fucking lying, son. Let me tell you something: Donny Petrozzo wouldn't worry about recognizing the man at the door, because he was working for him. He also knew he was an ex-cop, so he would have no reason to open fire.'Silas, having been gradually relaxed by Langton so that even his twitch had stopped, was now very tense and started to twist his neck.Langton still kept his voice very soft. 'I think what happened is you recognized Frank Brandon. You had been busted by him: he was on the Drug Squad when you were arrested and now here he was again. You were the one to go crazy—you; you panicked and you opened fire.''No, that's not true, I didn't, I never shot him!''Silas, you arc going to go down for murder. You'll not get a few years for dealing this time. You shot a man in cold blood, fired into his face three times. An ex-cop, it's eighteen years at the very least.''No, I swear before God, it wasn't me!''Who was it, then, Silas? Give it up, because we have your pal's statement that you, and you alone, used that Glock pistol; that you were high on crack cocaine. Donny Petrozzo wasn't even fucking there, was he? Was he?''It wasn't me! Jesus Christ! It wasn't me that done him!'Langton sipped from a beaker of water. 'Next, I need to ask you about a secondhand car dealer: this man, his name is Stanley Leymore.' Langton put down a photo of him. 'You see, the reason I know you have been bullshitting me is because the same gun used to kill Frank Brandon'—Langton slapped down the photograph of Frank from his police ID—'also killed Stanley Leymore. Look at him.''I never done that, I never done it.'Langton laughed. 'Don't be dumb, Silas, you had the fucking gun when you were arrested! In your statement, you said that Donny Petrozzo went out of the room, then fired three more shots into this man as he lay 011 the floor. So did Donny hand the gun back to you whilst you were escaping out of the window? 'Here, Silas, you take the gun'? Or did he, as you say, run off with it? If he ran off with it. how did it get back to you? Unless you also killed Donny Petrozzo? You see how this is building, Silas? You understand what we are going to charge you with?'Silas kept on shaking his head. Langton placed down the photograph of Donny Petrozzo's body, bound in the plastic bin liners. 'Donny Petrozzo.' Next, he placed down the photograph of Stanley Leymore sitting on the toilet, dead, the bullet through his temple. 'Stanley Leymore; same weapon, Silas.'Silas's eyes were wide, almost popping out of his head.Lasdy, Langton laid out the picture of Frank Brandon's dead body, facedown in a pool of blood in the squat.Silas started to whimper, sniffing. As the snot trickled down his nostril, he wiped it away with the back of his hand. 'Honest to God, 1 never done them.''Honest to God, Silas, you are going to go down for all three. Your pal has given it up: you had the Glock. Out of your skull, you just went crazy and opened fire.''It wasn't me, it wasn't me!' Silas slumped forward, his head on his arms, as he started crying.Langton looked at the tape recorder and gathered up his papers.'You can have a five-minute break to talk to your solicitor, Mr. Roach, but when I come back, I suggest you start telling me the truth, because I'm losing patience.'Just as Langton pushed back his chair, Silas grabbed at the photograph in front of him.'I never done it—not to him or the other blokes, I never done it,' he choked.Langton gave a wide, openhanded gesture. 'So tell me the truth. What did happen?'Silas covered his face with his hands. 'Ah shit, shit! It wasn't fucking me!'It took half an hour for Silas to make a second statement. He and Delroy Planter were working the squat, and had been there for a few hours. Delroy had told him that Donny Petrozzo had been by earlier, and wanted to talk about a big deal. A friend of his had some very high-quality gear, and a lot of it; not heroin or cocaine, but a new drug, much more powerful, and one that Petrozzo knew they could get a lot of money for, from the kind of people that he scored for. Mixed with heroin, it was nicknamed 'Polo' in the States. Neither of them had ever heard of it, and Delroy said that until he knew what it was, he wasn't going to mess with it. He also said that the kind of money Petrozzo was talking about was out of his league; he couldn't buy in, but he might be able to distribute, as he had a lot of guys he could bring in.Petrozzo brought a vial of the drugs around for Delroy to test; he told them that he was getting a bit scared and he needed some cash. Silas was unsure how much money had changed hands, but was told that Stanley Leymore had the drugs at his garage. Both Silas and Delroy used Stanley to get their wheels. On the night Frank was murdered, Delroy had expected Donny to turn up; when he didn't, he became very agitated, as he was doing a lot of crack. When they got the knock on the door, Delroyrecognized Frank Brandon as a cop and shot him. When he opened the door, he got scared because there was another man there. He ran back into the room, put the silencer on the gun, and reopened the door, but the man had gone—so he fired three more shots into Frank Brandon. The two of them went out the back window, and drove to Stanley Leymore's garage. Delroy was crazy, and threatened to kill Stanley if he didn't give him the drugs that Petrozzo said he was holding. Stanley refused, so Delroy shot him and, after searching the garage, gave up. They tried to contact Petrozzo, but his mobile was dead and his wife didn't know where he was. The next thing they knew, the pair of them were busted and arrested.
