The Inheritance

TWENTY

The trial was virtually at an end. Thompson and Swift had argued for and against Stephen’s guilt to the jury, and hardly anyone in the press box felt able to say which way the verdict would go. Some speculated that the jury would be unable to reach a verdict and that the trial would have to begin all over again. Others wondered aloud whether the jurors would be able to stomach sending such a young man to the gallows. But, then again, the case against Stephen Cade was strong, and everyone was frightened of guns. There were scare stories in the papers every day about armed gangs roaming the streets just like they did in New York or Los Angeles. No one was safe in their beds.

The last word lay with the judge. It was his right to comment on the evidence in his summing up, and in a case like this Old Man Murdoch was unlikely to keep his powder dry.

“Members of the jury, you are the only judges of the facts in this case,” he began, leaning back in his high-backed chair and allowing his eyes to travel up and down the jurors as if he was a general inspecting his troops before they went into battle. “The verdict is yours and yours alone. So you should ignore any comments that I make on the evidence if they do not assist you. Use them only if they help you. It is your opinion that matters, not mine.”

Swift could not help admiring the judge’s false modesty. He made the jurors listen to what he had to say by flattering their importance. He didn’t need to remind them that he had the experience of presiding over hundreds of the most serious criminal trials. He had seen it all before. It was their decision, but they would be fools to ignore the help that he had to offer them.

“So let us begin with the Crown’s case against this defendant,” said Murdoch. “Is it strong or is it weak? Has it been undermined by the defence? Remember, the Crown must make you sure of his guilt. Nothing less will do. Put another way, you must have gone beyond reasonable doubt. We can start with what is agreed. Stephen Cade and his father were estranged for the two years leading up to the murder. There is no dispute about that. The defendant has told you that he felt ashamed of his father and also harboured strong feelings of rejection. Whether he was right to do so is not what matters. You are concerned with his state of mind.

“At the end of this two-year period the defendant suddenly asks to see his father again. Why, members of the jury? I suggest that this is a vital question for you to answer. Was he concerned about his father’s failing health as he claims, or was he inflamed by the news brought by his brother, Silas, that he was about to be disinherited? Professor Cade was clearly a very rich man, and the defendant faced the loss of all his prospects at a stroke of his father’s pen.

“It is also apparent from the defendant’s evidence that this bombshell could not have come at a worse time. Young Mr. Cade had particular need of money last summer if he was going to keep his girlfriend, Miss Martin, from leaving Oxford. You will need to bear these matters in mind, members of the jury, when you come to decide what Stephen Cade’s intentions were when he sought a private interview with his father on the fateful night of the fifth of June. Was he quiet in his mind or had he had enough, as Mr. Thompson put it? And did his father’s insensitive behaviour with the chess pieces drive his son over the edge, or merely exasperate him to the point where he felt the need for a little evening air to cool his understandable annoyance?

“Nobody can read a man’s mind, members of the jury. Science cannot help you. No; what you must do is look at the evidence and use your common sense to draw inferences. There is quite enough material before you, I would suggest, to enable you to reach clear conclusions about what was in this defendant’s mind on the evening of the fifth of June, and those conclusions should help you decide what happened when Professor Cade won their rather one-sided game of chess.

“Remember that the defendant has admitted shouting at his father that he deserved to die. Was he referring to his belief that his father would soon be dead through natural causes, or was it at this point that he produced the murder weapon from his pocket? You must use you common sense to decide which explanation is correct. It is not for me to say. It is your verdict.

“And then there is the fingerprint evidence for you to consider. Of course Mr. Cade does not deny that he handled the gun and the key. He would be laughed out of court if he did. But he says that he did so innocently. Do you believe him, members of the jury? Would you pick up a gun at a murder scene, or would you leave it well alone, knowing that it would be vital evidence for the police to examine when they arrived? And what about the defendant’s hat and coat on the other side of the dead man’s body? Did he forget about them in his rush to get outside, or did he never go outside at all?

