Court Out

Chapter Twenty One





Almost two weeks later, we jump in his car and make the journey back to the police station. I’m having real trouble breathing and am having vivid flashbacks to my hellish time in custody. Sebastian keeps giving me reassuring pats on my leg and I have to remind myself over and over that I’m going of my own free will and can leave accordingly.

We seem to arrive in record time and it takes every inch of willpower that I have to force me to leave the car and make my way to the main entrance. There are uniformed officers all around me and I grip Sebastian’s hand tightly. He squeezes back.

It’s been a tough thirteen days. I’ve spoken to Serena a few times, although understandably, I’ve been trying to avoid her at all costs. She wasn’t particularly happy about my quick exit from her dress fitting, but she’s obviously put that to the back of her mind and has been barking orders at me like a warped army general.

So far, I’ve been forced to chase up the printers to check her orders of service are going to arrive as scheduled and call the hairdresser she had originally booked and tell her that Serena no longer needs her services as she has found ‘A celebrity stylist that she simply has to use.’ The first stylist informed me that Serena would have to forfeit her deposit, but somehow I don’t think she is going to be bothered about a hundred pounds.

Sebastian thinks I’m crazy to still be doing her dirty work, but I have to think of the bigger picture. I can’t do anything to let Serena think I’m at all suspicious of her. I can’t risk her attempting to cover her tracks. The worst bit has been having to listen to her boasting about the huge volume of work she’s been getting. My work. The work I spent years building up my practice to get.

Cassie called me the other day to let me know that some of the solicitors who used to send me a lot of work were questioning the decision to suspend me. That really perked me up. She’s a really sweet girl and is still on tenterhooks waiting to find out if she is going to be made a permanent member of Chambers. Given the way they’ve treated me, I have to say I have mixed feelings on her behalf.



We walk into the foyer of the police station and stand behind a rather dubiously smelling man. I tap my foot as we wait to be seen, anxious to get this over and done with as soon as possible. When we finally do reach the counter, a surprisingly friendly uniformed lady greets me with a cheery smile.

“Hello. How can I help you today?” she enquires chirpily. For a moment I’m lost for words. Sebastian gently nudges me in the side with his elbow.

“My name is Lauren Chase. I’d like to see Detective Inspector Connelly please.” I finally manage. The officer looks at me curiously.

“And may I enquire what that would be about?”

“It’s about a matter in which he is the officer in charge of the case.” I say, trying to sound as authoritative as I can. I think it’s worked as the confusion in her face has cleared and her smile has returned.

“Ah, I see. And are you one of the lawyers in the case?”

Damn. I have no choice but to tell the truth. I take a deep breath and look her directly in the eyes. “Yes, and I’m also the Defendant.”

I have to say, I’m amazed at the speed DC Connelly appears. From the moment the desk officer makes a hushed phone call, it seems like mere seconds before he appears at our side.

“Miss Chase? I have to say this is very unusual,” he says, by way of greeting. He’s in a charcoal suit and sky blue shirt but appears slightly more stressed than last time.

“Trust me officer, I wouldn’t be here unless I absolutely had to be,” I reply. His expression changes and half a smile forms on his lips.

“So you’ve come to confess then! Finally seen sense?”

He’s serious. I give a humourless laugh.

“Not exactly. Is there somewhere private we can talk?”

I’m escorted to a small, musty interview room just off the entrance reception. There are no windows and the door barely opens into the room before hitting one of the two chairs positioned around a wooden table. I think they are bolted to the floor. The door shuts behind me and I feel strangely alone without Sebastian by my side.

It’s crazy, before all of this happened I considered myself to be fiercely independent, totally self-assured and ready, willing and able to take on whatever life threw at me. How wrong I was.

I take a seat, placing my large handbag on the floor beside me. DC Connelly does not sit down. He is looking at me with a mixture of anticipation and confusion before speaking.

“As this meeting is rather unorthodox, I’m going to conduct it as an interview.” He leans across to a small shelf in the corner of the room and starts fiddling with some tapes and a machine. I remain silent and wait for him to start the recording. It hadn’t occurred to me that he would do this and I feel my stomach tie itself in knots at the formality of what is happening. It makes perfect sense that he is doing this, I mean, what if I actually had come to confess?

My thoughts are interrupted by his voice announcing the introductions to the interview, stating the circumstances for the benefit of the tape. He reads me the formal police caution, pauses, then takes a seat opposite me. He is much closer to me than last time and I try to remain focused.

