‘Of course not,’ he replied, petulantly. ‘There are too many variables in a horse race.’

‘But you would be prepared to send a man to prison on the same odds?’

His Adam’s apple was bobbing up and down and a few beads of perspiration popped on his brow. ‘I don’t think we can compare the defendant’s guilt or innocence with either a shipping insurance risk assessment or a horse race.’

‘Really? Why not? Are you not admitting you have some doubts – a one in five chance that the defendant might actually be innocent?’

Trout found an itch on his threadbare dome, which he began to attack vigorously. ‘Well,’ he conceded, with clear reluctance. ‘You do have a point, I suppose.’

‘Thank you.’

Meg returned to her notes. ‘We have heard a wide amount of argument about whether the defendant did or did not ever actually meet the man purporting to have been his so-called lieutenant: Michael Starr. This man, who has already pleaded guilty to all of the offences, is clearly, as we have all heard, a highly dubious and untrustworthy character. It is very much his word against the defendant’s. As we have also heard, he has much to gain, in terms of a reduced sentence, by implicating Mr Gready. Can we really trust what he has said? I, for one, am not comfortable with it.’

‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ Sophie Eaton exclaimed. ‘We all heard the evidence from that expert witness, the forensic podiatrist Kelly. We saw the video footage, which was compelling, of Mr Starr entering the premises of TG Law.’

‘We did,’ Mike Roberts said. ‘But to be fair, we heard the evidence of Gready’s employees – and in particular that of his secretary – who I thought was quite convincing. There is nothing any of them said from which we could infer Mr Gready and Mr Starr met on that day – or any other.’

Meg watched the retired police officer with interest. Was he on her side?

‘I agree,’ Maisy Waller suddenly butted in. ‘That mechanic, Arthur Mason-Taylor, at LH Classics, looked a very honest man to me. He said that he had never seen Mr Gready – and had never heard his name. If Mr Gready, as Mr Starr suggested, owned LH Classics, surely it is odd that the chief mechanic there had never seen him?’

‘Well, I’ve worked at the hospital for nine years and I’ve never met the chief executive of it,’ Sophie piped up.

‘But what reason would a man like Arthur Mason-Taylor have for lying?’ Hugo said. ‘That makes no sense to me at all.’

‘It comes back again to the judge’s direction to us,’ Meg said. ‘You must be satisfied of the defendant’s guilt. Can any of us here say that the defendant and Mr Starr ever met – for certain?’

She looked around the table. Only Toby raised his hand.

‘Really, Toby? You are certain, are you?’

‘Yes.’