Shadow Play Read Online Free PDF Page A

had never even seen. On arrival, it had taken him three days to find the lavatories on this floor and even now, he took a different route each time.
    Smoking was not allowed within his personal domain, and Redwood noticed with obscure satisfaction that Helen West was not only fidgeting but looked as if a strong gin would be preferable to weak tea. He regarded her with his customary mixture of grudging respect and awkwardness. She had changed, recently. Before, she had always seemed to campaign for them to be aware of the possible innocence of those charged with criminal offences, but now she seemed obsessed with their frequent inability to prove guilt. At the moment she was keeping them all entertained with the story of a man named Logo.
    â€˜Well, he came in, suit, tie, the lot, looking the soul of poverty-stricken respectability, and, oh yes, I forgot, clutching his Bible. “I brought my own,” he said sweetly and bowed to the bench. He listened to all the evidence, asking only the most pertinent questions, as if he’d been representing himself all his life.’
    â€˜He probably has,’ said Dinsdale, laughing. Helen was accompanying her saga with a number of gestures. He, too, had seen Logo before and he anticipated the perfection of Helen’s mimicry.
    â€˜â€œExcuse me,” he says to the mother of the first witness, “but your dear little daughter did not complain that I had touched her in any way, did she?” “No, she never,” the witness concedes. “I only offered her sweets, as I offered them to others?” “Right on,” says the witness. “I did not accompany my offer with any kind of lewd gesture?” Witness puzzled. “What’s one of them?” “I don’t know, madam. I cannot really define what I could not do, but I thought that was what I am accused of.” Oh, he’s so horribly articulate. “I’m afraid, madam,” he says finally, “I only followed your daughter from the school gates because she was alone and crying, because I was concerned for her, and because she so resembles my own daughter, who I’ve lost.” He had the witness in tears, feeling guilty. And the bench. He’s sort of naïvely ingenious. Then he told us how rough the police were, showed us the handcuff burns and no-one dared point out they weren’t recent at all. Everyone ended up turning somersaults to be nice to him and then when he was acquitted, you know what he did?’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Dinsdale. ‘He sang.’
    â€˜Exactly,’ said Helen. ‘“Abide with me, fast falls the eventide. The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide …” He’s got a beautiful voice, but he knew the limits, so he stopped after verse two.’
    â€˜I know,’ said John Riley, the only churchgoer of them all.
    â€˜Swift to its close, ebbs out life’s little day;
    Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
    Change and decay in all around I see;
    Oh, thou who changest not, abide with me.’
    His fine, bass voice finished on a cadence of embarrassment and he looked down, blushing. A pin would have dropped with a clatter in the silence which followed. Redwood stirred uneasily. This was really too much for a man who preferred others to remain inhibited.
    â€˜You see what I mean?’ said Helen, breaking the spell. ‘You can’t cross-examine a man who sings hymns like that. Nor can you get across that it’s the fifth time he’s been caught prowling. You know his first speciality, years ago? Being found on enclosed premises. People would turn round in some office block he used to clean and suddenly, he’d be there. Now he’s a road sweeper. These days he tries to lure dark-haired little girls to go with him for walks in graveyards. And he knows how impotent we are. He never actually does anything. Am I the only one who finds him so sinister?’
    â€˜He