On Monday morning at 9.30am Andy called Eleni Pallas, the waitress employed by Nick, to the witness stand. She was to be the last prosecution witness. Judith estimated her age at around twenty years old. Last night, Constance had messaged to say she wanted to follow up some more leads first thing and would be late. Judith had thought about calling her to find out what the leads might be, but then her preparation had taken over and she trusted Constance to come to court as quickly as she could.
‘Miss Pallas, can you tell us what time you arrived at Tanners’ Hall?’ Andy began, and Judith noticed the lack of an invitation to recite her life story this time around. He had the bit between his teeth. He wanted to finish things soon. Or perhaps he had taken the judge’s words about time-wasting to heart.
‘Mr Demetriou asked us…me to be there for 11.’
‘Was there any problem you found, when you arrived?’
‘Mr Demetriou opened up and the fridge didn’t look clean. I said I’d clean it, but we needed to get things set up and we were warming up food and had to cut the fruit up fresh. There wasn’t much time. He told me not to put the food in the fridge.’
‘Mr Demetriou told you not to put the food in the fridge?’
‘That’s right.’
Andy nodded sagely and mumbled his approval, as if Eleni had confirmed some complex scientific theory. ‘What did you do with the food instead?’
‘I helped bring it in from Mr Demetriou’s car and we left it in bags in the kitchen until we served it.’
‘You didn’t put it in the fridge?’
‘No.’
‘Were you told of any special dietary requirements of any of the guests?’
‘I remember Mr Demetriou said there was a vegan and someone else who only ate meat, so we had to keep the food on separate trays. That’s all. But it was already separate. It wasn’t a problem.’
‘He didn’t mention anything else – any allergies or anything like that?’
‘No.’
‘Do you know that it’s a breach of health and safety regulations, to serve food which has not been sufficiently refrigerated?’
‘The fridge was dirty, so we couldn’t put the food in there. But we kept it in freezer bags, with ice packs.’
‘Do you know how long the food had been in those freezer bags before it arrived at Tanners’ Hall?’
‘No. But I trusted Mr Demetriou. He caters lots of events. And he doesn’t live that far away. Even with traffic it was probably only half an hour.’
‘That’s assuming he came straight from home?’
Judith noticed Eleni stick out her chin. Clearly, she didn’t appreciate Andy’s challenge. ‘Why should I think he did anything different?’ she said.
‘All right. No one is suggesting you have done anything wrong. And when did the food go out on the table?’
‘Not long before 12.30. And we started clearing it away at 1.30. Mr Demetriou says one hour is the limit. We took the fruit and the salad away last, because that’s not such a problem.’
‘So at the very least, some food – for example, the beef carpaccio – was not refrigerated from 11am to 1.30pm, but most likely longer, say 10.30, because Mr Demetriou had packed it into his car, earlier in the day?’
‘Yes, but in freezer bags with ice packs.’
Judith was pleased to see that Eleni was expanding her answers in a way which suggested support for Nick. She hadn’t asked Nick how he and Eleni had got on and she regretted that now, but she did have some useful material she could use when her turn came. But Andy didn’t seem bothered by Eleni’s answers. ‘Did you see what Mr Ingram ate?’ he continued.
‘I was too busy warming up the food, making salads and taking it out and serving the drinks. It was a lot of work.’
‘Mr Demetriou was also helping?’
‘Yes…yes, he was.’
Eleni looked over at Nick, then back at Andy. Andy had clearly noticed the look, but he couldn’t decipher it. Judith wondered what it might mean, but with Eleni having spoken for barely two minutes, she could not possibly understand. Constance might have interpreted it better, but Constance was not there.
Andy sat down and coughed lightly when Judith failed to respond. She acknowledged him with a nod of the head and then stood up to begin her cross-examination.
‘Miss Pallas,’ Judith began. ‘I just want to focus on one thing, which relates to evidence given by another witness called Zoe Whitman. She was a guest at the event. She’s a young woman and, that day, she had some pink colouring in her hair. Do you remember who she was?’
‘I think so,’ Eleni said.
‘Miss Whitman says that after Mr Ingram collapsed, she was watching Mr Demetriou speaking to you in the kitchen. Can you tell us what you remember?’
Once again, Eleni looked over at Nick. That was interesting. Judith scribbled a note down in her pad to record it, just as she had done the first time Eleni had done so.
‘I was just clearing up,’ Eleni said. ‘I didn’t know what had happened. Then I heard everyone coming out of the hall. Mr Demetriou came in and he was very upset. He said Mr Ingram was ill; there was an ambulance coming. He said I should go home and he would finish clearing up.’
‘Did Mr Demetriou raise his voice to you?’ Judith continued.
‘He was upset. I could see that. His voice was shaky, his hands too. Not shouting so much.’
‘Had you finished what you were doing?’
‘Almost. I’d put the leftover food into Tupperware, put the glasses in the dishwasher.’
‘There wasn’t much more work for you to do?’
‘And he pays us by the hour, so there was that too.’
‘I understand. He was being thrifty.’ Judith paused for a second, staring at the note she had just made. ‘Us?’ she said. ‘You said “he pays us by the hour”. Was anyone else there?’
‘Me,’ Eleni corrected herself. Judith waited. ‘There was supposed to be two of us. That’s what I meant.’
Judith knew this, of course, but it was helpful to have Eleni volunteer it. ‘You were expecting a second helper that day?’
‘His name’s Andrew. But he was ill and we couldn’t find a replacement. That’s why we were so busy – more than usual. There was a lot for us to do.’
‘I can imagine it was stressful for you and for Mr Demetriou.’
‘It was.’
‘What language does Mr Demetriou speak to you in?’
Eleni blinked twice. ‘English, I think.’
‘Do you speak Greek?’
‘Yes.’
‘Does my client ever speak to you in Greek?’
‘Maybe, sometimes.’
Judith hoped to put to rest Zoe’s evidence that she’d understood every part of Nick commanding Eleni to leave, with the implication being that Nick had something to hide. ‘Why might he do that, switch to Greek?’
‘I don’t know. You’d have to ask him. Habit maybe, or he just forgets.’
‘Do you think he might have spoken to you in Greek when he asked you to leave?’ This was the point on which Nick had perked up and called Constance over when he heard Zoe’s evidence. He had been adamant that he spoke to Eleni in Greek.
Eleni smiled; not an expression of happiness – more as if she wanted to be obliging, to give the right answer, but she didn’t know which it was. ‘You know, it’s hard to remember. I would say yes, but I’m not sure now, maybe.’ If that was the best Eleni could do, despite Nick’s absolute certainty on the point, then Judith would have to accept it and move on. But she sensed something else, something the young woman was holding back, something that might not assist Nick. She should wrap things up quickly.
‘Did you see Zoe Whitman, the young woman with the pink hair, when you were packing things up?’
‘No.’
‘You didn’t see her at all in the kitchen?’
‘No.’
‘What happened then?’
‘I…I took off my apron and I left. It was only the next day when the police came around that I knew what had happened.’
Eleni slipped out of court and Judith felt certain that she would go straight home and up to her bedroom, where she would reproach herself for the half-truths she had told in the witness box.