The Walking Dead

'I am not in an area of discussion and argument. It will happen. I will not countenance the losing of the case at such a late stage. I would estimate that the Crown has already invested more than two million pounds in this prosecution and if we go for a mistrial — and a subsequent rehearing — we will be looking for another million, at least, in expenditure. There is the further consideration, and it is a weighty one, that the abandonment of the trial in its last hours would be a victory for the forces of corruption. No, if the jury needs protection, I am charging you with providing it.'

If Mr Justice Wilbur Herbert was flustered by what he had learned that morning, he gave no indication of it. He anticipated that preliminary estimates of cost and expenditure were now scrambling at speed in the chief inspector's mind. But justice was his, concern, not the spilling of further sums from the public purse. He had played the card of the expense of a retrial, and had loftily dismissed the prospect of such an action, yet he was economic with his motivation. Regina v. Curtis and Curtis was a high-profile matter, one that would attract the attention of the Lord Chancellor: a successful conclusion would enhance his prospects of a legal peerage and, ultimately, a seat on the benches of the Court of Appeal. He had no doubt that his diminished jury would bring in 'guilty' verdicts on all counts, and had already framed a wording of the statement he would make to the accused when he sent them away to serve most, if not all, of the remainder of their lives as Category A prisoners. Well hidden under a veneer of polite calm he felt a fierce desire to purge, whenever it was within his power, the culture of organized and serious criminality. If he had lived half a century before, Mr Justice Herbert would have had a clerk slip a freshly ironed and uncreased square of black cloth carefully on to his wig, then pronounced the death sentence on murderers. Not appropriate here, but breaking stones in a quarry would have been — in his opinion — proper retribution by society on such men as Ozzie and Ollie Curtis. Preferably granite.

The thief inspector, the senior investigating officer on the case, seemed to squirm. 'The cost, sir, is but one side of the problem.'

'I'm not in the mood for having problems deflect us.'

'The reverse face is manpower, sir.'

'I doubt that is insoluble. An officer of your experience and ability can and will, I'm sure, find a route round such difficulties.'

The objections were shoved aside with the ruthlessness 'that was the hallmark of Mr Justice Herbert's successful climb on his career ladder. But when he spoke it was with his old-world courtesy, with which all who appeared in his courts were familiar. There was a thoroughness about him that scuppered the mention of appeals being won on the basis of his guidance to juries and his dealings with defence lawyers. His exterior was one of moderation and patience. His listed hobbies of reading Victorian melodrama, poetry, and sailing an eighteen-foot yacht off a mooring at Southwold, along with his regular Sunday attendance at morning worship in the cathedral of his home city, St Albans, all proffered an image of caring reasonableness, and truth was disguised. He believed that the chief inspector would soon weaken, but he tolerated a trifle of the man's obstinacy and allowed him his moment.

'The cost, sir, of protection is awesome. We have a jury of ten persons and although we have had one jury member come clean about an offer—'

'And not only "come clean", but also hand over a most considerable sum of money, thereby giving two significant markers of honesty and courage.'

'Of course, sir…but I cannot assume that this one individual is the only one who has been approached. You are asking me—'

'I am instructing you, Chief Inspector.'

'Yes, sir. Your instruction means that I have to rustle up the manpower to protect the jury members, ten of them, and look after their families. I would have to move the jury for the rest of the trial into secure accommodation, while at the same time ensuring that their families are guarded in their homes. We are talking about upwards of a hundred officers, and the requirement that a percentage of them would be armed. That's a big call, sir.'

'Then your job is to make the call.'

'Over and above that, we would have to acknowledge Duty of Care for the future, both to the jurors and their families. It won't all grind to a halt, sir, when the case concludes, could go on for months. Frankly, I hear a cash register going out of control here, and we could be looking at relocation.'

'The price of justice, Chief Inspector, is not cheap. What'll you do? Put the jurors into a hotel for the duration?'