‘What makes you think that?’ Sarah asked. ‘How can you be sure what Longman knew?’

‘Longman’s final instructions to the jury were a giveaway,’ Michael replied. ‘So was the sentence. Both cleverly designed to scupper an appeal, which means he must have known there was something to appeal.’

‘What were the instructions?’ Sarah asked.

‘They were about the charges. Hirst was on trial for the murder of Tommy Barker, but he was only convicted of manslaughter. That was because of Longman. He directed the jury that they could conclude from Tina’s evidence that Tommy was smothered by mistake – as Hirst was trying to calm him – and that they might think that a mistake was actually more likely from the evidence than an intentional killing. That was bullshit, of course. Hirst meant to kill that boy. I know he did. But Tina’s evidence could have been read that way as it came out, and so Longman added a little weight to that conclusion. Something which can carry a lot of influence with a jury when it’s coming from a judge that senior. It would mean no murder conviction, but manslaughter can still carry a life sentence and if Hirst then appealed the conviction the Court of Appeal would likely say that, if anything, Longman had in fact summed up in Hirst’s favour, resulting in the conviction for a lesser offence. Which is exactly what happened.’

‘Clever,’ Levy observed.

‘It was. But that was Longman. And then he did something similar with the sentence. A life sentence was arguably too much for the crime, if Tommy’s death was an accident, but giving it a fourteen year minimum made that more reasonable. In reality we all knew the minimum was just that, and that someone as cracked as Hirst would probably act up so much that they might stay inside for ever. But for appeal purposes it was, again, very clever.

And then there was what happened to Blunt.’

‘What?’ Levy asked. ‘What happened with Blunt?’

‘There’s a reason this was his last case with the police. Longman called Blunt into his chambers at the end of the trial. Told him his suspicions and told him that he expected to hear of his resignation within the week. Otherwise he would contact the Commissioner directly and tell him everything. Blunt took the sensible course.’

‘Blunt told you that?’

‘He did, Joelle. And he told me at the same time that he had kept my name out of it, for which I was incredibly grateful. He thought we’d done the right thing and didn’t see why we should both suffer for it. Over the years that seemed to change. He got more and more bitter at what he’d lost, and it put a real strain on our working relationship. It made him a nasty piece of work in his later years, someone I struggled to be around. But back then? Yeah, he took a bullet for what we had done.’

Silence fell as Michael’s account came to an end. It was a lot of information to take in, he knew. A lot for both Sarah and Levy to consider.