FIC: Rejuvenation (4/6) - a Broadchruch fanfic
Title: Rejuvenation
Genre: Broadchurch
Rating: T (subject matter, emotions, legal matters)
Author: tkel_paris
Summary: A chance thought of her assistant makes Jocelyn Knight ask Tom Miller additional questions to check his evidence. His answers lead to others bringing forward evidence that would otherwise have remained hidden until the Defence uncovered them. Will it be enough to reverse the damage done by Sharon Bishop and Abby Thompson?
Disclaimer: If I owned any of the characters, some of them wouldn't have gotten away with what they did. Of course, I'm not yet up to the story-telling abilities of Chris Chibnall. I would like to be, one day.
Dedication: tardis_mole, for betaing and being the reason I'm writing Broadchurch fanfic to begin with. Posted in honor of bas_math_girl's birthday.
Author's Note: Starts in Episode Six after Jocelyn speaks with the Latimers following Tom giving evidence against Mark. Written because I simply needed to right a few blatantly illegal things done. I may be an American, but I think we can all agree when something doesn't seem right.
This chapter includes mentions of something that David Tennant's research should've told him about Hardy's health in the aftermath of the surgery, but I'm guessing the producers cut it out. My beta pointed this out a while ago, and I think it would've been more interesting to keep it in. Just in case anyone's blinking over the difference.
Chapter One / Chapter Two / Chapter Three
Rejuvenation
Start Date: July 11, 2015
Finish Date: September 4, 2015
Chapter Four: Clearing the Air
Hardy was amazed that he was called to Jocelyn's house, and had to leave Miller to consider their next steps in the Sandbrook case. They were getting close, he could feel it. Lee and Claire, as passionate about each other as they were, were approaching their respective breaking points. Something had to give soon.
He was let in by Ben before he even knocked. They both seemed eager to see him, although Jocelyn's reaction was more restrained. Probably why he respected her, despite of some of her failures to find arguments to overcome Defence's objections to the mistakes made by other people.
His puzzled manner turned sour when Jocelyn made clear the reason for calling him there.
“We need to give the Defence's case a solid knock-out blow, and my plan is to call you as the final rebuttal witness.”
“Why me?”
“Of the people Sharon Bishop has maligned, you're the only one who never properly defended himself. The only one not redeemed, at least in part, by someone else's evidence. The Jury, even the ones who seemed favourably disposed toward our case, appear to be at least uncertain whether they can trust your word. I know that frustrates you, and I can change that. Repair that damage to the case, and I think we have a conviction assured.”
“Why not now? Surely that last act of misconduct ruined the Defence's case.”
“I've been eyeing the jurors,” said Ben. “Two of them have definitely not been swayed by the accusations at any time. Susan Wright did more damage to the Defence than help, harming Defence credibility. Tom Miller's recanting and admission that his father was absent during the two times we know he admitted to leaving his sons alone, combined with his accusing the Defence of guiding his evidence, brought four jurors solidly over to our side. Mark Latimer's evidence was more mixed, but it undermined the Defence's case by making his innocence more vivid, and there was a decided empathy due to how Sharon Bishop treated him and Beth. Abby Thompson's seduction of Olly Stephens drew three more jurors over.”
Hardy grimaced. “One short of a majority verdict.”
“We need at least one of those last three. And they're all looking very uneasy with the Defence. Ben and I both think you are the key.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because of this.” Jocelyn's hands drew a folder off to reveal Olly's Sandbrook article. “Reading this gave me the inspiration. They only know of DI Hardy from Danny's case. If we can show them Alec Hardy, the man, the father, the officer and the gentleman, I'm convinced they will see through the Defence's shoddy excuse of a case. Remind them why it's absolutely unlikely that Mark Latimer killed Danny and had Nigel Carter dump the body, and the alternative story Sharon spun will fall apart. Show them you're not the sort who would frame an innocent man and the last remnants of her efforts will shatter like brittle glass.”
Hardy looked down at his clasped hands. “If you bring up anything related to Sandbrook then won't she force me to admit to what happened to make the case fall apart?”
Ben interjected, “If you bring the case back to trial will that likely come out?”
Hardy hesitated. “Yes. Not just likely... It has to. I took the blame for what happened, but I sure as hell will not have that brought up in Court. Danny's case has nothing to do with it, and I won't have it tainted by even a vague mention of Sandbrook.”
“Are you re-investigating even though your arm is less than fully functional?”
“Yes.”
“Have you got the case reopened?”
“No. The officer in charge won't reopen it yet.”
“And who is that officer?”
Hardy exhaled loudly. “My ex.”
Ben and Jocelyn's eyes widened, both suspecting the identity of the unnamed DS from the article. “Eventually she'll have to speak about what happened, whatever it was,” Ben insisted. “Maybe if you rip the plaster off now there will be fewer things for the Defence at that trial to focus on?”
“More to the point here, if the Defence comes at you over that it won't be until after we've shown the kind of man you really are,” Jocelyn put in. “They will see her attack for what it is, and come to hate her. That can only help our case. Will you do it?”
Hardy saw he had no choice. As little as he liked it. “I will do my best, on the understanding that you do not mention Sandbrook, in any way, vaguely or directly. Or I will walk out, and risk Contempt of Court if I have to, because I will not have that case slip away from me again. Too much is at stake and too much has been lost. I cannot speak of it.”
/=/=/=/=/=/
The shock that the DI was recalled to the witness box was immense. Ellie worried about what Jocelyn's intent was, and whether it would backfire in Sharon's hands. Or theirs.
Hardy looked different, that was clear as he walked to the box and read the oath. His coloring looked healthier, he seemed less exhausted, and his eyes held an awkward yet determined expression that was more focused than before. The other striking thing was how his left arm seemed immobile compared to his right. It made more obvious by how he stood. Normally he would clasped his hands in front of him. Now he let them rest at his sides.
Jocelyn began immediately with her effort to repair her case and to kill Sharon's.
“DI Hardy, how long have you been a police officer?”
“Twenty-one years.”
“What brought you from Scotland to England?”
“An instructor recommended I transfer to the Metropolitan Police when I applied for CID in 1993. After my transfer, I spent the majority of my time there.”
“How long in total have you held the position of DI, between posts?”
Hardy didn't need to think. “Ten years.”
“How many murder cases have you seen in your time?”
That made him pause and take a breath. “Seventeen with single victims, five others with two or more victims”
Several jurors cringed, along with a lot of the courtroom. The rest flinched.
