‘Detective Sergeant Travis!’ Griffith snapped.
‘Detective Inspector, actually — and if you want to question me further, do it in court.’ And Anna walked out, slamming the door behind her.
She banged through the double doors of the incident room; they swung back and hit the wall.
‘That bastard Murphy!’ she burst out. ‘He’s now trying to say that Kramer was also part of the murder, and as for that prick I’ve just had to be questioned by…’
Blunt came over to her. ‘Shush, it’s all bullshit, they’re just trying it on. You know those arseholes like to make a name for themselves; they know this is a cut and dried case — in and out Guilty verdict. They just want to draw it out.’
Anna had her hands on her hips. ‘Christ, he made me so angry.’
Brandon pointed over to her. ‘I warned you — I said he was a smooth bastard. What did he try on?’
Blunt gave her one of their disgusting coffees and she sat at her desk and repeated the interview.
Brandon snorted. ‘So what if you nicked the photograph?’
‘I didn’t — she gave it to me!’
‘So that cow is lying and Murphy’s lying; we just have to ignore it. We have firmed-up forensic evidence, and we have the ugly piece of shit admitting to the murder. If he’s trying to tread water now, that’s part of their game to delay the trial and spend a fortune fucking us around, all on Legal Aid.’
Anna was so angry she gulped the coffee down. ‘Well, I’m going to see her, and find out why she’s suddenly lying through her rotten teeth.’
‘Don’t bother,’ said Blunt.
‘Yeah, just ignore it,’ Brandon agreed.
‘I can’t — she is accusing me of lying!’
‘You’ll be accused of a lot more in this job if you stay in it long enough, believe you me,’ said Brandon cynically.
Blunt returned to his desk. ‘Hang the bastard,’ he said, to no one in particular.
Anna drove back up the dirt track to the Sickert house. It had been raining heavily. Her Mini was not the best car in which to drive over such muddy uneven ground. The same array of kids’ toys was out on the front lawn: a broken bicycle, a plastic slide and a plastic red pedal car. She stepped over the broken bricks laid out as a path to the front door, but before she got there, Gail Sickert opened it. A skinny little boy with a face covered in freckles was beside her; when he saw Anna, he ran off clutching his Action Man doll.
‘Gail, it’s Anna Travis.’ She showed her ID.
‘I’m not talking to you, and you’d best get out of here before my bloke comes home.’
‘Threatening to dump pig food over me?’ she smiled.
‘He’s gone out for some planks; the hens got out last night, and he’ll as good as smash your car up with them, so just go away! I mean it!’
There was a noisy argument from inside the house. Gail turned to yell at her two eldest children, then looked back to Anna. ‘I mean it — just go away. I’ve got enough on me plate, what with them two off school with colds and doing my head in!’
‘No, I won’t. I want to know why you’ve told lies about me.’
‘Piss off!’
‘You can yell and shout at me as much as you want, but I am not going anywhere until you tell me why you’ve lied. Don’t make me report the fact that your young daughter was found here alone. You think the social services won’t step in?’
‘What fucking lies?’
‘The photograph, Gail — the one you gave to me. Why have you lied about it being taken without your permission?’
‘I don’t know what you are talking about. My bloke is gonna be back here any minute.’
‘Yeah, with planks — you said. Now why don’t you let me come in and see why your kid is screaming its head off?’
Tina was in the same condition as when Anna was last there, naked apart from a soiled disposable nappy; this time, she also had an empty bottle clenched in her teeth. Gail went to the fridge, shook up some formula and poured it into the bottle she’d yanked out of the child’s mouth. It did the trick: the little soul plonked herself down on the stained dirty carpet and gulped as if she was starving.
‘Do you never change her?’ Anna said.
Gail gave her a filthy look and disappeared, returning with a new nappy. She changed the child without bothering to use wipes or cleanher up, then sat the little girl in a swing seat, the bottle still in her mouth; with her foot, she made the swing bob up and down.
‘Won’t that give her indigestion?’ Anna asked.
‘No, she likes it. What are you, some social services spy, coming round here snooping? Well, let me tell you, my kids are all fine. I take ’em to the clinic regular as clockwork.’
‘That’s good.’
‘Yeah.’
‘So can you tell me why you have told your brother’s solicitor that the photograph, the one you gave to me, was taken without your permission?’
Gail shrugged her skinny shoulders. ‘It could get me into a lot of trouble.’
‘How come?’
The woman only sighed.
‘Please tell me if you have been threatened. If you need protection, I can arrange it.’
‘You don’t understand! He’s got friends; just ’cos he’s banged up, he can still get to me.’
‘Your brother?’
‘Yes! He’s been calling — said he’ll send some goon round. I just don’t want any trouble.’
‘But you lied.’
‘Yeah, so what? They won’t get me into any court, if that’s what you’re worried about. If they do, they’ll be sorry, ’cos I’ll tell them that he’s a bastard and always has been. He made my life a misery and he never paid for what he done. All I’ve tried to do is get away from him, and now this has brought him back.’
‘Gail, your brother murdered someone. He is not going to be free, not for a very long time. If he has made threats—’
Gail interrupted Anna angrily. ‘That’s what I just told you — he’s been calling me here, and that Vernon. They’re both saying stuff about me, and I just don’t want any more aggravation. He must have got my number from my mum, seen it written down some place. Probably my address too.’
Anna took a deep breath to remain calm. ‘If you are in any way being threatened, then you can call your local police.’
‘Oh yeah? You think they give a toss about me? Last time I saw that bastard, they come out ’cos he was so drunk and pissing in the road; he give me a black eye then, but they did fuck all about it.’
‘Did you file a complaint against your brother?’
‘No fucking way. If I done that, he’d have killed me.’
‘But you know now he can’t hurt you, he’s arrested.’
‘He’s been bloody arrested before! He’s been in the nick before and he gets out!’
‘This time, he’s going down for life.’
‘He says different, his solicitor says different, and guess who I’m gonna trust — not the fucking cops, for starters.’
Anna was really trying hard to keep her voice steady. ‘Gail, I can get an order for him not to molest—’
‘Molest? He’s already done that! I got orders to keep him away from me, but a fat lot of good that done. I changed me phone number so many times I can’t even remember it.’
A truck was heard rumbling up the drive. Gail ran to the window. ‘You’d better clear off — he’s back.’