A Matter for the Jury Read Online Free Page A

absence on leave, PC Willis was the ranking officer at St Ives police station. Only PC Hawthorne, who had been with the force less than three months, was available to assist him. As he ordered Hawthorne to summon up the one river boat the force had at its disposal, Willis had the uncomfortable sensation of leaving the citizens of St Ives at the mercy of whatever burglars and other assorted malefactors might be disposed to ply their trade early on a Monday morning, with the police station temporarily unattended except for Sylvia, the civilian receptionist.
    But there was nothing to be done about it. What Archie Knights had told him needed immediate attention, and once he was sure of what he was dealing with, Sylvia was going to have to call Huntingdon and Cambridge and get CID officers involved. Meanwhile, he and Hawthorne would have to cordon off and secure the scene and make preliminary notes. There would be hell to pay if everything was not in order when CID arrived, and Willis had no intention of allowing that to happen. The river boat was kept at Bert’s boatyard, just out of town to the east. The force had no specialist marine officer and, if Bert was out, any investigation had to wait until he returned. Fortunately, on this occasion Bert was in the office and answered the phone as soon as it rang. Within a few minutes he had collected the officers and conveyed them to Holywell Fen at full throttle. On approach, he throttled back and expertly pulled up alongside the Rosemary D . As soon as Bert had tied off the lines to secure the boat in place, Willis and Hawthorne clambered aboard.
    The scene was too much for young PC Hawthorne. He turned and ran back through the living quarters to the side of the boat, where he vomited violently over the side. Willis felt queasy himself, but he put a handkerchief over his mouth, and slowly, with infinite care, made his way around to his right until he was able to pull open the nearest window curtain. He would gladly have opened a window to let in some fresh air, but his training prevailed. CID would call that contaminating the scene. With the benefit of daylight he saw the details of the scene clearly for the first time. There were two victims, one male, one female. The male was straight ahead of him on the floor, to the right of the bed. He appeared to have several serious head wounds, which must have been inflicted, Willis thought, with great force and using a heavy object. There was a lot of blood all over his clothes and on the floor. The female was lying on the bed. She also appeared to have head wounds. Her skirt had been pushed up; her knickers were around her ankles. Her genitals were fully exposed. Willis shook his head. He was about to look around for a murder weapon, when he looked again at the girl’s face. He bent down and seized her wrist, feeling for a pulse, watching her face carefully. Then he dropped her wrist, turned and ran the full length of the Rosemary D , shouting Hawthorne’s name loudly as he ran. Once on deck, he tore Hawthorne away from the side, as he was still wiping his mouth.
    â€˜Do that later,’ he shouted. ‘The girl’s alive. Barely, but she’s breathing. Bert, get the river ambulance here. Now, for God’s sake!’

6
    28 January
    Ben Schroeder was one of the two newest members of the Chambers of Bernard Wesley QC. The set occupied two floors of 2 Wessex Buildings, under the shadow of the magnificent arch at the bottom of Middle Temple Lane which leads the visitor out of the extraordinary quiet of the Temple into the incessant growl of the traffic on Victoria Embankment. The barrister’s rooms in Chambers looked out over Middle Temple Gardens and provided a peaceful haven in which to work, one which the noise of the traffic failed to disturb. The names of the members of Chambers, in order of seniority, were hand-painted in black by the Temple signwriter on the white panels at the side of the doorway at street