“Yes. I felt disgusted with myself for being so weak-willed. I never wanted to see her again.”
“But you spent a lot of time traveling up and down the motorway, so we know you did park at the same service station on at least two other occasions.”
“Yes, I did, and I was brought in here for questioning because of a problem with my vehicle’s registration. I didn’t give them my new home address, and thinking about it, I reckon I presumed that Mr. Rodgers would have taken care of that.”
“But you own the van, don’t you?”
“Yes, I paid for it in installments. It was a good deal, and I wanted to know I could hang on to it if I ever got made redundant.”
“And you never registered the ownership of Mr. Dillane’s van that you bought from him, either. Why was that?”
“Oh, I just never got around to it. I don’t get much free time.”
“But you had to know it was illegal. The van is still registered to Mr. Dillane. Did he not send you the documents?”
“No, he gave me everything when I bought it.”
“Yet you still failed to register it, and you used it on the road illegally. However, you did collect a new MOT certificate — from Croydon, I note, where Mr. Dillane still lives.”
Smiley shrugged and pulled at his tie again. “I only used it when I was doing private work. I suppose I just didn’t want my boss to find out.”
“Mr. Dillane was a close friend, wasn’t he, when you were at Aldershot?”
“Yes, he was one of my closest pals.”
“He asked to borrow money from you, is that correct?”
“Yes, he did, but I have never liked lending money to friends. They never pay you back, and I couldn’t afford it at the time, anyway.”
“But you had considerable cash. You paid him seven hundred pounds for his van, isn’t that correct?”
“Yes.”
“So Mr. Dillane knew you did have money?”
“Yes, obviously.”
“In his statement, he said that you told him you were having money troubles at that time, so you could only pay him in installments, is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“But you not only had your wages, you also had the extra cash you made doing private work.”
“Yes. That’s what I wanted his van for — I just told you.”
“So why did you say you were having money troubles?”
“It was a lie. I didn’t want to shell out a lot of cash to him.”
“But he was your friend!”
“Not one I kept in touch with on a regular basis.”
“Because he didn’t like Sonja?”
Smiley remained silent.
“He knew about her, didn’t he? He told us that she was sexually permissive when she worked in one of the Alder-shot pubs.”
Smiley clenched his fists. “Whatever Micky Dillane told you is a lie. My wife didn’t care for him because she knew he liked me to go out and get drunk with him.”
Anna was tiring. They were going round in circles, and for her to come back and try to nudge Smiley into opening up by talking about Sonja wasn’t paying off. She glanced at Mike to indicate he should take over.
Gregson pulled at his shirt cuffs and suggested that they should not discuss Smiley’s wife in hearsay, as it bore no connection to the reason his client was being questioned.
Anna sat back, trying to think of the next tack, because she knew they had no evidence to prove that Smiley did continue to see Margaret Potts. She turned to the trolley to remove the file on Dorota Pelagia. She was just about to indicate to Mike Lewis that they should move on when she had a thought and checked her notes.
“When you went to the service station on these two other occasions we know of, did you see Margaret Potts?” Mike asked.
“No, I didn’t ever see her again.”
“But she contacted you, didn’t she?” Anna asked innocently.
Smiley blinked and then looked to Gregson.
“When you found her looking through your wallet, she had your children’s photograph and your wife’s, and she must also have found a business card, maybe even your home address. She got in touch with you, didn’t she?” Anna continued.
“No, that’s not true.”
Anna leaned across to Mike. “That’s something we should ask Sonja about — see if she received any calls from Margaret.”
“She never called. Maybe she saw me at the service station, but I never saw her.”
Chapter Seventeen
Barolli could feel the frustration emanating from Anna and Mike from his vantage point in the viewing room. He couldn’t understand why they didn’t move on to questioning Smiley about the other victims. So far, the man had not admitted to anything apart from having had sex with Margaret Potts on one occasion. Why did Anna keep returning to Smiley’s wife? Barolli’s train of thought was interrupted by Barbara saying that Michael Dillane had arrived.
Dillane was complaining about having to return to the station. It was his day off, and he’d promised his wife they’d go to Ikea to look at sofas. He felt that he had told the police everything regarding the sale of his van to Smiley. He began to get interested as they went through into the forensic department, however, and became quieter. Led to the table where the blue blanket was pinned out, he was invited to handle it if he wanted to. All they wanted to know was if he could identify it as the dog’s blanket he had said he left in the back of his van. They had already removed some dog hairs and tested them against dog hairs removed from the van while it was parked at Smiley’s garage. It would be a slower process to get them confirmed, but the team would be able to use this as leverage in questioning Smiley.
Dillane didn’t hesitate. He picked up one corner of the blanket that had a jagged edge where the prison stamp would have been, and said, “I cut this off. Did it with the wife’s scissors she uses for crimping or something — you know, the ones with the zigzag blade. Also, there’s a big stain to one side where me dog got sick. I washed it, but it was bright yellow, and the stain never come out. Gawd knows what Nimrod had been eating. Yeah, this is my blanket, all right.”
Barolli found Anna and Mike in the canteen on a lunch-break. “How’s it going?” he asked.
“Slowly,” said Mike.
“We got an ID on the blanket from Dillane. He is certain it was the same one he left in the back for his dog to lie on. They are still matching the dog hairs. Had to bring in a canine specialist unit for animal identification, but we can use the coincidence until it’s a positive match.” Barolli laughed, recalling that he had asked Dillane if they could also bring in the dog. He had said they’d have to dig him up, as poor old Nimrod had died about a year ago.
“Very funny.” Anna sighed. “So we move on to Dorota, but we were hoping to break him over Margaret Potts.”
“I know — I heard. I was in the viewing room, and you were getting nowhere fast, as far as I could see.”
Anna finished her coffee and pushed the cup aside. “We have to get him to confess, because we don’t have enough to charge him with the others. We don’t even know how he picked them up; all we’ve got is circumstantial evidence.”
“Should be enough, though. Christ, he puts on the uniform, they feel safe enough to get into that dog handler’s van and he kills them.”
“But we have no forensic evidence from the van that any of the girls were ever inside it. Has Pete matched any of the carpet fibers?”
“Not yet, and they stripped the van down; ditto the Swell Blinds vehicle. So far, nothing.”
“All we’ve got is that he has admitted having sex with Margaret Potts one time and never saw her again.” Mike sounded depressed.
“We go again and keep on going,” Anna said. “That little prick of a lawyer makes me want to slap him.” She stood up. “I’m going to have a wash and brush-up. We’ll reconvene in, what, Mike?”