The forecourt to the accident and emergency entrance was alive, ambulances moving steadily through, the steady pulse of trauma beating through the night. Pip was dressed, standing talking to a nurse at the counter. She gave Kathy an anxious smile.
‘Hi!’ Kathy beamed. ‘How are you?’
‘Fine. Doctor’s just told me I can go. They need the bed.’
‘Great. I’ll give you a lift home. No after-effects then?’
Pip shook her head. ‘It wears off after about eight hours, apparently. Only, I can’t remember much.’
‘Never mind.’
‘Brock was here.’
‘Really? When?’
‘He left half an hour ago. He took a statement. He was very nice about it all.’
They walked together to the front doors. ‘Oh, it’s still dark,’ Pip said. ‘I thought it was morning.’
‘Nearly. What did you tell Brock?’
‘About going into the pub. I stood near Rafferty at the bar, trying to get myself a drink, but it was packed. He was talking to another guy, and I heard him mention Marion’s name.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘Yes. I tried to get closer, and suddenly he turned around and started chatting me up. That’s when I phoned you-I told him I was waiting for a friend.’
They got into Kathy’s car and set off along Uxbridge Road.
‘Go on.’
‘They saw I didn’t have a drink and insisted on buying me one. I know, it was stupid, but what could I do?’
‘He said you spoke to him first.’
‘Yes, that’s what Brock told me, but it wasn’t like that. Rafferty pushed himself into my face, very close. He wouldn’t let me move. The other one too. It was suffocating in there, and deafening. You couldn’t hear yourself think.’
‘What happened then?’
‘I don’t know. That’s all I can remember.’
‘Maybe it’ll come back to you. Do you remember anyone else nearby, anyone who might have seen what happened?’
She shook her head.
When they reached the house that Pip shared, she said, ‘I’ll just get changed and come back with you.’
‘Not today, Pip. You have a long weekend. Take it easy.’
‘I’m not suspended, am I?’
‘Nobody’s suggested that,’ Kathy said. Not yet.
Brock was already at the Ealing police station when she arrived. He was reading through a file, a mug of coffee and a bacon sandwich at his elbow. ‘Ah, Kathy. Feel a bit better for a good night’s sleep?’
‘Great. How are we doing?’
‘We start interviewing at 8.30.’ He checked his watch.
‘I’ve got something on their military service.’ She showed him Nicole’s email.
‘Good.’ He read. ‘All part of a pattern, isn’t it?’
‘Any luck with the prints?’
‘Yes, he certainly handled those pills. But that’s all we have. We haven’t found any witnesses, and Pip can’t remember anything useful.’
‘Then there’s me.’
‘Yes, there’s you.’ He patted the report in front of him. ‘I’ve been reading your statement to the duty inspector last night.’
‘And?’
‘You won’t be taking part in the interviews this morning.’
‘But I think-’
He shook his head. ‘Bren’s coming in. He’ll do it with a sergeant from this station.’
There was a rap on the door and a uniformed inspector stepped in. She introduced herself and shook hands, then said, ‘We are honoured this morning.’
For a moment Kathy thought she was making a sarcastic remark about them, but the woman added, ‘Julian Fenwick has arrived.’
Julian Fenwick was well known as a high-profile criminal defence lawyer, often seen on TV news bites at the shoulders of notorious crooks, whose guilt and simultaneous release seemed to be guaranteed by his presence.
‘He’s representing Rafferty?’
‘Both of them, apparently. He’s with them now.’
‘How did they manage that, I wonder?’
After briefing Bren, Brock took his place beside Kathy to watch the interviews on closed-circuit TV.
They took Rafferty first, slumped beside his lawyer opposite the two detectives. Bren opened the interview, inviting Rafferty to describe the events of the previous evening. Rafferty replied in a careless monotone. He and his friend had been having a quiet drink together when a young, attractive woman approached them, acting flirtatiously, and wondering if they could get her a drink through the scrum of people at the bar. Soon she had begun to act in a way that suggested she was drunk. When her behaviour became more erratic they agreed to her request to give her a lift home. She collapsed as they got to their van, at which point another woman appeared, claiming she was a police officer, and attacking Rafferty’s friend.
Bren and the other detective picked away at the details of this account without making much headway, until Bren suddenly produced the plastic packet of Klonopin pills. Without telling Rafferty that his prints had been found on it, he invited him to agree that he’d been seen trying to dispose of it at the scene in the lane.
Rafferty stared at the packet, then at his lawyer, then at Bren. ‘Can I have a closer look?’ he asked, and Kathy was aware of Brock at her side stirring and murmuring, ‘Oh dear.’
Bren passed over the packet inside its transparent plastic evidence pouch.
‘Yes, you’re right. I’d forgotten about that.’
‘Do you know what the pills are?’ Bren asked.
Unruffled, Rafferty said, ‘E? I’m just guessing.’
‘You think those are ecstasy tablets?’
‘That’s what I assumed.’
‘Where did you obtain them?’
‘She gave them to me, the girl, in the pub.’
‘But her fingerprints aren’t on the packet. Yours are.’
‘Well it’s true. When she started acting pissed she pressed them into my hand and asked me to look after them for her.’
Bren made him repeat this several times.
‘So when the other woman said she was a copper, I remembered them and threw them away.’
‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ Brock grumbled.
When it came to his turn, Crouch had less to say. He had witnessed the girl approaching Rafferty, and had given his friend a hand, just trying to help, but he hadn’t seen any pills. He was the one who had bought her drink, and he could guarantee it hadn’t been tampered with when he put it in her hand.
When Bren finally brought the second interview to an end, Julian Fenwick, who had said almost nothing up to this point, spoke. ‘Now that we’re off the record, Inspector, I wonder if I might have a quiet word with you? Just the two of us.’ He didn’t quite wink up at the camera, but Kathy sensed that he might have.
‘What can I do for you?’ Bren said as they sat down again at the table.
‘There are some disturbing features about this case that I feel I should bring to your attention, DI Gurney, in the interests of avoiding wasting police time and resources.’
‘Go on.’
‘The arresting officer was DI Kathy Kolla, yes? She isn’t with you today?’
