Babyface
Second in the sparky crime series featuring Tamla Motown-loving barrister Frankie RichmondBarrister and sometime detective Frankie Richmond has never been any good at saying no – a fatal weakness that always leads to big trouble.In Birmingham for a child abuse inquiry, Frankie reluctantly agrees to fill in at a corpseless murder trial for one day only. But walking away from a juicy crime brief was never going to be easy. Especially when the defendant’s girlfriend, who begs her for help to prove his innocence, is Frankie’s idea of gorgeous.Soon she knows far more about the Birmingham underworld – and the leather sofa business – than is sensible for someone who’s off the case. Add to that a spot of breaking and entering, joy riding and bullet dodging and Frankie needs to track down the real murderer fast – if there’s been a murder at all.Frankie’s chaotic approach to crime solving whistles along to the strains of Joe Cocker and the Four Tops in this follow up to Motown murder mystery Good Bad Woman.
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BABYFACE
Elizabeth Woodcraft
For my mother, Peggy Perry
Contents
Three: Wednesday Morning – Crown Court
Five: Wednesday Afternoon – The Inquiry
Ten: Saturday Evening – The Dinner Party
Eleven: Sunday – Mum’s for Lunch
Twelve: Sunday Evening – Yolande?
Thirteen: Monday Morning – Inquiry
Nineteen: Thursday Dinner – Dance
Twenty: Friday – Back to London
Twenty-Three: Saturday Evening
Twenty Six: Monday Morning – Clerkenwell
Twenty-Seven: Tuesday – Birmingham Crown Court
Twenty-Eight: Later Tuesday Morning – Inquiry/View
Twenty-Nine: Wednesday – Police Questioning
Thirty-Four: Saturday – Back to Clerkenwell
Thirty-Five: Sunday – Birmingham
Thirty Seven: Monday Afternoon – Crown Court
Thirty-Eight: Monday – Late Afternoon
Thirty-Nine: Later Monday Evening
I was just getting into the rhythm of packing when the phone rang. I was slinging socks and a toothbrush into my bag and wondering if I could get away with one suit for the rest of the week.
It was Gavin, my clerk. ‘You’re still at home then?’ he said.
The obviousness of the question left me silent.
‘Your solicitor’s just rung to say the inquiry has been put back till two thirty.’
‘So I don’t have to go up at all tonight. I can go in the morning. That’s great.’ I began to unbutton my black shirt. I was wearing my work outfit so there’d be less to carry. Already I was planning my evening. I could have a great night out in Stoke Newington with a few close friends, go to Fox’s wine bar, share a couple of bottles of wine, cruise a little.
‘Well.’ There was a pause which meant Gavin was trying to choose his next words carefully.
‘Oh God, Gavin,’ I said. ‘You’re going to say something to make me regret answering the phone, aren’t you?’
‘It’s just a short matter in the morning. You’re going up there anyway. You’ll be away by ten thirty. Loads of time to get to the inquiry in the afternoon.’
I said nothing.
‘It’s a PDH at the Crown Court.’
‘Gavin, how many times do I have to tell you, I don’t do crime. A pleas and directions hearing will turn into a guilty plea. I will have to do the mitigation, the judge will adjourn it till after lunch. I will have to go back after lunch thereby missing the beginning of the inquiry, and then my clients, or even the panel itself, will sack me. Great.’
‘There is no way this will turn into a plea,’ he said. ‘It’s Simon’s corpseless murder.’
‘Then Simon can do it. Simon should do it. Isn’t that the rule? The person who does the trial does the directions hearing?’
‘Unless there’s a very good reason. And there is. He’s ill.’
‘What’s wrong with him?’
‘He’s twisted his ankle.’
I spurted with laughter and was about to say, ‘Pull the other one.’
‘No, honestly,’ Gavin said. ‘He was jogging.’
Once again my theory was proved correct. There is an inherent contradiction between personal fitness and personal safety.
‘Have a heart, Frankie,’ Gavin said. ‘I know you don’t want to do it but Simon’s very careful who he returns his cases to, and he did say you were his first choice.’
‘The first choice out of all the people from chambers who will be in Birmingham tomorrow?’
‘Is that sarcasm, Frankie? Unattractive trait. But seriously, Simon was delighted when I suggested you.’
‘Huh,’ I said, pleased. ‘But if he’s ill, is he going to be fit to do the trial?’
‘He’ll be fine by Monday.’
‘Gavin, I really don’t need this. I’m still getting papers for tomorrow, my fax is about to expire with all the statements my solicitor is sending me. Plus the comments on the statements. And the comments on the comments.’
‘Frankie, there isn’t anyone else and if the brief goes out of chambers we risk losing it altogether. Don’t do it for me, do it for Simon.’
Simon was a senior member of my chambers. Like most barristers he worried about his practice and I knew that with this case he was hoping to consolidate his reputation as a heavyweight criminal practitioner which would lead to his shortly applying to become Queen’s Counsel, to wear the robes of silk. Slowly I buttoned up my shirt.
‘How am I going to get the papers? There’s no time to get the papers to me.’
‘When are you leaving? I’ll fax them through to you.’
‘My plan had been to leave in about half an hour, to miss the rush hour, but that was before you said that the inquiry had been put back till tomorrow afternoon. At which point, for a split second I began planning a social life for myself in London.’
‘Yes, but wouldn’t you rather be doing something for chambers?’
