CHERUB: Brigands M.C. - Robert Muchamore Page 0,26

decide when there’s enough evidence to charge the Führer.’

‘That’s it exactly,’ Vanessa smiled. ‘Our problem is that when your house was burned a lot of forensic evidence like fingerprints and things disappeared. We’ve not found a weapon or a piece of clothing that matches anything found at the scene.’

‘What about the mud?’ Dante asked. ‘The Führer walked in the field. He must have left boot prints.’

‘Yes,’ Vanessa admitted. ‘We have boot prints that match the Führer’s size and the tread matches a pair of Dr Martens boots. But lots of bikers wear the same boots, and the Führer’s a size eight, which is the most common male foot size.’

‘So it’s useless?’ Dante asked.

‘Not useless,’ Vanessa explained. ‘Just not enough. A jury has to be convinced beyond reasonable doubt, which means they need more than a couple of boot prints to prove a murder. Right now, the only thing that’s likely to put the Führer behind bars are the statements you gave to the police on the night of the murders and anything you say in court.’

Dante nodded. ‘Have you charged the Führer yet?’

‘No,’ Vanessa said. ‘We’re reviewing all the evidence and we’ll make a decision on whether to arrest and charge the Führer within the next day or so. I asked Ross to bring you down here because I needed to meet you and ask very important questions about your statement.’

‘Well, I’m here, ask away,’ Dante said brightly.

Vanessa smiled. ‘Some of my questions might be quite upsetting, Dante. What you have to understand is that the Brigands Motorcycle Club has a legal fund into which every member pays several hundred pounds a year. That means they can afford good lawyers, the best forensic tests, the best expert witnesses. The whole case depends upon a jury believing what you say. All the Führer’s lawyers will have to do is put a tiny doubt into the minds of one or two jurors and he won’t go to prison.’

Dante understood this better than most nine-year-olds would have done: members of the South Devon Brigands were often in some kind of legal trouble and some of the wildest parties in the clubhouse happened when a member scored a not-guilty verdict in court.

‘There are two problems,’ Vanessa continued. ‘The first is that you’re not going to be the only witness. I guarantee that other people will take the stand, prepared to swear that the Führer was with them at the time of the murder.’

Dante nodded. ‘My dad covered for a couple of London Brigands one time. He said they were at a bar in Salcombe with him when they were up in London robbing some woman’s jewellery.’

‘There’s not much we can do about witnesses who lie,’ Vanessa explained. ‘But the really important thing is that you are a good, honest witness. I think we have one problem with that.’

‘What?’ Dante asked.

Vanessa produced a photograph of the T-shirt he’d worn at the clubhouse on the night his parents died, complete with the blood stains across the front. Then she read an excerpt from Dante’s witness statement aloud.

‘I was playing with my friend Joe in the clubhouse and he got a nosebleed. He gets nosebleeds all the time and some of it got on my shirt. The thing is Dante, forensics took one look at the blood. Do you see the way it’s spattered across the shirt?’

Dante nodded.

‘It wasn’t really a nosebleed, was it?’

‘No,’ Dante said sheepishly.

‘We also tested the blood and it doesn’t match Joe’s blood group,’ Vanessa said. ‘So whose blood is it?’

Dante looked guiltily at Ross and shrugged. ‘It’s Martin Donnington’s blood. That’s the Führer’s other son.’

‘So what really happened?’ Vanessa asked.

‘More importantly, why didn’t you tell the truth?’ Ross interrupted.

Dante shrank down into his chair. ‘I didn’t want to get into trouble for fighting. So I said it was a nosebleed.’

Vanessa sighed and looked at Ross.

‘But all the other stuff I said was true,’ Dante said. ‘It’s before the murders anyway, so why does that bit even matter?’

Vanessa looked cross, but Dante was only a kid so she took a deep breath and tried to explain in the friendliest way possible. ‘Do you know what corroborated means?’

Dante shook his head.

‘Corroborated means that you can check something out. For instance, you can corroborate the fact that David Beckham scored a goal for England because everyone in the stadium saw it and it was filmed for TV. If you go into your bedroom and score a billion points on your Playstation, but turn the machine