Only Adey, Hussain and Anderson remained in the courtroom, staring at each other.
Adey broke the silence: ‘Well, that went well.’
They all laughed.
Anderson grinned at Hussain. ‘We’ve come a long way, you and I.’
‘We have indeed.’
‘Words are not enough, Tahir. You believed in me when no one else would.’
‘Stop it, you’re embarrassing me,’ he joked. Then more seriously: ‘And anyway, I did it for my boy, for Shahid.’ With a tear in his eye: ‘Something good in this world of shit.’
Anderson smiled at his friend.
Composing himself, Hussain went on: ‘John, I’ve been meaning to ask, have you ever thought about joining a solicitors’ firm? Try your hand at defending for a while? You’re good at it. Forget silk. How do you like the sound of Hussain & Anderson − has a certain ring to it?’
Anderson laughed off the offer. ‘Too old to learn new tricks, I’m afraid. Think it will always be the independent Bar for me.’ He turned his attention to Adey and held out his hand. Didn’t seem enough somehow.
Connor came bursting into the courtroom, without a hint of embarrassment at his earlier cowardice. ‘Come on, John, everyone’s waiting. Got a table at The Delaunay. And by the way, just spoken to a few of the main players in chambers – they want you as head.’
Everything was happening so fast. Like he’d never been away. ‘Give me a couple of minutes, Sam.’ Anderson turned back to his lawyers. ‘You’ll both come, won’t you?’
Hussain started the excuses: ‘Not really my scene. Got a load of work to catch up on now this is over.’
‘Me too,’ said Adey. ‘There’s a train from Euston we can catch in half an hour. You go, John, your old life is waiting for you.’
Anderson hesitated for a moment. The prison officers came back into the courtroom before anything else could be said. ‘Come with us please, sir?’
A last glance at his friends. Friends? No. What was he thinking? They were just his lawyers. Anderson, more than anyone, should have known that.
He chuckled at his brief descent into sentimentality.