Janie:(nods) Harry wasn’t there the night Sophie called me, though, when she was crying down the phone for me to pick her up. I left him at home with the girls when I went to get her. I had to meet her on a street corner. I won’t ever forget the sight of her: mascara streaked down her cheeks, this bright-blue wrap tightly pulled around her as people staggered past. I knew. As soon as I saw her, I knew what had happened.

Marlow:Go on.

Janie:She wouldn’t tell me at first; begged me to take her home. It was two days before she finally admitted she had been raped in the club while she was working. Sophie was embarrassed. But then I understood that. I saw enough women in court to recognise the shame, even when everyone told them they had nothing to feel that way about. What I hated was that Sophie was used to men ogling her, and she thought she wasn’t worthy of being treated with respect. Just because they were sitting on these plush velvet chairs in their Savile Row suits, buying drinks that cost more than her hourly wages, they thought they could treat her like they had bought her, too.
     But that night he had taken it too far and followed her into the toilets, pressing himself against her, telling her he knew it was what she wanted.

Marlow:Miles Morgan?

Janie:Yes. I asked her if anyone else had seen, and Sophie laughed and said of course not. She was so bitter. I wanted to take it all away from her.

Marlow:What did you do?

Janie:I told her we would do something about it. We’d go to the police there and then – it wasn’t too late. We wouldn’t let him get away with it. Do you know what she said to me? She said, ‘You haven’t been listening to me, Janie. Of course he will get away with it. You, of all people, know that all he needs is to find himself an expensive female defence barrister and he’ll walk free.’

Marlow:You think your friend was aiming that at you?

Janie:Of course she was. (laughs) Of course she was, because I had just won my last case. His case. The one everyone was talking about, and so I’d done exactly what Sophie was worried about. She told me she wouldn’t put herself through a trial to risk everything and not be believed. She wouldn’t allow her life to be destroyed, like other women’s lives were …

Marlow:Let me get you a tissue.

Janie:(nods)

Marlow:Janie, did you see either your husband or Miles Morgan again on Monday, after you left them at lunchtime?

Janie:No.

Marlow:What about Laura Denning? Did she tell you she had seen him in the office, when you met her at the quay on Monday night?