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

Fitzsimmons: Would you like a glass of water, Mr Owen?

The corner of the sheet of paper was worn ragged by Kitty’s tense fingers, and her breath came in short bursts.

Sam thumbed through Max’s notes. Sure enough, there was the incident. He read aloud:

Paul tells me that yesterday, he committed a rape. He visited the house of his wife and her friends to confront Twitch, whom he believed to be turning Kitty against him. It seems that because of the nature of the conversation they ended up in one another’s arms. Twitch was as unhappy as Paul and there was some kind of mutual comforting that went too far. Twitch subsequently changed her mind, and in frustration, Paul forced himself on her. He appears contrite. Self-esteem low. He has agreed to go back and apologise.

A little further on:

Paul tried to visit Twitch to put things right, but she refused to see him and has banned him from the house.

Sam and Kitty gaped at the page, unable to speak. Neither wanted this to be true.

Sam passed Max’s notes to Kitty and muttered. ‘It might not be true.’

‘It can’t be.’ Kitty flung herself back in her seat. ‘I know my dad. He could not do a thing like that.’

Sam kept his thoughts to himself.

Porterhouse (cross-examining): Mr Rutherford, or should I call you Mr Owen?

Owen-Rutherford: Either will do. My name is Maximus James William Owen-Rutherford.

Porterhouse: But you made a point of using a different name with your late wife, from the one you assumed with Mr Thomas when he came to you for help. Is that not so?

Owen-Rutherford: My business cards say Max Rutherford. My whole name is a bit of a mouthful. When I found that Fee was married to Paul, I’m afraid I was disingenuous. It wasn’t ethical to have a relationship with her, given that her husband, at the time, was a client, so I used the name Will Owen.

Porterhouse: But you told her, eventually?

Owen-Rutherford: No. I never told her. She never knew about Paul’s visits to me. I’m not that unscrupulous.

Porterhouse: Well, you were unscrupulous enough to get her to sign forms without her knowledge and obtain her consent to marriage without her permission.

Owen-Rutherford: Yes, I admit I did that. I was trying to surprise her. I was desperate to marry her.

Porterhouse: Desperate, why? If she wasn’t ready, surely it would have been kinder to wait until she didn’t feel pushed into a corner.

Owen-Rutherford: I felt she wanted to marry me but was afraid of the commitment.

‘Egotistical bugger.’ Sam slapped the paper with his open knuckles. Kitty was silent.

Porterhouse: Going back to your meeting with Fee. You say you knew she was Mr Thomas’s wife on the day you met her.

Owen-Rutherford: We bumped into each other in the supermarket. I asked her for a coffee. I didn’t realise who she was, at first then when I saw her business card, the penny dropped.

Porterhouse: And is it true you told her you worked on an oil rig, on shift work?

Owen-Rutherford: Yes. That is true. The fact is, I already had a girlfriend and I wanted to spend time with her too. No point in complicating things until I was sure of my feelings.

Porterhouse: It seems overly complicated to lie so completely about your profession. Why not simply tell the truth about your circumstances?

Owen-Rutherford: I wish I had. If I’d been more honest with them both, she might be alive today.

Porterhouse: By ‘them both,’ I assume you mean Mr Thomas and your wife.

Owen-Rutherford: Yes. I wove a very tangled web.

Porterhouse: In fact, Mr Owen-Rutherford, it would be true to say you are a complete liar. There is no proof you wrote these notes at the time you say you did. Isn’t it perfectly possible you wrote them recently, to destroy my client’s reputation?

Owen-Rutherford: I certainly did write them at the time.

Porterhouse: And then you murdered your wife. You killed her and tried to blame Mr Thomas.

Fitzsimmons: Objection

Judge Cannon: May we know where this line of questioning is heading, Mr Porterhouse?

Porterhouse: Sorry, My Lord. It goes to throwing doubt on the balance of the police investigation.

Judge Cannon: I’ll allow it, but please get on with it.

Owen-Rutherford: Why would I do that? I loved her. He’s the one with anger issues. He’s the one who pushed her over the cliff, after thumping people on two separate occ…

Judge Cannon: That’s enough, Mr Rutherford. Kindly answer only the questions you are asked.

Porterhouse: Tell me what you know about Mrs Sabrina Roman, known as Twitch for some reason.

Owen-Rutherford: She was another one.

Porterhouse: Another one?

Owen-Rutherford: Yes, another woman who abandoned her husband.

Porterhouse: Ms Roman shared a house with your wife, did she not?

Owen-Rutherford: Yes.

Porterhouse: And you thought of her in those terms? As a deserter of her husband. Is this also how you viewed your wife, and perhaps their other companion Ms Adu - the estranged wife of Mr Thomas’s friend Michael Adu?

Owen-Rutherford: The world is full of such women. I deal daily with men who struggle to cope with life after their wives have left them.

Porterhouse: And you blame these women for the damage they do?

Owen-Rutherford: No. Not blame. They have become the regular fodder of my business; I suppose you could say.

Porterhouse: Tell the court about your childhood, Mr Owen-Rutherford.

Fitzsimmons: Objection

Judge Cannon: Sustained

Porterhouse: May I have a word in private, My Lord?

Judge Cannon: Very well.