‘ There were rumours,’ admitted Seymour. ‘We simply couldn’t have anything like that associated with this firm.’
‘ Of course not,’ said Steven, waiting for Seymour to continue. When he didn’t, he said bluntly, ‘Rumours however, wouldn’t be enough to get a man like Verdi to fall on his sword and opt out of a full partnership in a firm like this, would they?’
‘ I don’t think I understand what you’re getting at,’ said Seymour.
‘ You would have needed more than rumours to confront Verdi with,’ said Steven. ‘You must have had absolute positive proof of something he’d done and I’d like to know what it was.’
‘ I really don’t know what you’re talking about,’ said Seymour, putting up mental shutters and looking at his watch.
‘ I think you do, Mr Seymour. You and your partner must have had something big on Verdi, something clearly criminal but instead of calling in the police — as you should have done — you gave him the chance of resigning in return for your silence. That way he could keep his freedom and you could get rid of a rotten apple and keep your all-important reputation. Justice would be the only thing to suffer but hey, you can’t have everything.’
‘ How dare you!’ exclaimed Seymour.
‘ Oh, I do dare, Mr Seymour,’ replied Steven calmly. ‘Now are you going to tell me what it was that Verdi was involved in?’
‘ I have nothing more to say to you,’ said Seymour.
‘ You will not be prosecuted: you have my word…’
Seymour appeared to waver for a moment but then shook his head.
‘ Verdi conducted the defence of David Little in the Julie Summers case,’ said Steven, suddenly changing tack. ‘Why?’
Seymour looked surprised. ‘It was a favour,’ he said. ‘Little’s wife worked for him: Charlotte was his secretary.’
It was Steven’s turn to be taken aback. ‘His secretary,’ he repeated.
‘ Yes, a nice woman, she’d been living in America: the whole family had. We all felt so sorry for her and the children when her husband was charged. Paul did the decent thing and offered to defend him.’
‘ But not with any great vigour,’ said Steven.
‘ He was clearly guilty,’ countered Seymour.
Steven nodded thoughtfully before changing tack again in an effort to unsettle Seymour. ‘Verdi was also involved in defending three high-profile criminals who got off through elementary errors he exposed in the forensic evidence. Did these cases have anything to do with his subsequent downfall?’ he asked.
‘ I have nothing to say,’ said Seymour.
Steven could sense that Seymour wasn’t going to budge. ‘Very well,’ he said. ‘You are obviously determined not to tell me. My previous offer of immunity from prosecution is withdrawn. When I find out what Verdi was up to and if it seems appropriate, I’ll throw the book at you and your firm.’
Seymour swallowed but didn’t respond.
As Steven left, he passed an elderly lady waiting in the outer office: she was wearing a fur coat. He couldn’t help but think of a sheep who’d come to be fleeced. Outside on the street, he was about to hail a taxi when he thought better of it. Recollections of his earlier cab ride and his recent experience of dealing with the legal profession decreed that he sample fresh air and avoid contact with humanity for a bit.
It had stopped raining so he started walking uphill towards Princes Street. Edinburgh Castle stood high on its rock, wreathed in low cloud. The citizens scurrying below would come and go but it would go on oblivious. Discovering that David Little’s wife had worked for Paul Verdi had come as a bit of a shock to Steven and was still making him feel uneasy although he couldn’t think why. He supposed that there was no reason why staff in legal offices shouldn’t get perks just like any other people in commerce. They would probably get cheap conveyancing when they bought houses just as bank staff got cheap mortgages and airline staff cheap travel. So what disturbed him so much about Verdi having taken on David Little’s defence for that reason? he wondered.
The fact that Verdi was a crook was the obvious answer. Seymour had more or less confirmed what McClintock had suspected, albeit without giving away any of the details. He felt sure that Verdi had been ousted from the partnership. The state of play was now that the evidence against Little had come from a lab run by a drunk whom no one trusted and his defence had been conducted by a crook who’d been ousted from the profession. But the evidence was sound and there was little or nothing the defence could have done against that, he reminded himself. So why did he still feel uneasy?
The cold and damp was getting to his bones; he needed coffee and warmth. He had been walking on the south side of Princes Street, looking down at the well-kept gardens which sat in the shadow of the castle and where once there had been water but which had become so polluted with the detritus and sewage of the residents of the old town that it had had to be drained. A respectable front on a murky past, he thought with a wry smile as he turned away to cross over to where the shops were.
‘ Any spare change, mister?’ asked a boy huddled in the doorway of one of them. He couldn’t have been much more than eighteen years old and looked cold and miserable, wrapped up in a blanket as he was and with cold sores all along his bottom lip. Steven gave him a pound and a smile born more of embarrassment than warmth.
‘ He’ll only spend it on drink,’ rasped a passer by.
Steven almost retorted, ‘Shut up, you sanctimonious bastard,’ but he didn’t. He ignored the comment, got his coffee and sat down to look out at the rain, which had just started again. It was rare for him to feel so bad about humanity at this time of the morning — it usually took him till well after eight in the evening.
He recognised that if he were to continue trying to find out the reason for Verdi’s professional demise, it would mean tackling the man himself and he didn’t feel optimistic about the outcome of that. Why should Verdi tell him anything? He’d counted on Seymour’s weakness being his fear of losing his reputation but he’d managed to hold out. Verdi by all accounts had none to lose. Still, he reasoned, if you didn’t put the ferret down the hole you didn’t find out if the rabbit was there. He finished his coffee and called McClintock.
‘ Where do I find Paul Verdi?’
‘ Shit, you can’t be serious,’ said McClintock.
‘ Needs must,’ replied Steven. ‘You were right about his legal partners getting rid of him but I couldn’t find out what they had on him exactly.’
‘ And you think Verdi will tell you?’ exclaimed McClintock, as if it were the most ridiculous thing he could imagine. ‘Why should he, for Christ’s sake?’
‘ Maybe I can play one off against the other,’ said Steven. ‘Rattle their cages and see what happens.’
‘ You’ll get your arm bitten off,’ said McClintock.
‘ It’s worth a try,’ said Steven. ‘Just while I’m waiting for the lab result.’
‘ Try playing chicken on the East Coast mainline. It’s probably safer,’ said McClintock. ‘Why are you so interested in Verdi? I thought that bloke Merton had told you what you wanted to know. Why fly off at a tangent?’
‘ I think I’ve just worked that out for myself,’ said Steven. ‘The cases you showed me collapsed because of sloppy forensics,’ said Steven. ‘But I don’t think they were down to screw-ups in the lab.’
‘ Of course they were,’ insisted McClintock. ‘It’s all down there in black and white.’
‘ Oh yes, but I don’t think the screw-ups were actually screw-ups if you get my meaning,’ said Steven.
‘ Not really,’ said McClintock.
‘ I think they were deliberate,’ said Steven.
‘ Jesus Christ,’ breathed McClintock as realisation dawned. ‘You think that someone in the lab deliberately fucked-up so that Verdi could get his clients off?’
‘ In a word, yes.’
‘ Sweet Jesus,’ murmured McClintock, now sounding almost reverential. ‘No one came up with that one before. Are we talking about Ronnie Lee?’
‘ He’s certainly a strong candidate,’ said Steven. ‘Maybe he wasn’t as pissed as people made out. It probably took a great deal of deviousness and cunning to get the faulty evidence past the others in the lab and through to the court stage.’
‘ Where Verdi would be waiting for him with a cut of a big fat cheque that he’d got from his client,’ said
