Judith spent a moment running through her notes, focusing on what Diana had said in opening, when she had listed the many tasks she had completed for Brett. She would use that information this time, just not yet. She still had, at the back of her mind, the feeling that Diana had something to hide; that no one could be quite so loyal after five years of knowing all the company secrets, and maybe that had been the catalyst for Diana’s speech of a moment ago. When she was ready, she stood up and found Diana regarding her attentively.
‘Miss Percival,’ she said. ‘I want to take a look at the email you sent to Mr Demetriou, confirming the food choices for the “light lunch” you ordered. I’m using that term very specifically, because it was a term in the booking, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes. We could have ordered “hot lunch” or “sit-down lunch” or “light lunch” as I remember.’
‘And “light lunch” was the least expensive option?’
‘Yes.’
‘Based on what?’
‘Based on the food on offer. It was supposed to be finger food, cold food or small plates – that kind of thing, like a buffet.’
‘Was there a suggested menu?’
‘When I booked, the hall did send me a menu.’
‘How did they provide it to you?’
‘By email. We spoke on the phone and then they emailed me everything.’
‘Did you order from that menu?’
‘Mostly, no.’
‘Why not?’
‘It…it wasn’t very appetising. And we had some unusual tastes to cater for.’
‘Why didn’t you source the food yourself?’
‘To be honest, I nearly did. That’s when I asked to speak to Mr Demetriou and he persuaded me that he could provide whatever Brett wanted. I did suggest a few suppliers to him, though.’
‘So, you could have contacted the food suppliers you knew, but you preferred to let Mr Demetriou do it. Wouldn’t that cost more than doing it yourself?’
‘Probably. But the people at the hall were comfortable working with Mr Demetriou and I didn’t have the time to run around after the food. It would have been an enormous headache on top of everything else I had to do.’
‘I see. Let’s take a look, then, at the email you sent, setting out the food you required. It will come up on the screen to your left. There you are.’
‘I see it.’
‘It is very clear, if I may say so. Bullet point one, you want a tray of beef only. Point two, the salads. Three, mini burgers etc. I have read through the email quite a few times now and I couldn’t see any reference to any allergy of any kind. Have I missed it?’
Diana spent a few minutes deliberately reading through the email, although Judith was certain Andy would have provided it to her before, for her review. Judith resisted the temptation to raise her eyes to heaven as Diana read on and on.
‘I didn’t mention it then,’ she said, finally.
Judith was careful to keep her voice even, although clearly this was a crucial point in Diana’s cross-examination. ‘You sent a second email three days later,’ she said. ‘Let’s take a look at that one. It’s much shorter. Here, you ask for a gluten-free plate for Professor Mills, and Mr Demetriou writes back, referencing the salad that is already on the menu and the meat dishes. Why didn’t you mention Mr Ingram’s allergy then?’
‘I had already told Mr Demetriou about Brett’s allergy. If you see, at the beginning of the email, I reference our phone call. We had spoken in between the two emails and I told him then.’
‘So you informing Mr Demetriou about Brett’s allergy – there is nothing in writing. It’s something you told Mr Demetriou over the phone?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you are certain he heard you correctly and understood you correctly?’
‘Yes, certain.’
Judith looked at Diana. Her face might be a little flushed, but no more than you would expect from someone giving evidence in court. ‘Why do you think Tanners’ Hall sent you the menu by email rather than, say, taking you through it over the phone?’
‘I suppose it was easier.’
‘Any other reason?’
‘So nothing was missed out. I could see everything and it would all be clearly listed.’
‘To avoid any misunderstandings?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you were sent the contract, also, by email for the same reason?’
‘Yes. And I had to sign it and send it back.’
‘And you chose to send Mr Demetriou an email with the food you required – that’s the first email we looked at earlier – again, so it was there in black and white; no misunderstandings. Perhaps you were also thinking, if Mr Demetriou gets it wrong, if he doesn’t supply the burgers on the day, I can point to the email and say he’d agreed to provide them – kind of an insurance policy. Put it in writing.’
