Twelve Red Herrings Part 2

"No. He dropped by after work to leave a doc.u.ment for my husband, but he didn't even have time to stay for a drink."

"But your husband says ... ' began Sir Matthew.

"I know what my husband says," Rosemary replied, as if she had rehea.r.s.ed the line a hundred times.

"I see," said Sir Matthew. "Let's get to the point, shall we, Mrs.

Cooper? Were you having an affair with Jeremy Alexander at the time of his disappearance?"

"Is this relevant, Sir Matthew?" interrupted the judge.

"It most a.s.suredly is, M'Lud. It goes to the very core of the case," replied my QC in a quiet even tone.

Everyone's gaze was now fixed on Rosemary. I willed her to tell the truth.

She didn't hesitate. "Certainly not," she replied, 'although it wasn't the first time my husband had accused me unjustly."

"I see,'

said Sir Matthew. He paused. "Do you love your husband, Mrs. Cooper?'

"Really, Sir Matthew!" The judge was unable to disguise his irritation.

"I must ask once again if this is relevant?" Sir Matthew exploded.

"Relevant? It's absolutely vital, M'Lud, and I am not being a.s.sistedby your iords.h.i.+p's thinly veiled attempts to intervene on behalf of this witness." The judge was beginning to splutter with indignation when Rosemary said quietly, "I have always been a good and faithful wife, but I cannot under any circ.u.mstances condone murder." The jury turned their eyes on me. Most of them looked as if they would be happy to bring back the death penalty.

"If that is the case, I am bound to ask why you waited two and a half hours to contact the police?" said Sir Matthew.

"Especially if, as you claim, you believed your husband had committed murder, and was about to dispose of the body."

"As I explained, I fainted soon after he left the room. I phoned the police the moment I came to."

"How convenient," said Sir Matthew. "Or perhaps the truth is that you made use of that time to set a trap for your husband, while allowing your lover to get clean away." A murmur ran through the courtroom.

"Sir Matthew," the judge said, jumping in once again. "You are going too far."

"Not so, M'Lud, with respect. In fact, not far enough." He swung back round and faced my wife again.

"I put it to you, Mrs. Cooper, that Jeremy Alexander was your lover, and still is, that you are perfectly aware he is alive and well, and that if you wished to, you could tell us exactly where he is now.'Despite the judge's spluttering and the uproar in the court, Rosemary had her reply ready.

"I only wish he were," she said, 'so that he could stand in this court and confirm that I am telling the truth." Her voice was soft and gentle.

"But you already know the truth, Mrs. Cooper," said Sir Matthew, his voice gradually rising. "The truth is that your husband left the house on his own. He then drove to the Queen's Hotel, where he spent the rest of the night, while you and your lover used that time to leave clues across the city ol Leeds - clues, I might add, that were intended to incriminate your husband. But the one thing you couldn't leave was a body, because as you well know Mr. Jeremy Alexander is still alive, and the two of you have together fabricated this entire bogus story, simply to further your own ends. Isn't that the truth, Mrs. Cooper?'

"No, no!" Rosemary shouted, her voice cracking before she finally burst into tears.

"Oh, come, come, Mrs. Cooper. Those are counterfeit tears, are they not?" said Sir Matthew quietly. "Now you've been found out, the jury will decide if your distress is genuine." I glanced across at the jury. Not only had they fallen for Rosemary's performance, but they now despised me for allowing my insensitive bully of a counsel to attack such a gentle, longsuffering woman. To every one ofSir Matthew's probing questions, Rosemary proved well capable of delivering a riposte that revealed to me all the hallmarks of Jeremy Alexander's expert tuition.

When it was my turn to enter the witness box, and Sir Matthew began questioning me, I felt my story sounded far less convincing than Rosemary's, despite its being the truth.

The closing speech for the Crown was deadly dull, but nevertheless deadly. Sir Matthew's was subtle and dramatic, but I feared less convincing.

After another night in Armley Jail I returned to the dock for the judge's summing up. It was clear that he was in no doubt as to my guilt. His selection of the evidence he chose to review was unbalanced and unfair, and when he ended by reminding the jury that his opinion of the evidence should ultimately carry no weight, he only added hypocrisy to bias.

After their first full day's deliberations, the jury had to be put up overnight in a hotel - ironically the Queen's - and when the jolly little fat man in the bow tie was finally asked: "Members of the jury, do you find the prisoner at the bar guilty or not guilty as charged?" I wasn't surprised when he said clearly for all to hear, "Guilty, my lord." In fact I was amazed that the jury had failed to reach a unanimous decision. I have often wondered which twomembers felt convinced enough to declare my innocence. I would have liked to thank them.

