Hidden Heart (Love Is The Law 1) (18 page)

She took it gingerly and gave a
quick squeeze, but she didn't smile. In fact, Emily felt as if Elaine was
glaring at her.

Nothing was said, though, and
they stood on the steps of the court in an awkward silence for a long moment.
Emily swallowed, trying to moisten her dry mouth. She'd been in the public
gallery of courts before, of course, during her journalism training and also
when covering stories in the past. But this was different.

Elaine shot her another look of
dislike, and turned away. "Come on mum. Ready for this?"

Mrs Black looked back. "Okay.
Emily? Come on up with us, love."

Wearily, Emily followed the
family up the steps and into the court.

* * * *

Mrs Black sat between Emily and
Elaine, but Emily fancied that she could still feel the waves of enmity washing
over her from Turner's sister.

It was understandable, really.
She'd not been able to have a conversation one-to-one with Elaine, and she
wasn't sure what Turner had told her.

And even if he'd told her everything,
there were a hundred different ways she could interpret it. But the bottom line
was that this course of action would be now depriving Elaine's sons of their
father and their uncle, and leaving her with the task of caring for her mother
as well as trying to complete her own training.

As Emily listed the reasons for
Elaine to hate her, she grew more and more despondent, and sank down in the
bench.
I'd hate me too, under the circumstances.

The various barristers all took
turns in making long and incomprehensible speeches. There was debate. Tiny
sounds were magnified in the courtroom. The rustle of papers and the discreet
cough of the stenographer bounced off the dark wood panelling and ricocheted
around.

None of them had attended the
first hearing at the local magistrate's court. It had been a perfunctory affair
as the offences committed by both men were serious enough to go before a judge
at Crown Court. Now, though, they were facing a long day - or many days.

Turner pleaded guilty. Tears
rushed to Emily's eyes as she watched him stand in the dock and look out over
the room, his head held high.

"Do you regret what you have
done?" the prosecutor asked.

"I regret everything. I am
ashamed of everything. I've confessed to everything because this is the only way
I can make a clean start."

From across the courtroom,
Riggers shouted out an obscenity and the judge glared as the police officers
stifled him.

"How do you plead?"

"Guilty." He said it
clear and loud, his chin jutting up defiantly. Emily gripped the brass rail in
front of her as the courtroom stirred and low murmurs passed around.

"Oh, Turner," whispered
Elaine. "What are you doing?"

"The right thing," her
mum hissed, staring straight ahead.

Then it was Riggers' turn and he
did himself no favours at all. He bristled in the dock, angry and unrepentant.
He avoided the questions, directing a stream of vitriol instead at Turner.
Eventually the judge had to point out he was in danger of contempt of court,
and Riggers subsided unwillingly.

And so the trial rumbled on. They
had a recess, then returned to the debate. Riggers was the one who was slowing
things down; he pleaded innocent, and then under questioning confessed, but
within three minutes he had descended into a tirade against the justice system.

Emily kept her eyes fixed on
Turner for most of the day, fixing him in her mind. Occasionally he looked up
and nodded, but at this distance it was impossible to say if he was looking at
her, his mum, or his sister.

Matthew looked up only once, and
his face didn't even twitch in acknowledgement when he saw her with Turner's
family. He turned away and ignored her for the rest of the trial.

Eventually the jury retired to
deliberate. Turner's plea of guilty meant it would be a short one, although
Riggers as co-defendant was complicating matters slightly.

"Do you want a sweet?"
Mrs Black offered her mints around once more, and Emily took one politely. She
had been running through her options for some time, and she had to speak.

"Elaine."

Elaine cocked her head and looked
at Emily with aggression plain on her face. Her large hoop earrings swung
against her neck and she looked down her nose at Emily. "What?"

"Err…" all Emily's
prepared speech drained out of her mind. "Um. How's the nail course
going?"

She shrugged. "Pointless,
really. I won't be completing it. Don't have time." She turned away,
looking out over the courtroom, pointedly signalling the conversation was over.

