Scene four

(The third day of the Vole trial. Mr Myers, the Counsel for the Prosecution, is going to call his surprise witness, Christine Helm.)

Judge: Mr Myers, does that conclude your case?

Myers: No, my Lord. I now call the final witness for the prosecution, Christine Helm.

Usher: Christine Helm! Christine Helm! Christine Helm!

(Sir Wilfred and Brogan-Moore look at each other in bewilderment. Christine Vole, pale but calm, enters the courtroom. Looking straight in front of her she goes to the witness-box.)

Christine (reading the oath): I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Sir Wilfred (addressing the judge): My Lord, I have the most serious objection to this witness being summoned by the prosecution, as she is the wife of the prisoner Leonard Vole!

Myers: My Lord, I call my learned friend's attention to the fact that I summoned not Mrs Vole, but Mrs Helm. (To Christine): Your name in fact is Christine Helm?

Christine: Yes, Christine Helm.

Myers: And you have been living as the wife of the prisoner Leonard Vole?

Christine: Yes.

Myers: Are you actually his wife?

Christine: No, I went through a marriage ceremony with him in Hamburg, but I already had a husband. He is still alive.

Vole: Christine! That's not true!!

Sir Wilfred: My Lord, there is proof of the marriage between the witness and the prisoner. Is there any proof of the so-called previous marriage?

Myers: My Lord, the so-called previous marriage is in fact well-documented (Holding the marriage certificate, to Christine): Mrs Helm, is this a certificate of marriage between yourself and one Otto Ludwig Helm? The ceremony having taken place in Breslau on the 18th of April, 1942?

Christine: Yes, that is the paper of my marriage. (Myers passes the certificate to a clerk, who takes it to the judge.)

Judge: I don't see any reason why this witness should not be qualified to give evidence.

Myers: Mrs Helm, are you willing to give evidence against the man you've been calling your husband?

Christine: Yes.

Myers: You stated to the police that on the night that Mrs French was murdered Leonard Vole left the house at seven thirty and returned at twenty-five past nine. Did he in fact return at twenty-five past nine?

Christine: No, he returned at ten minutes past ten.

Vole: Christine, what are you saying? It's not true. You know it's not true?!

Usher: Silence!

Judge: I must have silence!

Myers (to Christine): Leonard Vole returned, you say, at ten minutes past ten. And what happened next?

Christine: He was breathing hard, very excited. He threw off his coat and examined the sleeves. Then he told me to wash the cuffs. They had blood on them. I said: "Leonard, what have you done?"

Myers: And what did the prisoner say to that?

Christine: He said: "I've killed her."

Vole: Christine! Why are you lying? Why are you saying these things?!!

Myers: Mrs Helm, when the prisoner said: "I have killed her," did you know to whom he referred?

Christine: It was that woman he had been going to see so often.

Myers: Now then, when questioned by the police you told them that the prisoner returned at nine twenty-five?

Christine: Yes. Because Leonard asked me to say that..

Myers: But you change your story now. Why?

Christine: I cannot go on lying to save him! I said to the police what he wanted me to say because I'm grateful to him. He married me and brought me to this country. What he has asked me to do I've always done, because I was grateful.

Myers: It was not because he was your husband, and you loved him?

Christine: I never loved him.

Myers: It was gratitude to the prisoner then that prompted you to give him an alibi in your statement to the police?

Christine: That is it, exactly.

Myers: But now you think it was wrong to do so?

Christine: Because it is murder. That woman... she was a harmless old fool. And he makes me an accomplice to the murder! I cannot come into court and swear that he was with me at the time when it was done. I cannot do it! I cannot do it!!!

Myers: Then this is the truth that Leonard Vole returned that night at ten minutes past ten, that he had blood on the sleeves of his coat and that he said to you: "I have killed her"?

Christine: That is the truth.

Myers: Thank you.

(Now it is Sir Wilfred's turn to cross-examine the witness.)

Sir Wilfred: Mrs Vole, or Mrs Helm... which do you prefer to be called?

Christine: It does not matter.

Sir Wilfred: Does it not? In this country we are inclined to take a rather more serious view of marriage. However, Frau Helm, it would appear when you first met the prisoner in Hamburg you lied to him about your marital state?

Christine: I wanted to get out of Germany, so...

Sir Wilfred: You lied, did you not? Yes or no, please.

Christine: Yes.

Sir Wilfred: Thank you. And subsequently in arranging the marriage you lied to the authorities?

Christine: I did not tell the truth to the authorities.

Sir Wilfred: You lied to them?

Christine: Yes.

Sir Wilfred: And in the ceremony of marriage itself, when you swore to love and to honour and to cherish your husband, that, too, was a lie?

Christine: Yes.

Sir Wilfred: And when the police questioned you about this poor man, who believed himself you married and loved him, you told them...

Christine: I told them what Leonard wanted me to say.

Sir Wilfred: And when you said that he had accidentally cut his wrist, again you lied?

Christine: Yes.

Sir Wilfred (with contempt): And now today you’ve told us a new story entirely. The question is, Frau Helm, were you lying then or are you lying now? Or are you not in fact a chronic and habitual liar?!!