‘You’ve gone a dreadful colour.’
And you’re revelling in it, he thought. She didn’t often catch him in a weakened state. This ‘terrific team’ of Dallymore and Diamond was already malfunctioning.
Back on dry land, he rallied physically and in spirit. A twenty-minute drive brought them to the gates of Parkhurst. Georgina told the officer on duty that they were expected and had documentation as well as IDs and this was confirmed, but they still had to submit to a pat-down search at the visitor centre. After a sniffer dog showed only passing interest in Diamond, they were escorted to a private interview room furnished with plastic chairs and a wooden table screwed to the floor. Notepads and pencils were provided.
‘This will be a voluntary statement,’ Georgina told Diamond. ‘He’s made it before and he’s been told we’re police officers following up on the facts.’
‘Which isn’t true in my case,’ Diamond said.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I can’t follow up on facts I don’t know anything about.’
‘You don’t have to sound so tetchy, Peter. I’m not deliberately withholding information from you. Better you hear from the man himself than getting my second-hand version. Leave the questioning to me. Listen and make notes.’
The man brought in by a prison officer looked more like an advert for hearty eating than a deprived convict. He was at least a couple of sizes larger than Diamond. He grinned at his visitors and said, ‘Danny Stapleton, at your service.’ Turning to the warder, he said, ‘You can go. I’ll be safe. They look harmless.’
Georgina wasn’t amused. She said, ‘The officer stays.’
Stapleton spread his hands. ‘Your choice.’
‘Sit down, please.’ She introduced herself and Diamond. ‘We’re from Avon and Somerset police.’
‘Avon and...?’ The man gave another knowing smile. ‘I get it. The local fuzz are tainted. You’re not.’
‘Enough of that.’ Georgina took control. ‘Any more back-chat from you, and you’ll be straight back to your cell. I’m told you claim to be wrongly convicted.’
‘I’ve been claiming it ever since I was slung in here,’ Stapleton said. ‘I’m an innocent man. You want to hear?’
‘This is your opportunity. But understand this, Mr Stapleton. If any of what you say is false — any part of it — your credibility will be demolished and you won’t see us or anyone else again. So you’re not in court under oath, but you might as well be.’
‘No problem,’ he said. ‘Honest to God, this is what happened. Seven years ago, I’m living in LA. D’you know it?’
Georgina blinked, thrown by the reference.
‘Lil’Ampton, right?’
‘Oh.’
‘LA is what the locals call it. I call it run-down. Like most of these seaside towns, it’s seen better days. You’ve still got the funfair and the beach, but you’ve also got poverty and loads of names ending in the letter z. The time I’m talking about I was unemployed, on the social, like half the town. OK, I get a little extra where I can, and it isn’t declared. I’m a tealeaf, a good one, specialising in cars. I’m telling you this ’cause you’ll have looked at my record. Doesn’t mean I’m crap because I’ve done a few stretches in places like this, just a tad unlucky with alarms and cameras. Most times I get in, drive off and no one would guess. Never any violence. Until this stretch, my times inside amounted to less than three years, total. Do you understand me?’
‘Get to the point,’ Georgina said.
‘Right. Well, my strike rate was suffering a bit on account of all the microchip stuff in modern cars. They have these smart keys and alarms. You need to be a computer nerd to nick one.’
‘We know all this. What happened?’
‘I took delivery of a box of tricks that would hack me into one of these new cars. Didn’t get much luck at first. Then one evening I’m sitting on the terrace of my local, the old Steam Packet at the top of River Road, when a BMW 3 series draws up outside. Perfect for me to half-inch with my brand-new jammer and key programmer. A young guy gets out and walks off across the bridge and I do the business. In under five minutes I’m driving it away to get some new plates fitted.’
‘Where?’
‘Chichester. Geezer I happened to know, who did up cars for people like me. I get well clear of LA and stop to give Stew a call, tell him I’m on the way, like. That’s all fixed and before moving off I open the glove compartment and — would you believe? — a load of money falls out. Used banknotes all over the floor. My lucky day, I’m thinking. I fill my pockets and drive on and almost get to Chichester when I hear this police car coming up behind me. Next thing I’m out of the car and being searched. They told me the Bimmer was stolen, which I knew, but they had no business to know.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘The timing. It was far too quick, barely half an hour since I drove off. The kid who just parked it couldn’t have known it was gone. Anyway, these cops found the money on me, two grand, I heard later. I was bricking it by then and I told them a porky, said I’d sold a boat in Littlehampton and was on my way to Chichester for a night out. It wasn’t true, OK? I admit it. I had to think of something to tell them. And then comes the bombshell. They open the boot and there’s this body inside in a garden sack with a hole through his head. I swear I knew nothing about it. How could I, when I’d nicked the car half an hour before? Next thing I’m a murder suspect, handcuffed and bundled off to spend the night in a cell. I’ve been banged up ever since.’
‘Your story wasn’t believed,’ Georgina said, more as a statement than a question.
‘It didn’t look good, me with all that money in my pockets. They said either I’d killed and robbed the dead man or I was paid the two grand to get rid of the body and was on my way to dump it somewhere when I was stopped. Nobody would listen. They found the tools I’d used, the jammer and the programmer, and said it was proof I’d nicked the car. Fair enough, but they were saying I’d nicked it the day before from a car park in Arundel. I swear I hadn’t been near Arundel.’
‘Couldn’t anyone give you an alibi? The staff at the Steam Packet?’
‘There was only the one barmaid on duty that night and she was Polish. By the time my lawyers got around to checking, she’d moved on and couldn’t be traced.’
‘Wasn’t anyone else drinking?’
‘None that I saw. I’ve had seven miserable years to think about this. The way I see it now, the car was already hot when I nicked it. That young guy was the killer. He was driving around with the stiff in the boot. He nicked the car in Arundel the day before. It was my bad luck to nick it from him.’
‘Why would he have left it outside the Steam Packet?’
‘The pub is right by the footbridge, isn’t it? He was going to wait till dark and then move the body onto the bridge and drop it in the river. It’s quiet there at nights. It is by day, come to that.’
‘He’d have to be strong.’
‘I told you he was young.’
‘Did you get a good look at him, then?’
‘It was how he was dressed, in one of them hoodie things the young tearaways wear — or they did do before I was banged up.’
‘Did you see his face?’
‘Not really. When he drove up I was looking at the car. And when he got out he had his back to me.’
‘Why would he have got out?’
‘To size up the situation. Work out the best place on the bridge to tip the body over.’
‘You’re suggesting he killed the victim in Arundel and stole a car to dispose of the body?’
‘It makes sense. He wouldn’t want to use his own car and get it loused up with DNA and all that stuff.’
‘He chose to drive to Littlehampton and dump the body in the river?’