“The defendant says that someone must have come into the study and shot his father while he was out walking in the grounds. But who is this alternative assassin? Was it a passenger in the mysterious Mercedes that the defendant claims to have seen parked across from the gate on two occasions that evening? Certainly the first officers to arrive saw a car parked by the phone kiosk, and a Mercedes was stopped for speeding between Moreton and Oxford later that night. However, you must bear in mind that there was no breach of the manor’s security system that evening and that there is no one to corroborate the defendant’s account that the main gate was ever open. And if it was an intruder that killed Professor Cade, then what was his or her motive? It was clearly not robbery, for nothing appears to have been taken from the study, but what about revenge? It may well be that a man called James Carson hated the professor to the point that he tried to kill him in France in 1956, but this Carson was already dead by the time of the actual murder. He couldn’t have been the man in the Mercedes.

“I need to say a few words to you at this point about the evidence you have heard during this trial relating to a place called Marjean in northern France, where certain people died back in 1944. I allowed that evidence to go before you because I did not know at the time where it would lead. However it is now apparent that there is no connection whatsoever between the Marjean deaths and the murder of Professor Cade earlier this year, and in these circumstances I am issuing you with a formal instruction to set aside all the evidence relating to Marjean. It is irrelevant and cannot help you reach your verdict.

“So I go back to my earlier question. Who killed Professor Cade if it was not the defendant? Interestingly, the defence appears to have shifted its ground on this question during the course of the trial. At first its case appeared to be that it was an intruder, but now it points the finger at the defendant’s brother, Mr. Silas Cade. The defence relies on the evidence of Mrs. Ritter, who told you that she saw a figure wearing his hat and coat cross the courtyard beneath her window just before the shouting began down below. If true, this evidence clearly goes a long way toward exonerating the defendant. But is it true? Can you rely on Mrs. Ritter? Do not be swayed, members of the jury, by her unfortunate and untimely death. You must be objective. Remember what she said about Silas Cade. She felt betrayed by him, and it seems almost certain that she had only learnt of that betrayal minutes before she entered this courtroom to give evidence. Detective Clayton has told you about his ill-advised conversation with Mr. Blake in the cafeteria, and the way in which Mrs. Ritter ran from the room. It is not difficult to imagine her anger and distress, but did it lead her to lie?

“The question can be put another way. Was Silas Cade in the courtyard, or was he with Sasha Vigne in her bedroom? They both admit that they lied to the police, and Silas says that he lied to you when he first came here to give evidence. Perjury is a very serious offence not to be taken lightly, but both these witnesses have explained why they lied. Do you believe them? Again it is a matter for you, members of the jury. Silas told you that his fingerprints are not on the gun or the key. His brother’s are. And it was Stephen Cade who told their father that he deserved to die. You must decide who is telling the truth about this and the other questions that I have posed for you. And the answers should guide you down the road toward reaching a verdict on which all of you must be agreed. You shall have all the time you need for that purpose.”

The judge nodded to the two jury bailiffs who had taken up a position at each end of the jury box. Now they in turn held up a copy of the King James Bible and swore to keep the jury in a private and convenient place and not to ask its members anything about the case except if they were agreed upon their verdict.

And suddenly it was over. The jurors gathered up their notes and filed out of court, soon followed by the judge, who disappeared through a door behind his dais. There was a sound of chairs being pulled back and of conversations starting up in different corners of the courtroom as Stephen was led down the stairs at the back of the dock into the subterranean world of clanging gates and fluorescent lighting, where he would have to sit and wait for as long as it took for twelve strangers to decide his fate.

The jury was silent all afternoon, and at half past four Judge Murdoch called an end to the trial for the day and sent the jurors to a hotel for the night. Stephen went back to Wandsworth, and after walking up and down in his cell for the best part of an hour, he threw himself down on his bunk and fell into a fitful sleep. But he got no rest, tossing and turning all night in the grip of nightmares and apparitions. He dreamt he was back at home, searching for something. He knew it was there, but he couldn’t find it. He went from room to room turning the furniture upside down, but there was nothing. His father was dead downstairs and the murderer was still in the house, but Stephen couldn’t find what he was looking for.