“So Miss Chase, you have decided to pay me a visit in connection with the matter you are on police bail for?”

“Yes,” I say. There is an awkward silence. I clear my throat and continue. “Having had some time to consider the matter, I can now say who set me up.”

Clearly, he wasn’t expecting this. His expression starts with shock then switches to amusement. He is trying to suppress a smile and his voice changes to a sing-song intonation.

“Really? Ok, I’ll bite. Who set you up?” He leans back in his chair, making it plain to me that he considers this a massive waste of his time. I take long breath of air then decide to say my piece before I change my mind.

“Well, I believe there were five people in total. Ryan Hobbs, Stephen Walker, Peter Quinn, Andrew Rivers and Serena Taylor. In order to ensure Hobbs walked free, they had to stop the trial and ensure that he wasn’t tried again. The evidence against him was overwhelming, it was the only way to guarantee his acquittal.”

To my horror, DC Connelly gives a whoop of laughter.

“That’s good, really, very good Miss Chase. If you weren’t already a lawyer I’d suggest that you’d been watching too many crime dramas. Naming a high profile silk? Genius”

I wait for him to finish chuckling and leave a good five seconds before speaking.

“Exactly Officer. I’m a lawyer. I wouldn’t just come here to throw around wild conspiracy theories. I can prove it.”

I start at the very beginning and tell him all about how Serena and I met, how she was always slightly behind me in terms of work and how she was upset about how my career had progressed above hers. I explain to him how the Hobbs trial went, about the site visit, about the wine and how Serena and Rivers had become close. I talk for what seems like hours; Connelly listens, asks the occasional question and changes the tapes when the buzzer reminds him that they are almost at the end. I give him the cheque book, the photos of Serena’s phone, the print out of Walker’s Facebook and finally, the response to the message I sent pretending to be Serena.

I received the response last night. I must admit when I messaged him I had hoped that something would come of it, but never really believed that anything of help would. When I received an email saying that I’d had a message my heart literally missed a beat. I grabbed Sebastian and together we went to see what had been said.

“Darling, please don’t get your hopes up,” he had warned. I knew he was right, I mean you’d have to be pretty dim to fall for this. The site seemed to take forever to load and I thought I was going to pass out from the anticipation of it all. Finally, we were able to see his response:

‘Hi Babe, living the high life, sure you are too! Hobbs made sure of that. Cracking bloke. Off to the Grand Prix now with the wife. Paddock passes. Make sure you spend yours on the good stuff.’

We both stared at in in silence for what seemed like an eternity. Sebastian starting frantically pressing buttons on the keyboard and for a terrible moment I thought he might have deleted it.

“What are you doing?” I’d exclaimed.

“Taking screenshots and printing it out,” he replied. “We need to make sure this is watertight.”



I watch DC Connelly read the message over and over. He looks up at me. “F*ck,” he states in a low voice, before coughing to try and disguise what he said.

“Indeed,” I reply.

“Ok, ok, so if we work on the basis that this actually came from Walker, Serena must have been involved.”

I try not to throw something at him.

“Of course it came from Walker. Go and arrest him. Ask him about it!”

DC Connelly nods slowly. “And the cheque book. How can I be sure that you didn’t have it all along?”

I reach into my bag and hand him a DVD. “Watch this, it shows when and where I found it.”

When I called Dream Brides and told the owner I was thinking of suing Serena for emotional distress she was more than happy to assist in giving me the footage from our time at the salon. I’m no police officer but even I can see that the look on my face when I found my cheque book is something that even the most experienced actor would have trouble perfecting.

I stand up. “I think I’ve given you more than enough to be getting on with. I understand that I’ll have to wait for you to make your enquiries before you believe me, but when the time comes I will make a statement to support any prosecutions you wish to pursue. Just one thing though. I presume you already knew all of this?”

DC Connelly looks flummoxed.

“What? No! Of course not!”

“So, despite bailing me for goodness knows how many weeks, you didn’t think to conduct any further enquiries at all?”

To his credit, the officer looks slightly embarrassed.

“No. It seemed watertight.”

“Well things aren’t always as they seem.” I turn to leave and feel a hand on my shoulder.

“Keep acting like you were. Try not to let on you know. It shouldn’t take us long, but we don’t want to risk Hobbs leaving the country or anything.”

I sigh. I had really hoped that this would be the end of all the pretence. I nod at him and walk out, head held high. Sebastian gets to his feet on seeing me. I give him a wry smile and we walk out together, conscious of DC Connelly watching us leave.