Trusted Like The Fox Read Online Free

sleeve.
    He suddenly hated her morbid curiosity and turned on her: “Shut up,” he snarled. “I’m not talking about it.”
    She looked disappointed, a little hurt. He could feel her eyes on him, but he looked straight in front of him.
    The jury returned into court at four o’clock. They had taken twenty minutes to arrive at the verdict.
    While Ellis waited he thought of the prisoner, tried to imagine how he would feel in his place. As the minutes passed he became more and more tense, until he had to make an effort to control his trembling limbs.
    The door behind the bench opened and a small group of aldermen and sheriffs in their robes passed through, standing aside then to bow to the Judge who entered, carrying in his hand a pair of white gloves and that strip of black cloth known as the black cap.
    The prisoner came up the stairs at the back of the dock. Ellis couldn’t look at him. He felt it would be like looking into a mirror.
    The Clerk of the Court asked: “Members of the jury, are you agreed upon your verdict?”
    Ellis leaned forward, sweat beads on his forehead, his teeth bared.
    “Guilty.”
    Twenty minutes to make up their minds to send a man to his death. Twenty minutes! Ellis snarled at them, a red mist of rage before his eyes. It could have so easily been him up there facing the Judge.
    The fat woman, thinking he was unnerved, put her hand comfortingly on his arm.
    The Judge pronounced the sentence of death.
    “Serves ‘im right,” the woman said in a hushed voice, moved in spite of herself. “ ‘E was a traitors.”
    The Chaplain said, “Amen.”
    Ellis gritted his teeth. If they caught him, they’d hang him, too. But he wasn’t a traitor! They’d treated him badly, and he had got his own back; that’s all it was. Besides, if they’d listened to him, London would never have been bombed. He had told them over and over again to get rid of Churchill and to make friends with Germany. But the fools hadn’t listened and now London was in ruins, and they would call him a traitor.
    He stood up as the court began to clear. He and the fat woman were carried along in the crowd towards the exit.
    Suddenly he could contain himself no longer. “It’s murder!” he burst out furiously. “They never gave him a chance.” He was so angry that he didn’t realise that he was speaking in his normal voice.
    The fat woman stared at him, puzzled. Somewhere she had heard that voice before.
    A policeman also heard the voice. He looked sharply round the court. The sea of faces moving towards the exit meant nothing to him, and yet he was sure that Edwin Cushman had spoken those words.
    While he stood hesitating, not knowing what he should do, the man in the shabby brown suit slipped through the doorway and moved quickly down the corridor, out of sight.
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
    The building was dark and cool after the fierce heat of the street; it was silent, too, dirty and dilapidated. There was no lift, and the big sign on the wall on which were painted the various names of the firms housed in the building had more vacant spaces on it than names.
    Ellis caught a glimpse of the girl’s legs as she walked up the stairs to the second floor. He was plodding up the first flight, and had heard her wooden heels clicking on the stone stairs before he saw her. By leaning over the banister and staring up, he caught sight of her legs in lisle stockings, the hem of her grey skirt and a flash of white underwear under the full skirt.
    He quickened his pace, curious to see what the girl looked like. The two of them appeared to be alone in this big, silent building, and the only sound that came to him was the click of her wooden heels.
    On the third-floor landing, he caught a glimpse of her as she rounded the bend in the corridor. She was wearing a grey flannel skirt and a short blue coat. Her little hat was shapeless: the kind of hat you’d expect to find in a dustbin. Although he only caught a glimpse of her he was immediately