An Affair With Danger - a noir romance novella Read online

  Alex got up and nodded towards the courtroom. ‘Come on in.’

  I followed him into the courtroom and took a seat in the second front row near the aisle. The atmosphere was rarified and solemn, more like a church. Well, law was a religion to some. The court was about half full. I glanced casually around, wondering who the others were. Friends or relatives of the accused? Or maybe just members of the public who got a kick out of watching court cases.

  I was glad that neither my brother Nick nor my sister Stephanie had accompanied me for moral support, as they’d both wanted to do. I preferred to be here on my own. Nick, an international human rights lawyer, had to fly out to a case in Egypt; but I was sure he’d only offered to come to see how many people he could impress with his credentials. Steph, who’d gone back to University to study exercise physiology after years as a physical education teacher, was in the middle of exams. My parents, though they were concerned at the time of the hold-up, still managed to convey the impression that somehow it was my fault, that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  Alex was in earnest conversation with the defence counsel, a man who must surely have been in his thirties but with his fresh, baby-faced complexion and startlingly blue eyes, looked barely out of high school. In his wig and gown, he looked like a teenager playing dress-ups. If he lacked experience, he had youth and ambition on his side; and he’d be keen to make his mark.

  The door to the dock opened and Gisbourne entered, escorted by two police officers. It was the first time I’d seen him in the flesh since the robbery. He was taller than I remembered and broader, but it was all muscle. He wore a suit and had the sort of rough-cut look that women find attractive.

  There’ll be no women where you’re going, mate. But he’d been in jail on remand for the last 12 months and he didn’t look as if he’d suffered.

  I was surprised by the heat of anger that surged inside me; I thought I’d put the robbery behind me. I wanted to wipe that smug look off his face, preferably with my fists. He sat down and I stared at him, willing him to look at me. He glanced around the courtroom, not meeting my gaze, as if he were looking for someone. His face settled into a scowl.

  ‘All stand,’ the bailiff called out. The judge entered the room and took her position at the bench. A pinch-faced woman with glasses and grey hair swept under a wig. According to the nameplate in front of her, she was Judge Delaney.

  The bailiff declared the court open. Alex and the defence counsel, David Levenson, announced their appearances before the judge said, ‘I believe you have some information for the court, Mr Levenson.’

  ‘Yes, Your Honour. I have had instructions from my client this morning that he wishes to plead guilty.’

  The judge glanced over at Gisbourne, still looking sulky. ‘Thank you, Mr Levenson.’

  She nodded to Alex, who stood up and said, ‘There is an indictment before the court of two charges – one count each of armed robbery and stealing a motor vehicle. I tender it for your perusal.’

  Alex handed the indictment to the judge’s associate, a young female, who passed it up to her. She perused it thoroughly then handed it back to her associate. ‘Please arraign the defendant.’

  After a gesture from Levenson, Gisbourne stood up. The associate read the charge in a loud, clear voice. ‘Edward Robert Gisbourne, you are charged that at 9.55 pm on the 5th of June 2005, you entered the 7-Eleven convenience store at 7 Makerston Street, Manly armed with a gun and committed an offence of armed robbery, stealing the approximate sum of $750. How do you plead?

  ‘Guilty.’

  I heard the whish of the courtroom door opening. Gisbourne looked over and his expression changed instantly into a wide grin. I looked around.

  A woman had entered. Tall, a mass of wild reddish-auburn hair that appeared to be exploding from her head. Startling red lips, too much eye make-up. She sashayed down the aisle on her high heels, her jeans and purple breast-hugging top under a denim jacket clinging to her as if they’d been painted on. Skinny except in the chest department.

  It seemed as if the whole courtroom was holding its breath watching her. She stared straight ahead with an expression that said, ‘I know you’re all watching me and I don’t give a damn.’

  She stopped at my row. ‘Excuse me.’

  I drew my legs in. As she brushed past me, I caught a whiff of her perfume. Musky. She sat at the opposite end of the row near the wall, dumping her bright pink handbag on the floor and crossing her legs. Shiny crimson toenails peeked out from her open-toed sandals. Gisbourne mouthed, ‘love you,’ to her and she blew him a kiss back.

