Page 64 of Cuckoo

‘Mr Barton, I believe you did not answer one of Mr Dodgson’s questions earlier,’ Grosvenor says, going straight for the kill. I knew she’d noticed the same thing I had.

‘Excuse me?’ Harry asks, but I see his Adam’s apple bob as he swallows.

‘Mr Dodgson asked you if you knew of a relationship between Mr Coors and the defendant, Miss Arundale, which you denied, but also if Mr Coors had ever cheated on the victim, Miss Andersson. You only answered one of these questions.’ She raises an eyebrow at him knowingly, and Dodgson runs a hand through his hair.

‘I mean, you know… Noah got a lot of attention from the ladies, he’s a good-looking lad…’ Harry’s voice trails off and he rubs the back of his neck.

‘Mr Barton, I ask once more: did you know of Mr Coors having sexual relationships with other women besides Lilah Andersson?’

I watch in fascination as Harry Barton turns an astounding shade of puce, and then, bringing a hand to his face andlowering his head, admits, ‘Yes. Yes, I am aware of Noah cheating on Lilah.’

Gasps from the public gallery and I hear a door slam. I wonder if it is one of Lilah’s relatives.

I can tell Grosvenor is holding back a triumphant smile. ‘How many times would you say he had cheated on Lilah?’

‘I don’t know. I didn’t keep count.’

She pounces on that. ‘So it’s fair to say there were so many women that you were unable to keep track?’

‘I didn’t say that!’ Harry looks more flustered by the second. ‘It wasn’t that many– I tried to stay out of it, that’s all. It wasn’t my business!’

‘Did you ever hear about a Madeline? Or Mads, as Noah called her?’

‘No, no, Noah never told me about them really. Never names, they were just, like, flings, I don’t know. I think he was just trying to let loose before he got tied down, before he married Lilah,’ Harry says. I can hear the fight has left his voice. He knows he has fucked up, that he’s painted his best friend as a lying, cheating scumbag who failed his dead girlfriend in every possible way.

‘So you didn’t know about Miss Choi, who we all know through her testimony was seeing Mr Coors semi-regularly, for quite a decent period of time. Would it be fair to assume that there were quite likely to be other women you did not hear about?’ Grosvenor asks.

Harry sighs, defeated. ‘Yes, I suppose. There were several.’

‘And he’d meet them where?’ Grosvenor pushes.

‘Bars, after work. I’d be there sometimes with him. Hemade me swear not to say anything to anyone, in case it got back to Lilah. I’m sorry. I feel awful. I thought I was doing right by my mate, I didn’t ever think… If I could go back and change…’ It looks like he might even cry.

‘So is it in fact entirely possible that Mr Coors met my client in a Morrisons supermarket, chatted her up, and she began what she believed was a friendly relationship with him, by following him on social media?’

Harry swallows, and the delay in his reluctant response is palpable. ‘It is possible that Noah lied about it, yes.’

‘And then after that, is it also possible that they began a romantic correspondence and Mr Coors refrained from sharing the ins and outs of this with you, as you seem to have only been given a partial picture of his other romantic entanglements?’

‘I suppose it could have been like that,’ he concedes.

‘That’s all, thanks,’ Grosvenor says, spinning on her heel.

Chapter Fifty-Six

Joseph Miles

‘Our first witness to the stand today is Joseph Miles,’ Dodgson announces the next day. He says it as though it’s a grand event, a celebrity meet’n’greet. Joseph is tall and gangly, with curly dark hair and bushy eyebrows. He’s young, perhaps in his late twenties.

I realise with a sinking heart that I know this man. I know him, but my head is foggy and I can’t quite seem to place him.

‘Mr Miles, is the Claire Arundale sitting over there’ – a nod towards me – ‘the Claire Arundale that you know?’ Dodgson asks.

Joseph glances over at me for the first time, his eyes quickly darting away.

‘Yes,’ he confirms.

‘And will you tell the court how you know her?’

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