With the snow still falling, thick and lusciously white, and the temperature low enough to ensure the flakes stuck wherever they fell, the city centre streets were already looking like a winter wonderland as Dani gingerly walked along the pavements. Even if she had changed into winter boots before leaving HQ, the surface remained treacherous.
One issue dominated Dani’s mind as she walked. Ana Crisan. Why hadn’t she told the team about her suspicion that Ana was the anonymous caller? Dani really wasn’t sure, but it felt like the right thing to do, not just to protect Ana, but to protect Dani too. She knew there was a lot of doubt in the air – aimed at her – from the hastily pulled together investigation team, and throwing more unsubstantiated beliefs at them would only further alienate Dani, and open her up to more abuse and rebuke if it turned out she was wrong.
Regardless, the team had plenty else to be doing to further the investigation, and before she revealed her hand, Dani would continue to ponder how best to reach out to Ana.
Satisfied that the team – whipped by McNair and Easton – were in good shape, Dani was determined not to lose touch with proceedings at court. It was only last Thursday, all of four days ago, when she’d been up on the witness stand, but so much had happened – to her, at least – since then, even if she’d only missed one day of the trial.
Wanting to remain as inconspicuous as she could, following the grilling she’d received from O’Hare while on the stand, Dani took a seat in a quiet spot in the public gallery. She’d heard news that the two sides were expected to give their closing statements today, and it was possible a verdict could be delivered soon after.
No one else in the public gallery paid Dani any attention, and as the court filled and then rose for the judge, Dani was glad that neither O’Hare nor Barker had clocked she was there.
Yet proceedings had only just got underway when O’Hare dropped her latest bombshell. Would anyone really have expected anything less at this stage? She really was a first-class sneak.
‘Your Honour, we have one further witness who we’d like heard. This relates to evidence that has only come to light during the course of the trial.’
Barker was understandably unimpressed with this, given how far into proceedings they already were, and the judge ordered both barristers over to the front where a heated though muted back-and-forth exchange ensued between the three. From where Dani was sitting she couldn’t make out any of the conversation properly.
The judge soon sent the two barristers back to their benches and announced the decision to the court.
‘We will hear the defence’s witness, who must be heard by video-link, for reasons that will soon become apparent. The court will recess for thirty minutes to prepare.’
Thirty and a half minutes later, Dani was back in the same seat in the public gallery and the court was soon full once more, albeit with one noticeable addition. A large TV screen on a stand right in front of the witness box.
Dani already had a sickly feeling as to where this could be going. The judge opened the session and handed over to O’Hare. A clerk headed over to the TV and seconds later the screen flickered to life and Dani was left staring at a live link of a painfully familiar-looking interview room.
Seated in the middle of the room was her brother.
Her brother, who seemed to be staring straight at her. Could he actually see her? She’d never live-linked in court herself, but she presumed the witness could see the court just as clearly as the court could see the witness. But could Ben make out Dani?
O’Hare completed the formalities, introducing Ben, his background, and some other crap Dani barely heard because she was too shocked and too angry to properly listen. All she could do was to stare at him. Despite being in a drab room and in his prison garb, he looked confident and in control and Dani was sure he even had a snide grin on his resting face.
‘Mr Stephens,’ O’Hare said, ‘we’re particularly interested in the time you spent sharing a cell with the defendant. Is it true that you, too, like the defendant, were a patient of Dr Helen Collins?’
‘Correct.’
Ben went on to explain his own relationship with Collins. How she’d been part of his defence team during his murder trial, attesting, as she had for Curtis, that Ben had acted with diminished responsibility when he’d killed. The jury hadn’t bought it in his case.
‘But you didn’t carry on seeing Collins, in a professional capacity, after your trial concluded?’ O’Hare asked.
‘No,’ Ben said.
‘But you were aware that the defendant did?’
‘Yes. Damian…’ Ben sighed. ‘He can be just as normal as anyone else. In fact, most of the time he was. We chatted together – just chatted like anyone else would – so yeah, we talked about Collins. It’s not like we get to do much in prison, is it? So him heading off to talk to his shrink was… a thing. Something.’
He looked a little embarrassed by his own lack of eloquence. He never used to speak like that. Had prison worn him down that much or was it all part of the Ben Stephens show?
‘And how would you describe the defendant following these sessions?’ O’Hare said. ‘By that I mean, did his character, his manner, usually change from when he left to see Dr Collins, to when he returned to his cell?’
Ben nodded. ‘Sometimes, yes.’ He sighed again. ‘You have to remember – and this is me talking from an uneducated standpoint – that Damian was pretty messed up. I mean, I said you could have a normal conversation with him, but it wasn’t always like that. There were times when he completely zoned out. Times when he mumbled away to himself. Argued to himself, and I know there were times when he was talking to other people in his head. Like, actually talking out loud, but to people who weren’t in the room.’
‘Real people? As in people he knew, like family members?’
‘I really don’t know. But coming back to your question, Damian definitely changed.’
‘Changed how?’
