‘ Are you going to accept?’ she said.
‘I haven’t decided,’ ducked Blair. Invoking the convenient excuse he said, ‘I’m not even going to think about it until after the court case.’ He paused and said, ‘What do you think I should do, Ruth?’
‘I can only talk as far as the boys are concerned,’ she said. ‘And about them I think you should do whatever makes it possible for you to keep your promise. I sincerely believe that if we stand any chance of getting Paul back in line and preventing John going the same way then the most important thing is not letting them think – suspect even – that you’re not going to come through, like you’ve said. But that’s where my responsibility ends now, Eddie. Ann’s the person with whom you’ve got to talk the rest through. And then you’re the person who’s got to make the final decision.’
‘Yes,’ said Blair miserably. ‘I know.’
The instruction that he should personally address the Politburo came from Panov and Sokol realised at once how the KGB chairman was manoeuvring himself cleverly away from any position of direct responsibility. Sokol’s immediate reaction was apprehension but he quickly rationalised the attitude. He hadn’t caused the food shortages in the first place; they – and their policies – had. All he’d had to do was to try to clear up and contain the mess. So it would be quite wrong to appear apologetic, which was clearly Panov’s response. Sokol prepared carefully, personally visiting every affected area to see the situation for himself – well knowing that the Politburo would get separate, independent reports anyway – and satisfying himself that in every region but the Ukraine itself the famine was controlled if not solved. He prepared his address with equal care, writing and rewriting and actually rehearsing it, in the privacy of his own apartment. His demeanour in front of the Soviet rulers was respectful but forceful, the inference always there that he was attempting to correct the mistakes of others. His treatment of the various leadership attempts at revolt had effectively splintered any organised situation in any province and providing the transportation was maintained at its present level – and the foreign imports continued to arrive – he believed any further difficulties could be avoided. It was an impressive evaluation and Sokol knew it, as he spoke. And the Politburo accepted it as such. At the end Chebrakin thanked him for the depth of detail and said, ‘You are to be congratulated, Comrade Sokol.’
Sokol was happy at the thought that the KGB chairman would have his informants and hear what had been said. Sokol knew he had gained more than he had lost by the confrontation.
Chapter Eighteen
The surroundings of the Family Court were not the sort that Blair expected and he regretted it. He guessed the design was based upon long experience and that it worked but he would have preferred more formality and the presiding judge to have been a man, not a woman, because he thought it would have had a stronger effect upon the boys. Frightened them. Because Blair felt they needed frightening, Paul and the others who stood bowed-headed before the bench, their hair cut and their pants pressed and their shoes shining, muttering that they understood what was happening. If they understood it now – which they undoubtedly did – then they understood it when they’d ripped off stores and mugged an old guy and planned to rob a pharmacy. Despite the new accord with Paul and the hopeful new relationship and all the promises and hopes Blair was still realistic enough to accept that his kid knowingly set out to become a criminal and a drug dealer. They’d employed counsel to represent them because it was the system, but Blair knew there wasn’t anything the lawyer could really do. Paul should be taught a lesson – frightened – against ever doing anything like it again, irrespective of new relationships or new anythings that had been privately reached between them.
The parents sat behind where the children and the counsel were, all pressed and barbered and polished too, tightly enclosed in angry embarrassment at what they were hearing about their offspring. The evidence was not lengthy and the lawyers’ questions were nothing more than a formality, men trying to appear to earn their fees. The pharmacist and an assistant spoke of the suspicious behaviour of a group of young boys – Paul emerging at once as the leader – and of an apparent attempt by one section to distract by a feigned bid to steal in the main part of the shop while two others – Paul one of them again – tried to get into the restricted area, where the dangerous and controlled drugs were. The pharmacist had already called the police and gave evidence of one of the boys – thank God not Paul this time but David Hoover – pulling a knife which he dropped in his nervousness. The patrolman spoke of being despatched to a robbery by a person or persons unknown, of entering prepared to shoot and of the children’s immediate surrender when they realised who he was. Counsel tried to make something of the surrender but Blair wasn’t impressed and he didn’t think the court was. It was from the patrolman that the evidence came of the previous, undetected shoplifting, which the kids admitted in statements at the station house. Every child, in separate interviews, confessed the purpose was to buy drugs, their taking of which was confirmed by later medical examination. The two drug counsellors, Kemp and Erickson, were the two witnesses upon whom the lawyers concentrated most, seeking something in mitigation or excuse but Blair didn’t think much of that, either. He was impressed, however, by the main body of their evidence – not the questioning – and felt privately embarrassed at his impression of them at their first interview. Both talked of the boys individually, attesting unasked their previous good character and apparently genuine remorse now.
‘So what have you got to say for yourselves?’ The demand from the woman was sharp, unexpected, and Blair started like the kids in front. Her name was Bateson, he remembered, from the formalities at the commencement of the hearing. She was grey-haired and rosy-cheeked and motherly and Blair definitely regretted it hadn’t been a man.
‘And I don’t want any “sorrys” or “don’t knows” or “nothings”,’ she went on. ‘I want to know why you did what you did. And why I shouldn’t send you all away for a long custodial period to protect shopkeepers and old people on the streets.’
Maybe he’d been wrong, thought Blair. Again. Maybe it was as effective as having a male judge after all. She appeared very aware of her authority and there was a humiliation – why not, they deserved it – at being hectored by a woman.
One of the boys, Cohn, Blair thought, tried to mumble something but she cut the boy short, demanding that he speak up. When he did it was to say he was sorry and she said, ‘Of course you are. You’re sorry that you got caught and you’re in court here today. But you wouldn’t be sorry if you hadn’t been caught, would you? All you’d be worrying about was getting more drugs, to sell and to use… She hesitated, jabbing a finger out. ‘You!’ she said. ‘You talk to me.’
Paul, Blair saw.
Paul was standing shame-faced, like them all. He shifted under the demand, his shoulders humping and Blair thought, Come on! Come on for God’s sake boy!
‘Well!’ she persisted.
‘Made a mistake,’ started Paul, trying. ‘A stupid mistake. I know that now. And I am sorry and not for being here today… not just for being here today. I’m sorry for what I stole and I’m sorry I tried to rob the pharmacy.’
‘What about the marijuana and the cocaine?’ said the judge relentlessly. ‘How sorry are you about that?’
‘Very,’ said Paul.
‘Why?’
She was very good, conceded Blair.
‘Because it’s wrong. Dangerous,’ he said.
‘You knew that when you were doing it.’
‘Everyone was doing it,’ said Paul. ‘I knew it was wrong but it didn’t seem to hurt anybody, not really hurt them. I thought the stories about it being dangerous were exaggerated.’
‘Do you still think that?’
‘Don’t know,’ said Paul.
Blair wished the boy hadn’t fallen back upon the cliche at the end but the rest hadn’t been bad.
Judge Bateson kept on at the other boys, forcing reaction from them all and Blair decided that even though it didn’t have the appearance of the adult court they weren’t getting off as lightly as he imagined they might. And they hadn’t been sentenced yet. As he thought it, she reached it.
‘You’ve been taking drugs,’ she said. ‘You’ve been stealing and mugging to buy those drugs and you planned a robbery to set yourselves up as dealers. Is that right…?’