“How many of them had a child as the victim or one of the victims?”
“Ten,” he said somberly. “Including Danny.”
The images of each victim flashed before his eyes, making his insides feel unstable.
Ellie closed her eyes, shutting out the pained sounds from others in the Courtroom. She had had no idea, and she could've found out. Now she regretted some of the things she had said to him and about him. No wonder he was so grim.
“How many of your cases went to trial?”
“All of them.”
“Counting this one?”
“Yes.”
“Of the ones concluded, how many resulted in a conviction?”
“All but two.”
“What happened?”
She knew he had warned her, but she had pointed out that careful handling with her questions would preempt more detailed questions. And his own evidence might get the Judge on their side because of PACE. Assuming Sharon Bishop tried to poke at Sandbrook.
“The first was my first case, where I was supporting the inspector. I believe that case was lost due to their failure to follow enough of the leads, and their making assumptions that were proved untrue with a little digging. The case remains unsolved to this day. I made a vow then that I would listen carefully to all of the evidence, weighing each one to tell if it could be depended on and whether the witnesses were telling the whole truth.”
“So your investigation techniques came to include questioning everything you encountered?”
“Yes. I learned very early on that you have to distrust until that trust is earned by multiple verifications. I have observed that investigators who fail to follow that make cases last longer than they have to, or even fail to bring anyone to Court.”
“How would you describe your methods?”
“I make lists of questions and memorise them. I am aware that this makes me enemies with colleagues as well as the public, but it works. Every question needs an answer and must be verified by all sources named. CCTV, witnesses, and backed up with evidence. I will then set out each question on that list in order of priority to the person I’m questioning, and if another question pops up during the course of the answers, I will note it down with the answer. No stone, however small, is left unturned. It might look on the outside that I’m dragging my feet in a case, but I get it done. I owe it to the victims to not miss anything out. Every tiny detail is important. If it led to their death then I need to know that detail. It’s important to be as precise as possible in police work. Was a man at the bus stop, which way was he facing, what time, was it 8:03 or 8:04? Because that can rule him out as a witness if he wasn’t facing the right way at the right time. Especially when it comes to children. That’s an entire life snuffed out. You don’t walk into that blasé, and you don’t walk away from it complacent or untouched by it. It infects you. Parents, siblings; they all come to you wanting an answer. Why my child, my brother, where did it happen, did they do something wrong? I became a police officer to give them that answer. As a parent, I know that if I was in their place, I’d want that answer. And I would want that answer from someone who could tell me with 100 percent confidence that they had the right person and the right reason. When I started out as a copper back in 1990, I’d read the handbook so many times as a probationer that I could recite it backwards. But the job is more than that. It’s not just rules, it’s going beyond that, and living every facet of your personal and professional life by it, the spirit of the law and protecting people from those who have no respect for it or for anyone around them. That’s what bringing a conviction means to me. Knowing that I have done my job, isn’t enough. Knowing that I have the answer is, for me, the justification for my methods. I will push myself to the limit and beyond to get that result. I’m not important at the end of the day. That victim, and their family, is. Justice has no working hours. You live and breathe that case until it’s done. My record speaks for itself.”
Just a week ago, he would have been too weak for this. But he had to have his say, expounding on how he worked giving the victims and their families the justice they deserved. He kept eye contact with the Jury much of the time, like an instructor, and wondered if the Superintendent would have dismissed him so readily from Weymouth College if she had heard this little speech. Perhaps not. This time he had the energy to do it, which he hoped had engaged the interest of the Jury.
Sharon and Abby eyed the Jurors, and saw reason to worry. They had noticed the same three jurors that the Prosecution had, and how they were eyeing them with suspicion. Now one of them was leaning forward with as much interest as the other nine who seemed firmly on the Prosecution's side, and the other two were thawing a little toward Hardy.
They were in danger of losing the case.
Ellie wondered why Hardy couldn't have shown this side during the investigation. She would've been more willing to listen to him, and the team would've trusted him far more. And she suspected his time stuck as an instructor would've gone better for him. Or, more accurately, the Broadchurch CID team would have fallen in line quicker and Joe would have been behind bars quicker, possibly before he had burned the boat.
Was this a sign of how much he had sunk because of his health? Now that he had something to live for, was this the man who existed before Sandbrook starting to revive?
Jocelyn's eyes drifted to check on the Jurors, and had to ruthlessly suppress a smile because she saw the evidence that they were on the verge of winning. “What about the suspect? Do they not also deserve justice? What if you ask the wrong question or a guilty man walks away due to inaccurate answers? What if your case fails to result in a conviction? What happens then?”
This was more difficult to speak of, but he knew he had to. Maybe it was time after all for everything to come out; his feelings when a case failed; getting up and moving on and facing the next case.
“If we have a strong suspect, which I had three in Danny’s case. No disrespect to the Latimer’s who had drawn up a list of their own. I pursued them all with the same verve. I delegate where I can, but the CID team at Broadchurch is very small. Most of the work fell to myself and DS Miller. If an alibi is broken, and in this case several alibis were found to be false, I then move up my list of questions. Did the suspect have an opportunity, the means and a motive? Motives are up for debate, although you can convict without one. You get leads; you follow them, every last one. Missing one could mean missing a suspect. In this case we did miss a lead early on, and that took time to reverse course and go back to it. Delegation has its drawbacks. There is no fault to place. It just happens; the more complicate the case the room for error there is. It would be unreasonable to expect one officer to work on any given case. You need a team, and I had a very good team. They all worked exceptionally hard. But I was the one who discovered the link between the suspect and the DS I was working with. Nothing could have prepared me, or any officer, for facing that. There’s no section in the Police Handbook on how to handle it. You have to go by ear.”
“How would you describe that moment?”
“Your world drops out from under you,” he replied. “Miller and I aren’t close by any stretch, but we weren’t strangers. I felt for her. I’ve been there. I’ve stood in that spot. I would have done anything to turn the clock back and have it be someone else, but you can’t,” he said gently. “And I chose to lessen the impact by not having her on scene when I made the arrest. I wanted to protect her from that. I knew what it would do to her, because she’s a gentle soul, sharp mind and some fine spirit. You don’t drive over that roughshod. There was no evidence that she was in any way complicit, so I made sure she was on another errand while I and another officer made the arrest. And I should state that the other officer was not as far away as the Defence have claimed. He was within earshot at all times, save for the few minutes that I was following GPS,” he added. “When I made the arrest, I did so with 100 percent confidence that I had the right person.”
