Broken Country (Reese’s Book Club)

25. The Trial

The Trial

Andy—or DS Morris as the prosecutor is calling him—is on the witness stand today. Not so long ago, we considered him a friend. All that changed the night of the shooting.

I watch him swearing his oath, hand on the Bible, voice steady. He does not glance, even once, at the man in the dock.

“DS Morris, before we move to the night of the shooting, I’d like to ask you about your relationship with the Johnsons. I believe the brothers were friends of yours? You had known them a long time?”

The policeman hesitates. Thinking of the best way to distance himself from our family. “Only in the way all the villagers are friends. We didn’t know each other intimately. I saw them here and there in the pub, that’s all.”

“My understanding, DS Morris, is that you’d had regular dealings with the family over the years. On account of Jimmy Johnson’s behavior.”

“Yes. That’s correct. Jimmy was a bit of a tearaway when he was young. I broke up a few fights. Caught him drink driving more than once. Nothing too serious. Nothing like this.”

“Let us move to the night of September the twenty-eighth. When did you first learn of the shooting?”

DS Morris looks down at his notebook. “We received a call at nine thirty-seven that night. We’d had report of a shotgun accident at Blakely Farm. The victim was already deceased.”

“Let’s pause there for a moment. You were the officer on duty that night. You drove straight out to the Johnson farm?”

“Yes. The police station is based in the local town, a drive of around eight minutes.”

“Can you recall your thoughts on that journey? A man had died in a shotgun accident. One who was well known to you. Did it strike you as strange or sinister in any way? What I’m asking, DS Morris, is whether you had any inkling this might have been murder?”

“Not at that point, no. Farming accidents are fairly common, unfortunately.”

“But you changed your mind, once you got there?”

“I did, yes. The facts didn’t seem to add up. I’ve been in this job twenty years, and you have an instinct for when you’re being fed a story.”

Now Andy looks at the defendant. “Within twenty-four hours, I knew we had a murder investigation on our hands.”