‘’Cos Rashid told me he was sick.’
Langton sighed. He began tapping the table with his fingers.
Vernon started to fidget even more in his seat. ‘Look, this is the God’s honest truth. Rashid was in a real bad mood, because the cops were crawling all over the hostel. When I come back, he starts on me — you know, wanting to know what was going on. I said to him it was Murphy: he’d been done for murder and they done me for letting him kip on my floor.’
Vernon then told them about a phone conversation: Sickert had called Rashid to say the cops had been to the bungalow. Rashid was very edgy about what was going on. Apparently, some friend of his had ‘cut up a cop’, and he was paranoid that was the reason they’d been at the bungalow.
Anna gave a covert look at Langton. She could see that his whole body had tensed, and could feel her own nerves jangling. The interview was taking a very dangerous twist.
‘He thought they was there because they’d sussed it out.’ Vernon was now shaking.
‘Sussed what out?’ Langton asked.
‘Rashid really put the frighteners on me, you know — asking if the Murphy thing was for real, or just a cover to get into the hostel and check who was there. I said to him that it was for real. I knew about this bloke that got cut: it was in the paper on the seat of the cop car. I then said to him that it might be, you know, a sort of double-up check as she was in the car.’ Vernon pointed to Anna again.
‘Just go over that again, Vernon. You are in a patrol car?’
‘Yeah, I was carrying back fish and chips, right? Been down the chippy when I get busted. I get manhandled into a cop car — it was round the corner from the hostel, right? I get shoved in the car and there’s a uniformed bloke at the wheel and another standing by the car, right? And I am sittin’ there — I mean, I knew I was done for, right? So I wasn’t gonna create, and there’s this newspaper on the back seat. I pick it up and there’s a big headline about the cop what got slashed. Now, I swear before God, I dunno the connections, I dunno nothing about it. Then she gets into the passenger seat.’ Again Vernon gestured towards Anna.
‘Go on,’ Langton grated.
‘Well, the driver leans over and takes the newspaper off me, and he says to her,’ Vernon pointed at Anna, ‘he says something about it was still making headlines. I mean, I can’t remember the exact words, but it was something about did she know him, what a great bloke he was; and she says they was close, something like that.’
‘Go on.’ Langton wafted his hand with impatience.
‘I told Rashid about what I’d heard, that was all, then he kicked me and went back to his room. He might have been doing business there, I honest to God don’t know. I dunno if he was even supposed to be living there, but a day later he come and said to me that I needed to take some medication to Sickert. I didn’t argue; he give me this box of pills and stuff and I went to see Gail. I never saw Sickert apart from for a few minutes when I give him the box. I swear before God that was the only time I was there, after when me and Murphy went to see her.’
‘Did Sickert ask about me?’ Anna interjected.
‘Well, I repeated what I had told Rashid: that this policewoman’s bloke had been cut up, and that I was certain she wasn’t at the hostel because of it — it was just a coincidence.’
‘What else did you say to him?’ Langton asked.
‘I said she had red hair, that was all. Then he took the stuff I’d brought and told me to get lost.’ Vernon looked from Anna to Langton; sweat was glistening on his face. ‘That’s all, I swear before God, that was all that happened. I mean, I got nothin’ to do with Gail’s murder. I swear on my life.’
‘So you took Sickert what, exactly? Drugs? Medication?’
‘I dunno. Rashid said that Sickert needed it; he’s got some blood disease, that’s all I know.’
‘Blood disease? You mean like sickle cell anaemia?’
‘I dunno.’
‘Are you the father of Gail’s youngest daughter?’ Anna asked.
Vernon turned towards her. ‘Me?’
‘Yes, you.’
‘No way! Listen, I mean I don’t wanna speak ill of the dead, right, but she put it about. I mean, all her kids had different fathers, an’ I’m not one of them.’
‘What work did this Rashid do?’
‘What?’
Langton sighed and tapped the table. ‘What work did this guy Rashid do?’
‘I dunno. Like I keep on saying, I didn’t really know him. I swear before God I’ve told you all I know about him.’
‘Describe him,’ Langton snapped.
‘Who?’
Langton shoved the table hard towards Vernon and he crunched back in his seat.
‘I already did, for Chrissakes! He was a big black mother with muscles. That’s it — I keep on telling you I didn’t really know the guy.’
‘Think — what else?’
‘Shit, I dunno. I’m gettin’ threats in here; they think I’m a grass.’
Langton stared at him, waiting.
‘Like I said before: teeth missing, but one or two gold capped ones, in the front.’
And then Vernon smiled nervously, showing his own crooked, tobacco-stained teeth.
Anna felt drained when they drove away from Wandsworth. Langton was in a very dark mood.
He asked her over and over again to repeat the description of Rashid. They soon realized that it must have been Rashid whom the landlord had seen at the bungalow, when he had met Sickert in the kitchen there, to discuss the new henhouse.
When she had gone to the hostel on the day they had arrested Arthur Murphy, Anna had only had a quick glimpse of the man who slammed the front door in her face. He was wearing boxer shorts, was big and muscular and, as far as she could recall, had gold teeth in the front of his mouth.
‘No coincidences,’ Langton muttered.
This also raised the possibility that Rashid could have been involved in Gail’s murder and, most importantly, that he could also have been one of the two men who had slashed Langton to pieces.
‘Well, I said I’d get the bastards, and it’s looking like I’m getting closer,’ he said to himself.
‘I’m sorry, what did you say?’ asked Anna.
‘Nothing.’
‘Yes, you did.’
‘I just said it feels like I am getting closer — the murder of Gail and her kids, okay?’ He made no reference to what he really felt he was getting closer to. Before Anna could pursue it, Langton’s phone rang. It was Mike Lewis. Langton listened to the call, then covered the mouthpiece and turned to Anna.
‘Forensic have just had confirmation that the child’s skull found at the piggery was a relative of Gail Sickert, most likely that of the youngest girl, due to its size. They’ve not found any other remains yet, but they’re still working there.’
Langton returned to the call. ‘I want a trace on a black male: Rashid Burry.’ He spelled it out. ‘He was at the hostel, and now we are sure he was also at the piggery. Also, our suspect Sickert may be suffering from sickle cell disease as he was in need of medication, so get someone checking hospitals down there.’
Anna watched Langton and felt very uneasy when he laughed softly and said, ‘Okay, Mike, keep at it. Shaping up, isn’t it?’
Then he cut off the call and rested back, closing his eyes.
They were now armed with more information with which to press Murphy to assist them. Driven in a squad car, they had a long journey over to the Isle of Wight to Parkhurst prison, Langton remaining moody and silent throughout.
Anna felt humiliated that she hadn’t realized how Vernon had discovered her connection to Langton. She had been so busy accusing everyone else, when it had been something as simple as a newspaper left on the seat of the patrol car.