“Did you believe that straight away?”
“At first, when the evidence from the computer hard drive was sent to me from the lab I had some moments to reflect on the term ‘belief’,” he admitted. “I was about to destroy a close and loving family. But at the end of the day, the blame for that lies squarely at Joe’s feet. Not mine. I was more concerned with the damage done to the case, and time lost following dead ends and evidence being lost led to the case almost being cold-cased when it got that break at the very last minute.”
“You lost your last case. Did it colour your actions with Danny’s murder?”
“No. I stuck by every method I have used in the past, but I probably worked twice as many hours because of it. I was not going to let another case fail.”
“If new evidence comes to light, would a case like the last one be able to be reopened and returned to Court?”
“Yes, and I took on a private investigator's licence to be able to continue even after I was medically discharged from the police force,” he explained.
“Why were you medically discharged?”
He closed his eyes, counting to five to brace himself to speak of things that he believed had no business being spoken of in court. “My doctor believed that the stress of the failed case and the aftermath triggered a heart condition I didn't know I had. I was told to have a pacemaker, but my odds of survival were not good.”
“But you took on Danny's case regardless?”
“Yes.”
“How did you live after that case was dismissed?”
“I was working in the cold case department for two years, a job that doesn’t involve a lot of running or stress. I took Low-dose Aspirin whenever my heart rate elevated too much, or my heart went out of rhythm, or I felt like I was about to panic and trigger a heart attack. I applied for a transfer to Broadchurch and hoped a quieter life would have less impact on my health, and kept the details of the extent of my illness a secret.”
“Did you do anything that was strictly speaking wrong?”
“No. At that time, my illness did not impede my ability to do the job. I had an exceptional DS who did all the driving. She was unaccustomed to working on a murder case, so I was able to pass on my skills as we worked together on the investigation. It was incredibly hard on everyone in such a close-knit community. Being an objective eye must have been irksome, but it was essential in getting the result we did. Until I collapsed, I was coping well with my symptoms”
“So why were you forced to leave the Metropolitan Police if you were coping with your illness?”
“The Press came to believe that I was the one who lost the evidence in my previous case, and the department did nothing to defend me even though an inquiry exonerated me.”
“Then why didn't you fight it?”
He went silent, closing his eyes and expression changing. He felt like his shame was there for all to see. “I am not at liberty to divulge the specific details of that case, as the investigation is still ongoing. Suffice it to say, it involves the loss of evidence. It was dismissed as an accident, but I had my doubts. It happened on my watch and I took the blame. As a result I was labelled by the Press as incompetent and ‘the worst cop in Britain’.”
Shocked gasps erupted from several sections of the Court. Ellie's eyes widened. Suddenly a lot more about the case made sense.
“I have a daughter. The Press was hounding me, and I was afraid they would go after her. I thought it was best to walk away from my job and my family, than to let the press tear her apart.”
“Even though it seems to have cost you your health and harmed your relationship with your child?”
Hardy closed his eyes, needing a moment to keep his emotions under control. It took several seconds longer than he liked, and his pain in the face of the memories of all those months of her silence and the current borderline alienation was more obvious than he wanted.
“My health is not the concern here, nor is what contact I have with my daughter. Accusations of incompetence; of dragging my feet; of having an affair with a fellow officer, who I am well aware has no liking for me whatsoever; accusations of violence against a man in custody; accusations of disrespecting the rules and disregarding due process; of swaying a witness. These are of concern. These are the facts. I have been wrongly accused and stand here to clear that up once and for all. I am here to see justice for Danny in no less a manner than all the other victims I have represented in the past. And that is my job. I am their voice and deny any insinuation that I have been any less than diligent in my duty as an officer now than I was with them..”
“Going back to the summer of last year. You were advised to have a pacemaker fitted. But you say you were coping with your illness?”
“That's correct.”
“What changed your mind?”
“Arresting my DS’ husband for the murder of her best friend’s son, seeing her shock and horror at what he had done, and hearing him ask to see his children... I knew I had to. For the unfinished case before Danny’s I owed it to those families to be here to represent their dead children. And I owed it to my daughter. I had my operation just a few days ago and was not expecting to survive. But I did.”
His shock was plain to see, and he couldn't hide a hint of a relieved smile. That sight startled the jurors more than anything. Many in the town couldn't believe he was capable of smiling. Tom was relieved to know he was, and Ellie allowed a tiny smile to form.
“Is that why your arm seems... immobile?”
“Yes, the bruising and swelling has made it next to impossible to move my arm. It's a side effect that everyone gets. I already feel it returning to normal, but I have to be careful until the stitches come out. And once I recover full motion I'll be taking a new physical to be reinstated to the police force.”
The pride that he had come through the other side shone from his face, even though he tried to keep a solemn manner.
Jocelyn accepted that and moved to another topic. “When you were investigating Danny's death, and it was determined to be murder, who was named as suspects?”
“You have to look at the family first. Most victims are killed by someone they know, and when a child dies a parent turns out to be responsible far too often.”
The Latimers were all pained, feeling the sting of his words. But they also felt pain for the families where it proved true.
“So you considered all of Danny's immediate family suspects?”
“As I said, you have to distrust everything. It's an ugly truth that years on the force teach you, and I wouldn't wish most of the world to have to know it.”
The Defence team frowned at each other. The DI was transforming the image painted of himself, and that he seemed uneasy about it proved it was shaming for him to have to speak of this. The jury might buy it hook, line, and sinker, which spelled trouble for their case.
Jocelyn continued, aware of the Defence team's dismay. “Were you able to eliminate any of his family within a short time?”
“It was quickly obvious that Danny's killer was a man, and so it was only a matter of hours before his mother, sister and grandmother were removed from the list of suspects.”
“But it took longer to remove Mark Latimer?”
“He seemed to be concealing something from the start. He was, in fact, detained when one bit of forensic evidence suggested it might be Danny. However there was an alternative explanation; that he had cut himself during a repair that Susan Wright lied about having been done.”
“What did Susan Wright have to do with this?”
“She was the key keeper for the hut where Danny was killed. She had claimed there was no repair, but we found the proof in both her and Mark's records. And there was the matter of forensic evidence found on Danny. The fibers found did not match the clothes Mark admitted to wearing that night and that Becca Fisher confirmed he wore when she admitted to their brief affair, providing a partial alibi for him. And the coroner estimated that the killer's hands were too small to be Mark's, while still a man's hands. And the footprints found by Danny's body were too small to be his. Had Mark given this information to us earlier, he would have been eliminated within a couple of days at the most.”