  ‘Edward Robert Gisbourne, you are charged that at...’ The judge’s associate read the second charge. Judge Delaney stared at the new arrival with knitted brow and tight lips; but she was looking at her boyfriend, oblivious or uncaring. I guessed the latter.

  How many times had she sat in a courtroom looking at him in the dock? I had no knowledge of Gisbourne’s history but I was pretty sure this wasn’t his first offence. He had the demeanour of a career criminal. What sort of a woman would knowingly hang around with an armed robber? One who had form herself, obviously. Surely no law-abiding woman would choose to be in a relationship with him.

  After Gisbourne had pleaded guilty, the judge looked over the top of her glasses at Alex. ‘Mr Coleby, do you require an adjournment so that you and Mr Levenson can prepare the facts for sentence?’

  Alex stood up. ‘Yes, Your Honour, a month will be adequate.’

  ‘Sentencing is adjourned for a month on a date to be fixed. Is there an application for bail, Mr Levenson?’

  ‘No, Your Honour.’

  We all stood, the judge swept out and the bailiff declared the court closed.

  As the police officers escorted Gisbourne out of the dock, he mouthed, ‘love you,’ again to his girlfriend before disappearing. I couldn’t help glancing across at her to see her reaction. She grinned at him and waved. Then, catching my eye, her expression changed instantly, its meaning clear. What’s it to you? I quickly looked away.

  As we filed out of the courtroom, she brushed past me and squeezed into the lift just as the door was closing. I took the next lift; and as I exited the courthouse, I spotted her trotting along the sidewalk. I watched the provocative sway of her hips and arse, wondering if she always walked like that, or if it was just the heels.

  The wind had died down but the coldness hung in the air like a thick blanket. She fumbled in her bag, took out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter and lit a cigarette, not missing a stride.

  Chapter 4

  One month later. August 2006.

  I ARRIVED at Court an hour early and sat outside the courtroom working on my latest case on my iPad. Partly out of need, but also to distract myself. The prospect of spending another day staring at the perpetrator of the crime against me was not one I relished, but I wanted to see justice done.

  Something made me look up. Gisbourne’s girlfriend was heading towards me. Mini-dress, jacket, purple tights, boots. Bangles jostling up each arm. Same uncontrollable hair and defiant expression. People stared. She had presence. Boho no-bullshit-chick presence.

  She made straight for the courtroom, wrenched open the door and went in. I checked my watch. Court was due to start in 10 minutes. I packed my iPad into my briefcase and entered the courtroom. She was sitting in the second row against the wall, the same place as last time. As if it was her designated seat. She took a mobile phone out of her handbag and began to scroll down the screen.

  Both barristers were already at the bar table. There were plenty of empty seats but on an impulse I sat in her row, at a respectable distance. That same perfume wafted over. She looked up from her phone and I took my chance.

  ‘Hi, how are you?’

  To this day, I don’t know what made me do it. I’m not the sort that strikes up conversation with strange women, but something about her compelled me to do it.

  She stared at me. Her eyes were the deepest brown. Alive, i
ntense. ‘Do I know you?’

  ‘No. I’m Will.’ Awkward silence. ‘I just wondered … this must be difficult for you.’

  Her eyes narrowed. ‘Are you a reporter?’

  ‘No, just an interested party.’

  ‘Oh, I get it. Just here for the fun of it.’

  ‘I don’t think anyone here would call it fun. Except maybe the barristers.’

  ‘So what’s your interest?’

  ‘I was in the 7-Eleven store when your boyfriend held it up.’

  I watched her expression as my reply sank in. There were no discernible signs of empathy, but I sensed it was there. In the subtle change of her body posture.

  ‘So you’re here to see him get his just desserts?’

  ‘You got it. Wouldn’t you do the same thing if you were in my shoes?’

