‘They stopped me doing my job.’
‘So you keep saying.’
‘And you led them.’
‘What did I say, to make them come to the riverside?’
‘You said “Follow me,” and that kind of thing.’
‘When did I say that?’
‘I heard it when I was leaving the market square.’
‘And you say I made the women follow you.’
‘Yes.’
‘And then I stopped you working.’
‘Yes.’
‘But you said that you unloaded half the sacks before I arrived with the women.’
‘That’s right.’
‘So you must have left the market square well ahead of the women.’
‘Yes.’
‘So how could you hear me telling them to follow me, when you were already at the waterfront unloading sacks?’
Jarge said loudly: ‘Aha!’
Hornbeam frowned in his direction.
Darke said: ‘Maybe you took a long time to persuade them.’
‘The truth is that you never heard me tell them to follow me, because I never did. You’re making it up.’
‘No, I’m not.’
‘You’re a liar, Joby Darke.’ Joanie turned her back on him.
She had done well, Sal thought, but had she convinced the jury?
The other bargees told similar stories, but they could only say that the women had attacked them and they had fought back; and Sal thought that Darke’s confused testimony made all of them seem unreliable.
Joanie then told her own story, emphasizing that her main role had been to prevent the crowd helping themselves to the sacks of grain.
Hornbeam interrupted her. ‘But you sold it!’
That was irrefutable.
‘At a fair price, yes,’ said Joanie.
‘The price of grain is set by the market. You can’t decide it.’
‘But I did yesterday, didn’t I?’
