Chapter Fifty-seven
After court resumed at 10 am there was a succession of purely technical witnesses that were necessary to prove the safe keeping of the drug, as it was conveyed from police headquarters to the analytical laboratories. Then, as Reginald Smithers took the stand, a ripple of conversation ran through the courtroom. After guiding him through his evidence in chief, the prosecutor went on the offensive to counteract the predicted attack on his credibility.
‘You are not pretending, are you Mr Smithers, that you are a person of exemplary character?’
‘What?’
‘Let me rephrase that. You are not suggesting that you have always been honest and law abiding in the past, are you?’
‘I’m as honest as the next bloke.’
‘That may be,’ Blackmore replied with a forced smile. ‘Though I sup
