When Judith arrived home that evening, Greg was seated in her favourite armchair. She set her briefcase by the door, removed her jacket, then bent down and kissed him. He rose and gestured for her to take his place. ‘How’s the trial going?’ he asked, perching himself on the arm of the sofa.
‘It’s going well,’ she said, after some deep breaths. ‘I mean, Dr Leigh, the pathologist, admitted that he’d never even checked what was in Brett’s stomach, which must almost get us home and dry on its own, although Dr Edge was certain Brett ate the sandwiches. And then Leigh couldn’t tell which allergen sparked off this allergic reaction, the one I don’t believe ever happened. He isn’t even a forensic pathologist. God knows why they didn’t insist on one, if they were going to bring a criminal prosecution. Oh, and alcohol is fine on the all-meat diet. Zoe said she had some after Brett died. You remember we talked about it.’
‘It all sounds really positive then, particularly the alcohol part. Why do I sense some doubt?’
‘It’s just that there’s so much else going on, which I don’t know about or understand. I’m wondering if I’m out of my depth on this one.’ Judith sat down and allowed her head to fall back against the cushion.
Greg frowned. ‘That isn’t like you,’ he said. ‘And I’m sure you’re not. Maybe you just need to wind down a little.’ He went to the kitchen and returned with two glasses of red wine. He handed one to Judith. ‘I’ve had some more thoughts myself…about the case,’ he said. ‘Can I share them with you?’
‘That doesn’t sound much like the winding down you just promised.’
‘You can do that after I tell you. I think you’ll be interested.’
‘That’s what I’m worried about,’ Judith said. ‘Oh, why not? I have so many different theories; a few more can’t hurt.’
‘It’s about the crew on the stage – the panellists. They’re a mixed bag, aren’t they? But there’s only one of them, really, who’s a proper heavyweight in the food industry and that’s Mark Sumner. Think about it. You have a TV chef and a man who talks about food on the radio and a blogger and a scientist – all a bit flimsy. But Mark, he’s a farmer. He’s the one with real skin in the game.’
‘I see that.’
‘I’ve been looking around online and I reckon that he and Brett didn’t see eye to eye on a number of things. Nothing specific, but there’s loads of potential for them to clash.’
‘Go on.’
‘Brett is all about quality products, I get that, and so is Mark, on the surface, but Brett was outspoken last year on the ritual slaughter issue – you know kosher, halal.’
‘Brett was against ritual slaughter?’
‘Not exactly, but he might as well have been. To be fair, he was forced into a corner by the animal cruelty brigade. He’d always been massively pro full ingredients on products, information about source, country of origin, all those things. That’s pretty much Heart Foods’ motto, so it was hard for him to row back from when he was pressed to answer questions in a Sunday Times interview on whether he would include details of method of killing.’
‘And Mark Sumner is against it?’
‘Ritually slaughtered cows are not stunned before they’re killed. If you label beef as not having been pre-stunned, which is what the pro-animal lobby want, because they say that’s cruel, then, the argument goes, you have to label all beef; shot, throat cut, electrocuted, gassed. Hardly the best strapline for your product. The beef farmers hate it. It’s enough they’re having to deal with the massive push towards vegetarianism. It’s a big issue for them, and Brett is on the other side of it with powerful friends…or, he was, until April.’
Judith had closed her eyes and she sat very still. She knew what Greg was telling her was fuelling her desire to investigate the other panellists more and would put her in conflict with Constance again.
‘Connie must have been given access to Brett’s diary and phone calls at some stage,’ Greg continued. ‘You two have too much to do. Let’s ask her if I can take a look through. I could check how much interaction he was having with Mark. I bet there was a lot, and not all cordial.’
Judith remained silent.
‘Have I put you to sleep? I mean, I know it’s not riveting but…’
She opened her eyes. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘It’s very good. It’s just… Connie and I wondered what the speakers were doing there in the first place, why they were selected. Connie asked Diana, the PA, and she came up with some flimflam about Brett wanting to keep his ear to the ground. It doesn’t ring true to me. Maybe they weren’t all firm friends. If you say Brett and Mark were in conflict, I wonder about the others. Remember I mentioned that someone set fire to Rosa Barrera’s café in May. And you thought Zoe might have been forced offline.’
‘You think there’s a connection?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t know what I think. We’ve got Diana tomorrow morning, but I’m not sure how much to ask her in court and how much to leave for another private session, if she’ll agree to have one. Either way, she must know more than she is letting on so far. PAs – good PAs – which I suspect she was from Connie’s description, they know everything about their bosses.’
‘It was just a hunch, about the farmer.’
‘No, I want to see what more you have,’ Judith said. ‘I want to see everything. And I’ve had another thought. Did you say you had seen the messages which were sent to Zoe, just before she paused her blog?’
‘Like I said, the website was taken down and even I couldn’t recreate it but, unsurprisingly, she does have a few critics and they’d screenshotted some of the content on Twitter, so I have copies – probably the best bits.’
‘Good. Something else you can help me with, then. I understand there are “tools” out there which can analyse text and find out its likely origin?’
‘You can check if material is plagiarised. You just type it into this programme and it measures the similarities, effectively tells you if it’s been published elsewhere. Is that what you mean?’
