Read The Innocent: A Coroner Jenny Cooper Crime Short for Free Online

way.’
    Bolter probed further, asking if any evidence had been found that Natasha was depressed, and if not, why not?
    ‘In truth, she seemed the opposite of depressed in her last weeks of life,’ Judy Harris said. ‘At her grandfather, Mr Greenslade’s, request, I had started arranging contact sessions between the two of them. They had been going extremely well.’
    Jack Greenslade nodded his agreement.
    ‘Were you present at these meetings?’ Bolter said.
    ‘At all three,’ Judy Harris answered. ‘They both seemed delighted. I had never seen Natasha happier.’
    Bolter seemed puzzled. ‘Really? How interesting.’ He made another note.
    Elaine Stewart followed Judy Harris into the witness chair and, just as Jenny had anticipated, stuck rigidly to the party line. She was an arm’s-length overseer to the case, she insisted; she had had no personal contact with Natasha, but her instinct at case reviews had always been that she was a prime candidate for ‘a secure care environment’. ‘But family judges and lawyers too often tend to ignore the advice of social workers,’ Elaine added with a note of sadness. ‘They often see care homes as impersonal and inattentive to the child’s emotional needs. A measure of last resort instead of a place of safety.’
    ‘Your team’s lawyer, Mrs Cooper – she didn’t agree with you at all, did she?’
    ‘I’m afraid Mrs Cooper may have allowed herself to become closer to Natasha than she ought to have done,’ Elaine said. ‘It can easily happen after extended involvement with a child, but it shouldn’t. We have to remain detached to be effective, no matter how hard that is on occasions.’
    ‘She was your lawyer; you could simply have instructed her to argue for a placement in a secure home,’ Bolter said.
    ‘I believe the judge in the care hearing cited the evidence he heard from Natasha as a deciding factor in his decision,’ Elaine said. ‘As you know, the wishes of the child carry considerable weight. She told him that she wanted to go into foster care and promised she wouldn’t attempt to run away as she had in the past.’ She gave a flat, regretful smile. ‘I’m afraid I suspect Mrs Cooper may have had a hand in that.’
    ‘You believe your own lawyer told Natasha to give evidence against her best interests?’
    ‘If you put it like that—’
    ‘I do, Mrs Stewart. I’d like your honest answer, please.’
    Elaine folded her hands on her lap. ‘Let’s just say I believe Mrs Cooper was swayed by personal feelings.’
    ‘I see. Thank you, Mrs Stewart.’ Bolter made a verbatim note of her words. ‘That’s a very serious allegation.’

NINE
    It was an odd experience for which Jenny wasn’t equipped: like watching a river burst its banks and a wall of water rush towards you; the sense of unreality was more overwhelming than the injustice of it. First Judy Harris, then Elaine Stewart and now Karen Greenslade. Karen dabbed away tears as she narrated a history casting Jenny as a lawyer on a one-woman crusade to prise Natasha from a loving home. At first, Bolter had listened with what Jenny had tried to convince herself was polite neutrality, but the more he heard from Karen, the more sympathetic he appeared to become.
    ‘How did this closeness you say you observed manifest itself, Miss Greenslade?’
    ‘It wasn’t just the last court case, it was the one before that, too.’ She glanced in Jenny’s direction. ‘She’d have Natasha sit next to her. Always whispering in her ear, touching her,’ she patted her forearm to demonstrate, ‘trying to pretend she was her friend.’
    ‘Couldn’t it have been perfectly innocent – a way of putting Natasha at her ease?’
    ‘Everyone who works with kids knows you don’t touch them. Not even teachers are allowed. And I bet she didn’t do it with every kid. I bet it was no accident that Natasha was as pretty as they come.’
    ‘What are you suggesting, Miss Greenslade?’
    ‘I’m suggesting she