‘We’ll both go together,’ said Fry. ‘Just give me a few minutes.’
While he waited for Fry, Cooper tried to look busy. For a moment, he’d almost blurted out something about his father. That was the animosity he’d been thinking about - the history between Mansell Quinn and Sergeant Joe Cooper. There had been something personal there, no doubt.
He looked at the interview transcript on his desk again. It was one of the earlier interviews, before Quinn had changed his mind and entered a guilty plea. When the detectives first questioned him, Quinn had given the story that he’d come
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home, found the body on the floor, tried to turn it over. That was how he’d got blood on himself. He hadn’t killed Carol, he said. He repeated it, no matter how many times they tried to rephrase the questions.
‘So if you didn’t kill Carol Proctor, who did?’ the DS had asked at last.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Who else could have done it?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Was anyone else there at the time?’
‘No.’
‘Well, Mr Quinn, how is it possible that somebody else could have killed Carol Proctor, if no one else was there but you?’
‘I don’t know. But I didn’t kill her.’
‘But, Mr Quinn ‘
‘Somebody else had been there, just before I got home. I could tell somebody else had been there.’
The DI had taken over the questions then. He might have been trying to be fair to Mansell Quinn, to give him a chance to suggest another scenario. That was the way it read in the transcript. But Cooper also knew that a lie was difficult to sustain once it was subjected to detailed questioning. Especially a spontaneous lie. Few people were quick-witted enough to fill in the details on the spur of the moment.
‘So, Mr Quinn, you say you could tell someone else had been there? In your house?’
‘Yes.’
‘How could you tell?’
[Silence]
‘Mr Quinn, you said you could tell. How could you tell someone had been in your house?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Well, let’s think about it. Was there anything out of place, for example?’
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‘Out of place?’
‘Had anything been moved? Was there anything in the room that shouldn’t have been?
‘I …’
‘Yes, Mr Quinn?’
[Silence]
‘So you can’t remember noticing anything out of place in your house when you got home?’
[Silence]
‘Did you hear any noises?’
‘There …’
‘Yes, sir? Would you like to repeat that?’
[Silencej
‘Perhaps you heard somebody leaving the house? Was that it?’
‘No, I didn’t hear that.’
‘What, then?’
[Silence]
‘Voices? Footsteps running away?’
[Silence]
‘Come on, man, I’m giving you a chance. What did you hear?’
[Silence]
‘Mr Quinn, you’re not helping yourself. I can’t believe anything you say.’
[Faintly] ‘You, too.’
‘Yes, me too. So … let’s talk about Carol Proctor again, shall we?’
