Jack checked through the files. The date Middleton committed his first assault now linked to the murder of Jamail. He’d also underlined the name Heather in connection with the sleeping bag and that they needed to continue to make enquiries about her.
‘Did you not worry that perhaps something had happened to Jamail?’
‘No, she was a pest, I didn’t like her. What she left behind was rubbish, and Rodney told me she was rubbish too. When he come out from the clinic, we had a very nice time together.’
Amanda appeared to be enjoying the fact that she was now the centre of attention. She asked for a fresh bottle of water, flicking her hair from her face. Jack led her back to the next meeting at Euston Station, as she had gone off on a tangent and was telling them about which TV programmes she liked best and how Rodney would record some for her. Amanda spoke about a tall blonde girl they had met, but she hadn’t stayed for long because she had tried to steal something. She couldn’t remember her name but thought she was Scottish. Then she described another girl. Neither had come up on the police radar, but Jack knew there was a considerable amount of DNA that had not yet been matched.
‘Tell me about Trudie,’ Jack said.
‘Well, I told you that we swapped things, like that bracelet, which was not a good deal as the clasp was broken, and I gave her my gold ring. We met her at the station, and she was all over Rodney. I couldn’t believe it; it was like I didn’t exist. It was pretty disgusting because he wanted the three of us to have sex in the same bed, but I refused. He put her into the back room, and she was really nasty, shouting and screaming and telling him she was going to the police. He got very angry and took her out, trying to persuade her to be nice, but she was a real bitch, biting and kicking. The next minute he had her in our bedroom.’
She drank some bottled water, then shrugged.
‘He got rid of her, but he let me out. Gave me money to go and exchange some DVDs and have my hair cut. When I got back, she had gone. He was really angry because she had tried to steal some of the films he had bought. He said I needed to take the bed sheets to the laundromat cos she had stained them. He was washing down the shower and said that he hated the fact that she had used it, cos she had been on her period.’
‘Did she leave her clothes behind?’ Jack asked.
‘Yeah, they were nasty, dirty. I took them to the charity bins. Rodney got mad when I was going to keep a sweater, and I said to him she had my gold ring, but then we made up the bed again, nice fresh clean sheets, and it was all good.’
‘So, didn’t any of the things he asked you to do strike you as suspicious?’
Amanda was getting tired. She yawned, sipping more water.
‘Please answer the question, Amanda.’
‘I had helped wash the shower before, cos it was a new one and he said he wanted to keep it clean, but I didn’t think anything about it.’
‘When did Nadine come to the flat to stay?’
Amanda shrugged and said she couldn’t recall when it was. Rodney was helping her use Snapchat and had bought her the DVD of Frozen.
‘I loved that film — I really loved it — but then she came back with us to the flat and she kept on playing it and singing that song, you know the one, “Let it Go”. I said to her it was my film and she ignored me. Kept on singing that fucking song over and over again. It was driving me mad. Then it happened again, and this time I was really pissed off. I mean, Rodney and I had been really good together, you know, like man and wife. Then he turfs me out of our bedroom into the back room again and she moves in with him.’
‘How long did Nadine stay with you in the flat?’
Amanda pursed her lips.
‘Was it a lengthy period this time, or just a few days?’ Jack asked, trying to keep her on track.
‘They was doing drugs, taking some of his medication, and she was singing at the top of her voice. I got my bag and I said I was moving out. Rodney started to get really upset and came and sat with me in the back room, then he got into me sleeping bag with me. He was trying to make it up to me, bringing me hot chocolate, and promised he would send her packing cos he was tired of her and hated her singing, and...’
‘Go on, Amanda,’ Jack said gently.
She lowered her head, and her voice was a hoarse whisper. Jack had to ask her to repeat herself.
‘The screaming happened, like an animal.’
‘Did you think it was Nadine?’
‘No, it was the rats. He had to get rid of the rats in the coal hole and some were caught in traps, and then they scream. I never went in there, cos I was scared of them; some were the size of cats. I got hysterical about them. He give me a sedative from his prescriptions, but they gave me terrible nightmares and sometimes I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning cos my legs were so wobbly. Then there was the smell of the chemicals he’d used to get rid of the rats.’
‘How did he get rid of the bodies?’
There was a flash of panic in Amanda’s eyes, then Jack quickly said. ‘Of the rats, I mean?’
‘Oh, in the wheelie bins. He wrapped them up in plastic and tied them with string.’
‘How big were they?’
Amanda held out her hands about eighteen inches apart. ‘Like I said, some of them was the size of cats.’
‘But you never actually saw one of the rats?’
‘No, I never went in there... too creepy.’
‘So, Nadine left. Did she also leave behind some of her belongings?’
‘Yeah, but they weren’t worth keeping.’
‘Were you not surprised that she had left without taking her belongings? I mean, there had now been three different occasions when a girl had come to stay, and then when they left, you took their clothes and shoes and put them into the charity bins.’
‘No, not all of them I didn’t.’
‘We have you on CCTV footage, Amanda, making three trips to the same charity collection bin, but you didn’t find this in anyway suspicious?’
‘No, why should I? I took a lot of his clothes as well, you know, for the poor in Africa.’
‘But you mainly took the girls’ clothes, and you didn’t ever question why they would up and leave without taking their things with them?’
‘Well, I did a bit, but I kept Trudie’s bed socks cos I liked them. The rest I didn’t want, so why not let some poor people have them?’
‘What about toothbrushes and hairbrushes and things like that, did they leave those items behind as well?’
‘Yes, they left them too... I tossed them out eventually, into the bins outside the flat.’
‘OK, so you kept Trudie’s socks because you liked them. So how do you explain the fact that they had traces of her blood on the soles?’
‘I dunno, it could have been from the shower... I told you we got a new shower and Rodney liked it kept immaculate, scrubbing it with bleach. I might have trodden in it before she left cos he told me she had been on her period; the sheets was stained with it too.’
In the viewing room, Laura sat back in her chair, shaking her head.
‘Can you believe this? She may be on the thick side, but my God she is doing a good job implicating herself. She had to have known what was going on. I think she’s got more intelligence than we have given her credit for.’
Anik agreed, but at least they now had enough to charge Rodney Middleton with three murders.
‘When is he being brought in?’ Laura asked.
‘Soon, and after this it’s going to be very interesting. I don’t think he has a leg to stand on with all the evidence we have against him, and with Amanda Dunn as a prosecution witness he’ll get three separate life sentences, I reckon.’
Finally, Jack asked Amanda about the last time she had seen Nadine and what had happened afterwards.