The judge stared down at me. "Richard Wilfred Cooper, you have been found guilty of the murder of Jeremy Anatole Alexander ... ' "I did not kill him, my lord," I interrupted in a calm voice.

"In fact, he is not dead. I can only hope that you will live long enough to realise the truth." Sir Matthew looked up anxiously as uproar broke out in the court.

The judge called for silence, and his voice became even more harsh as he p.r.o.nounced, "You will go to prison for life. That is the sentence prescribed by law. Take him down." Two prison officers stepped forward, gripped me firmly by the arms and led me down the steps at the back of the dock into the cell I had occupied every morning for the eighteen days of the trial.

"Sorry, old chum," said the policeman who had been in charge of my welfare since the case had begun. "It was that b.i.t.c.h of a wife who tipped the scales against you." He slammed the cell door closed, and turned the key in the lock before I had a chance to agree with him. A few moments later the door was unlocked again, and Sir Matthew strode in.

He stared at me for some time before uttering a word. "A terrible injustice has been done, Mr. Cooper," he eventually said,'and we shall immediately lodge an appeal against your conviction. Be a.s.sured, I will not rest until we have found Jeremy Alexander and he has been brought to justice." For the first time I realised Sir Matthew knew that I was innocent.

I was put in a cell with a petty criminal called "Fingers'

Jenkins.

Can you believe, as we approach the twenty-first century, that anyone could still be called "Fingers'? Even so, the name had been well earned. Within moments of my entering the cell, Fingers was wearing my watch. He returned it immediately I noticed it had disappeared. "Sorry," he said. "Just put it down to 'abit.

Prison might have turned out to be far worse if it hadn't been known by my fellow inmates that I was a millionaire, and was quite happy to pay a little extra for certain privileges. Every morning the Financial Times was delivered to my bunk, which gave me the chance to keep up with what was happening in the City. I was nearly sick when I first read about the takeover bid for Cooper's. Sick not because of the offer of 2.5o a share, which made me even wealthier, but because it became painfully obvious what Jeremy and Rosemary had been up to.

Jeremy's shares would now be worth several million pounds - money he could never have realised had I been around to prevent a takeover.I spent hours each day lying on my bunk and scouring every word of the Financial Times. Whenever there was a mention of Cooper's, I went over the paragraph so often that I ended up knowing it by heart. The company was eventually taken over, but not before the share price had reached 3.43- I continued to follow its activities with great interest, and I became more and more anxious about the quality of the new management when they began to sack some of my most experienced staff, including Joe Ramsbottom. A week later, I wrote and instructed my stockbrokers to sell my shares as and when the opportunity arose.

It was at the beginning of my fourth month in prison that !

asked for some writing paper. I had decided the time had come to keep a record of everything that had happened to me since that night I had returned home unexpectedly. Every day the prison officer on my landing would bring me fresh sheets of blue-lined paper, and I would write out in longhand the chronicle you're now reading. An added bonus was that it helped me to plan my next move.

At my request, Fingers took a straw poll among the prisoners as to who they believed was the best detective they had ever come up against.

Three days later he told me the result: Chief Superintendent Donald Hackett, known as the Don, came out top on more than half the lists. More reliable than a Gallup Poll, I told Fingers."What puts Hackett ahead of all the others?" I asked him.

"e's honest, 'e's fair, you can't bribe 'im. And once the b.a.s.t.a.r.d knows you're a villain, 'e doesn't care 'ow long it takes to get you be'ind bars." Hackett, I was informed, hailed from Bradford. Rumour had it among the older cons that he had turned down the job of a.s.sistant Chief Constable for West Yorks.h.i.+re. Like a barrister who doesn't want to become a judge, he preferred to remain at the coalface.

"Arrestin' criminals is 'ow 'e gets his kicks," Fingers said, with some feeling.

"Sounds just the man I'm looking for," I said. "How old is he?'

Fingers paused to consider. "Must be past fifty by now,"

he replied.

"After all, 'e 'ad me put in borstal for nickin' a toolset, and that was' - he paused again - 'more than twenty years ago."

When Sir Matthew came to visit me the following Monday, I told him what I had in mind, and asked his opinion of the Don.

I wanted a professional's view.

