After a short break, it was time for the defence’s pathologist. The defence had not started well, with Baird’s evidence and the Crown’s assertion that Sebastian had a disorder on the Asperger’s spectrum, but Daniel thought that Charlotte had been a good witness. It had been dangerous to ask her to testify. As an alibi she was important but her volatile emotional state and her lack of attention had worried both Irene and Daniel. Yet Charlotte had excelled. She had been honest about her drug-taking and about her anxiety, and Daniel felt that her evidence was more credible than Rankine’s later sighting of the fighting boys, after the time when Sebastian claimed he had returned home.
Irene seemed less confident when he met her and Mark afterwards. She was stripped of her gown, pacing in the robing room where the barristers’ lockers were sited.
‘I just don’t think it’s strong enough, Danny,’ she said. ‘That bloody psychologist hurt us.’ The bone-clean cuff of her collar flapped in emphasis as she spoke, hand on hip, two neat lines between her brows. ‘We need something more.’
‘We still have our forensic scientist to call, but I assume you’re not going to call her now,’ said Daniel.
‘No need since we turned Watson. His capitulation is stronger than anything she could say.’
‘There is one person that they’re still waiting to hear from,’ said Daniel.
Irene spun round to face him. Her eyes were intense. ‘You mean put Sebastian on the stand? It wouldn’t be allowed at this stage. The defence is under way.’
‘Could you not make a formal application to the judge?’ Daniel asked.
‘I could but he’s not certain to allow it. Do you think Sebastian’s up to it?’
‘He might be.’
‘And you really think this will help us? I had wondered as much myself. By not letting him testify we could be harming his chances. We need the jury to understand him, especially with the Crown throwing in Asperger’s and his mother’s drug addiction and the morbid fascination. He’s saying nothing and the jury’s imaginations are running riot … ’
‘I agree – they’re all waiting to hear his side of the story. His silence now is implicating him,’ Daniel said.
Irene exhaled. ‘God, let’s all go and get a drink. I think we need it. We can talk about it then. We’d need reports from the psychologist and then I would have to apply to Baron.’
By eight o’clock they were on their third pint at the Bridge Bar in Gray’s Inn, giggling in the corner behind Judge Baron’s back. The judge was on the other side of the bar with a small sherry.
‘You all right, Danny boy, eh?’ said Irene, leaning forward and sweeping back the hair from Daniel’s face. He allowed it, letting his head fall back gently against the wood panelling. ‘You seem really heavy lately. You’re not like you were at the last trial. I wonder if it’s all getting to you, and I see our little client likes you … a lot.’
‘He hates me,’ said Mark, Irene’s junior.
Daniel gave him a sideways smile. Mark was an awkward lad, never seeming to find a shirt to fit.
Daniel pounded his fist gently on the table, making the head on his beer vibrate.
‘I didn’t see all that Asperger’s stuff coming. He’d ruled it out – he’d specifically ruled it out.’
‘None of us saw it coming, Danny, let it go … Hopefully we did a good recovery. I think the way to deal with it is just to acknowledge it from now on. I think I might even mention it in closing, but we have to reiterate the point we have already made, that … even if he does have the non-diagnosed Asperger’s – whatever he called it – Sebastian is not a murderer.’
Daniel and Mark nodded in agreement.
‘The bigger question,’ Irene said, crossing her legs and leaning back in her seat, ‘is whether we take your suggestion and call him.’
‘I know he can do it,’ said Daniel. ‘I wouldn’t suggest it otherwise. He’s not like a lot of little boys. He could handle it.’
‘What’s your opinion, Mark?’ Irene asked.
Daniel could tell from her tone and the way she looked at Mark that she was not really asking him for his opinion, but testing him, teaching him.
‘I think it’s dangerous. There’s no real precedent for it. Venables and Thompson didn’t testify at the Bulger trial because they were said to be suffering from post-traumatic stress. Mary Bell testified, but that was in the fifties and doesn’t constitute a true parallel … ’
‘I think Danny’s right that the jury need to hear from Seb, and I also think he’ll surprise us with his ability to perform. What is not certain is whether the psychologist will agree the boy’s up to it, and ultimately if Baron will accept the application.’
‘I think you should go for it,’ said Daniel.
‘Let me sleep on it. What I find disarming,’ Irene continued, ‘but … nevertheless helpful for his defence … is that he is quite a charming child – Asperger’s or not. He’s weird, he’s unsettling, but he’s charming nevertheless. And he’s very mature, very good in adult company.’ She let her hand fall on to Daniel’s knee. ‘I think you might be right. We can put him on the stand.’
Daniel wished that Mark was no longer there. He leaned back, resisting the urge to take her hand.
‘He doesn’t like my adult company,’ said Mark. Daniel smiled again; Mark seemed genuinely offended to have been rejected by the child.
‘You’re being paranoid,’ said Irene. ‘Why does he like you so much, Danny?’
Daniel shrugged. ‘Just generally likeable, I suppose.’
‘Do you like him?’ asked Mark.
‘That’s funny, he asked me that same thing the other day.’
‘What did you say?’
‘I said I did like him … I’m not sure like is the right word, though. Some part of me … understands him, or I think I do. Whether he murdered Ben Stokes or not, we all know he’s a very disturbed little boy. He needs looking after.’
Mark was looking at Daniel in a strange way, as if he had said something he disagreed with but was afraid to challenge.
‘It does make you wonder,’ said Irene. ‘When I think of the things I got up to as a child … God, it doesn’t bear thinking about.’
‘Like what?’ said Danny, one eyebrow raised.
She smiled at him and let her head fall to one side. ‘I set fire to my cousin’s dress because she said I looked like that little girl from Little House on the Prairie.’
‘Set fire to her?’ Daniel leaned forward.
‘Yes, we had a big open fire in the kitchen and I was furious with her. I got a little piece of kindling and set the frill of her dress alight. It could’ve been a terrible accident. I could’ve found myself in Sebastian’s position.’
‘What happened?’ said Mark and Daniel together.
‘Miraculous. She just patted the flames and they died. Just patted them away. Of course she told on me … and her dress was ruined.’
‘I knew you’d’ve been a little hell-raiser.’
‘I’m a fire-starter,’ mimed Irene, shooing Mark off to get more drinks.
‘What were you like when you were little?’ said Irene coyly. ‘Bet you were adorable.’
‘I was a tearaway,’ said Daniel, meeting her gaze.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I can see that too.’
Daniel met with the Crolls at Parklands House. The psychologist had stated that Sebastian would be able to testify under certain conditions. Irene was preparing her application to Judge Philip Baron.