First-Class Lawyer

The prosecution then applied to call two more witnesses, including the woman they had seen taking out garbage and another elderly man, both neighbours of Joshua Dale and Kitty Bell.

What these people said gave credibility to some of the facts asserted by the prosecution, such as the fact that Kitty Bell lived alone, and that she had had a brother who previously lived on the other side of the planet. After her brother’s death, his only grandson, Chester Bell, came over to her. 

Kitty Bell wasn’t poor, but she was used to being frugal. She was also unwilling to move because she had lived in the old house for a long time. Further, Chester brought along a lump of inheritance money from his grandfather; it might only have been a small fortune, but it was still enough to bring some people joy.

Not many people knew about this, only a handful of neighbours who frequently interacted with Kitty Bell.

Also, such as that Joshua Dale had been acting erratically for a while.

The prosecutor unhurriedly asked a number of planned questions, sufficient to ensure that the jury’s understanding of Joshua veered in the direction he wanted it to go. As for these two witnesses, Gu Yan didn’t outright give up the cross-examination, but it didn’t make much of a difference. 

He asked two questions that sounded inconsequential.

The woman who regularly took out garbage even shifted the focus in the course of her answer to complain about the ‘drunkard who hangs around in the alley’.

Then, Judge Murray Liu knocked the gavel.

Gu Yan was the picture of composure, sitting down after the cross-examination and looking through two pages of evidence materials, unruffled.

The prosecutor had some misgivings at first, but he eventually looked sure of his chances of winning, clearly taking him for the typical ‘cavalier’ lawyer.

The only person on the verge of breaking down was Joshua Dale. If anyone gave him a rope now, he would hang himself to death before the defence table!

He remembered that he had spent a long time last night coaxing Rosie to stay in the hotel and not follow him to court today. When the trial concluded, he would bring her home. Of course, these were purely words of reassurance to keep his sister from worrying and feeling scared.

Now, he regretted it deeply. After the three rounds of questioning, he felt that he already had one foot in the prison cell. 

Had he known, he would have let Rosie come, then at least he could still see her for just a few minutes more…

Just as he was about to pull his hair out and turn bald, the prosecutor’s examination of the fourth witness began.

“Jim Cumming,” the prosecutor said.

On the witness stand was an average-built man with yellowed, bloodshot eyes. The skin on his face was imbued with a slight purplish-red hue, and looked a little puffy. It was clear that he had deliberately tidied up to present himself on the stand, his hair even glossed with hair wax. 

But he still looked a little sluggish.

Jim Cumming puffed out his chest. “That’s me.”

Lu, “Where were you on the night of the 23rd between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.”

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Jim Cumming, “I saw Joshua Dale inside Mdm Kitty Bell’s house when I was turning about to my place. There was a gap in one part of the wall, and as I passed by, I just happened to look into Kitty Bell’s window and saw Joshua Dale was in the room!”

“What time was that?”

“A little after 7:50 p.m.” 

Lu asked Jim Cummings many questions of the ins and outs, but they largely revolved around that one sensitive timepoint, using the witness’ mouth over and over again to emphasise one point to the jury—that Joshua Dale was in Kitty Bell’s room at the time of the crime.

“I’m done with the examination, Your Honour.” Lu nodded in confirmation, then sat back down, casting a glance over at Gu Yan.

Murray Liu, “Lawyer Gu, you may begin your cross-examination.”

By now, Joshua Dale’s heart had turned to ash, his face pulled even longer than a donkey. He no longer clung onto any hope; he could even imagine the way Gu Yan would raise his hand to the judge, indicating that he, as before, had no questions. 

Many of those in the gallery didn’t even look up, obviously thinking in the same tangent as Joshua Dale.

However, this time, Gu Yan nodded at the judge.

He turned to Jim Cumming, glanced at his information, and said calmly, “Jim Cumming.”

“Yes, that’s me.” Jim didn’t show any impatience, instead subconsciously puffing out his chest each time he was named. 

Gu Yan pressed the playback controller, and the holographic screen projected an overhead view. He casually circled one of the houses, saying lightly, “Is this where you stay?”

Jim Cumming nodded. “Yes, as you can see, it’s very close to Kitty Bell’s house. There’s only our yard walls between us.”

“Five minutes ago, Ms Logan stood on the witness stand where you’re standing now and mentioned something—she gets into an argument with an intoxicated neighbour almost everyday when she takes out her garbage,” Gu Yan said, “do you know who that neighbour is?”

Jim Cumming was momentarily embarrassed. His yellow eyes swivelled around; he glanced at the prosecutor, and then skittered away. 

Gu Yan was not in a hurry, his face calm as he waited for him to speak.

Jim Cumming said haltingly, “Me.”

The people in the gallery buzzed with discussion. Many people who were bored stiff began to sit up straight to look at the defence table again.

“You get drunk next to this dumpster almost everyday and sleep until past midnight, or even until early morning, before you head home?” Gu Yan circled the exact location of that dumpster on the overhead map. 

Ms Logan had not said this. This was what Yan Suizhi saw in the video, clear as day.

Jim Cumming opened his mouth.