‘I think that’s fair, but there’s nothing unusual in that – setting important things down in writing.’
‘I agree with you entirely, and yet you didn’t mention that important thing – perhaps the most important thing – Mr Ingram’s food allergy, in any email, did you?’
‘I didn’t think I needed to, because I’d already told Mr Demetriou.’ Diana’s whipped response impressed with its speed and clarity, but to Judith it smacked of justification after the event. She couldn’t be certain everyone else would view it that way though.
‘How bad was Mr Ingram’s allergy?’ Judith asked.
‘I don’t know what you mean?’
‘Let’s go back a stage, how did you discover that Mr Ingram had a food allergy in the first place?’
‘He told me.’
‘In what circumstances?’
‘I think, the first time I arranged food for him, around five years ago. He said something like “make sure there’s no shellfish; I’m allergic”.’
‘He wasn’t more specific? He didn’t say what kind of shellfish: lobster or mussels maybe?’
‘Just shellfish.’
‘Or tell you what had happened to him previously?’
‘No. It was like I said.’
Now was the time for Judith to remind everyone of Diana’s earlier testimony, to put things into context. ‘From what you said to Mr Chambers,’ she said, ‘you’ve spent a lot of time with Mr Ingram over the last five years. Is that a fair assessment?’
‘Yes.’
‘Taking messages, fielding calls, booking meetings, accompanying him to events, typing up notes, sending letters?’
‘Yes, all of those.’
‘How many hours a week, roughly, do you think you put in?
‘At least forty, sometimes more like fifty.’
‘Fifty hours a week, allowing for some holiday, forty five weeks a year for five years. That’s just over eleven thousand hours.’
‘Yes.’
‘In all that time, those eleven-thousand-plus hours, did you ever hear Mr Ingram ask anyone whether a particular dish contained shellfish?’
Diana hesitated for the first time, which suggested she was thinking long and hard, but Judith was certain she knew the answer immediately. She just didn’t want to say it aloud. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said after a while. ‘But he knew I would check in advance, like I did with Mr Demetriou.’
‘Did you ever see Mr Ingram have an allergic reaction to any food?’
‘No.’
‘Did he ever tell you that he had been unwell, as a result of something he had eaten?’
‘No.’
‘Did he carry an EpiPen? You know what that is?’
‘I know, but I don’t know if he carried one.’
‘Based on what you’ve just told me, that Mr Ingram didn’t ask about ingredients when he was out, never mentioned any issues to you other than that one time five years ago, didn’t carry an EpiPen, I can only conclude that, if he had an allergy, it was a mild one and not life threatening.’
‘Then why is he dead?’
Judith gulped. She had walked right into that one. She should add ‘insightful’ to the list of adjectives Constance had used to describe Diana.
She took a moment, then said: ‘The defence will show, if it hasn’t already done so, that it cannot be proven beyond reasonable doubt that an allergic reaction killed Mr Ingram.’
‘Then what killed him?’ Diana stood very upright in the witness box, again, and her indignation radiated outwards to fill the room.
Judge Linton stepped in. ‘Miss Percival. Can you answer Ms Burton’s questions, please, not ask your own?’
‘I’m sorry. It’s just I don’t understand what she’s saying to me,’ Diana said. ‘The doctor was clear, in the post-mortem, that it was an allergic reaction.’
Diana was proving to be a truly formidable adversary. ‘Miss Percival, I understand your frustration,’ Judith said. ‘It’s my fault entirely for not making my question clear. Let me approach this in a different way. Did you ever get the impression from Mr Ingram that he was worried about his health?’
‘No.’
‘When he told you about his allergy, five years ago, did he say it was a life-threatening condition?’
‘No.’
‘Did he lead you to believe that he was worried that, if he ate the wrong thing, then his life might be in danger?’
‘No.’
‘That, then, is my point. How can we expect other people – strangers like my client – to take more care regarding Mr Ingram’s health than he did himself? That isn’t a question for you to answer. Moving on, I wanted to ask you about Mr Ingram’s diet.’
‘His diet?’