"Look, if Turner and Riggers
go away… which we know they will… what I wanted to say was, actually, you know,
if you need anything, I mean you and Mrs Black, any help or whatever, then, you
know, I'm here…"

Mrs Black smiled. "Ah, love,
that's really sweet of you. Thank you."

"Help? Yeah, like
what?" Elaine drummed her talons on the railing. "Sorry, but you don't
look like you're rolling in money."

"No, I don't have any money.
But I don't think that's what would help, really. I know Turner's got it into
his head that a big heap of cash makes everything all right. But really, I
think you just need… babysitting, advocacy, that kind of thing."

"What the fuck is
avokissy
?"

Now wasn't the time to try and
explain the concept of cultural capital and social mobility. "Advocacy - I
mean, someone to speak on your behalf. Not that you can't, I mean, just like,
there's services I think you could access. Both of you."

"I don't understand."
Elaine kept her gaze elsewhere, stubbornly uninterested, but Mrs Black wanted
to know more.

"What services, love?"

"Because of your… illness.
There's help, you know. Around the house, financial help, housework, general
care, transport. But the thing is, they are not easy to access. But I'm good at
that sort of thing, you know, finding stuff out and getting things done. It's
what I do."

Elaine continued to sneer. Mrs
Black patted Emily's thigh in a mumsy way. "Well, let's get this trial
over with first of all. I have to tell you, though, that you're welcome in our
house at any time. Please. Do come and visit."

Elaine exhaled and shook her
head, her high ponytail bobbing, but she didn't say anything. All three lapsed
into silence until the jury filed back out, rather more quickly than anyone had
expected.

Emily slid forward on the bench
and hung on to the rail. She knew what was coming but it didn't make it any
easier. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Elaine reach out and take her
mum's hand.

The foreman of the jury stood up.
"We find both defendants guilty of all charges brought before them."

And then there was the
sentencing. More debate, deliberation and waiting. Emily wondered if they'd
adjourn for sentencing in the morning, but the judge had been making notes and
gave his pronouncement relatively quickly, or at least, quickly in legal
circles.

"Turner Black. I have no
choice but to offer you a custodial sentence, as is the guidance in these
situations. You planned and carried out a robbery on a small business, as part
of a small team. This is a serious thing and with the aggravating factor of a
weapon being carried, albeit a baseball bat, would usually start at four years.
However, there are mitigating circumstances. I believe you to be genuinely
remorseful but I am not convinced you understand how much work you will have to
do when you are released, to make your new life successful. I also accept that
you willingly gave yourself up for arrest, and willingly and unprompted did
offer up details for other offences you have committed in the realms of car
theft, counterfeit goods, money laundering and general low level nuisance
behaviour. For all of these things, you have offered no excuses; only your
regret. For the attempted robbery, I am sentencing you to a minimum term of fourteen
months. For the other offences, I am able to sentence to you a further twelve
months, suspended."

"Two years!" Emily's
head swam. She'd thought she had prepared herself but hearing it said out loud
made the bile rise up in her throat. "Oh god, more than two years."

Elaine relented and leaned in
across Mrs Black. She didn't make eye contact, but she spoke in a low voice, an
almost reassuring tone. "He'll serve seven months. Half of the first
sentence in prison, and half out on probation. The other is suspended so if he
fucks up
again
he'll be recalled to serve the rest. And yeah, he will
end up doing two years." Finally she looked Emily in the eye, challenging.
"So you better had be good enough to make it worth him going straight,
okay?"

Elaine sat back with a sigh and
crossed both her arms and her legs. Mrs Black patted Emily's thigh again, and
Emily gave her a slight smile in gratitude.

Then it was Riggers' turn. He was
looking worried but the judge wasted no time in getting to the point.

