‘You and Officer Montgomery were the first people to list the contents of Ms Lang’s purse?’
‘Yes,’ confirmed the man.
‘Thank you,’ said the lawyer, plumping down beside Parnell.
‘Mr Jackson!’ demanded the judge, warningly.
‘May I approach the bench?’
‘If you hadn’t asked, I was going to demand it,’ said the judge.
It was a huddled unheard discussion between the judge, Jackson and Vernon Hanson, with several bursts of gesticulating from the prosecuting attorney. When they returned to the body of the court, Hanson said to the judge: ‘Upon your instruction, I will say nothing that indicates the content of our conversation but I wish that restraint to be recorded, as well as the possibility of a complaint to another body for lack of prior disclosure.’
‘This is a remand hearing, Mr Hanson,’ said the judge. ‘Prior disclosure is not a requirement, although I will concede there might have been a courtesy extended.’
Jackson was immediately upon his feet. ‘If I have offended the court – or the prosecution – then I apologize. I would also like that entered into the record.’
Helen Montgomery’s evidence of arrest was an echo of her partner’s, as was her account of their receiving Rebecca Lang’s handbag upon their return to the police building.
Jackson took her through that as meticulously as he had Peter Bellamy, towards the end insisting: ‘Who did what, in the listing of the contents? Who wrote the list, who extracted the items, one by one?’
The woman shifted, uncomfortably. ‘I think I took them out, Pete wrote them down.’
‘What’s AF209 mean to you?’
‘Nothing. A flight number, I guess.’
‘Which you would have pursued, to discover the significance?’
‘If the investigation were left to us, yes. But I don’t expect it will be, now that it’s a homicide.’
Not once was there any intervention from Hanson, who spent the questioning bent over a yellow legal pad, hurriedly writing.
The forensic scientist was a small, elderly, thinning-haired man who very positively stressed his professorship and whose hand shook as he took the oath to be sworn in as Jacob Meadows. The man, who needed constantly to clear his throat, testified to being shown two cars the previous afternoon in the police-department garage. He was also shown substantial paint debris collected from the scene of a fatal accident involving a 2003 registered blue Ford. Grey paint adhering to the Ford, and in places wedged into that extensively damaged bodywork, together with more that had been among the dislodged blue paint, unquestionably matched that of the grey Toyota he had been asked to examine and compare.
Jackson was quickly on his feet again. ‘Professor, where were the two vehicles when you examined them?’
‘I have already told you, in the police-department garage,’ replied the coughing man, testily.
‘And the separate paint debris?’
‘I don’t understand the question.’
‘Where did you find that?’
‘It was handed to me.’
‘By whom?’
‘One of the recovery engineers?’
‘In an evidence bag?’
‘Yes.’
‘So, you did not yourself examine the scene? Collect the samples?’
‘I collected those samples adhering to the Ford in the garage. And I saw how the preventative barrier had been damaged: there was blue paint residue there, where it mounted the barrier to go into the canyon. The Ford, in the garage, was also marked by paint from the barrier.’
‘But you yourself did not descend into the canyon, to carry out any investigation there?’
‘It’s a forty-foot drop. Recovery engineers had to be lowered by hoists. I understand the Ford was recovered by crane.’
‘You weren’t there for that recovery?’
‘No.’
‘And did not go down, on a hoist, into the canyon?’
‘I have already told you I did not.’
‘But you have carefully examined both cars in the garage?’
‘Yes.’
‘Tell me, professor, at the speed that these two vehicles are thought to have collided, causing the damage you’ve indicated, would you have expected a substantial amount of blue paint from Ms Lang’s car to have marked Mr Parnell’s grey Toyota?’
There was no immediate reply from Jacob Meadows, but there was shuffling in the court, particularly from the press bench. Finally the forensic scientist said, shortly: ‘Yes.’
‘Were there any such blue paint markings?’
‘My examination was provisional, for this hearing.’
‘Were there any blue paint markings?’ persisted Jackson.
The man took a notebook from his pocket, flicking through the pages with a shaking hand for several moments. ‘I haven’t recorded any.’
‘Is the direction of this questioning connected with our earlier discussion at the bench, Mr Jackson?’ intervened the judge.
‘Yes, your honour,’ confirmed the lawyer. To Meadows he said: ‘Were you shown the contents of the deceased’s handbag?’
‘No.’
‘Was there any discussion between you and officers at the police station about any handbag?’
‘No. My examination was cursory, for the benefit of this hearing.’
‘Cursory!’ seized Jackson. ‘You conducted a cursory examination, for the benefit of this hearing, the purpose of which is to decide whether or not Richard Parnell should be remanded in custody.’
‘I did what I was asked to do, at that stage.’
‘Asked to do by whom?’
‘I’m not sure I remember. Someone at the station.’
Neither Bellamy nor Helen Montgomery were smirking any more.
‘I’ve concluded this initial questioning of this witness,’ said Jackson. ‘I call Richard Parnell to the stand.’
Parnell felt a vague unreality as he walked across the well of the court, and he fought against it, nervously aware that the last thing he could afford was light-headedness or lack of concentration. He recited the oath to the usher’s dictation, glad his voice strengthened when he answered Jackson’s first question, that he fully understood what it meant to tell the truth. Despite knowing the questioning was necessary to establish a good character, Parnell regretted having to list his academic and scientific qualifications, background and acclaim to the journalists’ hurried scribbling, wondering if his arrest and arraignment would appear in British newspapers. He hoped it wouldn’t cause any embarrassment or harassment of English colleagues if it did. Or, he abruptly thought, his mother. He had to call her, just in case. Jackson took him, in just as much detail, through his employment by Dubette and even into a detailed explanation of pharmacogenomics. The media note-taking increased when Jackson led the questioning on to Parnell’s relationship with Rebecca Lang, generalizing at first before coming specifically to the Sunday at Chesapeake Bay and their return to the Washington Circle apartment. Parnell’s tension tightened when he began talking about the decision he and Rebecca had made, to live together, frightened that Jackson would introduce Rebecca’s admission of pregnancy, but the lawyer didn’t.
‘What was Rebecca Lang’s demeanour when she left your apartment to return to Bethesda?’
‘She was happy. We both were, about living together.’
‘You didn’t have an argument?’
‘Absolutely not.’
‘Fall out?’
‘Absolutely not.’
‘What did you do after Rebecca left your apartment?’
‘Sat around. Did some work I’d brought home with me. Went to bed.’
‘You didn’t call her?’
‘No.’
‘Why not? You’d just made a romantic commitment. A lot of people might have expected you to call to make sure she got home safely.’
‘I know. I just didn’t. I wish I had. I could have started a search, earlier. Maybe…’ Parnell swallowed, not finishing. He supposed Jackson was anticipating some of the questioning he had to expect from the prosecutor.
‘Now tell the court about the damage to your car,’ insisted Jackson.