"He's a h.e.l.l of a witness to cross-examine, that's one thing I can tell you," replied my barrister. "Why's that?"

"He doesn't exaggerate, he won't prevaricate, and I've never known him to lie, which makes him awfully hard to trap. No, I've rarely got the better of the Chief Superintendent. I have to say, though, that I doubt ifhe'd agree to become involved with a convicted criminal, whatever you offered him.'

"But I'm not ... ' "I know, Mr. Cooper," said Sir Matthew, who still didn't seem able to call me by my first name, "But Hackett will have to be convinced of that before he even agrees to see you."

"But how can I convince him of my innocence while I'm stuck in jail?'

I'll try to influence him on your behalf," Sir Matthew sad after some thought. Then he added, "Come to think of it, he does owe me a favour." After Sir Matthew had left that night, I requested some more lined paper and began to compose a carefully worded letter to Chief Superintendent Hackett, several versions of which ended crumpled up on the floor of my cell. My final effort read as follows: In replying to this letter, please write on the envelol: Nmber .i4_..798.3. N. COOPER, R.W.

i Au. ,.cor.;:.. ,'.: :s [ H.M. PRISON .v- : ..: ,.'o ARMLEY A..

CA..O .ccmeo LEEDS LS12 2TJ I reread the letter, corrected the spelling mistake, and scrawled my signature across the bottom.

At my request, Sir Matthew delivered the letter to Hackett by hand. The first thousand-pound-a-day postman in the history of the Royal Mail, I told him.

Sir Matthew reported back the following Monday that he had handedthe letter to the Chief Superintendent in person. After Hackett had read it through a second time, his only comment was that he would have to speak to his superiors. He had promised he would let Sir Matthew know his decision within a week.

From the moment I had been sentenced, Sir Matthew had been preparing for my appeal, and although he had not at any time raised my hopes, he was unable to hide his delight at what he had discovered after paying a visit to the Probate Office.

It turned out that, in his will, Jeremy had left everything to Rosemary. This included over three million pounds' worth of Cooper's shares. But, Sir Matthew explained, the law did not allow her to dispose of them for seven years. "An English jury may have p.r.o.nounced on your guilt," he declared, 'but the hardheaded taxmen are not so easily convinced. They won't hand over Jeremy Alexander's a.s.sets until either they have seen his body, or seven years have elapsed."

"Do they think that Rosemary might have killed him for his money, and then disposed ... ' "No, no," said Sir Matthew, almost laughing at my suggestion.

"It's simply that, as they're ent.i.tled to wait for seven years, they're going to sit on his a.s.sets and not take the risk that Alexander may still be alive. In any case, if your wife had killed him, she wouldn't have had a ready answer to every one of myquestions when she was in the witness box, of that I'm sure." I smiled. For the first time in my life I was delighted to learn that the taxman had his nose in my affairs.

Sir Matthew promised he would report back if anything new came up.

"Goodnight, Richard," he said as he left the interview room.

Another first.

It seemed that everyone else in the prison was aware that Chief Superintendent Hackett would be paying me a visit long before was.

It was Dave Adams, an old lag from an adjoining cell, who explained why the inmates thought Hackett had agreed to see me. "A good copper is never 'appy about anyone doin' time for somethin' 'e didn't do. 'ackett phoned the Governor last Tuesday, and 'ad a word with 'im on the Q.T accordin' to Maurice," Dave added mysteriously.

I would have been interested to learn how the Governor's trusty had managed to hear both sides of the conversation, but decided this was not the time for irrelevant questions.

"Even the 'ardest nuts in this place think you're innocent," Dave continued. "They can't wait for the day when Mr. Jeremy Alexander takes over your cell. You can be sure the long termers'll give 'im a warm welcome." A letter from Bradford arrived the following morning. "DearCooper," the Chief Superintendent began, and went on to inform me that he intended to pay a visit to the jail at four o'clock the following Sunday. He made it clear that he would stay no longer than half an hour, and insisted on a witness being present throughout.

For the first time since I'd been locked up, I started counting the hours. Hours aren't that important when your room has been booked for a life sentence.

As I was taken from my cell that Sunday afternoon and escorted to the interview room, I received several messages from my fellow inmates to pa.s.s on to the Chief Superintendent.

"Give my best regards to the Don," said Fingers. "Tell 'im 'ow sorry I am not to b.u.mp into 'im this time."

"When 'e's finished with you, ask 'im if 'e'd like to drop into my cell for a cup of char and a chat about old times."

