‘Could what Mrs Lomax appears to be suffering be Multiple Personality Disorder?’ Hall saw that his instructing solicitor wasn’t smirking any more.
‘In America, probably,’ conceded Mason. ‘It’s not a diagnosis accepted here, as far as I know, although there are widely known case histories. I’ve actually heard The Three Faces of Eve discussed among professionals as if it was a clinically diagnosed and proven case, not a movie.’
‘It’s never been offered as a defence in an English court, to my knowledge,’ said Perry.
‘Nor mine,’ said the psychiatrist. ‘You’re going to get other opinions as well as mine, of course?’
‘Of course,’ agreed Perry, happy to be back on solid, legal procedural ground.
‘Then use an American psychiatrist who’s familiar with the syndrome.’
‘We will,’ accepted Hall, at once. ‘But you want more sessions?’
‘Very much so. I’d particularly like to examine her under hypnosis, if she’d agree to it.’
‘Can people lie under hypnosis?’ demanded Hall, recognizing a new opportunity.
‘They’re less inclined to. There are some people who can’t be hypnotized.’
‘If she were – if she agreed and was a suitable subject – would you be able to decide whether or not she was faking the voice?’ asked Hall.
‘I might get a better indication than I’ve got so far,’ offered the psychiatrist, guardedly.
‘I think she’s undergone enough examinations, of every sort, for one day,’ came in Lloyd, protectively.
‘I agree,’ said Mason, at once.
‘There’s something you don’t know,’ Hall said, remembering. It only took him minutes to explain the local authority approach about Emily’s care but before he reached what he thought might be important Mason broke in to demand how she’d reacted.
‘Outrage at the very beginning,’ recounted Hall. ‘Then calmly, logically. She’s instructed us to oppose it. But there was something I thought might be important. There was no second voice. She was quite rational, throughout.’
‘Did she explain that?’ frowned Mason.
‘No. Perhaps you should have been there?’
The psychiatrist shook his head. ‘It’ll be a starting point tomorrow. With the hypnosis.’
‘If she agrees,’ cautioned Lloyd.
Jennifer did, at once, fifteen minutes later. Still without any physical sensation of Jane’s presence she asked, too, for the sedation to keep the voice away during the night.
‘Don’t you want to hear about the preliminary findings?’ asked Mason, experimentally.
‘No!’ refused Jennifer, anxiously and at once.
‘He said what?’ demanded Feltham. They were in El Vino again, because Jeremy Hall had insisted on returning to chambers and Perry hadn’t wanted obviously to meet the chief clerk there. And Feltham was annoyed because he didn’t like being around this late. Lunch was his time.
‘Words to the effect that he knew there was a hidden agenda and that to keep whatever else was on offer he’d get a leader – Sir Richard himself, he hinted – for the Lomax case.’
‘Cheeky bugger! What did you say?’ One advantage of not having to return to the office to work was that he could drink claret instead of lighter white wines. The St Emilion was excellent.
‘Nothing.’
‘Didn’t you even deny it?’
‘I dismissed it. Said the case was indefensible.’
‘How is it shaping up?’
‘Bloody nightmare. Hall is taking it all so seriously, as if there is a worthwhile plea to enter. And he’s far more confident than I thought he might be at our first meeting. Had me call the Hampshire Social Security people from the car, on our way back, and then dictated a list of instructions as long as my arm before we got here. His last insistence was that I go down to Hampshire with him tomorrow. When I asked him how he expected me to do that as well as everything else he said he had every confidence in me.’
Feltham nodded to another claret. ‘Judges don’t like cocky young beginners. You want me to have a word in his ear?’
‘No,’ said Perry. ‘Just wanted to keep you up to date with things.’
‘How is she?’
‘Totally mad.’
‘No leader from my chambers is going to appear in court and talk about ghostly murderers,’ decided Feltham, positively. ‘I don’t give a damn whether Jeremy bloody Hall is a nephew of Sir Richard’s or not. He’ll do as he’s told, like they all do.’
In Jennifer’s hospital room, less than two miles away, the sedative began to take affect. The last thing of which Jennifer was aware was Jane’s distant voice. ‘ You can’t begin to guess the plans I’ve got, Jennifer. It’s much more fun than I thought it might be.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘So am I,’ said Patricia Boxall, beside him in the darkness.
‘I’ll be all right later,’ promised Hall.
Was it still too late to leave: call Alexander from the car? Probably. It had been close to midnight before they’d got back from the poxy Italian restaurant with its stale spaghetti and acid wine. ‘Wake me,’ she said, turning away from him. If the sex was over then so was everything else.
Chapter Thirteen
The traffic was heavier than they anticipated but they still arrived almost an hour ahead of the appointment with the council and care officials. When they turned into the driveway and stopped for the gate to be opened after identifying themselves through the speaker grill, two men with cameras and another with a tape recorder ran from an unseen car parked opposite. There were momentarily blinding flashes and the man with the tape recorder said, ‘May I ask…’ before the gates opened and Perry accelerated through.
‘Bastards!’ exclaimed the solicitor. ‘Frightened the hell out of me!’
‘Weren’t you told of this, when you spoke to the house?’ Hall asked Johnson.
‘Annabelle said she’d been bothered but didn’t tell me there were ambushes outside the gate,’ said the family solicitor.
Alerted by the gate telephone Annabelle Parkes was at the open door by the time they reached the square, creeper-clad mansion. The nanny was a plump, round-faced girl who wore her hair short and disdained any make-up. The impression, even for someone who could only have been in her twenties, was motherly, which Hall decided was an advantage. There was a firm, no-nonsense handshake but no smile. Coffee was already set out in the drawing room at the front of the house, overlooking the terraced lawns and the distant coppice which hid the gate. It was a room of heavy velvet drapes and brocaded furniture which Hall guessed to be Regency. It could, he supposed, have been Georgian in keeping with the period of the house. Some looked similar to the antiques his father had sold, trying to stave off the Lloyd’s bankruptcy. There were a lot of photographs, the majority of Jennifer with Lomax, with Emily completing the family in several. They were smiling and laughing in virtually all of them, apart from two posed studio portraits. The one of Jennifer reminded Hall of the picture that most of the newspapers had used. She was more than simply beautiful, he decided. The head-tilted confidence he’d earlier recognized made her intriguing, too. Meeting her in any other circumstances would have made him curious to discover just how intelligent she was.
As she poured coffee Annabelle said, ‘I’ve kept Emily home from kindergarten. I didn’t know if they – if you – would want to see her. She’s upstairs in the nursery, playing. You said you wanted to talk before the others arrived? And I’ve packed clothes. Quite a lot, to give Mrs Lomax a choice. She takes a lot of trouble about how she dresses.’
‘Mrs Lomax is resisting Emily being taken into care,’ announced Johnson. ‘We can do that, certainly until after any trial. But it’s very necessary that we know if you’re prepared to remain here, looking after the child.’
‘That’s what I’m employed to do,’ said the girl, stiffly.
‘And are happy to continue doing so?’ pressed Perry.
‘Absolutely.’
‘That’s good to know,’ said Hall. ‘I’m surprised this approach came from the council so quickly.’