Mark couldn't meet anyone's eyes, but especially Beth's. He knew that was all his fault.
The Defence shared another worried look. It felt like the DI was taking a sledgehammer to their case and had just shattered part of it.
“What about Nigel Carter? Was he a suspect?”
“Also a strong one,” Hardy replied. “He had lied about activities that were illegal, and two separate witness statements made him look guilty. Never mind that his shoe size is the same as the evidence prints, but he had no footwear to match the prints nor evidence that he ever owned such footwear. While he owns clothing consistent with the witness statements, the fibers are inconsistent with those found on Danny's body. Again, facts that could have cleared him within hours had he co-operated.”
It was Nigel's turn to be unable to make eye contact.
Sharon closed her eyes tightly. She could feel another huge section of their case fall apart. And Abby was trying to look like she was resting her head on her hand rather than hiding her eyes from the jury.
“I will admit to questioning the truth of the witness statements that have been used to implicate Nigel Carter,” Hardy added.
“Why?”
“Each had opportunities to come forward sooner, and each did not for their own purposes. One had a history of lying to the police, and had a vendetta against Nigel Carter. The other did not have any such history, just a lack of what I had come to believe was good judgment. Yet there was no sign the two witnesses had crossed paths, and so the common details between the two statements rang true. And they each matched the forensic evidence not disclosed to the public. And there was no evidence tying Mr. Carter to the hut.”
“What about the Defence's claim that Mr. Latimer and Mr. Carter worked together? Did you ever have reason to believe more than one person had been involved?”
“I had worries that the killer had dragged someone into covering for them, but the Defence's proposed alternate explanation fails to account for several details.”
“And those are?”
“The forensic examination suggested that Mark was too strong to have left the damage that killed Danny, and the fiber transfer could only have happened in the struggle between Danny and his killer. They also ignore the emails, which our experts determined were not written by either Mark or Nigel. Each man has a distinctive voice to their writing, and neither is consistent with the emails sent between Danny and his mystery adult friend, nor does the email address belong to them. The emails were sent from the Defendant’s phone and not the family’s computer. This fact is clearly mentioned at the bottom of each email with the phrase ‘sent via mobile’, the trace for which is in the notes.”
“But they are consistent with Joe Miller's known emails?”
“Yes. Identical, right down to the phone number and the ISP code belonging to the mobile they were sent from.”
“When did you first consider Joe Miller a suspect?”
Looking back on it this would not look good, but he hoped that the Jury - who did look rather sympathetic to him, come to note - would read the correct conclusion. “Not until I first read the recovered emails from Tom Miller to Danny Latimer. It was the only thing that made sense of the break between the boys.”
“What was your reaction?”
“I swore. Out loud. In my office.”
“Why?”
“I had got the impression that Joe Miller was a devoted father and a good husband. He appeared to have been doing a good job as a paramedic. One family had already been destroyed by the murder, and suddenly it looked like a second would be by the truth.”
“Did you tell DS Miller?”
“No, I wasn't going to tell her unless I found proof that I found incontrovertible.”
“When did you become absolutely convinced?”
“The morning before the arrest I spent my time looking back over all of the evidence, and a lot of that time, I admit, was spent trying to prove it wasn't him. The descriptions given by the witnesses could not eliminate him as a suspect, and his being the mystery friend explained a number of things said by Danny to Tom. But I wasn't convinced until I watched the Defendant's reaction when I asked Tom and his shoe sizes.”
“Why Tom's?”
“I had him brought in by his father to explain his broken computer and the threatening emails he sent. I knew Tom couldn't have killed Danny, but I decided to see how his father reacted to the idea that I was considering it as a possibility.”
“And how did he react?”
“At first within the bounds of any parent, but when I pressed the subject he clammed up and removed his son from the interview. When I asked his own size, he hesitated a moment before saying '10', the very size of the prints found around the body, the one we found inside the hut shortly after the murder, and the prints around the hut on the night of the break-in. And the way he looked at me as he walked off with Tom was that of someone hiding something big. Within hours Danny's phone was on again, and I tracked it to the Millers' home.”
“Tom Miller testified that you looked panicked when you saw him as you walked in the home. Why?”
“Because he was holding something dark, something that on first glance could have been Danny's missing phone. When I realised it was a remote instead I thought I would faint from relief. I didn't want to imagine a child was involved in this in any manner.”
“And you found Joe Miller in his garden shed, holding Danny's phone?”
“Yes, as I testified before.”
“So not once did you ever coerce him into saying anything?”
“No. Anyone who followed the tape would know that we asked open-ended questions that let him decide what to say and when. I know as well as any officer that a coerced confession ought to be struck from evidence, and there is no way I would've permitted anyone on my watch to interfere.”
That was as close to mentioning the confession as he could get. They had checked the law, and they were the sort of things any investigator would be asked to speak of whether there had been a confession or not. For Sharon to object would mean nit-picking, and it would be overruled. Fortunately.
“Why did you let DS Miller see her husband?”
He grimaced. “I'd been the one who shattered what she thought was her perfect life. I was the one who told her the man she was married to - the father of her children - was actually a monster. I sent everyone else out of the room to make sure she had her dignity intact when she learned of his arrest because no one should have to have witnesses to such a horror. I knew it was not the correct procedure, but I felt very sorry for her. In her shoes I would've demanded answers. Which is what I told her that night when we sat in the hotel; she wanted answers, direction. I couldn't give her either. If I had known what had happened with DS Miller's brother-in-law, I would never have allowed her to see the Defendant, even though it was deemed self-defence, because I would've suspected her anger would make her volatile and unpredictable.”
“You wouldn't call it predictable?”
“No,” he said instantly.
“Why not?”
“Because she was angry, as anyone would be. But the words that tipped her, understandably, were the Defendant's.”
Jocelyn had been wanting an opportunity to bring up Joe's words, but had felt trapped. Thanks to the DI, the Jury would finally know. “And what were they? What did he say?”
“He said 'Can I see Tom?',” he quoted. “She was protecting her child, as any good mother would do. In my experience, that is the moment when the bond between husband and wife is severed.”
Tom squeezed his mother's hand when she lowered her head.
Jocelyn nodded and smiled slightly, noticing the reflective expressions on the Jury. “Thank you for speaking of things that are difficult to speak of, DI Hardy. No further questions.”
