‘If you wouldn’t mind coming with me, sir,’ Webb said as they left court, ‘we’ve got a quiet corner in the hall over here. We shouldn’t be disturbed.’
Looking towards the corner, Andrew saw a uniformed officer, by his appearance an officer of high rank, and another man whom he recognised as John Caswell, a senior lawyer in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, with whom he had often had dealings.
‘Mr Pilkington,’ Webb said, ‘this is Assistant Commissioner Lawton.’
‘Brian Lawton,’ the officer said, extending his hand.
‘Commissioner,’ Andrew replied, taking his hand. ‘John, how are you?’
‘Well, Andrew, thank you,’ Caswell replied.
‘What can I do for you?’ Andrew asked.
‘It’s a sensitive matter, Andrew, and an urgent one. We have a very difficult situation on our hands, on which the Commissioner and I would like your advice.’
‘Of course.’
‘Earlier this morning, the police received a complaint against Mr Justice Rainer.’
‘A complaint against the judge?’ Andrew asked, taken aback. ‘A complaint about what?’
‘Three of the barristers in his former chambers say that Rainer stole cheques from them, forged their signatures to make it appear that they had endorsed the cheques in his favour, and deposited them in his own bank account.’
Andrew was speechless for some time.
‘How much money is involved?’ he asked.
‘A little more than £16,000,’ Caswell replied.
Andrew paused again to allow it all to sink in.
‘When is this supposed to have happened?’
‘Shortly before he was appointed to the bench.’
‘Fortunately,’ Lawton said, ‘the officers who took the complaint realised immediately how sensitive it was, and referred it to my office without delay. Because DI Webb has been involved in this case, I have asked him to take charge of the investigation, and I have instructed him to interview Rainer as soon as possible.
‘I also contacted Mr Caswell to discuss how to proceed. On his advice, I have already obtained a search warrant for Rainer’s address in London. He has a flat at the Barbican. He also has a house, a family home, down in Guildford. I’ve asked the Chief Constable of Surrey, on a confidential basis, to stand by to get a warrant down there if needed.’
‘It’s a bit early in the investigation to apply for a search warrant, isn’t it?’ Andrew asked. ‘Do you know what you’re looking for at this stage?’
‘They have the evidence, Andrew,’ Caswell replied. ‘The head of chambers and the senior clerk brought the paperwork with them. They have all the details, and we’re taking steps to get copies of the cancelled cheques, which should confirm what we know already. The solicitors who issued the cheques will also have records.’
‘But what do you hope to find if you search his flat?’
‘We have reasonable grounds for believing that there may be further evidence to support the allegations,’ Lawton replied, ‘and there’s every reason to believe that we may find evidence of further offences. According to the head of chambers, Rainer has a serious gambling problem, and is very heavily in debt. It appears that he resorted to stealing the cheques to buy himself time to win some of the money back, but it didn’t work. It may be that these three barristers are not his only victims. The senior clerk is checking his records.’
Andrew took off his wig and ran a hand through his hair.
‘This is incredible,’ he said.
‘Did you notice anything strange about the judge during the trial?’ Lawton asked. ‘I mean, was there anything about his behaviour that seemed unusual?’
Andrew nodded.
‘Yes. As a matter of fact I’d been in touch with the Director’s office about it. He handled the trial competently enough, certainly given that it was his first criminal trial. The summing-up was sound – a little too defence-minded for my taste, but nothing I can really complain about. But he was obviously very stressed. He looked as though he hadn’t been sleeping well. His behaviour in court was erratic, and when we called him on it, he admitted that he wasn’t feeling well.’
‘It’s a stressful job,’ Caswell suggested.
‘Yes,’ Andrew agreed. ‘But there were a couple of other things that concerned me.’
‘Go on,’ Caswell encouraged, as Andrew hesitated.
