seeing the state Victoria was in on the Friday, I decided to give Pryde a piece of my mind. I wasn't prepared to sit back and see Victoria's life ruined, whatever I had promised. I telephoned Edward Pryde and asked him to meet me at nine-thirty on the Saturday at the pub. As far as I was concerned, the affair was over, although I can't deny that I wished it wasn't. I'd never liked Edward and considering the kind of things he had done to his wife, I reckoned I'd have great difficulty in keeping my temper with him. But I thought it was worth a try to reason with him for Victoria's sake.
'I arrived a little late, say at a quarter to ten, and he was already in the corner of the saloon bar. For the first half an hour or so he was fairly sociable and talked about the horses in the yard and Victoria's success in the Gold Cup. I suspected he was playing the fool with me and as I returned from a visit to the loo I determined to stop beating about the bush. But before I could get a word in, and in front of a number of people in the pub, he started abusing me and telling me he knew all about my affair with his wife. I tried to calm him down, but with little success, and I'm afraid I gradually lost my temper with him. I felt he had set out to provoke me and I duly rose to the bait. A couple of times I got up to leave but on both occasions he grabbed hold of my sleeve and pulled me back. He said that if I didn't hear him out he would give Victoria a thrashing she would never forget.
'That was the last straw as far as I was concerned, and I told him that if he ever laid hands on her again, I'd make him pay for it. I was pretty well worked up by now and I'm not surprised I was overheard in the bar. When the landlord called for last orders, Edward asked for one more drink and I went and bought it for him, just to have a minute's break from his tirade. He took his time drinking it and by the time we reached the car park, we were the last to leave. I remember getting into my car, but after that, nothing, until I woke up still in the car park at six o'clock in the morning. I was lying across the passenger seat and had the most ghastly headache. I must have passed out, although I could only have had about three pints to drink. It must have been the combined effect of the alcohol and some pills I had taken to get rid of a bad headache earlier in the evening. That's all I can remember.'
'Can you explain how your footprints were found at Melksham pit?'
'I cannot. I have only been to the chalk pit once and that was last summer, with Victoria Pryde, as she told you when she gave her evidence. I can only assume that the footprints which were found date from that occasion, or that they belong to someone else who takes the same size shoes as me; I doubt if a size 9 is that uncommon.'
'Did you kill Edward Pryde?'
Tom turned to face the judge and then swivelled to the jury again. 'No, I did not. I have never so much as touched a hair on his head and that is the truth.'
The impassive faces of the jury gave no hint of whether they believed him.
Snipe sensed that this was a critical moment in the case and with his impeccable sense of timing suggested that the court should rise until the following morning when cross-examination would begin.
I took a taxi from the Old Bailey to Amy's offices in Lincoln's Inn. Feeling depressed and frightened, I couldn't pretend my own evidence had gone well. I had been caught out by the production of those letters and I knew that nobody had believed me when I'd said a crucial page was missing. I couldn't understand where or how the prosecution could have found them. Perhaps when the police searched the cottage they had come across them in one of Edward's hiding places. It didn't really matter now, as the damage had been done. Tom had been a really good witness, I felt, only it was impossible not to feel that the burden of proof had been reversed. It had fallen upon him to prove his innocence, not on the prosecution to establish his guilt beyond all reasonable doubt. They had presented the jury with motive and opportunity. Get out of that one, Radcliffe, I could hear them now saying. I only hoped Amy would have some news on Corcoran to cheer me up. Too busy to come to court, she had promised to liaise with Tom's solicitor during the afternoon to find out whether the former stable lad had made contact and signed his statement.
I was shown into her room as she was putting down the phone.
'How did it go?' she asked eagerly. I told her about the letters and my fears that I had, if anything, damaged Tom's case.
'You mustn't blame yourself,' she said, trying her best to reassure me. 'Remember, you were called as a witness for the prosecution, albeit a reluctant one, so all you could do was tell the truth about your relationship with Tom. Judges and lawyers have a way of making everything sound sordid and improper. Anyone would think they never had a dirty thought. I can tell you a few who I reckon never have a clean one!'
I managed a feeble laugh. 'Any news on Corcoran?'
'That's just what I was on the phone about when you came in. Good news at last, there. He's in London, staying at a hotel, somewhere behind Victoria station. Booked in this morning and signed the statement which Tom's solicitors sent round early this afternoon. Apparently he thinks he's being followed and they've arranged a taxi to pick him up there in the morning and take him to court. Does that make you feel better?'
'Considerably!'
'Good. Now they've got the statement, they've given notice to the other side of their intention to call him, as he counts as an alibi witness. You're meant to give them due notice, so they can investigate it and if necessary call evidence to rebut it. You can rest assured old Snipe will get shirty and lay into Tom's lawyers about their disregard for the proper procedure and so on.'
It was obvious that the next day I was going to need all my strength just being a spectator at the hearing and I willingly accepted Amy's invitation to spend another night at her flat. I went to bed early only to dream of Snipe donning a black cap and smiling as he sent Tom to the gallows. The final touch of the macabre was that Edward was standing beside him dressed up as a priest.
I arrived at Court No 1 at ten-fifteen and paced up and down outside. I was too nervous to sit still, despite my crutches. I could see Tom's counsel in anxious discussion with two men I thought must be his solicitors. One of them, a middle-aged man wearing a striped shirt with a white collar, kept on looking at his watch and shaking his head. They were clearly worried about something and the absence of any sign of Corcoran made me guess what. I couldn't believe that, having made the effort to come over here and sign his statement, he wouldn't now appear. Amy arrived as I was about to hobble over and ask if something was wrong. I pointed out to her the group and she marched over and had a word with the man in the striped shirt. After a brief discussion she returned.
'It's very worrying, I'm afraid. There was no sign of Corcoran when the taxi went to pick him up this morning at nine o'clock. An assistant from Tom's lawyers had gone along to check all was well, but according to the manager of the hotel, his bed hadn't been slept in all night. All that was in his room was a suitcase with a shirt and some underwear. It seems he went out yesterday at some time in the afternoon and hasn't returned. It's only a small hotel with people coming and going the whole time – I suspect during the day as well as the night – so of course nobody remembers precisely when he went out.'
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Not Corcoran as well. 'You don't think, Amy, that…'
'I know what you 're thinking. I suppose it's possible. Brennan?'
'It would make sense. How could we have been so stupid as to have left Corcoran on his own there?'
'Hold on! It's not our fault. Tom's solicitors wouldn't even tell me where he was staying until today. We're lucky to have been kept as informed as we have been. Some solicitors would have told us to push off in no uncertain terms. Come on, we'd better go into court, they start at ten-thirty. We'll just have to pray he shows up by the time Tom's cross-examination finishes.'
At least Tom had no idea of the drama being played out in the corridor beyond the courtroom doors. He appeared relaxed and collected as Scott rose to cross-examine him.
The counsel spent the first hour sparring with Tom, who kept his head and answered politely yet firmly as Scott explored his background and life style. The niceties over, he went on the attack.
'Mr Radcliffe, are you in the habit of going to bed with other men's wives?'
Poor Tom rose to the bait: 'I resent that question. I most certainly am not.'
'But you obviously regard another man's wife as fair game?'
'No, I don't. I tried not to fall in love with Victoria for that very reason.'
'Yet you knew when you met her that she was married?'
'Of course.'
'And in fact her husband had been one of the very first owners to have a horse in your yard?'
'That's right, but that was four years before our relationship began.'
Scott didn't seem to take any notice of the answers, leaping into his next question. 'In fact, without the support of the deceased, your career as a trainer might never have got under way?'