Chapter Five
Genre: Broadchurch
Rating: T (subject matter, emotions, legal matters)
Author: tkel_paris
Summary: A chance thought of her assistant makes Jocelyn Knight ask Tom Miller additional questions to check his evidence. His answers lead to others bringing forward evidence that would otherwise have remained hidden until the Defence uncovered them. Will it be enough to reverse the damage done by Sharon Bishop and Abby Thompson?
Disclaimer: If I owned any of the characters, some of them wouldn't have gotten away with what they did. Of course, I'm not yet up to the story-telling abilities of Chris Chibnall. I would like to be, one day.
Dedication: tardis_mole, for betaing and being the reason I'm writing Broadchurch fanfic to begin with. Posted in honor of bas_math_girl's birthday.
Author's Note: Starts in Episode Six after Jocelyn speaks with the Latimers following Tom giving evidence against Mark. Written because I simply needed to right a few blatantly illegal things done. I may be an American, but I think we can all agree when something doesn't seem right.
This chapter includes mentions of something that David Tennant's research should've told him about Hardy's health in the aftermath of the surgery, but I'm guessing the producers cut it out. My beta pointed this out a while ago, and I think it would've been more interesting to keep it in. Just in case anyone's blinking over the difference.
Chapter One / Chapter Two / Chapter Three
Rejuvenation
Start Date: July 11, 2015
Finish Date: September 4, 2015
Chapter Four: Clearing the Air
Hardy was amazed that he was called to Jocelyn's house, and had to leave Miller to consider their next steps in the Sandbrook case. They were getting close, he could feel it. Lee and Claire, as passionate about each other as they were, were approaching their respective breaking points. Something had to give soon.
He was let in by Ben before he even knocked. They both seemed eager to see him, although Jocelyn's reaction was more restrained. Probably why he respected her, despite of some of her failures to find arguments to overcome Defence's objections to the mistakes made by other people.
His puzzled manner turned sour when Jocelyn made clear the reason for calling him there.
“We need to give the Defence's case a solid knock-out blow, and my plan is to call you as the final rebuttal witness.”
“Why me?”
“Of the people Sharon Bishop has maligned, you're the only one who never properly defended himself. The only one not redeemed, at least in part, by someone else's evidence. The Jury, even the ones who seemed favourably disposed toward our case, appear to be at least uncertain whether they can trust your word. I know that frustrates you, and I can change that. Repair that damage to the case, and I think we have a conviction assured.”
“Why not now? Surely that last act of misconduct ruined the Defence's case.”
“I've been eyeing the jurors,” said Ben. “Two of them have definitely not been swayed by the accusations at any time. Susan Wright did more damage to the Defence than help, harming Defence credibility. Tom Miller's recanting and admission that his father was absent during the two times we know he admitted to leaving his sons alone, combined with his accusing the Defence of guiding his evidence, brought four jurors solidly over to our side. Mark Latimer's evidence was more mixed, but it undermined the Defence's case by making his innocence more vivid, and there was a decided empathy due to how Sharon Bishop treated him and Beth. Abby Thompson's seduction of Olly Stephens drew three more jurors over.”
Hardy grimaced. “One short of a majority verdict.”
“We need at least one of those last three. And they're all looking very uneasy with the Defence. Ben and I both think you are the key.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because of this.” Jocelyn's hands drew a folder off to reveal Olly's Sandbrook article. “Reading this gave me the inspiration. They only know of DI Hardy from Danny's case. If we can show them Alec Hardy, the man, the father, the officer and the gentleman, I'm convinced they will see through the Defence's shoddy excuse of a case. Remind them why it's absolutely unlikely that Mark Latimer killed Danny and had Nigel Carter dump the body, and the alternative story Sharon spun will fall apart. Show them you're not the sort who would frame an innocent man and the last remnants of her efforts will shatter like brittle glass.”
Hardy looked down at his clasped hands. “If you bring up anything related to Sandbrook then won't she force me to admit to what happened to make the case fall apart?”
Ben interjected, “If you bring the case back to trial will that likely come out?”
Hardy hesitated. “Yes. Not just likely... It has to. I took the blame for what happened, but I sure as hell will not have that brought up in Court. Danny's case has nothing to do with it, and I won't have it tainted by even a vague mention of Sandbrook.”
“Are you re-investigating even though your arm is less than fully functional?”
“Yes.”
“Have you got the case reopened?”
“No. The officer in charge won't reopen it yet.”
“And who is that officer?”
Hardy exhaled loudly. “My ex.”
Ben and Jocelyn's eyes widened, both suspecting the identity of the unnamed DS from the article. “Eventually she'll have to speak about what happened, whatever it was,” Ben insisted. “Maybe if you rip the plaster off now there will be fewer things for the Defence at that trial to focus on?”
“More to the point here, if the Defence comes at you over that it won't be until after we've shown the kind of man you really are,” Jocelyn put in. “They will see her attack for what it is, and come to hate her. That can only help our case. Will you do it?”
Hardy saw he had no choice. As little as he liked it. “I will do my best, on the understanding that you do not mention Sandbrook, in any way, vaguely or directly. Or I will walk out, and risk Contempt of Court if I have to, because I will not have that case slip away from me again. Too much is at stake and too much has been lost. I cannot speak of it.”
/=/=/=/=/=/
The shock that the DI was recalled to the witness box was immense. Ellie worried about what Jocelyn's intent was, and whether it would backfire in Sharon's hands. Or theirs.
Hardy looked different, that was clear as he walked to the box and read the oath. His coloring looked healthier, he seemed less exhausted, and his eyes held an awkward yet determined expression that was more focused than before. The other striking thing was how his left arm seemed immobile compared to his right. It made more obvious by how he stood. Normally he would clasped his hands in front of him. Now he let them rest at his sides.
Jocelyn began immediately with her effort to repair her case and to kill Sharon's.
“DI Hardy, how long have you been a police officer?”
“Twenty-one years.”
“What brought you from Scotland to England?”
“An instructor recommended I transfer to the Metropolitan Police when I applied for CID in 1993. After my transfer, I spent the majority of my time there.”
“How long in total have you held the position of DI, between posts?”
Hardy didn't need to think. “Ten years.”
“How many murder cases have you seen in your time?”
That made him pause and take a breath. “Seventeen with single victims, five others with two or more victims”
Several jurors cringed, along with a lot of the courtroom. The rest flinched.