‘Nearly. That’s a start. Look, I’m going to change and eat and clear some space in my mind. But all this does mean no rest yet for either of us – perhaps no rest at all this evening.’
***
At 9pm Judith was still at the dining table, her paperwork spread out around her unfinished salad. When her mobile rang, she knew it would be Connie.
‘Hi,’ she said, downbeat, the word sliding from the corner of her mouth.
‘Uh. Is this a bad time?’ Constance asked.
‘Yes, no, maybe. What did you really think of the farmer, Mark? You went to see him, didn’t you?’
Constance didn’t answer straightaway. Maybe it was so long since she’d interviewed him that she didn’t remember him well. ‘He’s…he’s…rough around the edges, I suppose is what I’d say,’ Constance began, ‘you’d probably say something like unrefined. But, if you mean, do I think he’s a murderer? That wasn’t the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw him feeding his cows, no.’
‘Greg has this theory. And it’s not totally outlandish.’
‘OK.’
‘He says that the British beef industry is anxious about changes which would force them to describe how animals have been killed, and that Brett, for various reasons, was firmly in the other camp.’
Constance was quiet again. Judith had predicted that widening the scope of her theories might be unwelcome to Constance.
Eventually, Constance said, ‘I’ve just spent half an hour with Zoe and then more time researching Diana. But, if you want me to tear up everything I found and begin again with Mark, that’s just fine. I have all night.’
Now it was Judith’s turn to keep quiet. She picked at some sunflower seeds from her leftover salad. She was tired. She didn’t want to have to waste valuable time bringing Constance around to her way of thinking, but she did need to keep her onside. Sometimes, an apology was necessary and appreciated, even if it was insincere.
‘I’m sorry,’ Judith said. ‘Tell me what you’ve discovered from Zoe. It will all help, I’m sure.’
And it had the desired effect on this occasion. ‘No, I’m sorry too,’ Constance replied. ‘Look. Since April, I kept trying to get to talk to Zoe and she wouldn’t. Then she texted me, immediately after court today. That’s why I disappeared in a hurry.’
‘She texted you?’
‘Long story. When she arrived at court this morning, she asked me for directions to the courtroom, probably thought I was security, or the cleaner…then, once I introduced myself, she started spouting this stuff about whether she was allowed to talk about things that were not in her statement. I explained I couldn’t speak to her before she gave her evidence.’
‘And she accepted that?’
‘She seemed pretty upset, so I said it would be fine afterwards.’
‘Ah.’
‘I never thought she would follow through, but she wanted to talk. We had a drink – she had tap water, before you ask. She’s a mess, psychologically. She…she thinks she’s seeing Brett’s ghost.’
Judith cackled down the line, ‘You’re just saying that to corroborate your theory.’
‘I’m being serious. Zoe says that immediately after his death Brett appeared to her and told her to keep quiet.’
‘Keep quiet about what?’
‘Not to talk about his death online, that kind of thing, but since then she’s seen him a number of times. She even thought she saw him in the courtroom. She says he’s restless, trying to communicate something.’
Judith suddenly felt even more exhausted. There was so much to do and Connie was wasting time on a girl who saw ghosts. ‘That’s it?’ she said. ‘Well, you’re right about something. She does sound unreliable. If I’d known, I could have used it to discredit her evidence even more.’
But Constance was persistent. ‘She wants to share something with me, from her phone. She’d left it at home, said she couldn’t risk security taking it away on the way in. Although she kept checking for it the whole time we were talking. Talk about addicted. Anyway, she said she thinks that’s what Brett wants her to do. I’m to go over to her flat in the morning, first thing, to see what’s on there.’
Judith realised that Constance was serious about pursuing this lead, that dismissing it was probably not the right way forward. She would try a different tack to dissuade Constance. ‘Are you sure it’s safe?’ Judith asked. ‘If she’s so…disturbed. Maybe you shouldn’t go inside?’
‘I’ll be fine. She’s harmless.’
‘Really? Did you see that t-shirt she wore?’
‘I wish you wouldn’t be so disparaging about things you don’t understand. My aunt had psychic powers.’
Judith said nothing now. She could sense that Constance was sinking her feet into the ground, that nothing and no one would move her from her point of view.
She decided to change the subject. ‘Did you ask her about her website closing down?’
‘No. I didn’t think it was important.’
Was that really what Constance had thought? Or was it more that Constance was determined to clip Judith’s wings, to keep her focused on a narrow case theory. Anyway, she probably had enough material from Greg for what she required. No point starting an argument now, when they had just made up.
‘OK,’ she said. ‘I agree that it’s definitely worth checking out whatever she has on her phone. Then get back to court as soon as you can afterwards. You know how much I value you being there. Greg is offering to help review anything Brett received on the Mark Sumner stuff. So that shouldn’t distract you. You do have something you could send over for him this evening, don’t you, so he can get started?’
‘Give me a few minutes and I’ll dig out what I have.’
‘OK, thanks.’
As she hung up, Greg appeared with a cup of coffee and she suspected the timing was not accidental.
‘OK, you’re on,’ she said. ‘Connie’s going to send you whatever she has from Brett’s files so you can begin on that, straight after the other query I asked you to research. You’re probably going to need a coffee too then, I expect.’