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

Kitty sucked in a shaking breath and blew it at the document. ‘I wonder what he said.’

‘It doesn’t say. Porterhouse was allowed to carry on, though.’

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

Owen-Rutherford: You want me to tell you about my mother, Claudine Owen, I suppose. Well, she deserted me. I haven’t seen her since I was seven - apart from one occasion in my early twenties, when she made it perfectly plain that she had no interest in me.

Porterhouse: And how was life with your father?

Owen-Rutherford: He didn’t want me either. I went to live with my grandfather. My unhappy childhood is the reason I became a counsellor. Anger, violence, resentment, I know about these things first-hand. I wanted to…

Porterhouse: Tell me, what are your hobbies?

Fitzsimmons: Objection.

Judge Cannon: Over-ruled.

Owen-Rutherford: I don’t have much spare time. I do like to eat out.

Porterhouse: Did you eat out at the restaurant called Feast, in Chelterton High Street.

Owen-Rutherford: (no reply)

Porterhouse: Mr Owen-Rutherford, did you eat at Feast?

Owen-Rutherford: Yes, I did. Once or twice.

Porterhouse: And was the restaurant, Feast run by Ms Millicent Adu?

Owen-Rutherford: I’m not sure.

Porterhouse: Not sure, Mr Owen-Rutherford? That seems unlikely, as Ms Adu was a friend of your wife and shared a house with her. A bit too much of a coincidence, don’t you agree?

I’m sorry Mr Owen-Rutherford, would you repeat that for the benefit of the jury, please?

Owen-Rutherford: It does seem a coincidence. I didn’t know she was a housemate of my wife.

Porterhouse: Surely, we can’t believe that. Surely, Fee would have talked to you about Millie, who ran a restaurant, and Twitch, who suffered from depression. I imagine, Mr Owen-Rutherford, that between them Mr and Mrs Thomas fed you much information about the goings on at that semi in Crispin Road. Perhaps you also knew Ms Roman.

Owen-Rutherford: I did not.

Porterhouse: Do you have any other hobbies, Mr Rutherford?

Owen-Rutherford: I get little time for a social life.

Porterhouse: How about gambling? Do you like a flutter now and then?

Owen-Rutherford: I do occasionally have a bet, yes.

Porterhouse: Is it not true to say you have lost thousands of pounds, and that you are in debt to the tune of approximately one hundred and fifty thousand pounds?

Owen-Rutherford: Yes.

Porterhouse: Thank you, Mr Owen-Rutherford. That will be all.

Sam frowned. ‘Mum had mental health problems. I wish I’d known.’ He stared through the window at the fading light and said, ‘He knew Millie, too. Does it say when he met her?’

‘He says he didn’t.’ Kitty grabbed her notebook and pencil. ‘But what if he knew them all - including your mum?’ She jotted down ‘Connect Max to Millie and Twitch.’

Next in the transcript came Max’s receptionist, Julie Glover. She told the court she was not privy to Max’s consultation notes, and only looked after general correspondence. She also said Max had once propositioned her, knowing that she was married.

One part of Julie’s cross-examination leapt out at Kitty.

Fitzsimmons: And Mr Thomas there, did you confirm your boss’s appointments for him?

Julie Glover: Yes, although on one occasion, he rang asking for an emergency consultation.

Fitzsimmons: Would you tell the court when that was, please, Mrs Glover?

Julie Glover: It was 2nd March.

Fitzsimmons: Do you remember Mr Thomas arriving at the practice on that occasion?

Julie Glover: Yes, I do.

Fitzsimmons: And how did he seem?

Porterhouse: Objection. The witness is being asked to speculate.

Judge Cannon: Sustained.

Fitzsimmons: Sorry, My Lord. Julie, would you describe to the court, the way Mr Thomas behaved on that day?

Julie Glover: He looked stiff. He hardly spoke while he sat and waited for Mr Rutherford to come out and collect him.

They reached the section detailing with the events in Mauritius.

Fitzsimmons: The prosecution calls Detective Colin Robbins

Fitzsimmons: Are you in charge of the investigation into Mrs Fiona Owen?

DI Robins: I am.

Fitzsimmons: I believe the Mauritian police passed the matter to you. Is that correct?

DI Robins: It is. I received a telephone call from an Inspector Kipling on 15th November 1996.

Fitzsimmons: And did you get the impression from Inspector Kipling that Mr Thomas was guilty?

DI Robins: He gave no such impression, although he did reveal that Mr and Mrs Owen had come to Mauritius to marry, and that they were on their honeymoon. Apparently, they had made themselves extremely popular in their hotel and were regular visitors at the restaurant where they had booked a table when the murder occurred.

Fitzsimmons: But of course, there were no witnesses, so you had to investigate Mr Owen-Rutherford and Mr Thomas, did you not?

DI Robins: We knew Mr Owen-Rutherford had been accused repeatedly by Mr Thomas, but we could find no evidence that he had ever behaved in a dangerous or violent way. He had no criminal record. He had bought the glasses of wine and had thrown them to the ground when he started to run towards the crag, exactly as he claimed.

He did admit to hiding his identity from Mrs Owen, but we were happy with his explanation that this was to protect his professional reputation.

Mr Thomas, on the other hand, was already known to us as a violent man, so we concentrated our resources on his movements. We interviewed his eight-year-old daughter, Kitty, who advised us that Mr Thomas had been hiding in the bushes opposite the house where she and Mrs Owen, then Thomas, lived, presumably spying on his wife.

Kitty recalled seeing her father’s head bobbing above the bushes opposite