“How many of them had a child as the victim or one of the victims?”
“Ten,” he said somberly. “Including Danny.”
The images of each victim flashed before his eyes, making his insides feel unstable.
Ellie closed her eyes, shutting out the pained sounds from others in the Courtroom. She had had no idea, and she could've found out. Now she regretted some of the things she had said to him and about him. No wonder he was so grim.
“How many of your cases went to trial?”
“All of them.”
“Counting this one?”
“Yes.”
“Of the ones concluded, how many resulted in a conviction?”
“All but two.”
“What happened?”
She knew he had warned her, but she had pointed out that careful handling with her questions would preempt more detailed questions. And his own evidence might get the Judge on their side because of PACE. Assuming Sharon Bishop tried to poke at Sandbrook.
“The first was my first case, where I was supporting the inspector. I believe that case was lost due to their failure to follow enough of the leads, and their making assumptions that were proved untrue with a little digging. The case remains unsolved to this day. I made a vow then that I would listen carefully to all of the evidence, weighing each one to tell if it could be depended on and whether the witnesses were telling the whole truth.”
“So your investigation techniques came to include questioning everything you encountered?”
“Yes. I learned very early on that you have to distrust until that trust is earned by multiple verifications. I have observed that investigators who fail to follow that make cases last longer than they have to, or even fail to bring anyone to Court.”
“How would you describe your methods?”
“I make lists of questions and memorise them. I am aware that this makes me enemies with colleagues as well as the public, but it works. Every question needs an answer and must be verified by all sources named. CCTV, witnesses, and backed up with evidence. I will then set out each question on that list in order of priority to the person I’m questioning, and if another question pops up during the course of the answers, I will note it down with the answer. No stone, however small, is left unturned. It might look on the outside that I’m dragging my feet in a case, but I get it done. I owe it to the victims to not miss anything out. Every tiny detail is important. If it led to their death then I need to know that detail. It’s important to be as precise as possible in police work. Was a man at the bus stop, which way was he facing, what time, was it 8:03 or 8:04? Because that can rule him out as a witness if he wasn’t facing the right way at the right time. Especially when it comes to children. That’s an entire life snuffed out. You don’t walk into that blasé, and you don’t walk away from it complacent or untouched by it. It infects you. Parents, siblings; they all come to you wanting an answer. Why my child, my brother, where did it happen, did they do something wrong? I became a police officer to give them that answer. As a parent, I know that if I was in their place, I’d want that answer. And I would want that answer from someone who could tell me with 100 percent confidence that they had the right person and the right reason. When I started out as a copper back in 1990, I’d read the handbook so many times as a probationer that I could recite it backwards. But the job is more than that. It’s not just rules, it’s going beyond that, and living every facet of your personal and professional life by it, the spirit of the law and protecting people from those who have no respect for it or for anyone around them. That’s what bringing a conviction means to me. Knowing that I have done my job, isn’t enough. Knowing that I have the answer is, for me, the justification for my methods. I will push myself to the limit and beyond to get that result. I’m not important at the end of the day. That victim, and their family, is. Justice has no working hours. You live and breathe that case until it’s done. My record speaks for itself.”
Just a week ago, he would have been too weak for this. But he had to have his say, expounding on how he worked giving the victims and their families the justice they deserved. He kept eye contact with the Jury much of the time, like an instructor, and wondered if the Superintendent would have dismissed him so readily from Weymouth College if she had heard this little speech. Perhaps not. This time he had the energy to do it, which he hoped had engaged the interest of the Jury.
Sharon and Abby eyed the Jurors, and saw reason to worry. They had noticed the same three jurors that the Prosecution had, and how they were eyeing them with suspicion. Now one of them was leaning forward with as much interest as the other nine who seemed firmly on the Prosecution's side, and the other two were thawing a little toward Hardy.
They were in danger of losing the case.
Ellie wondered why Hardy couldn't have shown this side during the investigation. She would've been more willing to listen to him, and the team would've trusted him far more. And she suspected his time stuck as an instructor would've gone better for him. Or, more accurately, the Broadchurch CID team would have fallen in line quicker and Joe would have been behind bars quicker, possibly before he had burned the boat.
Was this a sign of how much he had sunk because of his health? Now that he had something to live for, was this the man who existed before Sandbrook starting to revive?
Jocelyn's eyes drifted to check on the Jurors, and had to ruthlessly suppress a smile because she saw the evidence that they were on the verge of winning. “What about the suspect? Do they not also deserve justice? What if you ask the wrong question or a guilty man walks away due to inaccurate answers? What if your case fails to result in a conviction? What happens then?”
This was more difficult to speak of, but he knew he had to. Maybe it was time after all for everything to come out; his feelings when a case failed; getting up and moving on and facing the next case.
“If we have a strong suspect, which I had three in Danny’s case. No disrespect to the Latimer’s who had drawn up a list of their own. I pursued them all with the same verve. I delegate where I can, but the CID team at Broadchurch is very small. Most of the work fell to myself and DS Miller. If an alibi is broken, and in this case several alibis were found to be false, I then move up my list of questions. Did the suspect have an opportunity, the means and a motive? Motives are up for debate, although you can convict without one. You get leads; you follow them, every last one. Missing one could mean missing a suspect. In this case we did miss a lead early on, and that took time to reverse course and go back to it. Delegation has its drawbacks. There is no fault to place. It just happens; the more complicate the case the room for error there is. It would be unreasonable to expect one officer to work on any given case. You need a team, and I had a very good team. They all worked exceptionally hard. But I was the one who discovered the link between the suspect and the DS I was working with. Nothing could have prepared me, or any officer, for facing that. There’s no section in the Police Handbook on how to handle it. You have to go by ear.”
“How would you describe that moment?”
“Your world drops out from under you,” he replied. “Miller and I aren’t close by any stretch, but we weren’t strangers. I felt for her. I’ve been there. I’ve stood in that spot. I would have done anything to turn the clock back and have it be someone else, but you can’t,” he said gently. “And I chose to lessen the impact by not having her on scene when I made the arrest. I wanted to protect her from that. I knew what it would do to her, because she’s a gentle soul, sharp mind and some fine spirit. You don’t drive over that roughshod. There was no evidence that she was in any way complicit, so I made sure she was on another errand while I and another officer made the arrest. And I should state that the other officer was not as far away as the Defence have claimed. He was within earshot at all times, save for the few minutes that I was following GPS,” he added. “When I made the arrest, I did so with 100 percent confidence that I had the right person.”
