please choose another route of questioning, Mr Fitzsimmons.

Fitzsimmons: Very well, My Lord. Mr Owen, is this also from your notes: ‘Paul told me he has committed rape?’

Owen-Rutherford: Yes. Those are my notes. Paul came to me in some distress after he had forced himself onto one of my wife’s housemates. This