"You have shown no remorse
and no regret. However, the attempted robbery was thwarted and no violence was
done. No firearms were used and nothing was taken. You have no previous record
and for this reason, I am bound by sentencing guidelines to commit you to the
minimum recommended term of twelve months custodial sentence."

Riggers exploded in the dock,
hurling himself into the air, shouting "Grass!" Emily recoiled, even
though he was metres away, and far below, as his spittle-soaked ire seemed to
be directed at her in the gallery.

"Emily Carrera! You're a
fucking grass and I'm going to…" the police officers wrestled him down,
and out of the dock, and through a door within seconds.

"Oh shit," she
breathed. "Thank god he's gone down."

"You're in trouble,"
Elaine remarked, and there wasn't any triumph in her face any more. She looked
sad, and weary. "Because Turner might be serving seven months, but Riggers
is only going to do six."

Emily thought her heart had
stopped and cold sweat sluiced down her back. She scanned the courtroom
anxiously but everything was packing up, the day's long business done. Matthew
didn't look up. He shuffled his papers into his briefcase and swooshed off into
a corridor, talking to the other barrister. The judge was gone, and the court
recorder clearing up. The ushers were directing people out.

Emily couldn't stop the tears
now. Seven months. So much better than she'd feared; after the initial shock of
hearing the two long sentences, she was now flooded with relief.

Even Riggers' threats couldn't
stop her happiness.

Seven months. Long enough for her
to really establish herself in her new niche of entertainment writing. But not
too long to lose her sense of him. Not too long for Kyle and Liam to forget
him. He'd miss Christmas and New Year, she realised with despair.

Still too long to be away from
his sick mother, too. She glanced at Mrs Black who was gathering up her things
with a resolute expression. She packed away the half-finished bag of sweets,
her reading glasses, her magazine, her tissues and the dozen assorted knick
knacks that had been produced from her cavernous handbag. Emily was
half-convinced she'd deliberately over filled it to frustrate the security guys
who had to search them before entry to the court.

They all got their feet, slowly
and painfully, and inched outside to the gathering dusk, Emily wiping the tears
from her face with her sleeve. Elaine ordered a taxi and they waited in the
cool air, a heavy silence around them.

Suddenly Mrs Black dropped her
bag and flung her arms around Emily, shocking her rigid. Then she extended an
arm and gathered Elaine into the hug, too, and for a while they stood together
as one unit. Emily thought she heard Elaine sniff but when they broke apart,
her cheeks were dry.

"Please," Mrs Black
said again. "You must come around, and be part of our family." She
looked to Elaine.

Finally, Elaine agreed.
"Yeah, whatever." It was as much of an agreement as Emily was going
to get, and she couldn't ask for more.

The taxi pulled up and they all
bundled in, giving Emily's address first and then the Blacks'. Emily felt as if
they were driving through a cloud of thick black smoke which obscured
everything, and she moved in a daze. Partly that was down to tiredness and lack
of food, but she also recognised the signs of stress playing out in her body.

She dragged herself up the
endless concrete stairs to her flat, and flopped onto the sofa. It was strange
how quiet and empty the place was now, even though she'd never lived with
Turner. Yet his absence was palpable.

It was time to open the letter.

She picked up the envelope from
where it had lain on the coffee table ever since the morning after his arrest
and bail. She'd promised not to open it until this time, and she had surprised
herself with her own will power.

Now she found she could hardly
bring herself to tear it open and read it. Eventually, in the dim light of the
room, she ripped across the top of the envelope and eased out the single sheet
of paper.

Three words were written in a
careful, neat hand, in large letters across the centre of the paper.

Exactly what Turner had mouthed
to her as he stood in the dock and heard his sentence. Her eyes had been fixed
on his lips as he slowly and deliberately formed the words.

I love you.

And when she turned the paper
over, three more words.

Wait for me.

Coming in October 2013!

Follow Turner on his release from
prison as he attempts to go straight. Ghosts from Emily's past collide with the
enemies of the present, putting not only their relationship - but their lives -
in danger.