Dead In The Water

"A big fish in a small pond?"

"In England, he would be a mi

"So his ambition makes him dangerous."

"Indeed it does-most immediately to Allison, but eventually to us all on this island."

"Is any of the other candidates to succeed the prime a better man than Sir Winston?"

"Both," Hewitt said. "One of them could be very good indeed. He has Sir Winston's intelligence without his venality or his vanity, especially that. It is his vanity as much as his ambition that makes him dangerous. If we can defeat him in court today, we will have struck a blow, perhaps a fatal one, to his political dreams. That is why I am taking part in this case. A new prime minister, whoever he is, will not reappoint Sir Winston as minister of justice. He will be back depending on his skill as a barrister and his wife's money. That would give me great satisfaction." Leslie Hewitt smiled sweetly.

CHAPTER 54

Court reconvened after lunch, and Sir Leslie Hewitt rose and addressed the bench. "Your Lordship, normally at this time the defense would move for a dismissal of the charges on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Certainly, the evidence submitted by the prosecution has been almost laughable and quite easy for us to refute. But the defense will not request a dismissal of charges, because we want the jury to hear our client, Mrs.Allison Ma

The judge nodded sagely. "Mr.Barrington, please call your first witness."

Stone stood. "Your Lordship, the defense will, of course, call Mrs.Ma

"Call James Forrester," the judge said.

The bailiff called out the name, and Jim Forrester the witness stand and was sworn, giving a New York City address and styling himself as a journalist.

"Mr.Forrester," Stone began, "were you the last person, apart from Allison Ma

"I think I may very well be, along with anyone else who was standing on the quay when their yacht left the Canary Islands."

"Good, now let's begin at the begi

"I first met him during our university years, more than twenty years ago, when we played on opposing basketball teams."

"How well did you know him?"

"While we were not close friends, we had a very cordial relationship, and I knew him fairly well."

"How would you describe Paul Ma

"I always found him to be a pleasant and friendly person, very bright, and a good athlete."

"After your graduation from university, did some years pass before you saw him again?"

"Only two or three years passed before I saw him the first time," Forrester said. "I ran into him in a restaurant in Miami, Florida. He was working as a journalist for the Miami Herald, and I was working for a travel magazine in New York."

This was information new' to Stone, and he wondered why Forrester had not brought it up before. "Did you renew your acquaintance on that occasion?"

"Yes, we had di

"And when did you next see him?"

"At a baseball game in New York City, some five or six years later. Paul was covering sports for the Herald, and I visited the press box with a reporter friend."

"And did you renew your acquaintance on that occasion?"

"Yes, we had di

"And when was the next time you saw Paul Ma

"Only a few weeks ago, in Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands."

Stone felt relieved to be back on familiar ground. "And how did you come to meet him?"

"I was doing a travel story on the Canaries, and we were taking some photographs at the Las Palmas yacht club. I ran into Paul at the bar late in the afternoon."

"And did you renew your acquaintance on that occasion?"

"Yes, we talked for an hour or so, and Paul invited me to have di

"Did you detect any change in Paul Ma

"Only that he had grown much heavier and was sporting a full beard. Otherwise, he seemed the same happy person I had always known."

"Did you, in fact, dine with Mr.and Mrs.Ma

"Yes, I did."

"How long did you spend in their company that evening?"

"I didn't return to my hotel until nearly midnight, so I suppose I must have been there five or six hours."

"What was your impression of the Ma

"They seemed very happy together; it was obviously very successful marriage, by almost any measure."

"Did they express affection for one another?"

"Almost constantly. They frequently held hands or kissed. I was impressed that they prepared the meal together and enjoyed doing so. I've not known many husbands and wives who could share the galley of a yacht successfully."

"Did Paul Ma

"Yes, he said he was making notes for a new book, and he pla

This was news to Stone, something else Forrester hadn't mentioned. He decided to mine this vein. "Did he mention that he was keeping notes in a book?"

"Yes, he showed me a leather-bound book that he had bought in a shop in Las Palmas."

"Would the bailiff kindly show Prosecution Exhibit Number One to the witness?"

The bailiff handed Forrester the book.

"Is this the book Paul Ma

Forrester leafed through the early pages. "Yes." He held up the open book. "You see, he wrote the title, Dead in the Water, at the top of the first page."

"Mr.Forrester, you are a professional writer. Please look through the text of the look and tell me if what you read might correspond with the sort of notes a writer might make prior to begi

Forrester read several pages while the courtroom waited. "Yes," he said finally,"this seems very much to me to be a set of notes, though an incomplete one."

"Does it appear in any way to be a diary?"

"Certainly not. It does not describe the relationship between man and wife that I saw in Las Palmas."

"After the Ma

"Yes, on the island of Puerto Rico, to the south."

"Would you describe the occasion, please?"

"We were there gathering information for my article, my photographer and I, and I saw the yacht in the marina there. Paul asked me on board for a drink and told me that they were sailing almost immediately."

New information again. Stone wished that Forrester would stop elaborating on what he had said earlier. "Was Mrs.Ma

"Yes, she was."

"Had anything in their relationship changed that you could observe?"

"No, they still seemed to be the same happy couple I had seen a couple of days before."

"Were you present when they left the harbor?"

"Yes, I was standing on the quay, watching them."

"Did they still seem to be a happy couple?"

"Yes, they were laughing as they sailed past the quay. They waved and called out a goodbye." "Did anyone but Allison Ma

"No. I believe I was the last to see him."

"You have interviewed Mrs.Ma

"Yes, I have."

"Did you question her closely about the events that Occurred on the occasion of Paul Ma

"Yes, I did."

"Did Allison Ma