‘I sit here, do I?’ he asked, nodding to the only vacant chair.
‘Yes, please,’ Mike said, without looking up.
‘Opposite her,’ Oates said, smiling.
Anna forced herself to return his smile and stared into his face. His wide-set very blue eyes were unnerving, babyish, the nose even more flattened than in the photographs, as if the entire bridge had been crushed. His flared nostrils tilted upwards, giving his cheeks a strangely flat appearance. His thick lips were pinkish, and from his smile she could see that his teeth were gapped and stained. He wore his hair in a dirty blond curly crew cut which revealed that one of his ears was much thicker than the other.
Mike quietly read through the police caution, gesturing first to the tape recorder and then to the cameras. It was ten-thirty-five. He started off by asking Oates if he could call him Henry, to which the prisoner nodded in agreement. Mike said he was sorry to hear about the assault on him in prison and that he hoped Oates was now feeling better. Oates said nothing but just sat looking around the room. Anna knew that Mike was trying to soften him up as Samuels had suggested, but so far this was not bringing any noticeable response from Oates.
‘We have here, Henry, your original statement when you were arrested,’ Mike went on, ‘and I would like to draw your attention to certain paragraphs in which you told me how the body of Justine Marks came to be discovered in the rear of the van you were driving.’
Oates listened attentively, slouching in the chair.
‘I need to go over what happened with Justine again.’
‘Why? I already told you it was an accident.’
‘Yes, and we appreciate your honesty, but last time I didn’t really give you an opportunity to tell your side of the story and there are a few things I didn’t understand.’
‘All right, fire away then,’ Oates replied with a yawn.
‘You said that you stopped to offer Justine a lift home but she was rude. How was she rude?’
‘Bitch told me to fuck off when I was just trying to do the right thing.’
‘She must have liked you, though, as she obviously changed her mind.’
‘Yeah, but I had to tell her I was okay, like nothing for her to get worried about.’
‘You must have really turned on the charm to persuade her to have sex with you,’ Mike suggested.
‘Well, not a lot. I think she was just up for it and fancied me anyway.’
‘Wish I was so lucky.’
‘Well you got it or you ain’t,’ Oates replied with a wink of his eye.
Both Anna and Mike noticed that Oates had started to sit more upright as the conversation went on. He was now leaning forwards making eye contact with Mike as if he was having a lads’ chat in the pub.
Langton sighed. This was going to be a very long day. He found it extremely irritating to have to sit and listen to Mike being all namby-pamby with a man like Oates, but he knew there was a purpose to it and that it had to be done if Oates was to fall into the trap. He was actually impressed with Mike’s tactics and the way he was drawing Oates onside. He did wonder how much of the strategy was down to Travis’s advice, but either way the fact that they had planned the interview and were now executing it together was good to see.
‘You said that after willingly having sex with you Justine suddenly became hysterical and attacked you…’ Mike was saying.
‘Kicked me in the balls.’
‘That must have pissed you off, let alone hurt like hell.’
‘It did piss me off. I thought, you ungrateful slag. I give her a good shagging and she then throws a hissy fit.’
‘If I were you I think I’d have slapped her as well.’
Kumar suddenly interrupted.
‘DCI Lewis, I really think this line of questioning is leading-’
Before he could finish his sentence Oates with a look of rage in his eyes turned quickly and poked his solicitor firmly in the chest.
‘You don’t ever interrupt me again!’ Oates shook his head in annoyance then turned back to Mike, who resumed at once.
‘I was saying I could understand you losing your temper like that and hitting her with the spanner.’
‘It was just there beside me. I was really wound up, I picked it up, she turned like this, didn’t she, to avoid the thingy. I just let her have it… but only once.’
He had the audacity to swivel round in his chair, indicating the back of his head. Mike was finding it hard to restrain his own anger with Oates but knew he had to continue in the same vein, especially as Kumar was unlikely to interrupt again.
‘Sounds like the slapper deserved it, Henry.’
‘Fucking right she did.’
‘So after you hit her, did it shut her up?’
‘Well, she wasn’t screaming no more, just sort of moaning and gurgling.’ Oates smiled as if he was enjoying recalling the moment.
Mike said nothing; he simply acted as if he too was enjoying what Oates was saying and nodded to encourage him to go on.
‘I realized I’d hit her a bit hard, shook me up a bit, it did, but I thought I’d better take her to a hospital.’
Mike leaned forwards as Oates shook his head, acting bewildered.
‘At what point did you discover she was dead?’
‘When the moaning stopped.’
‘So the drive to a hospital would have been pointless?’
‘I guess so.’
Oates was still obviously lying but he had gone from a visible high in describing the sex and assault on Justine Marks to a sudden low. He clearly thought that Mike was genuinely sympathetic and believed his lies. Anna thought Mike looked drained and wondered if it was the right time for her to step in and take over the interview. She reached over to the trolley and picked up the pictures of Justine Marks that had been taken in the van and during the post mortem. She tapped Mike’s knee beneath the table, and he slowly closed his notebook without looking at her.
‘I would like to ask you some questions, Mr Oates,’ Anna began.
Oates raised his head and looked at her with contempt.
‘Oh here we go, now we get the woman’s point of view. How could you do a thing like that, the poor defenceless girl. Doesn’t matter the bitch kicked me in the nuts, does it!’
Anna held the pictures as if she were a croupier about to deal a pack of cards. She turned the first one over and laid it on the table. It showed the rear of the van with the doors open and Justine’s body wrapped in the bin liners.
‘Justine’s blood was found smeared on the outside of the rear doors, on the bumper and the floor of the van,’ she said.
‘I told you, I hit her on the head in the van.’
Anna now turned over the next picture, which was a close-up of the scuffmarks on Justine’s boots.
‘From these marks on her boots and the direction of the blood patterns on the outside of the van, the scientist says that she was hit on the back of the head before she was dragged into the van.’
Oates said nothing. He started chewing his bottom lip and tapping his right foot on the floor as he had done in the interview after his arrest when asked if he had abducted and killed Rebekka Jordan.
‘You attacked Justine in the street with the spanner,’ Anna persisted. ‘She was already dead when you dragged her into the back of the van, wasn’t she?’
Again Oates said nothing. There was a long pause before Kumar broke the silence.