There was shouting coming from down below. People were running this way and that. The housemaid, Esther, was at the top of the stairs. She was bleary with sleep, pulling a nightgown around her shoulders. And looking past her down the stairs, Stephen could see Jeanne Ritter picking up a hat and coat and hanging them on the stand by the door. He had no trouble recognising them. They belonged to his brother. But where was Silas? Here. Running across the hall. He looked up for a moment, and Stephen saw the expression on his face. The self-contained mask had slipped. Stephen saw fear and panic, but was Silas frightened because of what he knew or because of what he did not know? Where had he come from? Had he gone to his room after dropping the hat and coat? Or perhaps someone else had worn Silas’s clothes?

There was no time to try and understand, because here was Sasha Vigne coming down the stairs. She didn’t look like she had been to bed. Always so immaculately dressed. Trouser suits and high collars. And it was no different now. Who was she? Just his father’s personal assistant or something more? She’d said very little on each of the times that Stephen had been out to Moreton. But she had looked watchful at dinner. Was she waiting for an opportunity?

And lastly Mary. God, she was beautiful. Her chestnut-brown hair was tousled, framing the perfect oval of her face, and Stephen longed to put out his hand to stop her, but she passed beside him, almost through him just as if he wasn’t there.

The hall was empty now, and the shouting had died down. Stephen walked to the end of the hall and turned right into the corridor leading to his father’s study. There were people in the doorway, but he passed through them. Ritter was by the desk talking on the telephone. He was heavy-heavy and hard. And his hands were balled up into big fists like slabs of old meat. Stephen felt the stinging pain on his cheek where the sergeant had hit him as he effortlessly joined his shadow to himself and stood hopelessly by the french windows, looking down at his dead father and a game of chess.

What he was looking for was here in this room. Stephen was certain of it. It was right in front of him, but he couldn’t see it. Desperately he ran his eyes across the study. Past the hat and coat that he had left behind in the far corner, over by the window where Silas and he had eavesdropped two years before. Past the green reading lamp on the desk and the big black telephone. He saw the gun on the table by the door and the key that he had turned in the lock. He smelt the scent of jasmine on the air coming in from outside, and he examined the small round bullet hole in the middle of his father’s head.

The newspaper cutting lay on the low table beside the big chess box where his father had left it. Man fallen from train. Sudden death outside Leicester. And all around were the chess pieces spread out over the board and the table. Taken pieces and untaken pieces. Stephen had never realised how beautiful they were. The delicate carving of the knights’ heads and the queens’ crowns. The feel of the ivory between the fingers, and the richness of the black-and-white colours. It was another language. One his father spoke like a native but he and Silas could never learn. They had never understood one another. They had never been a family at all.

The police were coming. Stephen could hear the sound of a car on the drive. Jeanne Ritter left the doorway and walked away toward the front door. She was the housekeeper, after all. It was her job to let them in. There was no time left. Stephen couldn’t bear it. He looked at the chess pieces again. They held the key to what he needed. He was sure of it. But what key? Stephen couldn’t work it out and suddenly he felt too tired to think anymore, too tired to move. He leant against the wall for support and took hold of one of the thick curtains that were half drawn across the french windows. And then he stood there swaying, waiting for the police to come and take him away.

Stephen was fully awake now. In truth he had only ever been half asleep, and the feeling of frustration stayed with him, although the details of his dream faded. He felt more certain than ever that he had missed something. It was just beyond his reach, but try as he might, he couldn’t get to it.

Somewhere out in the half darkness the bells of Wandsworth Church rung out the hour of six. It was the beginning of another day, and Stephen wondered not for the first time how many he had left before the hangman came for him. But still there was hope. Stephen felt momentarily buoyed by the grey early-morning light seeping through his cell window. There was surely enough doubt for the jury to let him off. If it wanted to. But that was reckoning without the old judge, who seemed to want to squeeze the life out of him just because he was young. Stephen couldn’t understand it. Thompson too with his mean, pitiless little eyes. They had got to the jury. Stephen felt sure of it. Thompson had pushed him back and back until he’d done just what Swift had told him not to do. He’d lost his temper. And then Murdoch had gone in for the kill. The old judge was clever. Everything seemed fair and evenly balanced, but that was an illusion. He’d told the jury what to do as much as if he’d given them a written order to convict.

