‘There’s nothing to worry about,’ said Banks. ‘Yes, someone did this to her, but he’s in custody.’
Dr Logan started to turn away, gave another low wattage smile and said, ‘Just let me know if he escapes, then. OK?’
Anthony Randall had been stewing in an interview room for over two hours before Banks and Blackstone got around to talking to him while Annie watched from the next room through the two-way mirror. Liversedge made the usual noises about abuse of upstanding members of the public. Banks and Blackstone ignored him and focused their attention on Randall. As the building was fairly new, the interview room didn’t have the same atmosphere or smell as the ones at Eastvale. It could almost have been a doctor’s waiting room.
‘It must be your lucky day, Tony,’ said Banks. ‘You got a Detective Superintendent and a DCI interviewing you. I doubt that’s happened since Dick’s day, if it ever did happen. Hope it makes you feel important.’
Randall scowled. ‘I want to go home.’
‘Don’t we all?’ said Banks, as Blackstone set up the video and recording equipment. ‘But I’m afraid it’s going to be a long night. That’s unless you want to confess right up front?’
‘Confess to what? I haven’t done anything wrong.’
Banks sighed and turned to Blackstone. ‘Like I said, Ken. Long night.’
Blackstone nodded.
‘You can’t interview my client without a break for any longer than—’
‘We know his rights, Mr Liversedge. If you’d keep your interruptions to a minimum we’ll get through this a lot faster, and then we’ll be able to move on to your part in all this.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Oh, I think you do. No matter. It’ll dawn on you eventually if you pay attention. You ready, Mr Randall?’
Randall nodded without looking at them. Blackstone turned on the machines and went through the formalities of the caution. Their advantage with Randall, Banks realised, was that he wasn’t a habitual criminal. He hadn’t been through this sort of process before, hadn’t become inured to it. He’d never been in jail, and the odds were that the thought terrified him, as it did most people. That might make him lie to avoid prison at all costs, but it might also make him hope that, somehow, if he could explain himself, they would understand and come to realise that he wasn’t the sort of person who belonged in a jail cell. Or so Banks hoped. It had happened before, and it beat the usual ‘No comment’ interviews you got from hardened criminals. But he wouldn’t let himself forget that Randall was intelligent and shrewd. And, in all likelihood, a murderer.
‘Funny you didn’t ask how Mia was doing,’ Banks said.
Randall shrugged. ‘I did my best to help her.’
‘Bollocks,’ said Banks. ‘To get rid of her, more like. You’ve already admitted you gave her a shot of morphine. According to the doctor at the hospital, she’d been hit on the back of the head before being injected. Did you really believe you could get away with it?’
‘I told you. I found her like that. I was trying to help her.’
‘Is that why you ripped her blouse open?’
‘Don’t you understand, man? She was hardly breathing, and the heartbeat was dangerously slow. Her heart’s right here.’ He banged the centre of his chest.
‘Sounds hollow to me,’ said Banks.
Liversedge gave him a stern look but said nothing.
‘How were you going to arrange things? Make it appear as if she injected herself and hit her head on the side of the table when she fell?’
‘That’s what must have happened.’
‘You do realise, don’t you, Mr Randall,’ said Ken Blackstone, ‘that our forensic team will be carefully studying the scene and the clothing you were wearing when you were brought here. There’ll be traces.’
‘Well, of course there will,’ said Randall. ‘I was trying to save the poor girl’s life.’
‘What were you doing in Mariela Carney’s flat?’ Banks asked.
‘I just went to talk to her.’
‘A woman you told us you’d never met before, never heard of?’ said Banks. ‘Whom you suddenly went to visit after thinking over our previous little chat with you? Lucky for her you didn’t know we’d already found her.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘I think you do, Mr Randall,’ said Banks. ‘Mia Carney was the only person left linking you to Sarah Chen. And don’t try to tell us you don’t know who she was. Think carefully about what you say.’
‘All right, so I knew Sarah Chen. I lied about that. I didn’t want to get involved. She was over the age of consent. We were both adults. Nobody was forced into anything. I know my rights. It wasn’t illegal.’
‘You paid for her company.’
‘So what? I never made her do anything she didn’t want to do.’
‘Gave you a thrill to have a pretty young woman in your bed, did it? Made you feel young again? Vibrant? Virile?’
‘Say what you like. It doesn’t mean I killed her.’
‘What happened that night in the bothy, Tony?’ Banks asked. ‘What made you smash Sarah over the head with a rock?’
‘You’re talking rubbish.’
‘But you were with her, weren’t you?’
‘I didn’t see her that night. Obviously, she went out with some other bloke. Tramp like that, you can hardly expect her to stick with just one man. Perhaps he was the maniac you should be after.’
‘Any idea who he might be?’
‘Me? No.’
‘That’s because he doesn’t exist. Come off it, Tony. Once more, I’d suggest you stop lying and tell us the truth. Our CSI teams and scientific support are very good indeed. There’ll be evidence to connect you with the scene in Mia’s flat, and we’ll find it. There’ll be evidence in the bothy to connect you with Sarah’s murder, and we’ll find that, too. It may take a while, but we’ll find it. We may have to take that bothy apart stone by stone but, by God, we’ll do it. Perhaps you had a good reason for what you did? Was it self-defence? Was she blackmailing you? I don’t think your Medical Ethics Committee would have been too thrilled to hear about what you were up to, would it? Come on, tell the truth.’
Randall folded his arms. ‘I don’t have to say anything.’
‘No, you don’t. But you heard DCI Blackstone issue the warning. Anything you don’t say now but rely on later in court will go against you.’
‘What makes you think I’ll end up in court?’
‘Mia Carney.’
‘Is she... I mean...?’
‘Whether Mia lives or dies, the scientific evidence won’t lie, nor will Annie or me. It’ll be your fingerprints we find on the syringe and phial, not Mia’s. You didn’t have time to arrange the scene the way you wanted it to look. We’ll be taking a sample from you, too, for DNA testing.’
‘And if I refuse?’
‘Well, that’s your prerogative. We’ll get it, anyway, one way or another. But it sounds better to a jury if you give it voluntarily.’
‘Are you saying that if I’ve got nothing to hide, then I have no reason not to submit an intimate sample?’
‘That’s about it. But you don’t have to get too intimate. Saliva will do.’
‘But what if I just happen to value my privacy? What if I don’t want to end up in some police database?’
‘Again, I can’t imagine why it would bother you if you haven’t done anything illegal, and don’t intend to. Besides, all samples are destroyed if you’re not convicted of anything. Come on, we’re already searching your house.’
Randall jerked forward from his chair. ‘You’re doing what?’