‘Zoe Whitman, one of the panellists, told us just yesterday that she recommended her carnivorous diet to Mr Ingram, but he said he was following a different regime. Do you know anything about that?’
‘Brett liked to try things out. If he bought a new range, he would sample the products.’
‘Like what? Did he do Veganuary, for example?’
Diana smiled briefly. ‘He didn’t, no. He’d been trying out something else.’
‘Do you know what?’
‘Smoothies, I think.’ Diana’s cheeks flushed pink. ‘Kale smoothies. I could look for you. He had it all set out in a diet plan.’
Judith tried not to look too smug, as another avenue of defence opened up before her, courtesy of a past edition of Zoe’s blog. Would Andy cotton on? He was no fool, despite his desire to swap the rigours of a life of advocacy and paperwork for the relative leisure of the small screen, but she doubted he engaged in her level of research.
‘My Lord, perhaps this would be a convenient moment to take a break,’ Judith suggested. ‘And Miss Percival could revert with details of what Mr Ingram had been eating in the weeks leading up to his death?’
Mr Justice Linton took a moment to check the time and fiddle with his laptop before rising to his feet.
‘Twenty minutes then,’ he said, and hurried out.
***
Judith needed some fresh air to help her reflect on the morning’s evidence. She headed out of the building via a back exit, and out to a paved area. She sat down on a bench, checked her phone and found a message to call Greg. She ensured she was not being overheard, then rang him back.
‘It’s me,’ she said. ‘What have you discovered about Brett and Mark Sumner then?’
‘Nothing about Mark yet,’ Greg replied, ‘but quite a bit more about this Ambrosia project, like you asked, and it could be something.’
‘Go on.’
‘As far as I can make out, Brett wanted to co-opt celebrities and influencers to denounce ultra-processed food.’
‘Wait a minute, I need you to unpack that for me.’
‘Ultra-processed food is junk food, food that comes in plastic containers and is full of chemicals. It’s been on the news a lot recently. I found the notes of a Heart Foods’ board meeting, not long before that AGM we talked about a while back. It was headed “The Ambrosia Project” and Brett was trying to persuade the board to mount a public campaign against it: Heart Battles Junk. You can imagine the strapline. The board supported him in principle, but they worried about taking on the big guys – you know, the McDonalds of this world. Told Brett that Heart Foods should stick to promoting high standards in its own food, not rubbishing everyone else.’
‘OK.’
‘But Brett wouldn’t give up, so they agreed he could keep it on the agenda but they asked him to keep quiet about it in the meantime. That’s probably why he was all coy about it when he was asked a question at the AGM. Anyway, there’s this throwaway comment, at the end of the board minutes, about how the best way of making young people take notice is if you get the ear of someone they respect.’
‘This is all very interesting but…’
‘I know, it’s not evidence. But this Ambrosia thread has come up twice now in my research and, like I say, it sounds pretty controversial. You’ve got his PA on today, haven’t you? You could ask her about it. I mean, we’re talking serious money here.’
‘All right. I need time to think about it and I only have five minutes now. Look, I appreciate you calling and all the time you’ve spent. I really do.’
Judith crossed her legs and mulled things over. She had planned on raising only one point with Diana when they returned – Brett’s diet – so there would be time to ask about Ambrosia if she wanted to and it did sound promising, even if it only hinted at an alternative anonymous suspect. But Constance had been right to remind her previously that it was dangerous to enter uncharted territory in the witness box. And despite making light of it then, she had no idea what she might unearth, what Diana might say. If only they’d followed the Ambrosia lead up months before, when Greg had first uncovered it. She was about to go back inside when she saw Constance running towards her along the road.
‘What?’ Judith said, as Constance threw herself down on the bench, struggling to get her words out.
‘Zoe took a video on her phone,’ she managed, in between gasps for air.
‘A video?’
‘Of Brett dying. That’s what she wanted to show me and I think you need to see it.’
‘Is it very different from the one we’ve already seen?’
‘She was up on the stage, at the same level as Brett. And she didn’t stop filming when…when he collapsed. Why don’t I show you and you can see what I mean?’