It was as if the suspect had sensed that something was wrong.’ He slowly pushed back his chair.
‘Please remain seated,’ Lewis said coldly.
Daniels eased himself back into his chair as Langton entered the room. ‘We are ready to take Mr Daniels to the identification unit.’
‘Where’s my brief?’ he snarled.
‘He will be accompanying you to the suite, Mr Daniels.’
Radcliff had just splashed cold water over his face in the washroom and was contemplating the murky roller towel with distaste when Langton walked in. ‘A witness has been brought to the viewing room. I would like you to accompany me there to oversee the possible identification.’
‘This is pretty sneaky,’ Radcliff said. ‘I don’t see what you hope to achieve, under the circumstances.’ The solicitor ran a small comb through his hair, pocketed it and indicated he was ready to go with Langton.
As the two men headed down the corridor, McDowell, handcuffed to Barolli, walked towards them dressed in prison-issue overalls and a denim shirt. There was a marked improvement in his demeanour. He seemed much more alert.
‘Morning.’ He grinned at Langton.
‘Good morning, Mr McDowell. Can you come this way, please?’ Langton gestured to the viewing room.
The room was small and empty except for two hard-backed chairs.
‘Mr McDowell, you must answer truthfully the questions I am about to put to you. Do you understand?’
‘Yeah.’
‘I want you to look into the room beyond the window and tell me if you recognize any of the men standing in front of you. Take your time. If you do recognize anyone, tell me if this is the same man who approached you outside your place of work in Manchester.’
McDowell nodded.
‘Do you understand what I have asked you to do?’
‘Yep. Look at the blokes and tell you if one of them was the foreigner what I spoke to. Yes, that right?’
‘That is correct.’
Langton pressed the button to indicate they were about to draw the blinds from their side of the wall. The red light blinked.
In the adjoining room, Daniels entered with Lewis. Eight men wearing identical baseball caps stood silent and expressionless.
Lewis handed him a baseball cap.
‘Mr Daniels, you may stand wherever in the line you wish,’ Lewis said quietly.
Daniels pulled his cap down over his face and considered the line-up. He chose to stand in the centre: four men to his right, four to his left. They were given numbered cards; Daniels had number five.
‘Mr Daniels, can you pull up the collar of your jacket?’
Daniels hitched up his collar to chin level.
Langton saw the red light steady their side, indicating they were set. He gestured for McDowell to draw closer to the one-way glass.
McDowell’s sloping shoulders almost blocked the entire window. He stood, chin jutting out, staring for what seemed like a long time. Langton was disappointed that McDowell was unable to recognize Daniels immediately and was just about to draw the viewing to a close when McDowell turned round.
‘Yes, it’s him. Number five. It’s a different baseball cap. That was me problem. But, yeah, I’d say it’s him.’
‘Thank you, Mr McDowell.’
Langton at once turned off the light and drew back the blinds.
While Langton ushered Radcliff out of the room, Barolli waited a moment before leading McDowell back to the cells.
Daniels kept hold of his baseball cap. As he was led back to the interview room, he turned the baseball hat sideways, grinning at his joke. Radcliff snatched it off his head. Langton spoke into the tape recorder to say that they had returned and that the interview would continue.
Langton waited for a moment before addressing their suspect: ‘Mr Daniels, I am charging you with the murder of Melissa Stephens.’
‘I gathered that,’ Daniels said, sounding almost bored.
Lewis passed the folder of the victims’ photographs to Langton, who continued: ‘I would now like to begin to question you with regard to the murders of Lilian Duffy and of Teresa Booth …’
Two photographs were put on the table.
‘Kathleen Keegan …’
A third photograph joined them.
‘Barbara Whittle …’
A fourth.
‘Sandra Donaldson …’
As Langton was about to present the next victim’s photograph, Daniels prompted, mockingly, ‘Beryl Villiers and Mary Murphy.’
Daniels raised his body up and pressed his back against the chair. He looked like a coiled snake, thought Anna. As everyone stared, he smiled enigmatically back at them. ‘Thelma Delray, Sadie Zadine and Maria Courtney.’
Langton laid out all the photographs. They filled the entire table.
Anna was rigid. She could not believe what was happening. None of them could. Lewis glanced at Langton. No one spoke. Radcliff stared at his client, mesmerized by his quiet, expressionless voice.
Daniels reached out his hand to lightly touch each picture. He sighed and began counting. ‘One, two, three, four.’ He cocked his head to one side. ‘There’s one missing. Melissa; where’s my beautiful Melissa?’ He picked up Melissa’s picture and lay it beneath the others.
He started arranging the faces in the order that they had been killed. When he had finished his handiwork, he looked up. ‘They’re all mine.’ He swept the pictures up into his arms and clutched them.
‘Mr Daniels, are you admitting that you killed all these women?’
‘Yes.’
Radcliff was shaking, his face drained of colour. ‘Jesus, God,’ he whispered.
Daniels stacked the photographs back into a neat pile in front of him. ‘Ready when you are,’ he said softly. He picked up the photograph of his mother, Lilian Duffy.
He pointed at Langton. ‘No. I don’t want him sitting opposite.’ He turned slowly to Anna. ‘She takes his place. You won’t get another word out of me otherwise. I want her at the table, facing me. That’s the deal.’
Langton and Anna looked at each other, their eyes locked for a moment. She gave a barely detectable nod of her head. Langton returned his attention to Daniels.
‘We will take a lunch break. After that, DS Travis will sit opposite you, Mr Daniels.’
Daniels smiled. ‘Thank you.’ Idly, his fingers stroked the photograph of Melissa Stephens’s face.
Anna’s blood ran cold.
Chapter Twenty-one
Langton asked Anna to meet him in his office. He could tell that she was shaken by Daniels’s request.
‘Can you bear it? Facing him?’
She nodded numbly, and gave a slight shrug of her shoulders. ‘I couldn’t believe it when he admitted the murders. I thought it would take days.’
Langton shook his head. ‘We’ve too much on him and he knows it. This is just prolonging the agony. I think you and I need to spend lunchtime running through how I want you to approach the interview, and it just might take days, Anna; it’s not over yet.’
