Faith - Lesley Pearse [123]
Stuart greeted her with a hug. ‘Let me introduce you to David. As I said in my letter, I persuaded him to help us.’
Laura shook David’s hand. ‘It’s good to meet you, David, I just hope Stuart didn’t twist your arm too hard.’
‘He has a silver tongue when he wants something,’ David replied, and his smile was attractively shy. ‘He did tell you I’m not a criminal lawyer, didn’t he? I can’t promise I’ll be any real use to you.’
Laura privately thought he’d already been of great use to her – it would be the talk of the block tonight that she’d had two hunks visiting. David might be rather upper-crust, but he had the whiff of the great outdoors about him, as Stuart did. A real man, she thought; he looked tough, adaptable and strong-willed.
‘You have already proved you’re not just a pretty face, David,’ Stuart grinned. ‘You knew all the right buttons to push with Patrick Goldsmith.’
‘You’ve already been to see my solicitor?’ Laura asked in surprise as they sat down opposite her at the table.
‘That was our first stop when I got here,’ David said. ‘But he’s not a man with fire in his belly, is he?’
Laura sniggered. Patrick Goldsmith was the duty solicitor who came to the police station when she was first arrested. She had been told many times since that she should have got a solicitor of her own choice. But as she didn’t know any other criminal lawyers, and he seemed genuinely to believe in her innocence, she saw no reason to ask for someone else.
But his anaemic appearance and manner should have been enough to set alarm bells jangling. He had a limp handshake, pale skin, thin lips and thick glasses. There was no colour in him, and certainly no fire.
‘You’ve got him taped,’ she said. ‘And what was his reaction to you two poking your noses into his case?’
‘Surprised you had two such formidable friends,’ Stuart said with a touch of pomposity. ‘He’s apathetic of course, doesn’t believe we can find any new evidence to qualify for an appeal, but we’re banking that his guilt at not putting together a strong defence for you will make him go the extra mile this time.’
‘Have you dug up anything positive yet?’ Laura asked.
‘Lena is prepared to make a statement that she knew Jackie had several men friends, which if nothing else would prove you weren’t making that up,’ Stuart said.
‘How was she? Laura asked eagerly.
‘Bright as a button, and I can guess what you really want to know: no, she doesn’t believe you are guilty.’
‘Really?’ Laura’s face blushed pink with pleasure. ‘Of all the people involved, she’s the one whose opinion matters most to me.’
‘I thought as much,’ Stuart nodded. ‘Oh, and I told Goldsmith about that lane by the farm. The real murderer could have got in and out that way unseen by the neighbour.’
Laura thanked him for going to see Meggie and told him that she’d had a letter from her. She had hundreds of questions she wanted to ask about her sisters and Lena, but time was short and she knew Stuart had questions too.
‘Have you remembered any names of men friends Jackie might have mentioned?’
‘She wasn’t one for using real names,’ Laura said glumly. ‘You probably remember she always gave nicknames to people who were transient in her life.’
Stuart smiled. ‘She used to call me “Chisel”. There was a plasterer she used she nicknamed “Bucket Head”. I never knew what his real name was.’
‘There was someone she called “Growler”,’ Laura remembered. ‘She was very cagey about him, she only made the odd remark that he’d been round the night before or something. That made me think he was married. I would think she called him that because he had a deep voice. I know he drank whisky too – she mentioned having to go out to get some more for him once. But there must be millions of