“Did you believe that straight away?”
“At first, when the evidence from the computer hard drive was sent to me from the lab I had some moments to reflect on the term ‘belief’,” he admitted. “I was about to destroy a close and loving family. But at the end of the day, the blame for that lies squarely at Joe’s feet. Not mine. I was more concerned with the damage done to the case, and time lost following dead ends and evidence being lost led to the case almost being cold-cased when it got that break at the very last minute.”
“You lost your last case. Did it colour your actions with Danny’s murder?”
“No. I stuck by every method I have used in the past, but I probably worked twice as many hours because of it. I was not going to let another case fail.”
“If new evidence comes to light, would a case like the last one be able to be reopened and returned to Court?”
“Yes, and I took on a private investigator's licence to be able to continue even after I was medically discharged from the police force,” he explained.
“Why were you medically discharged?”
He closed his eyes, counting to five to brace himself to speak of things that he believed had no business being spoken of in court. “My doctor believed that the stress of the failed case and the aftermath triggered a heart condition I didn't know I had. I was told to have a pacemaker, but my odds of survival were not good.”
“But you took on Danny's case regardless?”
“Yes.”
“How did you live after that case was dismissed?”
“I was working in the cold case department for two years, a job that doesn’t involve a lot of running or stress. I took Low-dose Aspirin whenever my heart rate elevated too much, or my heart went out of rhythm, or I felt like I was about to panic and trigger a heart attack. I applied for a transfer to Broadchurch and hoped a quieter life would have less impact on my health, and kept the details of the extent of my illness a secret.”
“Did you do anything that was strictly speaking wrong?”
“No. At that time, my illness did not impede my ability to do the job. I had an exceptional DS who did all the driving. She was unaccustomed to working on a murder case, so I was able to pass on my skills as we worked together on the investigation. It was incredibly hard on everyone in such a close-knit community. Being an objective eye must have been irksome, but it was essential in getting the result we did. Until I collapsed, I was coping well with my symptoms”
“So why were you forced to leave the Metropolitan Police if you were coping with your illness?”
“The Press came to believe that I was the one who lost the evidence in my previous case, and the department did nothing to defend me even though an inquiry exonerated me.”
“Then why didn't you fight it?”
He went silent, closing his eyes and expression changing. He felt like his shame was there for all to see. “I am not at liberty to divulge the specific details of that case, as the investigation is still ongoing. Suffice it to say, it involves the loss of evidence. It was dismissed as an accident, but I had my doubts. It happened on my watch and I took the blame. As a result I was labelled by the Press as incompetent and ‘the worst cop in Britain’.”
Shocked gasps erupted from several sections of the Court. Ellie's eyes widened. Suddenly a lot more about the case made sense.
“I have a daughter. The Press was hounding me, and I was afraid they would go after her. I thought it was best to walk away from my job and my family, than to let the press tear her apart.”
“Even though it seems to have cost you your health and harmed your relationship with your child?”
Hardy closed his eyes, needing a moment to keep his emotions under control. It took several seconds longer than he liked, and his pain in the face of the memories of all those months of her silence and the current borderline alienation was more obvious than he wanted.
“My health is not the concern here, nor is what contact I have with my daughter. Accusations of incompetence; of dragging my feet; of having an affair with a fellow officer, who I am well aware has no liking for me whatsoever; accusations of violence against a man in custody; accusations of disrespecting the rules and disregarding due process; of swaying a witness. These are of concern. These are the facts. I have been wrongly accused and stand here to clear that up once and for all. I am here to see justice for Danny in no less a manner than all the other victims I have represented in the past. And that is my job. I am their voice and deny any insinuation that I have been any less than diligent in my duty as an officer now than I was with them..”
“Going back to the summer of last year. You were advised to have a pacemaker fitted. But you say you were coping with your illness?”
“That's correct.”
“What changed your mind?”
“Arresting my DS’ husband for the murder of her best friend’s son, seeing her shock and horror at what he had done, and hearing him ask to see his children... I knew I had to. For the unfinished case before Danny’s I owed it to those families to be here to represent their dead children. And I owed it to my daughter. I had my operation just a few days ago and was not expecting to survive. But I did.”
His shock was plain to see, and he couldn't hide a hint of a relieved smile. That sight startled the jurors more than anything. Many in the town couldn't believe he was capable of smiling. Tom was relieved to know he was, and Ellie allowed a tiny smile to form.
“Is that why your arm seems... immobile?”
“Yes, the bruising and swelling has made it next to impossible to move my arm. It's a side effect that everyone gets. I already feel it returning to normal, but I have to be careful until the stitches come out. And once I recover full motion I'll be taking a new physical to be reinstated to the police force.”
The pride that he had come through the other side shone from his face, even though he tried to keep a solemn manner.
Jocelyn accepted that and moved to another topic. “When you were investigating Danny's death, and it was determined to be murder, who was named as suspects?”
“You have to look at the family first. Most victims are killed by someone they know, and when a child dies a parent turns out to be responsible far too often.”
The Latimers were all pained, feeling the sting of his words. But they also felt pain for the families where it proved true.
“So you considered all of Danny's immediate family suspects?”
“As I said, you have to distrust everything. It's an ugly truth that years on the force teach you, and I wouldn't wish most of the world to have to know it.”
The Defence team frowned at each other. The DI was transforming the image painted of himself, and that he seemed uneasy about it proved it was shaming for him to have to speak of this. The jury might buy it hook, line, and sinker, which spelled trouble for their case.
Jocelyn continued, aware of the Defence team's dismay. “Were you able to eliminate any of his family within a short time?”
“It was quickly obvious that Danny's killer was a man, and so it was only a matter of hours before his mother, sister and grandmother were removed from the list of suspects.”
“But it took longer to remove Mark Latimer?”
“He seemed to be concealing something from the start. He was, in fact, detained when one bit of forensic evidence suggested it might be Danny. However there was an alternative explanation; that he had cut himself during a repair that Susan Wright lied about having been done.”
“What did Susan Wright have to do with this?”
“She was the key keeper for the hut where Danny was killed. She had claimed there was no repair, but we found the proof in both her and Mark's records. And there was the matter of forensic evidence found on Danny. The fibers found did not match the clothes Mark admitted to wearing that night and that Becca Fisher confirmed he wore when she admitted to their brief affair, providing a partial alibi for him. And the coroner estimated that the killer's hands were too small to be Mark's, while still a man's hands. And the footprints found by Danny's body were too small to be his. Had Mark given this information to us earlier, he would have been eliminated within a couple of days at the most.”
