The Accused (Modern Plays) (11 page)

Sherwood
Just over ninety thousand pounds a year.

Kersley
How many people earning ninety thousand pounds a year can afford to purchase a penthouse in Chelsea for eight hundred and thirty-seven thousand pounds? I feel sure you’re about to tell us that there’s another simple explanation.

Sherwood
Yes, there is. Some years ago I took out a joint life insurance policy on my wife and myself.

Kersley
Some years ago. Wouldn’t March 1997 be more precise?

Sherwood
That is some years ago, Mr Kersley.

Kersley
But it’s only some weeks before your wife suffered her first heart attack - ‘the first hint came in 1997, my wife complained of loss of breath, pains in her left arm and chest …’ - And what was the value of the policy?

Sherwood
A million pounds.

Kersley
One million pounds. And would I be right in thinking that the life insurance company are refusing to settle the amount until the result of this trial is known?

Barrington
My Lord, that can only be speculation.

Judge
I agree, Sir James. Mr Kersley, unless you can provide evidence, move on.

Kersley
Mr Sherwood, has the life insurance company settled the full amount?

Judge
Mr Kersley.

Kersley
I apologise, My Lord. However, I do hope my learned friend will consider one million pounds a large enough sum to constitute the motive he was searching for.

Sherwood
No amount of money would constitute a motive for harming my wife.

Kersley
Is that right? Then why did you tell Ms Mitchel that you were sick of the way she continually belittled you in front of the hospital staff and how you longed to be rid of her?

Sherwood
My Lord, do I have to answer such a ridiculous suggestion?

Judge
Yes, I’m afraid you do, Mr Sherwood.

Sherwood
Of course I didn’t want to be rid of my wife. She was the only woman I’ve ever cared for.

Kersley
Then why did you seek solace in the arms of another?

Sherwood
I did no such thing.

Kersley
So when Ms Mitchell informed the court that your wife had refused to make love to you for several years, was that also untrue?

Sherwood
How could she possibly know?

Kersley
Oh, I see, you regularly made love to your wife, did you, Mr Sherwood? (
Sherwood
hesitates
.) Your silence speaks volumes and, more importantly, supplies us with yet another motive.

Sherwood
It does no such thing. When will you work out that when it comes to my private life, Ms Mitchell simply made it up?

Kersley
Well, then, let’s consider something Ms Mitchell couldn’t have made up - your wife’s desire to be cremated. Mr Sherwood, your wife’s will - was it written in her own hand?

Sherwood
No, it was typed.

Kersley
Typed by whom, may I ask?

Sherwood
(
hesitates
) I think I may have typed it, but it was signed and duly witnessed.

Kersley
So who witnessed the document?

Sherwood
Mr Webster, the porter at Arcadia Mansions.

Kersley
A man who - by his own admission - could neither read nor write.

Sherwood
It wasn’t necessary for him to read or write, he was only witnessing my wife’s signature.

Kersley
So just a few days before your wife dies she suddenly adds a codicil to her will stating that she wishes to be cremated. No doubt my learned friend will once again casually dismiss this piece of evidence as circumstantial and coincidental, rather than using his favourite words, ‘how convenient’.

Barrington
My Lord, I’m enjoying this speech immensely, as I feel sure you are, but if it is to continue for much longer, perhaps my client might be allowed to sit down?

Kersley
When I’ve finished, your client may well need to sit down. Mr Sherwood, you told the court that you consulted the eminent surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub about your wife’s condition and he put her on a special fat-free diet.

Sherwood
Sir Magdi has written to the court confirming as much.

Kersley
But wasn’t that exactly what you were hoping to achieve, so that when your wife died, you would be able to show that she had been treated by the nation’s leading specialist and therefore no awkward questions would be asked?

Sherwood
That’s ridiculous. How could I be expected to fool the leading authority in the land?

Kersley
Because you neglected to inform him about the six ampoules of Potassium Chloride that later mysteriously disappeared. Or are you at last going to tell us what really happened to them?

Sherwood
Mr Kersley, in a hospital as large as St George’s, thousands of drugs are dispensed every week. How could I be expected to account for every one of them the following day, let alone a year later?

Kersley
Let alone a year later. So why don’t we turn to something you should be able to account for - even a year later - namely your actions on the night your wife died. Did you pour the glass of wine found by her side?

Sherwood
Yes, I did, but that was before I left the flat.

Kersley
So it must have been you who added the sedative that DCI Payne described as three times the normal dosage?

Sherwood
No it was not. My wife was in the habit of taking sedatives, so it could have been a mistake.

Kersley
Or part of your plan, like leaving the kitchen window open.

Sherwood
Why should I do that?

Kersley
So that you could return to your flat without being seen by the porter.

Sherwood
How often do you have to be told? I didn’t return to the flat. I was visiting a patient.

Kersley
In that case, why did you forget to take your doctor’s bag?

Sherwood
I didn’t forget it.

Kersley
But Mr Webster testified that he saw you leaving the building without it.

Sherwood
Only moments ago you dismissed Mr Webster as unfit to witness my wife’s signature.

Kersley
So are you now saying that you did have your doctor’s bag with you when you left Arcadia Mansions?

Sherwood
You don’t need a doctor’s bag if all you have to do is sign a death certificate.

