Amanda Dunn was on her way in, and her brief was already in the viewing room waiting for her. Anik was with DCI Clarke in his office, and when they walked out together Jack turned towards them.
‘Good God! What on earth happened to you?’ Clarke exclaimed.
‘He fell over his daughter’s toy on the stairs,’ Anik replied, before Jack could answer.
‘Are you alright?’ Clarke asked.
‘Fine, sir.
‘If you don’t mind, could I give you and Anik a heads-up about Amanda? After watching the interview yesterday, I have one or two thoughts.’
Anik was clearly irritated, but Clarke glanced at his watch and nodded.
‘We’re up against the clock today, so whatever you have to impart, make it quick.’
Sara approached with a pink bottle of Bisodol. She apologised for interrupting and handed the bottle to Anik.
‘You said you needed this so I went out to the pharmacy for you.’
‘Thank you, Sara. If you don’t mind, guv, I’ll just go to the gents and take it. I’ve got a bit of a dickie stomach.’
Clarke nodded and turned back to Jack. ‘Fire away.’
‘Well, sir, Amanda has obviously been told to go the “no comment” route, so I would advise a more indirect method of questioning. She’s not the brightest, and I doubt she’s really aware of what it would mean if she was charged with being an accessory to murder, or of committing perjury, in terms of actually going to prison. Also, I was going to mention the bed sock.’
Clarke nodded and took another look at his watch, and Jack knew he had to quickly get to the point.
‘Amanda admitted to me that the bed socks she was wearing had belonged to Trudie. When they were tested there was matching DNA from blood on the soles, which obviously suggests she was present when Trudie was dismembered. She had insisted that she was always locked in the back bedroom, but no blood samples were discovered in that room apart from those on the bed socks. Basically, sir, you have to put a lot more pressure on her because she’s a very adept liar.’
Clarke turned to move away as Anik appeared and signalled that they needed to leave.
‘Thank you for that, Jack, and I believe we do have the evidence bag with the offending socks ready to be shown to her.’
‘Sir, if I’m in the viewing room and feel I could help with the direction of the questioning, is there any way that I can relay that to you?’
‘If you feel it’s important, then yes. But we can’t delay things. We have to charge her or release her by this evening.’
Jack watched Clarke stride off with Anik as Laura approached. She looked at his face.
‘My God! That was some fall. Are you sure you’re alright?’
He nodded. ‘I’m fine.’
‘Well, Anik isn’t. He’s got a bad stomach and was very sick earlier. Sara went out for something to settle it, but if you ask me, it’s nerves. Little Miss “no comment” kept the car waiting this morning, because she was blow-drying her hair. I tell you, she’s something else. I honestly doubt she has any idea how serious her situation is. It’s like a game to her, and she’s just loving all the attention.’
Jack nodded. ‘Yeah, I know. Is the appropriate adult in again?’
‘I believe so. Glenda is hoping the CCTV footage is going to be shown today because they didn’t get to it last night. Are you going in there? If so, I’ll come with you.’
Laura and Jack entered the viewing room to find that Glenda had done her culinary work again. There were bacon sandwiches and flasks of tea and coffee. Glenda was sitting with her feet up on a chair reading the Daily Mail. Jack and Laura helped themselves as she put the newspaper aside.
‘Did either of you have the Chinese or the curry from yesterday? I have had a complaint from DS Joshi that it has given him food poisoning, which is rubbish as I had some and I’m fine. Did you have any, Jack?’
‘Yes, I had the curry and the sausage rolls, but not the Chinese. Mine was delicious,’ he added with a smile.
‘Well, no one else has complained, but if he came in after they had finished late last night, it could have been out for quite a few hours, I suppose, and there were prawns in the Chinese.’
Laura looked through the viewing room window and could see that they were already interviewing Amanda, but there was no sound. She looked to the others and asked for the microphone to be switched on.
Glenda shrugged. ‘Sorry, I turned it off; they were supposed to start at noon and the CPS chap hasn’t shown up yet.’
She swung her feet off the chair and folded the newspaper as Laura turned on the intercom microphone so they could hear the interrogation. Jack picked up the newspaper. There was a report on the front page about an arrest of Soviet agents at Heathrow Airport.
‘Do you mind if I just nip out for a second...’ Jack didn’t wait for anyone to reply as he walked out carrying the newspaper. He stood in the corridor reading the article, which said very little other than that National Crime Agency officers had boarded the plane to make the arrests. He went up the stairs to the incident room to look on his computer to see if there were any other articles with more information. He was scrolling through an article in The Times, when Hendricks hurried from the back of the room, banging through the double doors. Leon looked over to Jack.
‘He’s got a severe case of the runs... I think he should go home.’
‘Did he eat anything from the viewing room yesterday? Glenda Bagshot had a feast delivered and apparently Anik isn’t feeling too good today either,’ Jack said.
Leon shrugged.
‘I think Hendricks brought a load back in for the night duty guys.’
Jack returned to scrolling through the newspaper articles. He found three more articles, one in the Daily Telegraph and another in the Sun. Neither gave too many details, but the Telegraph suggested the arrests were connected to an international fraud involving Russian oligarchs and the Soviet government. Jack leant back in his chair. There was no mention of Lorna Elliot, or Ridley, or even the murder of Mrs Foster. He sighed. The duplicity of governments never ceased to amaze him. That the brutal murder of Lorna Elliot could simply be made to disappear made him wonder just how much more never surfaced, and whether he would ever fully understand what Ridley’s — and his own — role in it all had been.
Leon approached his desk and asked if he was feeling alright. ‘I heard you had an accident?’
‘Yeah, I’m fine, but thanks for asking. Just have to keep the cotton wool plugs up my nose to stop the bleeding.’
‘You should put some salt in a glass of warm water and snort it up your nostrils; makes your eyes water but it does the trick because the dried blood can get clogged and then you can get an infection in your sinuses.’
Jack stood up. ‘Thanks for the advice. How come you know so much about it?’
‘First aid sessions. We still have regular refreshers.’
‘Right, yes, I remember... thanks anyway. Better get back to the viewing room.’
‘I was an amateur boxer, so I’ve had my nose flattened a couple of times,’ Leon smiled.
‘Really?’ Jack said, moving away from his desk. But Leon seemed desperate to have a conversation and trailed after him.
‘You know, if you ever want a workout let me know; I’ve got spare gloves and pads.’
‘Thanks, Leon, I appreciate that. I’ll let you know.’
Jack went into the gents before heading down to the viewing room. He took out the cotton wool and his nose promptly started dripping blood onto his clean shirt. He swore, then ducked his head under the cold taps. He eventually stemmed the bleeding with wads of twisted toilet paper.