"Kick the b.a.s.t.a.r.d in the b.a.l.l.s, and tell 'im I'll be 'appy to serve the extra time." One of the prisoners even suggested a question to which I already knew the answer: "Ask 'im when ^"e's going to retire, 'cause I'm not coming out till the day after.'

When I stepped into the interview room and saw the Chief Superintendent for the first time, I thought there must have been some mistake. I had never asked Fingers what the Don looked like, and over the past few days I had built up in my mind the image of some sort of superman. b.u.t.the man who stood before me was a couple of inches shorter than me, and I'm only five foot ten. He was as thin as the proverbial rake and wore pebble-lensed horn-rimmed gla.s.ses, which gave the impression that he was half-blind. All he needed was a grubby raincoat and he could have been mistaken for a debt collector.

Sir Matthew stepped forward to introduce us. I shook the policeman firmly by the hand. "Thank you for coming to visit me, Chief Superintendent," I began. "Won't you have a seat?" I added, as if he had dropped into my home for a gla.s.s of sherry.

"Sir Matthew is very persuasive," said Hackett, in a deep, gruff Yorks.h.i.+re accent that didn't quite seem to go with his body. "So tell me, Cooper, what do you imagine it is that I can do for you ?" he asked as he took the chair opposite me. I detected an edge of cynicism in his voice.

He opened a notepad and placed it on the table as I was about to begin my story. "For my use only," he explained, 'should I need to remind myself of any relevant details at some time in the future.'

Twenty minutes later, I had finished the abbreviated version of the life and times of Richard Cooper. I had already gone over the story on several occasions in my cell during the past week, to be certain I didn't take too long. I wanted to leave enough time for Hackett to ask any questions.

"If I believe your story," he said, '- and I only say "if"

- youstill haven't explained what it is you think I can do for you."

"You're due to leave the force in five months' time," I said. "I wondered if you had any plans once you've retired." He hesitated. I had obviously taken him by surprise.

"I've been offered a job with Group 4, as area manager for West Yorks.h.i.+re."

"And how much will they be paying you?" I asked bluntly.

"It won't be full time," he said. "Three days a week, to start with." He hesitated again. "Twenty thousand a year, guaranteed for three years."

"I'll pay you a hundred thousand a year, but I'll expect you to be on the job seven days a week. I a.s.sume you'll be needing a secretary and an a.s.sistant- that Inspector Williams who's leaving at the same time as you might well fit the bill - so I'll also supply you with enough money for back-up staff, as well as the rent for an office." A flicker of respect appeared on the Chief Superintendent's face for the first time. He made some more notes on his pad.

"And what would you expect of me in return for such a large sum of money?" he asked.

"That's simple. I expect you to find Jeremy Alexander."

This time he didn't hesitate. "My G.o.d," he said. "You really are innocent. SirMatthew and the Governor both tried to convince me you were."

"And if you find him within seven years," I added, ignoring his comment, "I'll pay a further five hundred thousand into any branch of any bank in the world that you stipulate."

"The Midland, Bradford will suit me just fine," he replied. "It's only criminals who find it necessary to retire abroad. In any case, I have to be in Bradford every other Sat.u.r.day afternoon, so I can be around to watch City lose." Hackett rose from his place and looked hard at me for some time. "One last question, Mr. Cooper.

Why seven years?"

"Because after that period, my wife can sell Alexander's shares, and he'll become a multi-millionaire overnight.'

The Chief Superintendent nodded his understanding. "Thank you for asking to see me," he said. "It's been a long time since I enjoyed visiting anyone in jail, especially someone convicted of murder. I'll give your offer serious consideration, Mr. Cooper, and let you know my decision by the end of the week." He left without another word.

Hackett wrote to me three days later, accepting my offer.

I didn't have to wait five months for him to start working for me, because he handed in his resignation within a fortnight though not before I had agreed to continue his pension contributions, and those ofthe two colleagues he wanted to leave the force and join him. Having now disposed of all my Cooper's shares, the interest on my deposit account was earning me over four hundred thousand a year, and as I was living rent-free, Hackett's request was a minor consideration.

I would have shared with you in greater detail everything that happened to me over the following months, but during that time I was so preoccupied with briefing Hackett that I filled only three pages of my blue-lined prison paper. I should however mention that I studied several law books, to be sure that I fully understood the meaning of the legal term 'autrefois acquit'.

The next important date in the diary was my appeal hearing.