The Queen v. Karl Mullen (12 page)

“Put it any way you like.”

“And bring them before the Court.”

“In certain cases.”

“In certain cases, yes. For instance I read in the papers that the preliminary hearings are shortly to begin in what they call the U.D.F. terrorist trial.”

“Yes.”

“Also – again I rely on the papers – that an application has been made for reopening the trial of the Sharpeville Six on the grounds that one of the State witnesses was assaulted by the police and coerced into giving false evidence.”

Mullen, the blood mounting in his face, said, “That appeal is coming shortly before the Court. The grounds of appeal are the usual rigmarole of nonsense put forward by all terrorists when they are caught.”

“It was not my purpose to go into the rights and wrongs of that, or any other case—”

No, thought Roger. Your purpose was to annoy the witness and make him lose his temper.

“— it was simply this. With all these complex and important matters requiring your attention at home, how comes it that the authorities have released you for what is almost a non-job in this country?”

“I am a soldier. I go where I am ordered to go.”

“What I am questioning is the reality of those orders.”

“I don’t follow you.”

“In answer to my learned friend you said that you had a good deal of information about South African terrorists in this country in your files which you could pass on to the appropriate authorities here.”

“That’s what I said.”

“I wasn’t aware that postal communications between this country and South Africa had been permanently suspended.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He means,” said Mr. Lauderdale, “that this information could equally well have been sent by post.”

“If we trusted the English postal authorities.”

“Do I understand by that,” said Lashmar, “that you were afraid that your letters would be intercepted and allowed to fall into the wrong hands?”

“You can understand whatever you like.”

“Surely, if the letters had been enclosed in the diplomatic bag—”

“Everyone knows that your security people regularly rifle our diplomatic bag.”

“If when you say ‘everyone’ you mean to include me,” said Mr. Lauderdale sharply, “I must ask to be excluded. I understood that the privacy of the diplomatic bag was strictly observed.”

Since it was clear that Mullen was about to say something very rude indeed, Bull rose swiftly to his feet. He said, “I submit, sir, that my learned friend’s present line of questioning is straying rather far from the point at issue.”

“I am sorry if that is so,” said Lashmar. “One or two further points then. You mentioned that you were advising about other terrorists in this country. Could you let us have some details of them?”

“Of course I can’t.” The contempt in Mullen’s voice was clear. “I mentioned Katanga since he has been indiscreet enough to advertise himself in his book. To mention any other names would be a palpable breach of security. Surely even you understand that.”

“If you can’t mention names, perhaps you could tell us how many such cases you are currently investigating.”

“Certainly not.”

“Then leaving aside these other—er—shadowy figures which you can tell us nothing about, might I suggest that the real truth of the matter is that you had one reason only for coming here and that was to attend to the extradition of Katanga.”

“You can make any unfounded and nonsensical suggestion you like. I can’t stop you.”

“My suggestion was, in fact, based on two statements made by you yourself. The first was in this Court last week. If I have the record correct you informed the learned Magistrate that you had a lot of work to do, even if he hadn’t.”

“Work in this country.”

“You did not say so. However, your second statement was more specific. You are reported as saying—” Lashmar looked down at his papers and drew a deep breath —“that you only came here to get Katanga extradited and that you never anticipated being here for more than a few weeks.”

It was clear to everyone that this shot had hit Mullen between wind and water. For a moment he seemed to have lost his aggressive self-possession altogether. Then, with an obvious effort, he recovered his balance.

“And who am I supposed to have made that asinine remark to?”

“Will you please answer my question? Did you make this comment or not?”

“No.”

“You did not make it?”

“That’s not what I said. I said, No. I won’t answer your question until you answer mine.”

Lashmar looked at the Magistrate, who said, “In our Courts, refusal to answer a question properly put to you by Counsel is a serious contempt of Court, for which you can be punished.”

“It’s not a proper question. How can I be expected to remember every casual comment I’ve made in the last ten days?”

“If you can’t remember, then that is a perfectly proper answer to the question.”

“What I’m saying is that
if
I could be informed about who I said it to, then I probably
could
remember it.”

