Post Mortem by Gary Bell (free children's ebooks pdf .TXT) 📕

her head. ‘Mr Bowen cannot speak to a witness in the middle of his evidence.’

‘Ah, My Lady!’ Bowen was up on his feet. ‘I actually must address you as a matter of urgency.’

The judge sighed. ‘All right, I see where this is going. Take the defendant back to the cells, please.’ She waited while Andre was escorted from the dock and then continued. ‘I assume this concerns a matter of PII, Mr Bowen?’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I intend to make an ex parte application in the absence of the defence.’

‘Very well. Miss Barnes, Mr Rook, I’m going to have to ask you to step outside with your solicitor for a minute or two.’ She glanced back to Bowen. ‘What about DI Linford?’

‘He needs to stay,’ Bowen said.

‘Fair enough.’

Zara, Lydia and I shuffled out of the court to wait in the corridor outside. PII, or public-interest immunity – once referred to as Crown privilege – is a principle under common law that allows a court order to be granted to withhold the disclosure of evidence between litigants.

‘In other words,’ Zara said to neither Lydia nor myself in particular, ‘I’m about to have a big old strip of tape slammed over my mouth.’

‘I suspect you may be right,’ I said. ‘You seem to have ruffled some feathers.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Lydia interjected. ‘Who the hell is Omar Pickett?’

‘Some drug dealer,’ Zara explained. ‘I’d heard he was Linford’s informant and, going by that reaction, I’m guessing it’s true. I think he either helped to set up the raid, and then Linford let him walk, or these drug dealers were actually banking on the raid, in which case Omar Pickett must’ve been working both sides to begin with.’

‘Banking on the raid?’ Lydia shook her head. ‘I’m missing something, aren’t I?’

‘I think we all are,’ I said.

A few minutes later we were ushered back into court and Andre was returned to the dock. DI Linford was still standing in the witness box.

‘Miss Barnes,’ Lady Allen began, ‘based on the application I have just received, and subject to my ruling, Detective Inspector Linford does not need to answer your last question, and you are not to ask any more questions of a like nature. With that said, do you have any further questions of the witness?’

‘No, My Lady.’ Zara returned to her seat with a sigh.

‘In that case, we shall return to the bail application. Mr Bowen, do the prosecution still oppose bail?’

Ted Bowen got to his feet with a dry smile. ‘We certainly do, My Lady, on the same grounds as before. We believe there is a substantial risk that the defendant would fail to appear. We say that because these are serious offences. The nature and strength of the evidence against the defendant is overwhelmingly strong, and he has a history of absconding. His trial is due to begin in a matter of days. Release him today, and the prosecution strongly doubts that we shall see him at court on Monday.’

‘Yes,’ Zara muttered, ‘because he might be dead by then.’

‘Regarding this apparent threat to his life,’ Bowen added pointedly, ‘there can surely be no safer place than within the walls of Her Majesty’s Prison.’

Lady Allen sat back, tapping her pen close to the microphone. ‘Defence?’

Zara stood tall and took a slow breath. She tried to shove her hands into her pockets but forced herself to stop; instead, she clasped them behind her back.

‘My Lady, DI Linford stated that the threat to my client’s life came from within the prison itself. I think it is therefore worth highlighting the shocking toll of violent acts currently being perpetrated between inmates behind the walls of Wormwood Scrubs. The prosecution claims that there is no safer place than Her Majesty’s Prison? Well, with the most recent report citing a staggering forty to fifty violent incidents every month at the Scrubs alone, I don’t see it as being beyond the realms of possibility that a serious, perhaps even successful attempt might be made on my client’s life at any given moment. It is not a safe environment, and we mustn’t forget that Mr Israel is only awaiting trial. A fair trial. He is innocent until proven guilty; even then, no matter what outcome the jury eventually decides upon, it is our country’s sworn duty to protect him. The Scrubs has been the setting for so much tragedy before today – tragedies that could have, and indeed should have, been avoided if only the warning signs had been heeded in good time. We have been given our warning. We mustn’t let our collective inaction cost another young man his life. We mustn’t let that prison claim one more victim. Not ever.’

She stood stock-still for another moment, catching her breath, and then sat down with a bump.

The judge placed her pen flat onto the bench. ‘Mr Rook, do you have anything you’d care to add?’

‘No, My Lady. I am here as an observer only. Miss Barnes has said it all, much more eloquently than I ever could.’

‘Very well.’ Allen leaned forward, studying Zara. ‘Miss Barnes, this is the first time we’ve met, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, My Lady.’

‘Then I should start by saying that your enthusiasm is invigorating, your passion thoroughly commendable. I suspect that you will have a fine future here at the Bar.’

‘Th-thank you,’ Zara stammered. ‘That means so much coming fr—’

‘That said, please make no mistake that this court regards an Osman warning with the utmost seriousness. Contrary to the implications of your speech, no life is ever simply left to chance.’

‘No, My Lady. Of course not.’

‘However, on this occasion, all the passion in the world cannot change the fact that your client has been granted the trust of our courts once before, and he chose to abuse, exploit and breach that trust. I consider any failure to surrender to bail as utterly inexcusable. Taking the defendant’s prior convictions for absconding into account, and given the serious nature of the charge and the strength of the evidence against him, I must continue