The Walking Dead

Wally clapped his hands. 'Right, your attention, please. This is my case and I'm not willingly going to lose it. I've bitched to the judge, Mr Justice Herbert, about the cost of it all and been given a flea in my ear, but at the end of the day I'm not arguing with him. To do this job properly would have taken three times as many of you as I've been given, but you're what I have and we'll cut our cloth accordingly. We're down to the essentials and we'll make it work. The case before our judge is the Queen versus Ozzie and Ollie Curtis and they are two old, unreconstructed blaggers. They do armed robbery successfully — that is, up to the time they knocked over a jewellery shop in the south-east. We found a witness, put her under the protection scheme, and she was a star in the firmament when she came to court. They're going down, the Curtis brothers are, and it's about as far down as fifteen years minimum. For them it's desperate, so they pushed for a nobble. A juror was approached and given big money. This jury, with another week or so to do, is reduced to ten, so if one more had pulled out or voted not guilty, then we have a mistrial. With a mistrial, we get another hearing in — if I'm lucky — a year's time, and I don't reckon I'll hold my witness for all those months. I need a guilty verdict next week…One juror had the guts to report the approach and the cash payment to the court. A very brave man, as courageous as it gets where the Curtis thugs are concerned. He deserves our protection and full support, and I aim to give them to him. Have other jurors been approached and caught in the web? I don't know. Are other jurors more vulnerable to corruption? Don't know. But I'm going to throw a net round them that puts them in a bubble: no mobiles, no contact with the outside. The court is adjourned for the day. You're going home with them. You'll watch them like bloody hawks. They'll each pack a bag and make what arrangements they have to, and you will escort them here in the morning. Tomorrow evening they'll be bussed to secure accommodation. That's where we are, and I'll take questions at the end. By the by, this is going to be a good little earner, and it won't end with the verdict. Health and Safety legislation requires duty of care, and that can run for a fair few weeks. Finally, I emphasize to you all, these jurors are not going to become your long-lost friends. You treat them with politeness and firmness. Their safety must be ensured, and the chance of a nobbler getting near them is removed, but my priority is the conviction of those low-life brothers. That's it.'

Barks thought he'd done well, couldn't fault it. Wally had a list, names and addresses, moved among them and allocated them.

Banks thought, passing, that he might have been blessed, that — at last — he was drummed into some police work that was valuable, worthwhile.

He went to pour himself a coffee from the dispenser, sipped it and watched the detective chief inspector meander across the room He realized that he had been kept for last.

He wondered, if time was available, where he would next find Cecil Darke, and what misery he would meet.

'You gone somewhere else, Banksy? I'm relying on you for the big one.'

'That's not a problem.'

'You're going to do the prime target — that OK? The juror who coughed up and did the decent, he's for you.'

'When we do threat assessment, we have a scale. E5 is the bottom level, and Al is at the top. Where on the scale are you putting him?'

'His name is Julian Wright. What I've seen of him, he's a dreamy blighter, beard and sandals, a teacher. Last nine weeks I've watched him in court, and I never rated him as being anything other than a guy who'll go with the flow. But I was wrong…Now he's shoved a stick into a wasps' nest and twisted it. It's the Curtis brothers' nest and they'll be powerfully angry. Not only has he taken their money but he's also grassed on them. Given the chance, they'll kill him and all those dear to him. It's why I'm grateful to have a man of your pedigree alongside him. On the threat-assessment scale, Julian Wright is at Al. Is that enough?'

Banks said simply, 'I'll do the best I can.'

Wally said he was going now to talk to the jurors, fill in their picture books, that he'd be back in a half-hour. Banks found a chair in a corner, and even in a crowded room he was alone with his notebook.