Kersley
And you certainly wouldn’t have needed a doctor’s bag if you were visiting your mistress in Tooting, unless, of course, it was full of condoms.

Barrington
(
leaps up
) My Lord …

Judge
Yes, yes, Sir James. Mr Kersley, do try to remember that you are at the Old Bailey and not back in the House of Commons.

Kersley
I do apologise, My Lord. So, wherever you were, Mr Sherwood - visiting a patient in Westminster without your doctor’s bag, or making love to your mistress in Tooting…

Sherwood
I don’t have a mistress - in Tooting or anywhere else for that matter.

Kersley
But Ms Mitchell told the court that after you made love, you left her at ten o’clock - without your doctor’s bag - and returned an hour later in a nervous state.

Sherwood
I wasn’t in a nervous state.

Kersley
Because you thought you’d got away with it.

Sherwood
Because I wasn’t with her in the first place.

Kersley
Then where were you at 10.27?

Sherwood
I was in Westminster signing a death certificate and that certificate is in the court’s possession.

Kersley
Indeed it is, but isn’t it common practice to fill in a death certificate the following day?

Sherwood
Not in my department, it isn’t.

Kersley
Then if it wasn’t you who returned to your flat, how do you explain your wife’s words - ‘How did you get in?’

Sherwood
(
pause
) She could have been addressing Mr Webster.

Kersley
But he walked in through the front door. I don’t think so, Mr Sherwood.

Sherwood
Then she must have been surprised by an intruder.

Kersley
Rather familiar words for an intruder I would have thought. But singularly appropriate for a husband who had returned unexpectedly and not via the front door. ‘How did you get in?’

Sherwood
But I didn’t return unexpectedly via any door.

Kersley
Then via the fire escape, perhaps?

Sherwood
Or the fire escape.

Kersley
Then how about the kitchen window?

Sherwood
Or the kitchen window.

Kersley
Then who slipped back into the kitchen just before Mr Webster came in?

Sherwood
It could have been the wind that caused the door to slam.

Kersley
Then how do you explain the shouting, the quarrelling and the turning over of furniture?

Sherwood
I accept Mr Webster’s explanation - that there had been another burglary.

Kersley
So how did this burglar enter the building, when there was no sign of a break-in?

Sherwood
Via the fire escape and the kitchen window.

Kersley
But the window had been opened from the inside?

Sherwood
My wife often opened it on a warm evening.

Kersley
In March? Ah, I see, so it was your wife who let the burglar in?

Sherwood
That’s a ridiculous suggestion, Mr Kersley, and you know it.

Kersley
As ridiculous as suggesting that it was a burglar who caused the bruising on her arm.

Sherwood
Not at all. The bruising could have been caused by a struggle with the burglar.

Kersley
Rather than a struggle with you?

Sherwood
Why should she be struggling with me?

Kersley
Because when you returned to inject her, you were horrified to discover she hadn’t drunk the glass of wine that contained the sedative you had prepared for her.

Sherwood
Then how do you explain the unopened ampoule left in my bag?

Kersley
Because you left it there, Mr Sherwood, having only managed to inject five of the ampoules before you were interrupted by Mr Webster, when you fled to the kitchen, dropping the rubber glove on the floor.

Sherwood
Have you forgotten that the glove belonged to my wife?

Kersley
Have you forgotten that it was soaked in Potassium Chloride?

Sherwood
From a bottle of grapefruit juice - as Professor Forsyth confirmed.

Kersley
From an injection, that induced a heart attack, as Professor Forsyth demonstrated.

Sherwood
The heart attack was probably caused by the intruder.

Kersley
Re-enter the intruder, who conveniently appears whenever you’re in trouble. No, the truth is that there never was an intruder, Mr Sherwood, because it was you …

Barrington
My Lord, I must object. My learned friend is putting words into the defendant’s mouth.

Judge
I agree with you, Sir James. Mr Kersley, you must stop attempting to be the witness as well as prosecuting council. If I were to allow this to continue much longer, you might well end up being the judge as well.

Kersley
As Your Lordship pleases.

Judge
(
furious
) In future, Mr Kersley, allow the defendant to answer the questions and the jury to decide on the facts.

Kersley
Is it a fact, Mr Sherwood, that you kissed Ms Mitchell at the staff Christmas party?

Sherwood
(
pause
) Yes - I’ve already admitted to that.

Kersley
And then you left the party a few minutes later?

Sherwood
Yes, I did.

Kersley
Did Ms Mitchell leave with you?

Sherwood
No, she did not.

Kersley
Several people were present at that party, Mr Sherwood.

Sherwood
I’m not saying she didn’t leave at the same time. I’m simply pointing out that she didn’t leave with me.

Kersley
A nice distinction. But did you then offer to accompany her home?

Sherwood
No, we went our separate ways.

Kersley
Was it raining at the time?

Sherwood
No, it began to rain later.

Kersley
Just as you arrived back at her house?

Sherwood
I’ve never been to her flat.

Kersley
I didn’t say flat, Mr Sherwood, I said house.

Sherwood
I’ve never been to her flat, her appartment or her house. I don’t even know where Oldfield Road is.

Kersley
Oldfield Road? Who mentioned Oldfield Road?

Sherwood
Ms Mitchel must have done when she gave her evidence.