Some people in the gallery began to talk in whispers. After all, a chronic drunkard didn’t often give anyone a good impression. It was also difficult to establish a clear and rational image; in fact Jim Cumming’s bloodshot eyes and puffy face proved this, which would have a slight impact on the credibility of the witness.

This time, Gu Yan did not wait for his answer. “On the night of the 23rd, were you drunk?” 

Jim Cumming shook his head frantically. “No! I really did not drink on the 23rd! You said it too, almost everyday, not actually every day. In fact, I haven’t been drunk in the alley these days, I’ve changed. Also…”

He thought hard and suddenly grabbed onto a piece of driftwood. “I bought something at Hay Convenience, the shopkeep and the in-store surveillance can prove this.”

He grew smug again. “I was very sober. I hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol that day.”

Gu Yan lowered his gaze, flipped a page of notes, and raised his eyes again. He asked, “You passed by Kitty Bell’s house and saw Joshua Dale through the window after 7:50 p.m.? Before 8 p.m.?” 

Jim Cumming nodded.

Gu Yan, “How are you so certain of the time?”

Jim Cumming, “I happened to glance at the clock on the wall when at Hay Convenience. I remember it clearly, it was 7:45 p.m. The walk from Hay Convenience home is about 7-minutes by foot. So it must have been after 7:50 p.m. when I looked through Kitty Bell’s window. When I reached home later, I also checked the time again. Again, I remember it vividly, it was two minutes to 8 p.m.”

He said this portion very cogently, even proving that he was indeed sober that day, not drunk out of his mind. 

“You were opening the door to your own residence when you saw Kitty Bell’s window through a gap in the wall?” Gu Yan asked again.

“Yes.”

“How far was the door of your residence from Bell’s window?”

“About seven metres.” 

“Directly facing it?”

“It was a little slanted, just a little,” Jim Cumming emphasised.

Gu Yan looked into his cloudy yellow eyes. “How’s your eyesight?”

“Very good! Extremely good, there are no issues at all.” Jim Cumming pointed to his own eyes, “It is only yellowed and bloodshot because I had drunk too much alcohol in the past.” 

Gu Yan casually swept a gaze through the courtroom, gauging the distance from the witness stand to the gallery behind him, trying to pick a reference point. He ended up seeing out of his peripheral vision the papers spread in front of Yan Suizhi, a flamboyant ‘A’ written on it like a graded examination script.

“…”

He went silent for a moment. Then, he casually pointed to a spectator and asked Jim Cumming, “Can you read the number on the left breast of this gentleman’s jacket?”

Jim Cumming immediately said, “68!” 

Following the prompt, the crowd looked over. It was indeed a 68. If he could see such a big number from this distance, he wouldn’t have a problem recognising a face from seven metres away.

With this line of questioning, the spectators were quite confused about what Gu Yan, the defence lawyer, was trying to achieve. They felt that the answers elicited from the questions he asked were not only ineffectual to Joshua Dale’s case, but were even adding credibility to the other side.

Gu Yan, however, remained calm. “So, you can confirm that at that time, the person you saw in Kitty Bell’s room was Joshua Dale? You saw his face?”

Jim Cumming, “Yes, I saw it! I saw it very clearly! Good thing I saw it, I’m very glad I looked over that day and am able to provide such important evidence, ain’t it?” 

“You only looked over?”

“That’s right.”

“Did you walk up to the window?”

“No, how could I walk up to the window, wouldn’t that be going into someone else’s yard?” Jim Cumming said. 

“Did you see his facial features clearly? Is it possible that it was someone who resembled Joshua?”

“Of course not!” Jim Cumming said, “I even got a good look at the mole by the corner of his eye, there’s no mistaking it.”

“You took one look and went home?”

Jim Cumming looked a little remorseful. “Yeah. Joshua Dale had only just walked in, and I thought he was just visiting. I never expected that such a thing would happen there. I only took one look and went back inside, it was too cold outside after all, it was well below zero.” 

Gu Yan nodded. He lowered his gaze and flipped through the papers on his desk. He removed one from among them, and clicked the playback controller.

The contents of the page he removed were immediately projected on the courtroom’s holographic screen, large enough for everyone to see. It was a description of the state of the crime scene before and after the incident, provided by the prosecution.

Gu Yan said, “On page 12, line 10 of the information on the crime scene reconstruction, at about 7:30 p.m. on the 23rd, Kitty Bell was sitting by the window with her heater on, knitting. Line 14, at the time of the crime, Kitty Bell was struck on the back of her head and slumped sideways towards the left side of the armchair, her hair brushing against the moisture gathered at the bottom of the glass window.”

“The heater is by the window. It was a dozen degrees below zero outside. With the temperature that Kitty Bell had set the heater at, it would have taken five minutes at most for the glass of the windowpane to be covered in a thick layer of condensation—” 

As he spoke, he lifted his eyes and looked towards Jim Cumming. In a deep voice, he said, “May I ask, under the pretext that you were not up close to the window, from across a seven-metre distance, how were you able to clearly see not only Joshua’s features, but also the mole by the corner of his eye through the condensation on the glass?”

The courtroom was pindrop silent.