But maybe they’d refuse to do what they were told. There was hope yet. Summoning up all his energy, Stephen washed, brushed his hair, and put on the black suit and tie that his lawyers had brought to the prison before the trial. Then, on the way out, he glanced over at his reflection in the small mirror hanging over the sink. But just as quickly he turned away, trying to escape from the unwanted thought that he looked exactly like a man on the way to his own funeral.

They came for him at just after three.

“It’s a verdict,” one of the gaolers said. It was their custom. The jury could come back to ask a question or to receive a direction from the judge. Men awaiting their fate should be able to prepare themselves as they walked down the basement corridors and then up the steep stairs that led to the courts.

Emerging into the dock, Stephen felt the sudden force of the silence in the courtroom. Downstairs there had been constant noise: keys turning in old locks and gates clanging, the screws’ shouts echoing off the damp, whitewashed walls. But here there was silence. There must have been nearly a hundred people in the courtroom, but not one of them spoke. They were still as statues, waiting for what was to come. It was always like this just before a verdict came in on a capital charge, but Stephen wasn’t to know that. The tension frightened him. It was like ice on his soul.

Everyone was staring at him. He could feel their eyes. He closed his own, but it made him sick. When he opened them again, the jury was filing back into court.

“You’ve got to watch if they look at you. If they do, it’s all right.” A prisoner in the cell across from him at Wandsworth had told Stephen this the night before like it was gospel truth. And several of the jurors did. They definitely glanced in his direction as they took their seats. There was no mistaking it. Stephen felt a sudden hope soaring inside him. It could all be over in a few seconds. Two words, and he would be going home. To Mary and the sunlight.

“The defendant will stand,” said the clerk of the court. But it was hard. Stephen’s legs felt like dead weights. He had to hold on to the front of the dock to pull himself up.

“Members of the jury, have you reached a verdict upon which you are all agreed?” asked the clerk. Stephen swayed gently from side to side.

“Yes, we have,” said a dapper little man with a bow tie who had got to his feet at the far end of the jury box. He was not one of those that had looked at Stephen as they came in.

“On the single count of murder, how do you find the defendant? Guilty or not guilty?”

The moment of crisis: Caesar’s thumb suspended in midair, and Stephen trembling in the dock with his eyes fixed on the lion and unicorn above the judge’s head. Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, he prayed. The two words filled his head like a drumbeat, but the foreman of the jury couldn’t hear them. He was too far away.

“Guilty,” he said. Just one word and Stephen’s fate was decided.

The judge nodded. It was almost imperceptible, but it conveyed all the steely satisfaction that Murdoch felt inside. He looked straight into the eyes of the broken young man in the dock, and he felt no pity at all.

“Stephen Cade,” he said in a harsh voice that filled the courtroom. “Have you anything to say why sentence of death should not now be pronounced upon you?”

Stephen tried to speak, but the words stuck in his throat. It was too dry, and there was no time.

“Because I am innocent,” he eventually managed to say in a hoarse whisper. “I didn’t kill my father.”

“You are not innocent,” said the judge flatly. “You have been convicted by this jury of a heinous crime. The sentence is prescribed bylaw.”

A tall thin man in a frock coat stepped out from behind the judge’s chair. There was something in his hands. A small square of black silk. Delicately he placed it on top of the judge’s wig and then stepped back into the shadows, leaving Murdoch to speak the final words.

“Stephen Cade, you are sentenced to be taken hence to the prison in which you were last confined, and from there to a place of execution where you will suffer death by hanging, and thereafter your body shall be buried within the precincts of the prison, and may the Lord have mercy upon your soul.”

The judge spoke the words slowly and deliberately. It was at these moments he felt most alive. He became the law in all its cold majesty. He personified it.

But Stephen didn’t hear his sentence. His legs gave way beneath him, and the prison officers on either side had to support him until the judge had left the courtroom, and it was time to stumble down the stairs at the back of the dock and begin his journey into oblivion.