Mark couldn't meet anyone's eyes, but especially Beth's. He knew that was all his fault.
The Defence shared another worried look. It felt like the DI was taking a sledgehammer to their case and had just shattered part of it.
“What about Nigel Carter? Was he a suspect?”
“Also a strong one,” Hardy replied. “He had lied about activities that were illegal, and two separate witness statements made him look guilty. Never mind that his shoe size is the same as the evidence prints, but he had no footwear to match the prints nor evidence that he ever owned such footwear. While he owns clothing consistent with the witness statements, the fibers are inconsistent with those found on Danny's body. Again, facts that could have cleared him within hours had he co-operated.”
It was Nigel's turn to be unable to make eye contact.
Sharon closed her eyes tightly. She could feel another huge section of their case fall apart. And Abby was trying to look like she was resting her head on her hand rather than hiding her eyes from the jury.
“I will admit to questioning the truth of the witness statements that have been used to implicate Nigel Carter,” Hardy added.
“Why?”
“Each had opportunities to come forward sooner, and each did not for their own purposes. One had a history of lying to the police, and had a vendetta against Nigel Carter. The other did not have any such history, just a lack of what I had come to believe was good judgment. Yet there was no sign the two witnesses had crossed paths, and so the common details between the two statements rang true. And they each matched the forensic evidence not disclosed to the public. And there was no evidence tying Mr. Carter to the hut.”
“What about the Defence's claim that Mr. Latimer and Mr. Carter worked together? Did you ever have reason to believe more than one person had been involved?”
“I had worries that the killer had dragged someone into covering for them, but the Defence's proposed alternate explanation fails to account for several details.”
“And those are?”
“The forensic examination suggested that Mark was too strong to have left the damage that killed Danny, and the fiber transfer could only have happened in the struggle between Danny and his killer. They also ignore the emails, which our experts determined were not written by either Mark or Nigel. Each man has a distinctive voice to their writing, and neither is consistent with the emails sent between Danny and his mystery adult friend, nor does the email address belong to them. The emails were sent from the Defendant’s phone and not the family’s computer. This fact is clearly mentioned at the bottom of each email with the phrase ‘sent via mobile’, the trace for which is in the notes.”
“But they are consistent with Joe Miller's known emails?”
“Yes. Identical, right down to the phone number and the ISP code belonging to the mobile they were sent from.”
“When did you first consider Joe Miller a suspect?”
Looking back on it this would not look good, but he hoped that the Jury - who did look rather sympathetic to him, come to note - would read the correct conclusion. “Not until I first read the recovered emails from Tom Miller to Danny Latimer. It was the only thing that made sense of the break between the boys.”
“What was your reaction?”
“I swore. Out loud. In my office.”
“Why?”
“I had got the impression that Joe Miller was a devoted father and a good husband. He appeared to have been doing a good job as a paramedic. One family had already been destroyed by the murder, and suddenly it looked like a second would be by the truth.”
“Did you tell DS Miller?”
“No, I wasn't going to tell her unless I found proof that I found incontrovertible.”
“When did you become absolutely convinced?”
“The morning before the arrest I spent my time looking back over all of the evidence, and a lot of that time, I admit, was spent trying to prove it wasn't him. The descriptions given by the witnesses could not eliminate him as a suspect, and his being the mystery friend explained a number of things said by Danny to Tom. But I wasn't convinced until I watched the Defendant's reaction when I asked Tom and his shoe sizes.”
“Why Tom's?”
“I had him brought in by his father to explain his broken computer and the threatening emails he sent. I knew Tom couldn't have killed Danny, but I decided to see how his father reacted to the idea that I was considering it as a possibility.”
“And how did he react?”
“At first within the bounds of any parent, but when I pressed the subject he clammed up and removed his son from the interview. When I asked his own size, he hesitated a moment before saying '10', the very size of the prints found around the body, the one we found inside the hut shortly after the murder, and the prints around the hut on the night of the break-in. And the way he looked at me as he walked off with Tom was that of someone hiding something big. Within hours Danny's phone was on again, and I tracked it to the Millers' home.”
“Tom Miller testified that you looked panicked when you saw him as you walked in the home. Why?”
“Because he was holding something dark, something that on first glance could have been Danny's missing phone. When I realised it was a remote instead I thought I would faint from relief. I didn't want to imagine a child was involved in this in any manner.”
“And you found Joe Miller in his garden shed, holding Danny's phone?”
“Yes, as I testified before.”
“So not once did you ever coerce him into saying anything?”
“No. Anyone who followed the tape would know that we asked open-ended questions that let him decide what to say and when. I know as well as any officer that a coerced confession ought to be struck from evidence, and there is no way I would've permitted anyone on my watch to interfere.”
That was as close to mentioning the confession as he could get. They had checked the law, and they were the sort of things any investigator would be asked to speak of whether there had been a confession or not. For Sharon to object would mean nit-picking, and it would be overruled. Fortunately.
“Why did you let DS Miller see her husband?”
He grimaced. “I'd been the one who shattered what she thought was her perfect life. I was the one who told her the man she was married to - the father of her children - was actually a monster. I sent everyone else out of the room to make sure she had her dignity intact when she learned of his arrest because no one should have to have witnesses to such a horror. I knew it was not the correct procedure, but I felt very sorry for her. In her shoes I would've demanded answers. Which is what I told her that night when we sat in the hotel; she wanted answers, direction. I couldn't give her either. If I had known what had happened with DS Miller's brother-in-law, I would never have allowed her to see the Defendant, even though it was deemed self-defence, because I would've suspected her anger would make her volatile and unpredictable.”
“You wouldn't call it predictable?”
“No,” he said instantly.
“Why not?”
“Because she was angry, as anyone would be. But the words that tipped her, understandably, were the Defendant's.”
Jocelyn had been wanting an opportunity to bring up Joe's words, but had felt trapped. Thanks to the DI, the Jury would finally know. “And what were they? What did he say?”
“He said 'Can I see Tom?',” he quoted. “She was protecting her child, as any good mother would do. In my experience, that is the moment when the bond between husband and wife is severed.”
Tom squeezed his mother's hand when she lowered her head.
Jocelyn nodded and smiled slightly, noticing the reflective expressions on the Jury. “Thank you for speaking of things that are difficult to speak of, DI Hardy. No further questions.”
Chapter Five