  She didn’t answer. At that moment, Gisbourne was led into the dock. He glanced over at his girlfriend, whose name, I realised, I still didn’t know, but he refrained from any mimed declarations of love. His barrister had probably had a word to him – it wasn’t the sort of behaviour that endeared the accused to the court. His more subdued air did little to diminish his aura of cocky bravado.

  The girl smiled and waved, and slid her mobile phone back in her bag just as Judge Delaney entered the courtroom. First on the agenda was the prosecutor’s submission. Alex Coleby’s speech was clear and to the point, the essence of it being that the offence was not a spur-of-the-moment occurrence, but had been planned and cold-bloodedly executed.

  ‘The defendant at some unknown time obtained an illegal firearm and on the morning of the offence he stole a car,’ he said in his clear, high voice. ‘He changed the number plates and that night went to the 7-Eleven convenience store at Manly, on the other side of the city from where he lived, and threatened the occupants of the store with no regard for the consequences to them. And furthermore, he admitted to being under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of the offence, and that he was addicted to this drug.’

  I watched Gisbourne’s face. He stared impassively at the floor in front of him, as if what the prosecutor was saying had nothing to do with him. Look at me, you cowardly bastard!

  His girlfriend shifted several times in her seat. Maybe sitting next to the victim of her boyfriend’s crime was making her uncomfortable. I hoped so.

  Alex summed up. ‘With regards to sentencing, I acknowledge the offender’s early plea, which has saved the time and expense of a trial; however, that is all I can say in his favour. He was verbally abusive towards police when initially arrested and only calmed down when threatened with further charges. He was also subsequently uncooperative with police, refusing to disclose the identity of his co-offender, the driver of the stolen car, who, I understand, still remains at large. He also refused to disclose how and where he obtained the weapon used in the offence, which has not been recovered.

  ‘Furthermore, the defendant has history for a like offence in Western Australia eight years ago, in 1998. In this state, while he has no previous like offences, it is noted that he committed one offence of common assault in 2004 and two offences of breach of domestic violence order in 2002 and 2004. Both of these offences contain elements of physical violence towards the aggrieved. Here is a man, drug addiction or not, for whom violence is normal behaviour and over which he clearly has no control. Such a man is a danger to the community and if this behaviour continues to escalate, there will continue to be victims, and quite possibly more serious consequences. I submit that the defendant should be given a sentence that reflects the severity of the offence and that will also act as a deterrence against future like behaviour. Your Honour, I refer to the case of...

  He went on at length about a couple of precedents. I darted a sideways glance at his girlfriend. Was she the aggrieved in the domestic violence offences? Despite her slight build, she gave the impression she could give as good as she got, though she’d be no match for someone like Gisbourne.

  Alex’s final recommendation was six years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of two years for the armed robbery and three months imprisonment for stealing a motor vehicle. Gisbourne glanced over at the girl. His face was set, his mouth tight. I continued staring at him and finally his eyes met mine, lingering for a fraction of a second before moving away. But I knew he’d recognised me. I was triumphant that I’d forced him to acknowledge my presence. It went a little way towards diffusing my hostility.

  David Levenson rose to present his submission. ‘Your Honour, I acknowledge, as my friend has said, that the offence does appear to have been cold-blooded and premeditated, with no thought for the consequences or the effect on the victims. I’d like to, if I may, apprise you of the other side of the story, because there is, of course, always another side to the story – sometimes several.’

  Levenson’s tone of voice, belying his fresh-faced appearance, was warm and persuasive. Born to his profession. That or politics.

  ‘Your Honour, the defendant is a 32-year-old man, who like many others who’ve committed such crimes, comes from an unfortunate background. His father left the family when the defendant was two years old, leaving his mother to bring him and his two older brothers up by herself. She had her own issues, being an abuser of prescription drugs, and had a series of relationships with men of less than desirable character, many of whom were violent alcoholics. As a consequence, the defendant was subjected to constant physical and emotional abuse from a very young age. He started using drugs, namely cannabis, at the age of 12 as a way of coping with this abuse, and left home at 14 after being assaulted by his mother’s partner. He was living on the streets for a couple of years and that’s when he started using methamphetamines, the cause of the offence in respect of which he has pleaded guilty today.

