Bold Counsel (The Trials of Sarah Newby) Read Online Free Page B

shortly before he died. Mr Crosse claimed that Brian Winnick told him that his evidence against Jason Barnes was a lie. He had made it all up, he said, so that the police would let him off a serious charge of drug dealing. He had seen nothing wrong with this at the time but now he wanted to put things right before he died.
    ‘Tell me about this witness,’ Sarah said. ‘Raymond Crosse. What’s he like?’
    ‘Middle-aged criminal solicitor. Bald, baggy suit, worn down by the job. Talks to ten different liars every day.’ Lucy shrugged. ‘Don’t we all?’
    ‘Will he impress the judges?’
    ‘Should do. He seems honest. I think he believes what he’s saying, why wouldn’t he? It’s whether Winnick was telling the truth, that’s the question.’
    Sarah grimaced. ‘It would help if this man Crosse had got Winnick to sign this statement, on oath, before he died. What was he thinking of, for heaven’s sake?’
    ‘Expecting his client to live, I suppose. They often do.’
    ‘Yes, well this one didn’t.’ Sarah studied the papers. ‘What about this other witness, Amanda Carr? What’s she like?’
    ‘Perfectly decent, reliable. Married, two kids. Senior nurse at York District. Just a trainee back then, of course.’
    ‘Likely to make a good impression in court?’
    ‘If she’s called. Your first problem is to get them to consider her evidence at all. Since it was dismissed in the original appeal.’
    ‘Oh, I think I we’ve got a fair chance of that. Rules on disclosure have tightened up a lot since then. But whether they let her take the stand, that’s another matter. You can’t put much reliance on anyone’s memory after 18 years. It’s her statement at the time that matters most. And the fact that the police suppressed it. Or lost it, as they claim.’
    The two women re-read the statement carefully. On the night when she disappeared, Brenda Stokes had been wearing a school blazer, white blouse, and a short black miniskirt. Amusing and provocative, no doubt, on a well-developed nineteen year old. She had left the party with Jason apparently drunk and happy, in the stolen car. At four a.m. that morning, Amanda Carr had been driving home from a different party at Naburn Maternity Hospital when she had passed a young woman with long dark hair, wearing a schoolgirl outfit, walking towards her on a country road.
    ‘So if it was Brenda that she saw, she was still alive at four. Two miles away from where Jason claims she left him by the river at - when?’
    ‘Half one, he says. And a man taking his dog for a walk saw the remains of the car just outside Leeds at five thirty. It was already burnt out - a black shell.’
    ‘So if Brenda was still alive and running away from him at four, that would give Jason just an hour and half to catch her, kill her, dispose of her body, drive to Leeds and torch the car. Less, because the car wasn’t even smoking when the dog walker saw it. It’s not possible.’
    ‘Which is why the police didn’t believe her,’ Lucy said. ‘After all, she only saw her for a second, and can’t describe her face.’
    ‘Hm,’ Sarah mused. ‘Long dark hair, schoolgirl clothes. They’ll claim she’s a fantasist, made it all up after she read the story in the newspaper. I’d say the same, in their shoes. But still ... what if it was Brenda she saw on Naburn Lane at four a.m., and Jason didn’t kill her, what happened? Where did she go?’
    Lucy shrugged. ‘If we knew that ...’
    ‘We’d know everything. But we’re not detectives, Mrs Watson, just lawyers.’ Sarah gave a wry grin. ‘What about this bloodstained torch. With his fingerprint in her blood. Remind me, Lucy, how does our client explain that?’
    Lucy sighed. ‘Because, according to his story, when he asked her for sex ...’
    ‘Suggested was the word he used ...’
    ‘Okay, suggested they might have sex, she attacked him. Ripped his face with her nails. So, in self-defence of course, he lightly punched her on the