Langton remained in the small interview room as Silas was led away to the cells and Margery Patterson left. 'One down, one to go,' he said quietly to Phil, who had not said one word during the entire interrogation. 'Strange, isn't it? You first think we have this kingpin serial killer, wiping out everything and everyone in his way, and then it turns out to be two punks on a dirty crumbling estate, high on the stuff they're dealing to more part-crazed kids. Then they get gun happy and kill. Poor old Frank Brandon was a good guy; we still don't have the reason why he was at that shithole with Fitzpatrick—if that's who he was with.'
'Maybe they were looking for Petrozzo?'
'Maybe.' Langton nodded. 'Question is, who killed Petrozzo?'
Sam Power popped his head around the door. 'I got some fresh coffee for you. We're bringing up Delroy Planter from the cells. Might be a few minutes; his solicitor's not turned up yet.'
'Thanks.'
'You get a result?'
'Yep—and coffee sounds good.' Langton had to grit his teeth to stand; he held on to the back of the chair for a few moments.
'You want it in here or in the incident room upstairs?'
'Need to stretch my legs and take a leak, but back in here's fine.'
Phil watched Langton walk out. He was impressed, and somewhat self-conscious at how he had conducted his earlier interviews with Silas and Delroy. Langton was giving him a master class.
Langton returned to the interview room to wait for Delroy Planter. He stood, leaning against the wall, using his BlackBerry. 'Mrs. Julia Brandon has just turned up to be requestioned,' he announced. 'Should be interesting.'Phil looked up as the handcuffed Delroy Planter was pushed into the room. Langton gestured to the seat and then proceeded to read him his rights, as his solicitor sat, opening his briefcase. The tape was switched on and Langton pointed to the video recorder. He then poured a beaker of water for Delroy and filled his own, placing the water bottle down beside him. Phil passed him the files; then they all waited as Langton slowly read Delroy's previous statement. Then he put it to one side and stared hard at Delroy. He didn't look away; his eyes were dark and angry.'We have a statement from your friend Silas Roach.''Yeah, an' you got one from me an' all.' Delroy leaned back and grinned; a gold tooth glinted on the front row of his teeth.Langton sipped his water, placing the plastic beaker down carefully. Still, it left a small wet ring. 'You are being charged with—'He was interrupted. 'Yeah, man, I know what I bein' charged with, and I put me hand up. I said it all when we was first brung in.''You are now to be charged with the murder of Frank Brandon, and also with the murder of Stanley Leymore.'Delroy sprang to his feet, shouting that it was bullshit. His solicitor asked him to sit down, but he jumped up and down on the spot, accusing Langton of framing him. 'Listen, man, I never done nothing!'A uniformed officer waiting outside came in, and pushed Delroy back into his seat.'Where you think I'm fucking going with these on?' He held up his handcuffed wrists.'You'll be going down for eighteen, that's where you'll be going.'Delroy shook his head as Langton read sections from Silas Roach's statement. 'He's a fucking dead man.''So let me hear your side of it, Delroy. We know you lied about Donny Petrozzo being at the squat on the night of the shooting.'Eventually, Delroy began to talk. They gained more information about Petrozzo trying to make a deal, having been a regular buyer,scoring from Delroy for a number of years. As Silas had said, Delroy claimed it was mostly small amounts of cocaine and hash, sometimes some tabs, but he was a good customer and always paid up front.Petrozzo had approached Delroy, asking if he could do some really big business with him; he knew someone who had a big stash of gear that he wanted to off-load and, between them, they could make a lot of money. 'But I said to him, what gear was he talking about? You know I run a tight business; I keep on the move, right? There are gangs of bastards trying to squeeze in and I got to be careful. Just keeping my team together is fucking hard, so I wasn't sure about getting too big. I mean, I don't have the facilities to stash big loads of hash or grass, know what I mean? Anyways, he says this stuff fits into a real small box, no bigger than this.'Delroy mimed with his hands the size: about eighteen inches by ten. 'I says to him, what the fuck is in that? He says it's a drug called Formalyn. I never heard of it, but he says it's worth millions. I says, how the fuck did he think I could lay my hands on that cash? Said he was off his rocker. He then says if we do a deal, me to use my runners, we can split the profits; says he's got the gear. I