Ben regurgitated what Dani took to be a well-rehearsed spiel. He’d made similar comments to her before, when she was actively investigating Curtis and trying to track him down to prevent him from killing again. Ben had claimed that a new voice in Curtis’s head had taken hold. A female voice, who Curtis was battling with and trying his best to eliminate from his mind. Of course there were already statements in the police files related to all of this. So why was Ben here? Virtually, at least. O’Hare must have something new, a revelation that she intended to use as one last throw of the dice.
‘And this voice,’ O’Hare said, ‘did she have a name?’
Ben shrugged. ‘I’ve no idea. The conversations he had with whatever or whoever he heard weren’t like that, and it wasn’t as though I felt I could ask. Honestly? I was scared.’ Though he didn’t seem scared at all as he retold the story. ‘But I definitely noticed him becoming more and more agitated following his sessions with Dr Collins.’
Dani clenched her teeth and her fists as she waited for the revelation she was sure would come.
‘More agitated, how?’ O’Hare asked.
‘There was one time in particular, and I do have a record of the date, when he came back to the cell… to put it mildly, he was a gibbering mess. He was begging, begging me, to help him. He kept on saying things like, why is she doing this to me, and, I can’t do what she’s asking. Then he’d scream at the top of his voice, she’s put her inside me. Get her out!’
A strange silence fell over the courtroom, as if no one knew how to take Ben’s theatrical performance. Dani’s eyes flicked to Barker, who was slowly shaking his head – disgust? – but he hadn’t jumped up to protest at Ben’s accusatory, yet so far baseless, claims.
‘You said you remember the date of one particular episode?’ O’Hare asked.
‘Of course. Not one particular episode, but the episode. Eighth of April, last year.’
Barker was now deep in conversation with his assistant. What were they saying?
‘And why specifically do you recall this date?’
‘My understanding is that it was the anniversary of the car crash that saw Curtis put in prison in the first place. When he came back from his session with Collins that day he was ranting like a lunatic. She wants me to kill them, she wants me to kill them. Things like that, over and over. He got… not physical with me, but he was aggressive and out of control. It felt like it would only take a spark for him to snap completely and tear me to pieces.’
‘What happened to calm him? Did he indeed calm down?’
‘Obviously when someone goes nuts like that, it doesn’t go unnoticed. People in the other cells must have thought he was murdering me, or murdering someone, at least. There was shouting, banging everywhere. Eventually two guards had to come in and restrain him, which wasn’t easy, to say the least. Eventually they dragged him out of the cell still kicking and screaming. I didn’t see him for two days after that. When he came back it was like nothing had happened.’
‘Did you ask him about that episode?’
Ben looked put out by the question. ‘Of course I didn’t. I couldn’t risk a repeat, could I? Calm Damian was always better, for me, than the alternative.’
‘Do you believe, based on these experiences, that the defendant, when he said, she wants me to kill them, was referring to Dr Collins?’
‘Yes, I b—’
‘Objection!’ Barker shouted, rising to his feet. ‘The question is intrusively leading.’
‘Sustained,’ the judge said.
‘Sorry, Your Honour,’ O’Hare said. Though she didn’t look sorry at all. The question didn’t stand, and nor did Ben’s interrupted answer, but the jury had still heard it. ‘I’ll rephrase the question. When the defendant uttered phrases such as she wants me to kill them, who did you believe he was referring to when he said she.’
‘Objection, the witness is not a medically trained professional able to give such an opinion.’
‘He’s more than entitled to give an opinion,’ O’Hare said, ‘and no reference was made to it being an expert opinion.’
‘The witness may answer,’ the judge said.
‘I thought he was referring to Dr Helen Collins,’ Ben said to murmurs around the courtroom.
‘No more questions,’ O’Hare said, ‘but before I pass over to my learned friend, I’d like to point out for the record, that we’ve looked specifically into the witness’s account of these events, which took place on the eighth of April last year. It is correct that the defendant spent time with Dr Helen Collins that morning. From just after nine a.m. to almost twelve p.m., which I note, based on our review of data, was the third longest session she ever held with him at Long Lartin. Also, the two guards in question that day were Hamza Khan and Graham Molten. Unfortunately, Molten passed earlier this year from a heart attack, but we do have his written record of Damian Curtis’s outburst from that day. Guards are required to file such reports whenever there is a breach of the peace of this nature. We also have a sworn statement from Khan confirming his recollection of events from that day, together with his assertion that he too heard the defendant calling out, she wants me to kill them.’
O’Hare moved forwards and handed a piece of paper first to the judge, and then to Barker who took it and almost immediately handed it to his assistant.
‘Are you finished with the witness?’ the judge asked after taking a few seconds to read the paper in his hand.
‘Yes, Your Honour.’
‘Does the prosecution wish to ask any questions?’
Barker leaned in to his assistant who was rabbiting away in his ear, pointing to the statement in his hand and shrugging and other such like confused gestures.
‘Your Honour, we have no questions,’ Barker said. He sounded dejected.
‘Then the witness is excused,’ the judge said.
A clerk wandered over to the TV. A split second before the screen went blank, Dani was sure Ben caught her eye and smirked.