Noughts and Crosses (31 page)

‘Miss Hadley, Callum’s your friend, isn’t he?’

I nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘And you wouldn’t want anything or anyone to hurt him and his family, would you?’

‘No.’

‘D’you understand that the only way you will hurt him
today is if you don’t tell the truth?’

‘I know that,’ I replied.

‘Good. So I’ll ask you again,’ An edge was beginning to creep into Mr Pingule’s voice now. ‘Why did Callum want you to leave the Dundale Shopping Centre so urgently?’

‘He wanted to show me something outside.’ My voice was stronger now.

‘I see. Tell me something, Miss Hadley, how would you describe Callum McGregor?’

‘Objection, Your Honour. What has Miss Hadley’s opinion of her friend Callum have to do with my client, Ryan McGregor?’ asked Kelani.

‘I’m wondering that myself, Ms Adams,’ Judge Anderson nodded. ‘Objection sustained.’

‘What is your relationship with Callum McGregor?’

‘We’re friends. Good friends.’

‘Perhaps, more than . . . good friends?’

‘He’s my friend, that’s all.’

‘Your honour . . .’ Kelani got no further

‘Very well then,’ Mr Pingule was well and truly annoyed now. ‘Miss Hadley, do you know who is responsible for the bomb at the Dundale Shopping Centre. Yes or no?’

‘Of course not. How could I?’ I said, shocked that he’d even asked me.

‘Indeed. No further questions.’ Mr Pingule sat down.

I didn’t know who’d planted that bomb.
I didn’t want to know
. And that, more than anything else I’d said or even thought so far in court, was the truth.

Now that my evidence was out of the way, I was allowed to watch from the public gallery. I didn’t sit with Mum, even though she wanted me to. But how could I? Between the two of us, Sephy and I had pretty much put the noose around Dad’s neck. But then Kelani Adams showed why she was a red-hot lawyer. A man called Leo Stoll was called to the stand. I didn’t recognize his name or his face when he entered the witness box. He was a middle-aged Cross who was obviously not short of a penny or two. I glanced across at Mum. She had a puzzled, quizzical look on her face. I shrugged. It was no good asking me who he was. I didn’t have a clue.

I watched as Leo Stoll was sworn in, then waited with bated breath to see what he had to do with my father. Kelani Adams stood up, and faced the witness.

‘Mr Stoll, could you tell the court what you do for a living.’

‘I’m a police officer – now retired.’ His voice was deep and melodious, like a baritone singer or something.

‘You don’t look old enough to retire.’ I could hear the smile in Kelani’s voice, although I couldn’t see her face as she had her back to the public gallery.

‘I was retired through ill health,’ Mr Stoll replied.

‘Oh?’

‘I was knocked over by a nought joyrider. My hip was completely pulverised. I was offered a desk job but after years spent out in the field,’ Mr Stoll shrugged, ‘well, I just couldn’t face it. So I took early retirement instead.’

‘Do you recognize the defendant, Ryan McGregor?’

‘Nope. Never seen him before in my life,’ Mr Stoll said firmly.

Mr Pingule glanced at Kelani. I reckoned she had one more question before he jumped to his feet, bleating to the judge about the relevance of her questions.

‘Mr Stoll, have you ever seen Callum McGregor before?’

‘Who?’

My heart plunged down to my feet. Why was she asking him about me? Was that her strategy? To get Dad off by hanging me out to dry?

‘Callum McGregor, could you stand up please?’

I hung on to the safety rail and pulled myself upwards. I was burning under the gaze of every eye in the court. This was just as bad as standing in the witness box.

‘Oh yes, I’ve seen him before,’ Mr Stoll said, with no hint of hesitation in his voice.

‘Where?’ Kelani asked.

‘On the afternoon that the Dundale bomb went off,’ Mr Stoll replied. ‘I was having a cup of coffee in the Cuckoo’s Egg café. That boy came in and started to drag out a girl who’d been sitting down minding her own business. As she was being dragged out, I asked if she was OK. I may have a dodgy hip but I still know a move or two!’

‘Quite! So what happened then?’ Kelani prompted.

‘The girl said that the boy was a friend of hers and that he was just taking her out to show her something,’ said Mr Stoll.

‘You’re sure that’s what she said,’ Kelani asked eagerly.