  ‘Due to his drug use his employment history has been sporadic, but the positions he has held have required some degree of skill and responsibility. He has worked as a salesman for various companies, a warehouse supervisor and a foreman for a construction company. He’s been drug-free for the last 12 months while on remand in custody and consequently has been able to think clearly for the first time in years. He’s very remorseful for his actions and particularly for the effect they have had on the two victims.’

  Yeah, right. Remorse for getting caught. And the old, crappy upbringing chestnut. His childhood was horrific, but I couldn’t feel any sympathy for him. If it hadn’t been me and Mike he’d held up, maybe. But then again, probably not. Both Mike and I had been asked if we wanted to submit a victim impact statement to the court, but we both declined. Neither of us felt a burning need to do it and surmised that it would make little impact on Gisbourne.

  ‘The defendant instructs that on the morning of the offence, he’d been to a job interview in Parramatta and was about to catch the train home when he saw a car on the side of the road with the window down. On an impulse he decided to steal it, thinking that it would it be a lot easier to get a job if he had a car. He admits to changing the plates to avoid being apprehended but denies that he stole the car specifically to commit the armed robbery. At that stage, he instructs, the idea hadn’t even occurred to him.

  ‘That night, he had a fight with his girlfriend, with whom he resides, because they’d run out of money to buy food. She hadn’t had any work for a couple of weeks and his unemployment benefits had been stopped due to a mix-up; and so they had no money to obtain food for dinner. He instructs he decided to go out and hold up the store to get money for food and that it was indeed a spur-of-the-moment offence. He denies obtaining the weapon in order to commit the offence and that he had previously purchased it for self-defence, having been threatened by an acquaintance over a longstanding grudge.

  ‘He also freely admits to being under the influence of methamphetamine at the time he made this decision, which he realises is no excuse of course; but he also instructs that he would not have entertained the thought of committing an armed robbery if he hadn’t been under the influence of drugs.
He admits it was a very foolish decision with no regard for the consequences for himself or the victims. Drug addiction is essentially a very selfish affliction; the addict cannot and does not think about anything or anyone except himself and getting his next fix, and the defendant has been a user of drugs since he was 12, so that’s some 20 years. As I mentioned before, he’s had plenty of thinking time in custody to ponder the effects of his actions.

  ‘I’ve had conversations with the defendant, Your Honour, about not only the psychological and emotional trauma the victims have undoubtedly suffered, but also the effect on wider society. Convenience stores that are open late at night are sitting targets for offences of this kind, and customers get to the stage where they are too scared to go in at night for fear that the same thing will happen to them. Thus resulting in loss of revenue for the store owner. The defendant has admitted that he has never considered these factors before and that it’s been a big eye-opener for him. Consequently, as I mentioned earlier, he has displayed considerable remorse for his actions.’

  If that was true, he was hiding it remarkably well. Unexciting as my job was, I was glad for the umpteenth time I hadn’t followed my father’s wishes and gone into criminal law, that I didn’t have to get up in court and spout things I knew were utter bullshit.

  The barrister paused for a few seconds, ostensibly to look through his notes, but really to give the judge time to fully appreciate his client’s remorse.

  ‘Your Honour, the defendant has been in a relationship for the past seven years with Francis Slater, who is present here today.’

  There was a rustle of movement as people in the courtroom looked around. Gisbourne gave his girlfriend a subdued grin.

  ‘Ms Slater is 25 and works as a cleaner. She and the defendant have been together for seven years; they’re in a stable relationship; and the defendant has realised that at the age of 32, it’s about time he cleaned up his act, gained employment and became a productive member of society. One point in his favour is that he has had periods of abstinence from drugs for up to 2 years, when he’s held down jobs and stayed out of trouble so he’s more than capable of doing so when he puts his mind to it. He and Ms Slater plan to have a family and he’s realised the life he’s been leading is not conducive to responsible fatherhood, and indeed he wants his own children to have the stable and happy childhood that he himself was unfortunate enough not to have.