‘Yes,’ confirmed Jordan.
‘What time?’
‘I don’t…’ stumbled Jordan. ‘In the morning. We had lunch on the boat, after looking at the jail.’
‘How did you manage that?’
‘Manage it?’ questioned Jordan, confused.
‘When did you rent the catamaran?’
‘The first afternoon. After lunch I went into the town, found some yacht charterers and booked the catamaran and had it provisioned for the trip.’
‘So you set up a pretty big expedition?’
‘I chartered a yacht for a one-day cruise. To take Alyce somewhere I thought she’d be interested in seeing.’
‘You went out on the catamaran, you saw the jail where the man in the iron mask was held? Then what?’
‘We swam.’
‘Naked?’ Beckwith asked.
‘In costumes. The catamaran had a crew.’
‘And a cabin?’
‘Of course it had a cabin.’
‘Did you change together?’
‘Separately.’
‘Who changed first?’
Jordan had to think again. ‘I did.’
‘What sort of costume did you wear?’
‘What?’ queried Jordan, not understanding.
‘Trunks? Boxers? What?’
‘Boxer shorts.’
‘What about Alyce?’
‘A bikini.’
‘A brief bikini? Or a two piece?’
‘A brief bikini.’
‘How brief?’
‘Very brief,’ said Jordan, remembering his delay in getting back on to the catamaran.
‘So she was coming on to you?’
‘I guess you could say that.’
‘Harv, we’re not guessing here! We’re trying to keep your ass as far away from the burner as we can. You’re being accused of stealing Al Appleton’s wife literally from under him, causing him physical and mental damage and making his business – and income – suffer from what you did. There have been jury awards well over the $1 million mark on just one such criminal conversation claim and you’re looking at a damned sight more than just one. And the courts – and the judges – have the power to add on punitive damages, too. You understand what I’m telling you? How much it could cost you?’
‘I understand.’ Jordan didn’t welcome being treated like an idiot any more than he liked consistently being called Harv. But it certainly seemed that he needed training. And much more help than he’d imagined up to now.
‘Go on,’ ordered Beckwith.
‘We got back to the harbour around six. I’d taken the hotel car to get there but Alyce said she wanted to walk back: it’s not far. I asked if she wanted dinner but she said she wasn’t hungry after the lunch we’d had on the boat, that she was tired and wanted to go straight to bed.’
Beckwith came forward across his desk. ‘Go to bed around six in the evening?’
‘Yes.’
‘What did you do? Say?’
‘I didn’t finish telling you what she said. She said she wanted to go to bed but not alone.’
Daniel Beckwith began to smile. ‘Tell me the actual words.’
‘“I want to go to bed. But not alone”,’ quoted Jordan. Why, he wondered, was he feeling uncomfortable, embarrassed?
The smile widened. ‘Alyce Appleton spoke to you first, in the hotel lounge? Alyce Appleton wore the very briefest of bikinis, to show you what was on offer? And Alyce Appleton told you that she didn’t want go to bed alone?’
‘It didn’t…’ started Jordan but stopped. Then he said, ‘Yes. That’s how it was.’
‘She chased you,’ insisted Beckwith. ‘You didn’t chase her: seduce her.’
‘We both knew what was happening.’
‘Harv! For fuck’s sake when are you going to start listening to me! What you’ve just told me, was that how it was? How it happened that you came to be in bed with Alyce Appleton?’
‘Yes.’
‘She made it easy for you? Invited you?’
‘If you-’
‘Harv!’ halted the lawyer, warningly.
‘Yes.’
‘We’re getting there, Harv. At the moment you’re not making it easy for either of us but we’re getting there.’
‘I’m not trying to make it difficult, for either of us! Me most of all. I didn’t understand the direction you were coming from.’ Why hadn’t he? Jordan demanded of himself. It surely wasn’t that obscure?
‘Trying to stop you getting skinned alive is the direction I’m coming from, Harv.’
‘Lesley said she thought I might have been set up, by Alyce and her husband together,’ said Jordan. ‘You think I could have been?’ Jordan felt humiliated even by asking the question.
‘It’s a way I might be tempted to go. Depends on the papers when I get to see them. Even as it is, you’ve got the beginnings of a defence if we can get the court to accept what you’re telling me.’
‘It was a holiday affair, for Christ’s sake!’
‘This is a divorce, with more damages accusations than I’ve ever encountered before,’ said Beckwith. ‘Two very different things that so far you haven’t got your head around.’
Jordan was suddenly swept away by a disorienting tiredness, for the briefest of moments his actual awareness ebbing and flowing. ‘Is there any more coffee in that pot?’
‘You OK?’ enquired Beckwith, pouring the dregs.
‘I’m fine,’ exaggerated Jordan. ‘We haven’t talked about the actual hearing. Will the court be closed or open?’
‘Depends upon a request from the plaintiff or defendant. There needs to be an application for a closed court from one or the other.’
‘I’m a defendant, aren’t I? Can’t I make the application?’
‘ Primary defendant,’ qualified Beckwith. ‘Which you’re not. And I don’t see it coming from Appleton.’
‘So we’re dependent upon Alyce for the hearing to be private?’
‘If she wants it to be. How serious is your problem with an open court, public hearing?’
‘As serious as it damned well can be! I don’t want to be publicly identified as a wife stealer. Because I’m not.’ The coffee was cold and too bitter and Jordan put it aside.
‘I may get some indication from pre-trial hearings.’
‘What about those pre-trial hearings?’ seized Jordan. ‘Surely we can argue for my dismissal from the proceedings, before it even gets to court?’
‘I’m going to file for dismissal, of course. But I’m not going to hold out hopes that I don’t have.’
‘This is a fucking travesty,’ exploded Jordan, despite all the warnings against losing his temper.
‘Travesty is a word invented for the law,’ said Beckwith. ‘My job is ensuring you’re not a victim of it.’
More my job that yours, thought Jordan.