The Magistrate said, “I think that’s not unreasonable, Mr. Lashmar.”

A hurried conference followed between Lashmar and the Crown solicitor. Neither of them looked happy.

Mullen took the opportunity to snarl at them. “If you made the whole thing up, why not be honest enough to admit it? Then we can all go home.”

Lashmar straightened up. “I am informed,” he said, “that the remark was made to the head of your Security Service in this country, Mr. Yule.”

“Then the matter can easily be settled, sir,” said a voice from the back of the Court, “since I am present and quite prepared to give evidence. That is, if you think it necessary.”

All heads turned. Fischer Yule had risen to his feet and was standing on the left of the front row of spectators. Unquestionably an impressive figure, thought Roger.

The Magistrate said, “Are you the Mr. Yule referred to by Counsel?”

“I am, sir.”

“I see. Well, in the ordinary way I am averse to impromptu testimony. But since it seems to me to be of considerable importance to clear this matter up, I have no objection. Subject to the views of Counsel.”

“I’m quite agreeable,” said Bull.

“I also,” said Lashmar, but he didn’t sound as happy about it as Bull.

Yule strode forward, took the oath in a practised way and turned to face Lashmar who said, “I need not go back over the last part of my cross-examination. You heard the comment which I suggested that the accused had made. It is suggested that he made it to you.”

“The suggestion is incorrect.”

“He made no such statement.”

“He did not.”

This seemed to be the end of the matter, but Lashmar signalled to him to remain. He said, “There was one final matter which I intended to raise with Mr. Mullen, but on reflection it seems to me to be a question of fact which this witness may be able to deal with.” Yule bowed fractionally, to suggest that he was prepared to deal with any question of fact that might arise.

“You are probably aware that Section 4 of the Act states that if any question of entitlement to diplomatic immunity should arise a certificate issued under the authority of the Secretary of State is to be conclusive evidence of the matter. So far as you know, Mr. Yule, has any such application been made?”

“I can answer that question. An application has been made, but it has not yet been answered.”

“That is unfortunate,” said the Magistrate. “However, since it is now past one o’clock I intend to adjourn this hearing until three o’clock. That will give us all time to have something to eat and will give me time to consider the question which now falls to me to decide. The bail to which the accused has surrendered to Court is renewed until three o’clock.”

The Police Sergeant, who had been waiting for his cue, bellowed out, “All rise.” Those who were seated scrambled to their feet and Mr. Lauderdale disappeared through a door behind the Bench.

Roger said, “That gives him nice time to walk to the Garrick and consume whatever the state of his interior allows him to consume.”

“I belong to a more modest club than the Garrick,” said Bull. “But it serves reasonable food. See if you can find a taxi, Roger. I’d like to get Mullen away as quietly as possible. He looks as though he could do with a drink.”

Fortunately the crowd which had been milling round the door when they arrived had also decided that it was lunch-time and they were impeded only by a woman carrying a banner which said, ‘Down with Apartheid’ on one side and ‘Support W.A.A.M.’ on the other side. They side-stepped her and drove off.

When Mr. Lauderdale reappeared at three o’clock it was clear that an excellently cooked light lunch and sympathetic conversation with his friends had restored him to something approaching good-humour.

He said, “I must confess that I should have been happier—” sharp glances at Bull—”if, as I had hoped, the relevant certificate under Section 4 of the Act
had
been obtained—”

I bet you’d never heard of Section 4 until you were told about it this morning, thought Roger.

“However, if this much-delayed matter is to proceed, it seems that I shall have to come to a decision myself on the evidence which has been presented. Viewing the matter in a common-sense way I have concluded that Mullen is really in this country to carry out one assignment, the extradition of the man called Jack Katanga and therefore that he cannot be considered as a regular member of the Mission. It follows that he is not, in my view, entitled to the diplomatic privileges and exemptions which he seeks. Accordingly—Yes, Mr. Bull?”

“I’m afraid, sir, that I may have to delay this hearing still further. Though not, I trust, for very long. My instructions are that, in the event that you found against my client’s contention, I was to submit the question on appeal to the Divisional Court.”

