‘Dunno, maybe she put it away,’ he said hesitantly.
‘And the shopping bags? We didn’t find those in the flat either. Can you account for that?’ He didn’t speak. Janet saw his jaw tighten. She waited a few seconds, then: ‘Where did Lisa usually keep her phone when she was at home?’
Sean moved in his seat, reacting to the new topic. ‘What d’you mean?’ Buying time.
‘Where would her phone be when she was in the flat?’
‘In her pocket or… on the table.’
‘The coffee table?’
‘Yes.’
Janet remembered the photographs, the table topsy-turvy, Lisa’s body wedged alongside it. ‘Yesterday, you said you didn’t see Lisa’s phone when you went to the flat. Is that true?’
‘Yes. I didn’t see anything,’ he said, ‘just her, seeing her like that… That’s all I remember.’ His voice was shaky.
‘I asked you yesterday if you had removed anything from the flat and you said you hadn’t. I’m going to ask you that question again now: did you remove anything from the flat?’
‘I didn’t,’ he said, ‘I didn’t take anything.’ Blinking.
‘Lisa came back from town with five bags of shopping and her mobile phone. When you called us to the flat, those items were missing. That makes me think that they are of significance to this inquiry.’ Or you wanted to make some easy money robbing the dead. ‘Can tell me anything about that?’
‘No, I don’t know,’ he said.
‘We need your help to find out who did this to Lisa.’
‘I’d tell you if I could. Course I would.’
He was becoming alarmed, so Janet lowered her voice, deliberately relaxing her posture before she went on: ‘In your statement you said that you arrived at the flat at three thirty and found Lisa, and covered her with a duvet. Then rang the police. Is that right?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you absolutely certain it was that time when you got there?’
‘About then.’
‘Can you think of anyone who saw you on your way there who could confirm that for us?’
‘No. No one I knew, like. The school, you could ask them,’ he said.
‘How long does it take to walk to Lisa’s from your house?’
‘Five minutes.’
‘You covered Lisa with the duvet then; please describe to me what you did next.’
‘I called the police.’ His face looked drawn, his hands clamped together.
‘That call didn’t come into us until five past four. That means there was a period of thirty-five minutes between you finding Lisa and summoning help.’ Janet kept her eyes on his face. ‘How do you account for that?’
He didn’t say anything.
‘Can you describe to me what you were doing during that time?’
‘Can’t remember,’ he said. A weak response.
‘Did you leave the flat between half past three and four o’clock?’
‘No.’
‘You live five minutes away. Did you go home and return to the flat and then ring us?’ Change your clothes, Janet thought, get rid of the shopping and the phone, hide the knife.
‘No.’
‘Sean, is there anything in your statement you would like to change?’
‘No.’ He bit at his thumb again, an almost childish gesture.
‘You see, I’m having a problem seeing how these things fit together. That makes me think that perhaps events weren’t exactly how you describe them.’
He sat silently, though his face flickered with emotion.
‘Let’s go back to the phone call…’ Janet began again.
After another hour of persistent questioning, examining Sean’s account in minute detail, presenting him time and again with the inconsistencies, there was a knock at the door. Rachel went to answer it and returned with a piece of paper that she gave to Janet. Janet opened the paper: CCTV from Arndale – Lisa shoplifting items and placing them in her own bags. Oh, yes! Another piece of the puzzle. But why was Sean lying? In the light of murder, shoplifting was way down the priority list. So why bother trying to cover up that? Or were his lies designed to conceal his part in Lisa’s death? Janet still had no idea. All she could do was continue to chip away.
‘That was fresh evidence,’ she told Sean. ‘I am able to tell you that we now know Lisa was shoplifting in town, that she came home with stolen goods. I’ll ask you again: can you tell me where those items are?’
Sean angled his face up to the ceiling, let his hands slump by his sides. Submission. ‘I took them,’ he said, then looked briefly at Janet. ‘I got rid of them.’
Janet resisted the temptation to make eye contact with Pete or to turn round and see Rachel’s reaction at the breakthrough this represented. It was important to maintain the connection with Sean. As long as he was still talking to her, she was in effect the only person in the room with him. ‘Why?’ Janet asked. To sell them on? Funding a drug habit was no easy thing. ‘Why did you take them?’
‘I just did.’
‘What did you do with them?’
‘I got rid of them, I told you,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Where did you get rid of them?’
He sat for a few moments, his eyes downcast. Running through the possibilities? ‘In the bins, the dumpsters behind the shops, on Garrigan Street.’
‘When?’
‘Straight after. After I saw her.’
‘Before you rang the police?’ Janet said.
‘Yes.’
‘So, you did leave the flat?’
‘Yes.’ He swallowed.
‘And Lisa’s phone?’
‘I took that too.’
‘What did you do with the phone?’
‘Same,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘Dunno.’
‘There must be a reason,’ Janet said.
‘No, I’m just… I wasn’t thinking right.’
‘Why didn’t you tell us this in your original statement?’ Janet said.
He shrugged, shook his head. He looked close to tears.
‘Sean, is there anything else you’d like to tell us?’
‘No.’
‘Anything else you’d like to change from your original statement?’
‘No,’ he said.
‘Sean, I need to ask you something now, and I want you to think very, very carefully about your answer. Can you tell me anything about how Lisa died?’
‘No, no,’ he shook his head, ‘I just found her.’ He was frightened. With good cause. He had waited to call the police for over half an hour. He had taken items away from the crime scene, he had disturbed the crime scene, he had a volatile relationship with the victim. Janet thought they might be moving close to an arrest. She concluded the interview, but told Sean he would be expected to return to the station when requested as they would definitely need to talk to him again.
Gill had been observing the interview and told Janet she had already contacted Phil Sweet to secure the bins behind the parade of shops on Garrigan Street. ‘Not much of the parade left,’ Gill said. ‘There’s only a pound shop, an offie and a hairdresser’s still open.’
Pete had established that bin day was Thursday, which meant the rubbish would not have been collected since Sean left the things there on Monday. MIT were able to give Phil Sweet a list describing the carrier bags that Lisa was seen carrying on the various CCTV tapes.
In order to protect evidence and minimize the risk of cross-contamination the dumpsters would be removed wholesale to one of the forensic units where the search would be systematically documented.
18
RACHEL HADN’T SAID anything to Janet about visiting Rosie Vaughan. She’d only get her knuckles rapped, or maybe worse. Definitely worse if Janet snitched to Gill. They were pretty pally. Rachel got the impression they were mates outside of work.
Perhaps Sean wasn’t the link; she’d thought some more about Sean’s DNA not being a match and about Rosie’s reactions. It was Ryelands that was important. She read the report that Janet had put in after her visit there, turned to the final page, which she hadn’t bothered with before, just a list of extra bits of information. Among them the name of Lisa’s social worker, now retired. Martin Dalbeattie. Rachel felt her scalp tighten. Martin Dalbeattie had been Rosie’s social worker too. Available for background, Janet had noted, contact via Ryelands House. So he hadn’t died or gone off round the world. He could still be in Manchester.