“And I can honestly say that I have neverseen the notorious ventriloquist act,” Dr. Baldwin smiled as besthe could. “But perhaps we won’t need a defense.”
“That’s what I’m hoping,” Marc said.” Iintend to go at every Crown witness without mercy. Seamus isinnocent, so there is a truth out there that I must get to, or inthe least point to. We may not be able to break up the neat littlenarrative outlined here in the indictment, but we can put cracks init everywhere along route and suggest some enticing alternatives.Then we’ll win it in the closing argument.”
“That’s the spirit,” Hincks said.
“Who will be arguing against you, Marc?”
It was Robert Sullivan who answered. “I’mafraid it’s Neville Cambridge.”
Both Sullivan and Marc had come up againstNeville Cambridge in the previous spring’s assizes. He was a newbreed of barrister, educated in England where he apprenticed at theOld Bailey, and newly immigrated to Toronto to take up apartnership in his cousin’s law firm. He had proved to be such aneffective courtroom performer that the Crown co-opted him to tryimportant cases. His approach eschewed the flamboyant andhyper-dramatic tactics of old-guard barristers like Doubtful DickDougherty. Instead he relied on his gentleman’s suave demeanour andsly gambits that were closer to sleight-of-hand than slick gesture.He was also a High Tory and politically ambitious. A victory overthe Baldwin clan would be a feather in his pedigreed cap.
“Then we’ll just have to try all the harder,”Marc said.
***
Reluctanty Robert set off on his trouble-shootingmission to Windsor the next day. Francis Hincks wrote immediatelyto Louis LaFontaine, explaining as best he could their view of theheinous and false charges brought against Uncle Seamus and, byextension, the Baldwins and the Reform party. He pointed out thatthe party’s grassroots support was founded on notions of equalityof opportunity and fair play under the law. These people respectedthe earned entitlements of the middle class who led them intheir political struggles: politicos like the Hincks and Baldwinsand, before them, Mackenzie and the Bidwells. If one of their ilkwere to abuse such privilege (abominably in the case of SeamusBaldwin) and disadvantage one of their own kind, then that constantsupport could be dramatically withdrawn. Three days later Hincksreceived a courteous and thoughtful reply from LaFontaine, himselfa lawyer. He sympathized with the Baldwin’s position and promisedthat he would keep a lid on speculation in Quebec among hisrouge adherents. He was certain there would be no long-termeffects on their French-English alliance – if the gentleman werefound innocent. He left unsaid the awful consequences ofconviction.
Meanwhile Marc busied himself reading andre-reading the indictment and the numerous attachments: Cobb’svarious interviews and summary, and the two incriminating notes. Onthe Thursday before the trial, he rode up to Whittle’s mill andsurveyed the scene for himself. He wanted to retrace the witnesses’movements, timing, and vantage-points. From the south side of themill, if you walked ten paces farther on, you could see down intothe ravine and the trout-pool where the stream began one of itsmany loops. Unless a person in the ravine were specificallylooking for someone at that point, the latter would likely beunobserved, as Joe Mullins claimed. Uncle Seamus had been seen buthad not realized it. From the ravine Marc followed the creek’s banknorth, noting that a screen of bushes and hawthorn trees kept hismovements hidden from anyone in or around the mill. This coverlasted the hundred and twenty yards he paced off from thetrout-pool to the rear of the barn. Even today, with Seth Whittleaware of his presence and purpose, the back doors were wide open.Marc walked up towards them. A small grove of cedars to his rightwould effectively screen his movement from the two men who claimedto be working on the damaged weir above the mill itself. So, it waspossible for the Crown to claim that Uncle Seamus could have gotfrom the ravine to the barn without being seen. In less than fiveminutes.
Marc went into the barn and stood just insidethe doorway, the spot from which Jake Broom stated he had witnessedthe rape. The stall was wide open to view, as it must have been onthat terrible day. The stall itself was part of a row of stallsrunning north and south the length of the barn. But it was the onlyone visible from the eastern entrance. Broom must have entered fromthe door on the southwest corner, and then strode along to check onthe sick horse, around the corner and several stalls away from thefateful one. Then he would have decided to exit through the backdoors to go for a walk or a smoke, would have walked by the openstall without seeing or hearing anything (why there was no soundwas another matter to be considered), would have reached thedoorway, heard some small noise, and turned to discover the outragebeing perpetrated before his eyes. Instead of rescuing the girl, hepanics and runs to the mill-office. But it’s about one o’clock andeveryone has gone back to work. So he races back, only to find thestall empty. Marc spent another minute studying the peculiar playof light and shadow in the stall, and thinking hard. Then he leftthe barn.
Broom told a persuasive story, one Marc wouldhave to break – somehow.
For the sake of completeness he walked to theweir at the millpond. He stood on the little dam and gazed backtowards the barn. Except for its roof, it was invisible. Where, ifat all, was the weak link in this credible chain of events? Hewished he could interview the witnesses, but that was notpermitted. He thanked Seth Whittle and left, wiser but no closer towhere he hoped to be before Monday.
He rode on up to Spadina. Robert was expectedhome soon, but it was Dr. Baldwin who led him up to Uncle Seamus’sroom. The interview did not go well. Uncle Seamus insisted on hisinnocence, and Marc believed him. But when he tried to get the oldfellow to elaborate on the explanations he had given Cobb andrecall anyone else who might be able to corroborate them, UncleSeamus was of no help. He was deeply depressed and sleep-deprived.His answers wandered and did more to confuse Marc than enlightenhim. For the old man’s sake, Marc soon gave up.
“Maybe he’ll be better able to helptomorrow,” Dr. Baldwin said without much conviction. “But it maywell be all down to you, lad.”
That’s what I’m afraid of, Marc thought.
***
When Marc got back to the chambers at Baldwin House,Clement Peachey handed him the witness-list, which had just arrived- days late.
“Any surprises?” Peachey asked.
“Yes. Cobb is not on here.”
“Then you may have to call him yourself.”
Marc sighed. Then whistled. “But my wifeis.”
***
Marc always shared his investigations and courtcases with Beth, insofar as confidentiality or his barrister’s oathwas not broken. Since the details of the indictment were bothnumerous and public, Marc did not have to hold much back. And hedid not have to refer to the interdicted witness-list because Bethherself had received her subpoena a few hours before he arrivedhome for supper. They went immediately into their new parlour, andBeth asked Etta Hogg to watch the children and hold supper for halfan hour.
“Why would the Crown call me as a witness?”Beth said. She was well aware of the Crown’s case and Marc’s senseof how it would unfold.
“To make mischief, I’m afraid,” Marc said.“This whole business reeks of politics. The Tory prosecutors wantto drag the Edwards clan into this – you and me both, so we willall be tarred with one brutal brush.”
“But I’d just deflect them from their case,wouldn’t I?”
“Well, you and I have been out toSpadina.”
Beth winced. “The birthday party and thoseshenanigans!”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. And itshows how low our opponent’s have sunk. But your name is well downthe list, so perhaps I’ll have so shaken them by then that they’llhave less petty matters to attend to.”