“When you say ‘not too long’—”

“I have already been in touch with the Crown Office. I told them that I did not anticipate that the argument on this point, if it arose, would occupy more than a day and I have been provisionally offered Thursday, October 25th.”

“In that case,” said Mr. Lauderdale, with a rare flash of good-humour, “we must wait for ten days so that the Lord Chief Justice and his learned brethren may decide whether I have been talking nonsense or not.”

“All rise,” said the Sergeant.

“Worth a guinea a minute,” said the crime reporter of the
Sentinel
to the News Editor. “I thought at one time that Mullen was going to give that la-di-da lawyer a good smack on the kisser.”

“Dudley Lashmar?”

“That’s the one. Very Eton and Oxbridge. I only wish he had hit him. Then there’d have been something we
could
report.”

“A great pity, yes.”

“Of course, I don’t understand these technical jim-jams, but I did wonder. This ban on reporting. Surely it only covers the case itself. Well, in fact, we didn’t get to the case at all.”

“I can tell you this,” said the News Editor. “We’ve got to watch our step bloody carefully. Did you know that the Director of Public Prosecutions
and
the Special Branch both had observers in Court?”

“I saw two official-looking bods alongside Yule. I did wonder who they were.”

“A lot of people have got an eye on it. And I’ve had this direct from the boss. We’re not to take any risk of being run for contempt of Court. The
News
got done twenty-five thousand pounds and it was a less important case than this might turn out to be.”

“I suppose we can write up the protest outside the Court. There was a Waam woman who made a speech.”

“Come again.”

“Women’s Anti-Apartheid Movement. A very powerful lobby.”

“All right. Anything outside the building is O.K. But once you get inside the Court, watch your step.”

“It does seem a pity,” said the reporter, who was good at his job and hated to see promising news being suppressed. “You realise the whole thing may now go cold until it gets to the Crown Court.
If
it ever does.”

“There are one or two ways,” said the News Editor thoughtfully, “in which the pot could be kept on the boil—”

“And I am not particularly fond of committing perjury,” said Yule.

“Of course not,” said Mullen. “Naturally. But it killed the matter dead, didn’t it?”

“I see that you don’t appreciate the significance of what happened. Will you kindly devote some thought to it. The Crown lawyer put to you, word for word, a statement which you made to me, in this office, some days ago. Lewis Silverborn was the only other person present.”

“You don’t think that he—”

“That he repeated it to his legal opponents. That is the last thing I would believe. He is a professional and very little given, I should judge, to talking out of turn.”

“Well, then—”

“What you said must have been overheard. And since the door was shut, I am forced to arrive at a disagreeable conclusion. I am afraid we have underestimated the opposition. That is why I waited until after the office was shut before talking to you about it.”

“You mean we’ve been bugged.”

“That’s the only solution that fits the facts, isn’t it?”

“I suppose so, but who—?”

“Our friends from Mornington Square, no doubt. But it’s not a question of who. It’s a question of how.” He cast a speculative glance around his tidy office. “A matter for experts. There’s a young man in the Scientific Officers’ Department at High Holborn. Before he came here he was attached to one of your sections in Pretoria, I believe. Hartfeldt, or some such name.”

“Hartmann, I think you mean. Yes. He did investigation work at one time.”

“He can do some more investigation work now.”

Young Mr. Hartmann appeared on the following evening after the office had been shut. He brought a colleague with him. Working together, in two hours they took the room to pieces.

The filing cabinets were moved into the centre of the room and their contents were tipped out. Then the desk was treated in the same way. Once they were empty they could be minutely inspected, with an eye to any space in them that was unaccounted for. Two of the floorboards were taken up and the space under the boards was examined with a torch. The wooden wainscoting was prized away in sections and the walls were tapped. The chairs were turned over and their padding was probed with needles. The window-frames were iron and offered little scope for concealment, but the mirror which hung between them, the pictures on the walls and all the objects which had stood on Yule’s desk, including the two telephones, were subjected to careful examination.