'That was cash, too.'
'Were you travelling with anyone who could verify your account?' 'No.'
'There must be someone who could substantiate your story?'
'You could try my ex-wife,' Donovan said, hoping to raise a smile from the jury.
Jenny tried again to shake his account by suggesting that he may have been tempted to come forward with the intention of gaining credit with the police at a time when he was facing charges, but he denied everything. His statement had been the spontaneous gesture of a concerned citizen, he insisted. That's all there was to it.
Havilland decided not to dignify Jenny's insinuations with any further inquiry, and Martha Denton again followed suit. Khan reprised his attack of the week before, implying that Donovan couldn't tell one Asian face from another, but the jury seemed visibly irritated by Khan's barracking tone: the more he railed, the harder their expressions became. Jenny was slowly learning about British juries: it didn't matter if their skins were black, white, brown or any combination, they had an instinctive dislike of sentiment. It was a paradox but, in a culture obsessed with the public parading of every shade of self-indulgent emotion, inside a courtroom the instinct to reject all overt displays of passion still held firm.
When Khan had finally run out of breath, Collins rose to ask a question of his own.
Quietly, and nervously twiddling a pen between his fingers, he said, 'Are you asking us to believe, Mr Donovan, that it never occurred to you that identifying two potential terrorists - which is what you said you thought they were - might help you in your own case? I can't imagine what sort of solicitor was advising you if it didn't.'
Donovan hesitated a fraction too long to appear completely honest. 'I can't say I had that thought before I gave the statement, no. My solicitor might have said something afterwards.'
'Yes, I'm sure he or she did,' Collins said, then, as if to himself, added, 'I certainly would have done. Yes, indeed.' He looked down at the floor for a moment, his mouth twitching as if he was suffering from an unfortunate nervous tic, then looked up again with an unexpected flash of fire. 'And even though you face no charges, even though this hearing is in secret and your words will never be broadcast, you're still not man enough to admit that your statement was extracted from you in return for favours. It was a lie, wasn't it, Mr Donovan?'
The mouse had roared. The jury sat up and paid attention. They watched Donovan closely as he tried to effect a dismissive smile, all the while his thick, fat neck growing a more livid shade of purple.
'No,' Donovan said tightly. 'I saw them. Two Asian lads. It was them. I'm sure it was.'
As he left the witness box and headed gratefully for the exit at the back of the hall, Jenny reminded herself that her job was not simply to pursue the agenda McAvoy had set for her. It was possible that Donovan was largely telling the truth. Perhaps he did see two young men Asian men on the train; they might conceivably have been Nazim and Rafi. She had to keep an open mind.
She took a deep breath. 'Stay calm,' she told herself. 'People are relying on you for the truth. Stay calm for them.'
Dr Sarah Levin managed to look both businesslike and effortlessly glamorous. She declined a religious oath and chose instead to affirm. Jenny imagined McAvoy mocking her. 'Let's see how much of an atheist you are when eternity calls,' he would have said. 'Would you rather have your long-neglected priest or your hairdresser at your bedside?'
'Dr Levin,' Jenny said, pushing the unkind thought from her mind, 'you were a physics student in the same year as Nazim Jamal, weren't you?'
'Yes, I was.'
'You went to lectures and tutorials together?'
'We did.'
'You had a room in Goldney, a different student hall of residence.'
'That's right.'
'And approximately twelve days after he disappeared you gave a statement to the police.'
'Yes.'
'Do you remember what you said?'
'I said that I had overheard him talking to some Asian friends in the canteen about 'brothers' who had gone to fight in Afghanistan. Their conversation was about jihadis fighting the British and Americans. Nazim seemed impressed with the idea. Whether he was just showing off or not, I couldn't say.' She shrugged. 'They were very young.'
'When was this incident?'
'Sometime in the summer term, May probably.'
'Did he ever mention to you that he was thinking of going to Afghanistan?'
'No. Never.'
Jenny paused briefly, telling herself to rein in, take her time, tease out the truth.
'Dr Levin, your statement to the police was dated 22 July. That was three weeks after Nazim Jamal and Rafi Hassan's disappearance. What was happening during that period?'
'It was after the end of term. I'd stayed on for a while. Everything had been frantic, but as they quietened down I think I must have remembered overhearing that conversation.'
'Detectives had been speaking to students, had they?'
'There had been a few around, yes. None of them spoke to me directly.'
'I see. And having recalled this conversation, what was in your mind?'
'I suppose I thought telling the police was the responsible thing to do.'
'Did you go to them or did they come to you?'
'There was a notice up in the physics department. I called the number.'
'Of course, by that time Mr Donovan had given his statement to the police and it had been reported in the local press.'
'I was aware of that. It was probably what prompted me.'
Jenny looked hard at Sarah Levin. Her manner was modest, that of a witness trying to do her best, but there was a fragility about her, a tendency to address her answers in the direction of Havilland and Denton rather than the jury, as if she felt the gravitational pull of the authority they represented. Yet she didn't know who they were. She'd hadn't been at court the week before and she had been behind closed doors in the committee room when the introductions were made at the start of the session.
Jenny said, 'How well did you know Nazim Jamal, Dr Levin?'
She thought for a moment before answering. 'Not very.'
'What about in your first term at university. Were you closer to him then?'
Sarah Levin paused, a sadness stole across her face and she lowered her voice slightly. 'I know what you're going to say.'
'You had a relationship with him, didn't you?'
Sarah Levin glanced at Mr Jamal. His expression was set and unreadable.
'Nazim and I had a very brief 'relationship', if you can call it that ... It was our first term, first time away from home . . .'
Jenny glanced at the lawyers. She noticed Khan looking a little bemused by the confession.
'How long did this last?'
'A week or two ... It wasn't anything serious. You know what it's like when you're a student.'
'I do. But wasn't Nazim going through a religiously orthodox phase at the time? He was wearing traditional clothing and growing a beard, wasn't he?'
Uncomfortable, Sarah Levin said, 'I really didn't want to cause any offence to his family, that's why I never mentioned it . . . We were both eighteen. You're not really sure what you believe at that age. You're still searching for your identity.'
'The point I'm making is that he didn't have any scruples about sleeping with you.'
'He didn't seem to have, no.'
'Did he talk to you about his religious beliefs?'
'Only to say that no one should find out. Not his family or his Asian friends ... It was all very illicit. Exciting, I suppose.'
