Judge Claude Fingers knew the onus was on him to say something. He uncrossed his legs. "Mr Silver, I appreciate that reliving that episode must have been very distressing for you--"

"And the court shares your distress," Seymour chipped in. "Isn't that right, Y'onour?"

"Yes, thank you, Horace. I mean Mr Seymour. Um, Mr Silver, I'm afraid I closed my eyes at a critical moment. Can you confirm for me that you really are now, um, _sans testes_?"

"She hacked my damn balls off. With a chisel!"

"Oh dear. Mr Seymour, do you have any more questions to put to the witness?"

"Y'onour. Pornography has outstripped the mainstream cinema in popularity since early this century, but only in the latter half of this century have its creators truly reaped the spoils. For six years running John Silver was the highest paid movie star _in the world_. But was he content to rest on his laurels? Oh no. He had a burning desire to push the envelope, and so he became the first, and to date the only, time-travelling pornstar.

"He travelled to dangerous locations in the past, always alone, always living on his wits, to ravish the most famous women in history. On the sixth of July this year he embarked on his most ambitious project to date: Mr Silver attempted to seduce no less a personage than a goddess!" Seymour acknowledged the respectful "Aah" from the public gallery. "Sadly, in the course of this performance, Mr Silver suffered a debilitating injury."

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 "So what do you want?" I said again. He shook his head at me, admonishing. "You fucked up, boy," he said. "There’s a ghost and an angel on the loose in your city, and you seem to think hiding here and drinking brandy is the answer to all your problems. Look how long it took me to find you. If you’re trying to hide, you’re not doing a very good job of it."