The Verdict Read Online Free PDF Page A

knew, and knew well.
    But, initially, I thought I’d misheard.
    ‘Who?’
    ‘Who?
Who?
Are you an owl?
Vernon James
.’
    I swallowed. Something in me went cold. My hand tightened to a fist around the phone.
    And my legs turned to jelly.
    ‘Hello… Are you there?’
    ‘Yeah,’ I said, trying to stop the tremor from getting at my throat. ‘Go on.’
    ‘Do you know who Vernon James is?’
    ‘Sure.’ And I reeled off his CV: founder and owner of VJ Capital Management, a hugely successful hedge fund. The
Sunday Times
Rich List estimated his fortune at £145 million. Age: thirty-eight. Homes in New York, Paris, London and Grantchester, a village outside Cambridge. Married, three daughters…
    ‘I stand corrected! How come you know so much about him?’
    ‘I read the business pages,’ I replied, hurriedly. ‘What about him?’
    ‘He’s been arrested for murder.’
    ‘
Murder?
Who? When?
’ I couldn’t contain my – well,
excitement
; because that’s what it was. It went through me in a warm intoxicating surge. I got light-headed, dizzy. I was standing and had to sit down.
    Then I realised something was off.
    ‘What’s this got to do with us?’ I asked.
    ‘Just about
everything
,’ Janet said. ‘Vernon doesn’t have a criminal lawyer. Ahmad’s asked
me
to represent him.’
    ‘Oh…’ was all I could say to that. The ground had just given way under my feet, and I was fast-treading thin air.
    ‘Terry, do you know how big this is going to be?’ Janet said, puffing away. I could almost see her smiling through the smoke. ‘We are talking
the
biggest trial in the country. This is
exactly
what we need. You know how I’ve been trying to get Sid Kopf to expand our division? This is
just
the kind of case I can use.’
    ‘Sure…’ I said. But I was only half-listening.
    ‘You know what this means for
you
?’ Janet said.
    Of course I knew. The Call and Response Rule, aka: the Ownership Rule.
It called, you answered, it’s yours
.
    Although the call had come through to my colleague, Bella, who sat opposite me, I’d picked up the phone, therefore I was working the case.
    ‘Yeah…?’
    ‘What’s the matter?’ Janet asked.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘This is the biggest break you’ll ever get, Terry. Or do you want to stay a clerk all your life?’
    ‘Long day,’ I said.
    ‘Better get used to it,’ she said. ‘You know if this goes well, it could mean you get the nod for the degree?’
    And the hits just kept on coming…
    Every two years KRP rewarded its best clerk with a fully funded law degree. No one from the criminal division had ever won it. Our branch was too small, our cases too trifling, too under the radar. The degree invariably went to someone from corporate or tax. The prize was due to be given out this year. Sid Kopf, our CEO, had hinted that he was looking to break with tradition. Now everyone had perked up and started plotting, especially Bella, who’d already been trying to do me over from my first day on the job, three months ago. My catching the most high-profile case our division had ever had was going to mean outright war between us.
    ‘I need you to do something for me right now,’ Janet said. ‘I have to go and see Vernon at Charing Cross nick in the next hour. I don’t have my pen with me. I left it in my office.’
    She always used the same fountain pen when she was working a case. She thought it brought her luck. She told me where to find it and asked me to bring it round to her house.
    I said sure and hung up.
    Then I sat on the floor and put my head in my hands.
    Vernon James

– arrested for murder
.
    Of all the payback scenarios I’d conjured up in my head, I’d never once imagined it would be in a judicial setting – and least of all, with me
defending
him.

2
    Never bring a bad day home. That was what my wife and I had promised each other after the kids were born. They were entitled to their childhood.
    My way of sticking to the tacit pact with my family