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council sprung
more from anger at being refused planning permission to build on a piece of
land adjoining his house than from an altru-istic desire to serve his fellow men. To be fair, Sir Humphrey could have made the
Archangel Gabriel look like a soccer hoo-ligan ; but
his trump card was still to come.
    “ Mr Menzies , I should now like to
return to your version of what happened on the night Miss Moorland was killed.”
    “Yes,” sighed Menzies in a tired voice.
    “When you visit
a client to discuss one of your policies, how long would you say such a
consultation usually lasts?”
    “Usually half
an hour, an hour at the most,” said Menzies .
    “And how long
did the consultation with Miss Moorland take?”
    “A good hour,”
said Menzies .
    “And you left
her, if I remember your evidence correctly, a little after six o’clock.”
    “That is correct.”
    “And what time
was your appointment?”
    “At five
o’clock, as was shown clearly in my desk diary,” said Menzies .
    “Well, Mr Menzies , if you arrived at
about five to keep your appointment with Miss Moorland and left a little after
six, how did you manage to get a parking fine?”
    “I didn’t have
any small change for the meter at the time,” said Menzies confidently.
    “As I was
already a couple of minutes late, I just risked it.”
    “You just
risked it,” repeated Sir Humphrey slowly. “You are obviously a man who takes
risks, Mr Menzies . I wonder
if you would be good enough to look at the parking ticket in question.”
    The clerk
handed it up to Menzies .
    “Would you read
out to the court the hour and minute that the traffic warden has written in the
little boxes to show when the offence occurred.”
    Once again Menzies took a long time to reply.
    “Four sixteen
to four thirty,” he said eventually.
    “I didn’t hear
that,” said the judge.
    “Would you be
kind enough to repeat what you said for the judge?” Sir Humphrey asked.
    Menzies repeated the damning figures.
    “So now we have
established that you were in fact with Miss Moorland some time before four
sixteen, and not, as I suggest you later wrote in your diary, five o’clock.
That was just another lie, wasn’t it?”
    “No,” said Menzies . “I must have arrived a little earlier than I realised .”
    “At least an
hour earlier, it seems. And I also suggest to you that you arrived at that
early hour because your interest in Carla Moorland was not simply
professional?”
    “That’s not
true.”
    “Then it wasn’t
your intention that she should become your mistress?”
    Menzies hesitated long enough for Sir Humphrey to answer
his own question. “Because the business part of your meeting finished in the
usual half hour, did it not, Mr Menzies ?”
He waited for a response but still none was forthcoming.
    “What is your
blood group, Mr Menzies ?”
    “I have no
idea.”
    Sir Humphrey
without warning changed tack: “Have you heard of DNA, by any chance?”
    “No,” came back
the puzzled reply.
    “Deoxyribonucleic
acid is a proven tech- nique that shows genetic
information can be unique to every individual. Blood or semen samples can be
matched. Semen, Mr Menzies ,
is as unique as any fingerprint. With such a sample we would know immediately
if you raped Miss Moorland.”
    “I didn’t rape
her,” Menzies said indignantly.
    “Nevertheless
sexual intercourse did take place, didn’t it?” said Sir Humphrey quietly.
    Menzies remained silent.
    “Shall I recall
the Home Office pathologist and ask him to carry out a DNA test?”
    Menzies still made no reply.
    “And check your
blood group?” Sir Humphrey paused. “I will ask you once again, Mr Menzies . Did sexual
intercourse between you and the murdered woman take place that Thursday
afternoon?”
    “Yes, sir,”
said Menzies in a whisper.
    “Yes, sir,”
repeated Sir Humphrey so that the whole court could hear it.
    “But it wasn’t
rape,” Menzies shouted back at Sir Humphrey.
    “Wasn’t it?”
said Sir