Madame Juror.

Chapter 1

I was not in a good mood.

It was raining, but not the usual sort of rain, the drizzly wet cold stuff that ran down your neck in freezing droplets, and soaked you through to the skin.

To make it worse, Isabel was taking me shopping.

Now, truth be told, I didn't mind shopping itself, looking at and trying on new things usually which I won't ever end up buying, but with Isabel a pleasant day out turns into a never-ending hell on earth. Every single shop we go into, she tries on about five different outfits, decides she hates them all, and prepares to leave, then as she does so spots something else pretty and the cycle starts again. I physically had to drag her from the last one, as we had reached the point when she was trying on things she had already tried on half an hour ago.

We were splashing our way along to another one of these wretched shops when a small commotion erupted in front of us. Three men burst out of the nearby building, which I recognised as a police court. They were all arguing, rather ferociously, it seemed, and as I listened into the conversation the ferociousness seemed rather unnecessary.

"Well what do you recommend we do, then?" someone asked grumpily.

"We can't have eleven jurors, or the jury will be incomplete, and therefore the verdict nullified" a second pointed out stubbornly.

"We can find someone! There has to be someone around who can come in at such short notice..." The third man, rather muffled by a big woollen scarf he was wearing,  bumped rather carelessly into my sister as he spoke.

"Sorry, madam...Miss Winter!" he suddenly exclaimed, recognising my sister instantly. As if putting two and two together, he turned around to look at me.

"Allie!" he exclaimed again, and I finally recognised the voice.

"Chief Inspector Barnes" I greeted him, rather taken aback by his lack of formality.

"Quite. Quite, Miss Winter, Miss Winter, I do apologise" Barnes sighed, addressing the both of us in turn.

"It's no problem" Isabel replied, a little curtly.

"Although, Miss Winter, I wonder if perhaps you could pay me a small favour" Barnes carried on. I shot a sideways glance at Isabel. Having heard the previous conversation, I knew what this 'favour' was going to entail. To be honest, I was game.

The two men accompanying Barnes both looked decidedly unimpressed.

"You can't be serious" one of them said.

"She's perfectly eligible" Barnes reasoned. "And sharper than both of you put together."

"A woman?" Cleverer than a man?" the other scoffed.

"She's outsmarted me three times" Barnes pointed out, to laughter. I decided the poor Chief Inspector needed some help.

"How's your little dog, if I may be allowed to ask, sir?" I asked one of the men, as the bottom of his trousers were lightly coated in thin, curly hair. His mouth dropped. I smiled nicely, as if I was expecting a response, and I heard Barnes chuckling to himself quietly in the background.

Seeing as I had elicited no response from the first man, I sized up the second. He was slightly more difficult to deduce from, but eventually I reckoned I had something.

"Your wife is...away from home at the moment?" I asked him innocently. It was more of a long shot than the first point had been, but by the look on the man's face I guessed I had hit the spot. Barnes was struggling to keep a straight face as I continued to look completely innocent.