Page 28 of Triple Jeopardy (Daniel Pitt)

“That could be what he spent the money on. You’ll have to follow it up. Ask Sidney.” Kitteridge bent back to his papers and continued reading, his eyebrows brought together as he tried to see some pattern in them.

“How did we get them?” Daniel asked, ignoring his own pile. “I mean, how are they in England at all?”

Kitteridge stared at him. “The prosecution brought them. You know that.”

“Yes, but how did they get them?” Daniel persisted. “Who went through and compiled this enormous pile of evidence, I wonder, searching out Sidney’s signature?”

Kitteridge blinked. “That is a very good question. I assume someone at the embassy discovered the money missing, and when they looked harder, they concluded it was Sidney who took it.”

“Or it wasn’t, and they blamed him for it because he’s in enough trouble. Isn’t it an excellent time to get rid of a little more trouble and put it on his plate?” Daniel suggested.

Kitteridge bit his lip. “Are you hoping someone else is responsible for attacking Rebecca Thorwood as well? Someone that Tobias mistook for Sidney? Or are you suggesting Tobias is shielding this person, for some reason of his own?”

Daniel was startled. “No. That makes no sense. Who? And why would he protect the man who attacked his own daughter?”

“The papers?” Kitteridge repeated.

“They were handed over by a young man at the British Embassy called Morley Cross. They had to tell us that in order to validate them,” Daniel pointed out.

“When?” Kitteridge asked pointedly.

“What?”

“When did this young man from the embassy get these papers? How? How did they get over here so quickly? After Sidney came, and before Patrick?”

Daniel shook his head. “I don’t know. But I’m going to find out. If you’d just help me find the exceptions…”

“Oh, I don’t mind clerking for you,” Kitteridge said sarcastically. “I’ve got nothing else to do…except my own case! I forgot to mention that.”

“If I’m in doubt, I’ll ask Impney to take a look,” Daniel went on, as if Kitteridge had not spoken.

“Exactly when did these papers get to England, and how?” Kitteridge persisted. “You’ve got to get a time line on these, that’s the real validation.” His face looked bleak. “And I’m afraid it’s possible your brother-in-law is somehow involved…”

“With the British Embassy, to set up Sidney for embezzlement to bring about a resolution of the theft and assault accusation?” Daniel said incredulously. “He’s Irish American, for heaven’s sake. Everything that’s ever been wrong with Ireland is England’s fault.”

“And everything that’s right, which is a lot, is its own,” Kitteridge finished for him. “I know, I’ve got a couple of Anglo-Irish cousins. Don’t know how that happened! Actually, I do. Their father is Irish, and you couldn’t meet a more delightful chap.” For a moment, Kitteridge’s smile showed unalloyed pleasure.

Daniel was fascinated. It was the first time in the year that Daniel had known him that Kitteridge had mentioned any family. He’d had the impression that they were all rather grim, sort of Evangelical churchmen out to save everybody’s soul, whether they wanted it or not. All for their own good, of course. “The papers have to have come from the British Embassy, directly or indirectly, since they are their records,” Daniel said, returning to the matter at hand. “So, this embassy man, Morley Cross, must have brought them himself or given them to someone to bring here. And since it takes a week to get from Washington to New York and then cross the Atlantic to London, it is someone who left at least a week before the London police got them and could be persuaded to bring a case. And that’s another thing! The police here recognized what they were, and acted on them?” The more he thought about it, the worse it became.

“Then you’d better start looking.” Kitteridge frowned. “It’s really the prosecution’s job to validate them. They need to show how they got here, who brought them, and why. But if you don’t know the truth, you can’t put them on the spot in court and show the jury they’re wrong. Just saying they’re wrong won’t help you. You’ve got to prove they can’t be right.”

“Or that there is somebody lying in order to get Sidney into trouble,” Daniel said reasonably.

Kitteridge met his eyes. “That, too. Sorry. But whatever the truth is, whether the papers are real or not—and so far they look real—you’ve got to find out for certain where they came from, who brought them to London, and why. It may be that Sidney did steal a hundred pounds from the embassy. Or someone else did. But remember, you’ll be talking to ordinary people, not bankers or financiers.”

“They’ll be—” Daniel started out.

“The jury!” Kitteridge interrupted. “Never forget that you are talking to the jury. If you don’t understand it, then they won’t, and there’s damn-all chance they will acquit. You do not have to rely on the prosecution tying himself in knots.”

Daniel knew Kitteridge was right.

“And before you can even think of the assault and the damned necklace, and anything else, you’ve got to get this straight,” Kitteridge went on. “They’ve got to think you know what you’re talking about, and right at this moment, you clearly don’t! This Morley Cross, the young man from the embassy who gave the papers to the police…”

“I don’t know if he actually brought them over himself. They’re being very tight-lipped about it. The earliest date I saw on any of the papers was three years ago.” Daniel thought back. “Why did it take them so long to spot it? Why did this Cross fellow bring it forward now? It looks a bit like waiting till a man’s down, then kicking him again. The jury won’t like that.”

“You’re going to bring that up?” Kitteridge said with a very twisted smile. “Clever! You’re going to tell him he was down because he had taken diplomatic immunity to run away from a charge of theft and assaulting a young woman in her bedroom? Not exactly a standard defense. But it would get the point Patrick Flannery wants you to make across very well. Judge won’t like it! And I daresay neither will the defendant. And what you will hate the most is how much Marcus will hate it. You could find yourself in a lot of legal trouble.” Kitteridge’s expression said very plainly what he thought of that. “It would be the end of your promising career!”

Daniel realized how very thoroughly he had tripped himself up and felt heat wash over his face. “Cart before the horse,” he admitted. “We’d have to use it as a last ditch…”

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