option if you refuse to accept your mother’s help.’
‘I like being here.’
The sister smiled slightly. ‘You could have fooled me,’ she said. ‘I thought you were in a hellhole run by bitches and mother fuckers.’
*
‘We’ll give your client as much latitude as he needs,’ Superintendent Jones told Pearson. The solicitor was sitting across the desk from him, as dapper at eight o’clock in the morning as he’d been at eight o’clock at night. ‘It would help if Ben understands that the interview will be shorter and less stressful if he answers our questions frankly and honestly.’ Pearson leaned forward to look at the bagged items on Jones’s desk. ‘You asked him if he took a canvas bag into the alleyway. This one’s too soft to be canvas.’ ‘At that time, we could only go by Lieutenant Acland’s description. Both he and Terence Black – the man Ben knows as Chalky
– have since identified it as the bag your client brought into the alleyway.’ He paused. ‘It’s not in Ben’s interests to deny it, Mr Pearson. His fingerprints are on both mobiles and on the plastic carrier that was wrapped around the knobkerrie.’
‘I can see that one of the mobiles has Harry Peel’s name on it. Have you identified it as his?’ ‘We have.’
‘May I ask if you know who the other one belonged to?’
‘Martin Britton.’
‘A full house, then . . . if we include the one belonging to Kevin Atkins that you claim was in Ben’s rucksack.’
Jones’s Rottweiler personality had him leaning forward aggressively. ‘There’s no “
The solicitor nodded. ‘We both know he was lying.’
‘Indeed.’
‘Would you be willing to tell me how you think he’s involved in your inquiry?’
Jones propped his elbows on the desk and folded his hands under his chin to stare at the other man. ‘If it’ll help influence the way you advise him, we don’t believe he was involved in any of the murders.’
‘But you’re not ruling him out of involvement in the assault on Walter Tutting?’
‘Not at the moment.’
‘Meaning your decision will depend on when and how he came by the bag –’ he tilted his chin towards the knobkerrie – ‘and, more specifically, the weapon?’
‘It will certainly help to clarify a few details.’
‘Ben’s told you several times that he has no recollection of what happened that day, Superintendent. His consultant endorsed the possibility of deep confusion prior to his collapse.’
‘I’m aware of that.’
‘Which may explain why he denied taking this bag into the alleyway. If he wasn’t aware that he had it, he wouldn’t have recognized the description you gave. By the same token, he may not be able to recall how he came by it.’
Jones shrugged. ‘Then I shall have to assume he was telling the truth about Kevin Atkins’s mobile. He was vague about who he stole it from but not at all vague about carrying it around for two plus weeks.’
Pearson gave a faint smile. ‘I thought we agreed he was lying about the Nokia. May I suggest the scenario went something like this? Ben acquired the bag at some point on Friday afternoon, rifled through the contents and transferred the only phone that might be worth something to his rucksack. Harry Peel’s has Dynotape stuck to it and Martin Britton’s is a “pay-as-you-go”. The fact that my client was still carrying the bag when he entered the alleyway is the best evidence you have that he wasn’t thinking straight afterwards. On any other day, he’d have dumped it.’
Jones shook his head. ‘You can’t have it both ways, Mr Pearson. If Ben was compos mentis enough to recognize a halfway decent mobile . . . then frightened enough of how he came by it to spin us a convoluted yarn about a man in Hyde Park . . . my educated guess is he remembers
‘Do you have a suspect for the murders?’
‘Is that another way of asking if we’ll know when your client’s lying?’
The solicitor smiled. ‘Possibly.’
‘Advise him to be frank with us, Mr Pearson.’
METROPOLITAN
POLICE
WITNESS STATEMENT Witness: Benjamin Russell (16)
