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‘And were you then offered a place at Harvard University to study for a ree and thereafter for a doctorate?’

Harry bowed slightly and confirmed that he was He wanted to say, ‘Get on with it, Toby,’ but he knew his old sparring partner was going to milk the next few moments for all they orth

‘And for your PhD thesis, did you choose the sub

ject of handguns in relation to murder cases?’

‘That is correct, Sir Toby’

‘Is it also true,’ continued the distinguished QC, ‘that when your thesis was presented to the exa board, it created such interest that it was published by the Harvard University Press, and is now prescribed reading for anyone specialising in forensic science?’

‘It’s kind of you to say so,’ said Harry, giving Toby the cue for his next line

‘But I didn’t say so,’ said Sir Toby, rising to his full height and staring at the jury ‘Those were the words of none other than Judge Daniel Webster, a member of the Supreme Court of the United States But allow land, would it be accurate to say that Oxford University tried to te you the first Chair of Forensic Science, but that you spurned the to return to your alma mater, first as a senior lecturer, and later as a professor? Aht, Professor Bamford?’

‘You are, Sir Toby,’ said Harry

‘A post you have held for the past eleven years, despite the fact that several universities around the world have made you lucrative offers to leave your beloved Yorkshire and join them?’

At this point Mr Justice Fenton, who had also heard it all before, peered down and said, ‘I think I can say, Sir Toby, that you have established the fact that your witness is a pre-eminent expert in his chosen field I wonder if we could now move on and deal with the case in hand’

‘I aenerous words It won’t be necessary to heap any ood professor’s shoulders’ Sir Toby would have loved to have told the judge that he had actually come to the end of his preliminary comments moments before he had been interrupted

‘I will therefore, with your permission, m’lud, move on to the case before us, now that you feel I have established the credentials of this particular witness’ He turned back to face the professor, ho wink

‘Earlier in the case,’ continued Sir Toby, ‘ers set out in detail the case for the prosecution, leaving no doubt that it rested on a single piece of evidence: naun that never smoked’ - an expression Harry had heard his old friend use many times in the past, and was in no doubt he would use on many more occasions in the future

‘I refer to the gun, covered in the defendant’s fingerprints, that was discovered near the body of his unfortunate wife, Mrs Valerie Richards The prosecution went on to clai his wife, the defendant panicked and ran out of the house, leaving the firear round to face the jury ‘On this one, flimsy, piece of evidence - and fli asked to convict a man for murder and place him behind bars for the rest of his life’ He paused to allow the jury to take in the significance of his words