as I suspect he tells us nothing, we can say he refused to tell us anything about his mystery buyer. I’m hoping he’ll say he never met the bloke personally, which will make him sound like those guys who get sent down for possessing stolen goods. They usually say they bought them from a man they met down the pub but they can’t remember his name.’
‘Even better,’ he said. ‘Are you going to phone the councillor now?’
‘Not yet,’ she said, ‘a wise man once told me not to give a guilty party too long to come up with excuses or call in the lawyers. I was thinking an hour before deadline. Meanwhile, I’ll write up the rest of the story and leave a gap at the bottom for the councillor’s flustered denials.’
‘Then get writing and I’ll hold the front page.’ And he grinned at her. ‘Again! You realise I’ve got grizzled veterans in this newsroom who are beginning to look at you with hostile eyes because you’re starting to make them look bad.’ Then he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. ‘Seriously, this is really good stuff, Helen. Well done you. I mean it.’
‘Thanks,’ she said, for his support was beginning to mean a lot to her.
When he had gone it struck Helen he no longer asked where she was getting her stories from. Perhaps he knew she wouldn’t tell him about her anonymous source. Someone was very unhappy with the way Joe Lynch was going about his business as council leader and they were more than happy to tell Helen all about it. The latest note to land on her desk had been typewritten, just like the rest. Ever wonder why Joe Lynch sold his family home? it asked her. Or how he managed to get so much more for it than anybody else?
It took a while for Tom to persuade Nixon to discuss Richard Bell’s case at all. In the end he was forced to agree to write his piece with no mention of the law firm, in exchange for their version of what actually happened in court. This Tom did reluctantly but only out of principle. Unbeknown to Nixon, Tom wasn’t actually writing a piece for the largest tabloid in the country, merely investigating Rebecca’s Holt’s murder on behalf of her supposed killer.
‘I want to talk to you about the advice you gave your client before the trial,’ Tom began.
‘I gave him a lot of advice,’ said Nixon as he broke a digestive biscuit into two equal halves with absolute precision, ‘some of which he chose to ignore.’
‘I’m talking specifically about the revelations surrounding his private life.’
‘Oh that.’ And he took a tiny bite of his biscuit.
‘You got him to admit to a whole series of … you called them assignations with women other than his wife,’ Tom reminded him, ‘which did not exactly endear him to the jury.’
The barrister sighed, ‘Yes, well, we were between a rock and a hard place there. We quizzed him about his affair with Rebecca Holt and decided there was little point in denying it. The police knew about it already and if he lied about it again in front of a jury, the prosecution could bring proof of the relationship into court – then the rest of his testimony would lack any credibility.’
‘I get that,’ said Tom, ‘but did he really have to stand in the witness box and list every conquest he’d ever made?’
‘It wasn’t quite like that,’ argued the barrister.
‘Serial Shag-Around and Lying Love Rat were just two of the following day’s headlines.’
‘The gutter press misrepresented him,’ said Nixon, ‘as they are apt to do. Some of the coverage was scandalous.’
‘I don’t think they did,’ said Tom.
‘Well, you’re a journalist.’
Tom reached for his notebook and began to read aloud from his shorthand notes of the trial coverage. ‘ “I’ve always liked women and very often they have been attracted to me. I enjoy their company and usually find sex easy to come by. I know I should not have continued seeing other women once I was married but I became convinced I was somehow entitled to do this because of the stresses of my life. I enjoyed the thrill of the chase and freely admit I was attracted to the forbidden nature of these affairs. I knew it was wrong but I couldn’t help myself. I enjoy sex and, from what I have been told I am good at it. I suppose