Caffery sat back a little so that his face was hidden by the railing. He didn't want to make himself too visible to the CPS. Nervous, Jack? Slightly nervous?
Lamb was brought into the court and climbed the two steps into the dock. Even through the thick glass Caffery could hear her emphysematous breathing. "Is that her?" Rebecca hissed, inching forward, trying to see her face. She wore a Nike zip top over a tight white T-shirt and had her back to them, looking straight out at the court. Someone coughed.
"This is a charge relating to a video that came into the police's possession several years ago." The CPS lawyer was on his feet, beginning his outline. "The woman in the video was subsequently identified by the investigating officer as the defendant."
Caffery shifted and Rebecca rested a cool hand over his, but he couldn't relax. Tracey Lamb's back was less than two feet away from him. She put her little polystyrene sputum cup down on the ledge in front of her and took off her jacket the T-shirt was pulled drum tight across swells of adipose. Even now, if he closed his eyes and conjured the oiled click of a tool in his palm, he could imagine the rest. He could imagine sliding it into that back he knew what it would look like: he'd seen enough bloodied fat sloughed away on the autopsy block. He imagined her enlarged elephant's heart squeezing the blood out through the ribs.
At that moment, as if his thoughts had reached through the air, Lamb pretended to cough. She covered her mouth and dipped her face slightly, to the side, turning sufficiently to see behind her into the public gallery. At first she seemed surprised to see him. She let her eyes wander over Rebecca and then back to Caffery. They stared at each other for a long time. Then Tracey Lamb dropped her hand from her mouth and smiled. Her long rabbit's teeth pressed into her bottom lip. She winked.
"Miss Lamb, if you could look at me, please." Bethuen, the district judge, a long woman with a regal neck, seemed to be the only person in the place not sweating. On her red leather chair, under the coat-of-arms, she sat rigid and calm in her checked Jaeger jacket, looking down over her spectacles at Lamb. "This is a very serious offence you know that, don't you?"
"Yeah." Lamb turned back to face the court, a smile twitching on her mouth. "Yeah I know that."
"Good. Then let's see if we can pay attention." Bethuen had found the notes of the Narey hearing and was holding the register open at that page. "I see a certain Mr. Cook refused bail." She took off her spectacles and looked up. "In spite of the fact that prosecution weren't going to argue." She allowed herself a small raised eyebrow. "Nice to know that the spirit of Draco is still alive and well in the twenty-first century, isn't it? Now," she looked down at the CPS solicitor, 'this is basically a new bail application. Am I right?"
"That's right."
Alvarez, who was at the solicitors' bench drawing a biro around the metal spirals of her notepad, back and forward, back and forward, nodded to herself and gave a small, confident smile. "Bethuen makes out she's a real ogre," she'd told Tracey, just before the hearing. She'd pulled back the cell wicket and thrust one of her yellow smiles into the space. "Good morning, Tracey." She had the enthusiasm of a morning DJ and she trilled a little on the "R' in Tracey. "Bethuen makes out she's an ogre but there's a secret liberal heart beating under all that hounds tooth You'll be out of here in an hour."
And Jack Caffery was directly behind her in the public gallery, dressed casually in a pale blue shirt. He'd got the answer phone message. He was early, and it was going to take some boxing and coxing to hold him off until she could sort things out at the caravan, but the important thing was that he was here. If he had the money with him they could shake hands on it today.
"The uh prosecution…" The little prosecution lawyer stood. He laid his right hand across the absurd yellow tie, as if he was swearing an oath, and half bowed to the judge. "The prosecution is in possession of…" He looked down and turned over a paper. "That is to say, some new evidence has come to light." In the public gallery Caffery squeezed Rebecca's hand. "And the Crown has no choice but to object to bail on the grounds that this new evidence strongly suggests that Miss Lamb is likely to commit further of fences
Alvarez jumped to her feet. "Madam."
"Yes?"
"I would have thought that if Prosecution had this information he would have had the courtesy to tell me."
"Shall we hear what the new evidence is?" Bethuen pushed her glasses up her nose and turned with a cool smile to the prosecution. "Something which strongly suggests she might reoffend? I'd very much like to hear that."
Alvarez subsided at the bench.
The CPS solicitor cleared his throat. "The investigating officer has viewed four videos, similar videos to the one brought originally, but more recent."
Lamb jiggled her shoulders nervously, looking from Alvarez to the prosecution and back again. A few feet behind her, Caffery dug his nails into his palm, making white half-moons in the skin. He didn't like Bethuen's voice she didn't sound as if she was going to give the CPS the time of day. But it has to work. He let out his breath and looked up through the atrium at the blue sky, his teeth metallic in his head, hoping, hoping, praying it would work.
As Bethuen listened to the prosecution outlining the content of the videos, Lamb's hunched shoulders seemed to solidify and grow. She was as still as an iceberg, staring straight ahead into the court, gripping the edge of the dock, her hands white and quivering. Bethuen made a note in the court register, put the pen down and looked up: "Now, the court case has already been set for the thirtieth of September, I trust that still suits everyone." She took her glasses off, leaned forward on her elbows. "And that leaves only the bail to consider."
Rebecca reached over and rubbed Caffery's arm reassuringly. He didn't look at her. Make it work, make it work
The odd, cawing sounds from the caravan echoed around the quarry, through the forest and out into the open fields. Five cows grazing near by stopped chewing for a moment and looked up. It was a scream that could have been made by a bird, or an animal. A little brindled dog, which often crossed this field, stopped in its tracks and looked towards the quarry, its ears quivering and pricked.
Ewan Caffery didn't know how long he had been tied here didn't know it was seven days since Tracey had left. He didn't know it was three days since he'd finished the water from the bottle under the sink. Now he stopped screaming, too exhausted to continue, and dropped sideways on the bunk as far as the bindings would allow. He gave the ropes a few more jerks but he was too weak now to break them, so he lay patiently, on his side, his eyes rolled upwards to Britney Spears, who smiled down at him from her pickup truck in a Midwestern cornfield.
In the meadow the cows went back to their grass, ears twitching lazily at insects and the dog lost interest, sitting on its haunches to scratch under its chin.
"Now then." Bethuen lowered her glasses and looked kindly at Tracey. "Now, Miss Lamb, what to do with you?" She folded her hands and smiled. "It's complex, isn't it? But I don't have to scurry off and consult authorities to know what they'd tell me. They would tell me to take this new evidence very seriously indeed." She paused. "And so I'm sorry but under paragraphs A and B of the Bail Act you will remain in custody until we see you in court again."
"No!" Lamb shot forward.
Yes. Caffery squeezed Rebecca's hand.
"That'll be all." Bethuen nodded at the security guards, put on her glasses and began to scribble in the register. Lamb whipped round and glared at Caffery. He met her eyes coolly and she hurled herself at the glass, her hands hammering into it. "You fucking pig!" she bawled, pounding her fists on the glass. "You cheap cunt. You cheap cunt!"