‘One thing was that he seemed to have an obsession with a man called Daniel Cleary. Cleary has a record for violence and blackmail, and it was part of the defence case that he had threatened the defendant to get him to drop his child custody proceedings. So he was a significant figure in the trial, but not to the extent the judge seemed to think. He was continually reminding us all what an evil fellow Cleary was. It was out of all proportion to his actual importance.’
‘We could look into whether there has been any connection between Rainer and Cleary,’ Lawton suggested.
‘Perhaps you should,’ Andrew agreed.
‘What was the second thing?’ Caswell asked.
‘The defence made an application to admit some evidence which, on the face of it, was privileged. Rainer held that it wasn’t privileged and allowed it in. I opposed it, but actually I think he was probably right on the law. That’s not what concerns me. What concerns me is that he knew that the application was going to be made, and what it was about, before the defence mentioned it in court.’
‘Perhaps the defence nobbled him out of court,’ Webb suggested.
‘No,’ Andrew replied firmly. ‘Ben Schroeder and Barratt Davis are straight arrows. There’s no question of that.’
‘So, the judge had input from someone else?’ Lawton asked.
‘I think that’s very likely,’ Andrew replied.
‘That’s not necessarily suspicious, is it?’ Caswell asked. ‘You said it was his first criminal trial. He may well have approached someone to help him behind the scenes. There’s nothing wrong with his taking advice as long as he makes his own decisions.’
‘Except that whoever he approached seemed to know all about what the defence was planning,’ Andrew pointed out.
‘Well,’ Lawton said, ‘we can look into those things, but they don’t seem to have any bearing on the matters we’re investigating now.’
‘There may be a connection to his gambling,’ Andrew suggested. ‘I didn’t know about that before you told me.’
‘Perhaps,’ Lawton agreed. ‘But the question is: what do we do now? From my point of view, the sooner DI Webb interviews him, the better.’
‘Not yet,’ Andrew said.
‘Why not? What’s he doing at the moment, other than sitting in his chambers waiting for the jury’s verdict?’
‘No,’ Andrew insisted. ‘He’s presiding over a murder trial. If DI Webb interviews him before the trial finishes, he may take the view that he has to withdraw from the case. I may even have to ask him to withdraw myself.’
‘It’s looking like a defence verdict,’ Webb grinned. ‘Would we necessarily object to a retrial at this stage?’
‘Yes, we would,’ Andrew replied sharply. ‘We have a duty to ensure fairness. The defendant is always at risk of disadvantage in a retrial. I am advising in the strongest terms that you wait until the jury has returned a verdict and Lang has been sentenced.’
‘In any case,’ he added, after a pause, ‘you can’t conduct a formal interview with a High Court judge in his chambers. You would have to take him to a police station – and do it very discreetly.’
‘I have to agree,’ Caswell said.
‘When will the trial be finished?’ Lawton asked.
‘Some time later today.’
‘And would he be sentenced today?’
‘There’s no reason to delay. If Lang is convicted of murder, it’s life imprisonment, and if he’s convicted of manslaughter the tariff in this kind of case is about four years. That’s not going to change. If he delays at all, it wouldn’t be later than Monday morning.’
‘I don’t like having to wait that long.’
‘In that case I could have officers keeping him under surveillance over the weekend, sir,’ Webb volunteered.
Lawton nodded reluctantly.
‘All right, but I want this dealt with as soon as he’s passed sentence,’ he said.
‘Right you are, sir,’ Webb replied.
‘Just be careful, Inspector,’ Andrew cautioned. ‘You’re dealing with a High Court judge. Don’t go jumping in before you’re sure of your ground.’
‘Amen to that,’ Caswell agreed.
‘All I’m going to do, sir, is show him the paperwork,’ Webb said, ‘and ask him what he has to say about it. Unless I’m missing something, I don’t see that there’s anything he can say. I don’t think he’s going to argue with us. I think he’ll put his hands up.’
‘Just be careful,’ Andrew repeated.