The Sentence Is Death

‘To begin with, yes. But in the end their services were no longer required as Ms Anno, presumably being advised by her own counsel, accepted Mr Lockwood’s terms quite soon after the FDR.’

‘What’s an FDR?’ This time I was the one who asked, saving Hawthorne any further confrontation.

‘I’m sorry. It’s the Financial Dispute Resolution. You have to understand that we do everything we can to dissuade our clients from proceeding all the way to the final hearing. If they can come to an agreement before that, it will save them many thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, of pounds. That was the case here. Richard had persuaded Ms Anno’s team that they might as well quit while they were ahead. He had made a reasonable offer and in the end they agreed.’ Masefield clasped his hands together. ‘Clearly she wasn’t entirely happy about it – witness what happened a few days later. But although she might not have believed it, it was almost certainly in her best interests.’

‘So this is what I don’t get,’ Hawthorne said. ‘It’s a done deal. Richard Pryce has got the agreement he wanted. His client’s happy—’

‘Mr Lockwood was delighted.’

‘So what’s he doing calling you on that Sunday when the whole thing’s over?’

‘I have no answer to that, I’m afraid.’

‘He didn’t say anything at all?’

I didn’t think Masefield would answer. He clearly didn’t want to, torn between client confidentiality, his own sense of responsibility and, I think, a mild dislike of Hawthorne. But in the end, it was his sense of guilt that persuaded him.

‘I should have listened to him!’ he exclaimed. ‘I blame myself – but as I say, I was on my way to a concert and I didn’t want to be late. We spoke briefly and I could tell Richard was upset. He talked about consulting the Law Society ethics hotline. The Law Society is, as it were, our governing body and that would have been a very serious step.’

‘It might have led to a set-aside.’

‘It might indeed. And what is the point of having a set-aside if your side has already won? I’m not even sure it would have made any difference to the settlement if Ms Anno had been sitting on a vast pile of money, unless of course she had somehow extorted it or defrauded it from her ex-husband, and even then it was no real concern of ours.’

‘So what did you say to him?’

‘Broadly, I said there was no point raking over the coals and that we would talk about it first thing Monday. I wished him a pleasant evening and rang off.’

Richard Pryce had not had a pleasant evening. And for him, Monday had never come.

‘Why was he called the Blunt Razor?’ I asked – as much to fill the silence that had suddenly descended as anything else.

It made Masefield smile. He nodded at me. ‘That’s a very good question,’ he said. ‘And one that may explain a great deal of what we’ve been discussing. We don’t normally take notice of these epithets but Richard had been involved in one or two high-profile cases and he was described that way by some journalist or other and it stuck. The thing about him is that he was razor-sharp but he was also scrupulously honest. He would be very reluctant to take on a client if he thought they were in any way compromised and he always spoke his mind. That was what upset Ms Anno so much. He wrote to her, as was completely normal and proper in such proceedings, but his language was, I imagine, very blunt.’

‘He called a spade a spade,’ Hawthorne said.

‘Those aren’t the words I would choose. But yes. He was forthright. And it was completely in character for him to call me over a weekend if there was something that was worrying him.’ He shook his head. ‘I will never forgive myself for not giving him my full attention. Richard and I had worked together for almost twenty years. We met at Clifford Chance before we decided to set up together. Maurice was too upset even to come in today.’

‘Maurice?’

‘Maurice Turnbull. My other senior partner.’

For a moment nobody spoke and I was aware how quiet it was in this office. If there was any traffic in Carey Street, the sound was being effectively blocked by the double glazing and although I could see secretaries and paralegals in the area on the other side of the glass partition, they could have been actors in a film with the volume turned down. From my experience, law firms are always quiet places. Maybe it’s because they make words so expensive that they tend to use them sparingly among themselves.

I thought we had finished and would leave but Hawthorne took me by surprise with his next question. ‘One last thing, Mr Masefield. I don’t suppose you could tell us anything about your colleague’s will?’

His will. That had never occurred to me but of course Richard Pryce was a wealthy man. There was the house in Fitzroy Park with its expensive art on the walls, the second home in Clacton-on-Sea, two luxury cars and almost certainly a whole lot more.

‘As a matter of fact, I was discussing it with Richard only a few weeks ago. I am his executor so I’m very well acquainted with his last wishes.’