‘Positive. Like I said, I used to be a police officer so I’ve been trained to observe and remember.’

Did Sephy say that? I couldn’t even remember. I just remember my desperation to get her out of the Dundale before the whole place was blown to smithereens.

‘Did the girl seem particularly scared or worried in any way?’ Kelani asked.

‘Not at all. She was treating the whole thing like it was a big joke.’

‘And how come you survived the bomb blast?’

‘I finished my coffee and left less than a minute after the boy up there and his friend.’

‘Thank you, Mr Stoll. No more questions.’ Kelani Adams sat down.

Spontaneous cheers erupted throughout the courtroom. Judge Anderson tried to restore order but it wasn’t going to happen. In the end he had to clear the court. But just like that, my story had been corroborated. And by a Cross police officer of all people. If it’d been funny, I would’ve busted a gut laughing.

Every evening I sat glued to the early evening news for any information about Callum’s dad’s trial. I’d racked my brains to try and come up with some way of helping him. But I’d drawn a complete and utter blank. What could I do? What could just one person do? So I sat and watched like the rest of the country whilst a reporter told us in great detail what had happened that day in court. They occasionally showed Callum and his mum hiding their faces from the cameras as they came out of the court.

The night they showed Callum’s house burnt to the ground I went to my bedroom and cried and cried. Luckily, Callum and his mum were staying with relatives but it still hurt to think of what my friend was going through. I wanted to phone but I didn’t have Callum’s new number. I wanted to visit him but I didn’t have his new address. I still went down to the beach once in a while but Callum was never there. I pretended to myself that we just kept missing each other. I’d arrive at five, he’d arrive at six. I’d arrive at six, he’d arrive at seven. But deep down I knew that he’d stopped coming. He had more important things on his mind.

I don’t know how Callum’s mum managed to get Kelani Adams to defend Callum’s dad but I was so glad
she had. Even before I’d had to go into the courtroom, I’d heard of Kelani Adams QC and I wasn’t really into politics or current affairs or anything like that. According to the reporters on the telly, Kelani was making sure that the trial was as fair as possible – and putting the judge’s back up in the process. Good for her!

Ryan Mcgregor just had to be found not guilty. It was only right and proper.

It was only just.

It was only justice.

Dear Sephy
,

This is a very hard letter for me to write. I keep putting it off and putting it off and this is about the tenth draft
.

I scrunched up the paper and threw it in the already overflowing bin. Start again.

Dear Sephy
,

I’m just going to come right out and say this. I don’t know how you managed to get all that money together to help my dad but I love you for it. Our lawyer, Kelani Adams, is really on our side, to the extent that the judge has threatened twice to hold her in contempt of court
.

I don’t know how, but some day, some how, I’ll make it up to you. I just want you to know that I’ll be for ever . . .

Another sheet of paper scrunched up and thrown in the bin. I folded my arms on the table and rested my head on them. Good or bad, every aspect of my life lay in the hands of others. Kelani Adams, the jury, my so-called education at Heathcroft, even with Sephy. Maybe this was it. Maybe this was all there was or ever would be to my life. I was so sick and tired of being this helpless.

Over the last few months, I’d had a recurring nightmare about being in a cardboard box, no bigger than I was. A normal, simple cardboard box. But no matter how hard I pushed or punched, I just couldn’t smash my way out. In fact the more I tried, the harder it became. And in my bad dreams, it was only when my hands were bloody and I was gasping frantically for breath that I realized I wasn’t in a box at all. It was a coffin. And once I realized that, I stopped struggling and just waited to die. That’s what terrified me the most.

I stopped struggling and waited to die.

At last the trial was over. The jury was out, considering its verdict. I was actually flicking from TV station to TV
station trying to find any news item that would bring me more up to date. I’d seen the so-called evidence weighed up by numerous experts on any number of news programmes as well as in the papers. And they all thought Callum’s dad was guilty. No-one ever came right out and said so. There was a lot of useless talk about the ‘balance of probabilities’ and the ‘pros and cons’ of the case and discussions on the evidence. Funny, but I’ve never been the slightest bit interested in the news before. Now suddenly I couldn’t stop watching it. When Minnie started moaning in my ear about watching something else, I went up to my room to watch it in peace and private.

Ryan McGregor wasn’t guilty.

So why did I feel like I was the only person in the world – the only Cross in the world – to believe that?