A few more people had been allowed into the viewing room by the time Jack returned. He sat beside Laura who burst out laughing when she saw him.
‘It’s not funny,’ Jack grimaced.
‘Have you got a headache?’
‘Excuse me, you two, if you want a private conversation, please leave the room. We’re here to monitor what’s going on,’ Glenda snapped.
‘Sorry,’ Jack said sheepishly.
‘Not that you’ve missed very much. She’s still stonewalling. They showed her the bed socks, she just shrugged.’
Jack looked through the viewing window, noting that Amanda was looking tired and was fiddling nervously with her fake nails. She rarely looked up. A small monitor had been placed in front of her, showing the CCTV footage.
‘About bloody time...’ Glenda said.
Anik leaned forward.
‘As you can clearly see, Miss Dunn, you are placing clothes into the charity collection bin, shoes in the top level and clothes in the wider slot beneath. Could you please explain why you’re doing this?’
‘No comment.’
‘We have a photograph of Jamail wearing a blue and white striped t-shirt, and you can very clearly be seen placing it in the bin, along with a pair of shoes.’
‘No comment.’
‘Please continue to look at the monitor; on two further occasions you are seen placing items of clothing into the charity bin. It is quite obvious that you’re getting rid of items of clothing that belonged to other girls, specifically Trudie, Nadine and Jamail.’
‘No comment.’
‘Miss Dunn, you are consistently refusing to answer every question put to you. This leads me to believe that you are deliberately concealing the truth. You were disposing of the victims’ clothing so they would not be found in Rodney Middleton’s flat, which means you were aware of what had happened to these girls. You have had every opportunity to assist this investigation, but by refusing to cooperate...’
Everyone leaned forwards. Suddenly Anik started to heave, un-able to control it. He gasped for breath as if to stop the retching, then leant sideways over the arm of his chair and began to vomit.
DCI Clarke immediately halted the interview, while an officer went to assist Anik.
‘Bloody hell,’ Glenda exclaimed. Led by DCI Clarke the room was cleared and Anik was taken to the sick room. Amanda and her brief were taken into another interview room with a uniformed officer while a maintenance team cleaned and disinfected everything.
Laura turned to ask Jack what was going to happen, but he just shrugged. They were already up against the clock and couldn’t keep Amanda in custody for much longer before they had to formally charge her. But they had never had an incident of this kind before so, nobody knew exactly what the next move would be.
Glenda was certain they would have to reconvene the following day. She was unsure about the legalities, but as it was an emergency, perhaps they would be able to extend Amanda’s stay in custody. DCI Clarke walked in and gave a signal to Jack that he wished to speak to him.
Jack followed him into his office.
Clarke took a deep breath.
‘I have two options, Jack: I take over, or I let you take Anik’s place. I can give you some time to get up to speed if you need it.’
Jack didn’t need to think about it. ‘I can do it, sir. And I’m as familiar with the case files as anyone.’
An hour later the interview room had been fully cleaned and disinfected, then sprayed with air freshener, so it smelt like a bowl of fresh flowers.
Amanda and Raj Bukhari were brought back in and Clarke explained that due to DS Joshi’s indisposition, Detective Sergeant Jack Warr would be taking his place. Amanda was read her rights again and to everyone’s surprise burst out laughing in Jack’s face. She pointed at him, then covered her mouth with her hands, giggling uncontrollably.
Jack just smiled. ‘Perhaps you don’t recognise me, Amanda. I’m the officer you met at Euston Station. Do you remember that time?’
‘Yes,’ she said, then quickly looked at her brief, as if she’d done something wrong.
‘Good. We had a long chat then, and, as I recall, you persuaded me to cough up £70 for your train ticket to Liverpool. But you actually had no intention of catching a train. Perhaps you were feeling a little bit guilty, and that’s why you gave me a bracelet with a broken clasp, which had at one time belonged to your friend Trudie. Do you remember?’
She looked at Bukhari again, then swallowed. ‘No comment.’
Jack maintained his friendly expression. ‘You know, Amanda, I understand sometimes why people say “no comment” in interviews because they think it will help them avoid getting into trouble. But another way of thinking of an interview like this is as an opportunity to tell us their side of the story. Because if you don’t tell us now, and then you find yourself in court, it could harm your defence. Do you understand?’
She nodded, and this time she didn’t look at Bukhari. ‘Yes.’
‘Good. You also described a gold and ruby ring which you had given to Trudie in exchange for the bracelet, but you were a bit peeved because you said the clasp was broken and it wasn’t a fair deal.’
‘It wasn’t...’
‘I agree. We found the ruby ring and it was gold, not cheap silver like the bracelet.’
‘Right.’
‘We found it in the coal hole, did you know that?’
He didn’t wait for her to reply. It was clear that he had already unnerved her as he opened his file and took out Trudie’s photograph.
‘She was very pretty, wasn’t she?’
He laid out two more photographs of Trudie, given to them by her parents.
‘She was very young, but most importantly she was such a pretty girl. Don’t you agree?’
Bukhari leaned forwards. ‘I don’t see the importance of whether my client found her pretty or not.’
‘Because you don’t like pretty girls, do you, Amanda?’ Jack continued. ‘You don’t like them sleeping in the bed that you sleep in with Rodney; that makes you very upset.’
Before she could repeat her mantra of ‘no comment’ Jack ploughed on. He pulled out photographs of Jamail and Nadine.
‘Prettier than you, aren’t they, Amanda?’
‘No, they were not,’ she said angrily.
Bukhari touched her arm, but she pulled it away.
She scowled. ‘He’s saying things about me that aren’t true.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Jack said gently. ‘It’s just that I know pretty little girls have always been a thorn in your side. I’m sorry to be talking to you looking like this; perhaps I should explain what happened. My daughter left a toy on the stairs. I was in a hurry because Sharon is only four and half, and I was worried because she was playing with the cord on her blinds in her bedroom.’
‘I don’t want to hear any more! Shut up!’
‘I’m just trying to explain that I was very concerned that she might get the cord round her tiny little neck... It has happened, you know, children accidentally hanging themselves on blind and curtain cords, and...’
Amanda shoved the table hard with both of her hands. Her face was distorted with rage.
‘Fuckin’ shut up! It was not my fault!’
Jack put both hands up in the air.
‘I don’t think you realise that you could be charged with being an accessory to murder. You could be sentenced to spend the rest of your life in prison...’
Now it was Bukhari who interrupted Jack by slapping the table.
‘I refuse to allow my client to be subjected to this any longer. If you have any questions to ask Miss Dunn then please do so, but don’t introduce some story that has nothing to do with why we are here.’
Jack kept his calm demeanour. ‘I’m just trying to explain to Miss Dunn that by refusing to assist in our enquiries she is placing herself in a very dangerous position. Amanda, you were wearing the dead girl Trudie’s bed socks, socks with her blood on them. Have you forgotten? You showed them to me; you told me they had belonged to her and that you liked them... so you didn’t get rid of them like the other girls’ clothes, did you?’