Silence, until Noble says:
‘And it was yours.’
I’m screaming, my hands pinned to the table, Alderman and Prentice trying to sit me back down, Noble walking away.
Screaming over and over, again and again:
‘Ask him, ask Eric fucking Hall. Get him in here. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t fucking me. I’d never.’
‘Ask him, ask that fucking cunt. He did it, I know he fucking did. It wasn’t me. I’d never. I couldn’t.’
Screaming over and over, again and again.
I’m choking, head in an arm-lock, Alderman and Prentice trying to sit me down, Noble gone.
‘Thing is,’ says Noble, ‘Eric says that Janice called him for protection. Protection from you.’
‘Bollocks.’
‘OK, so how come he knows she’s pregnant by you if she never called him?’
‘She called him for money. She was his grass until he started pimping her.’
‘Bobby, Bobby, Bobby. This is going in fucking circles.’
‘Look, I’ve told you. You’re not listening. That last Saturday I saw her, the 4th, she’d been over to Bradford and was supposed to meet Eric but he sent a van for her and they picked her up and fucking did her didn’t they?’
‘Did her?’
‘Raped her. Ask Rudkin and Mike. They came round her place to pick me up, they saw state she was in.’
‘Yeah, yeah, and they seem to think that it was you who did it.’
‘Did what?’
‘Beat the fucking living shit out of her.’
‘Bollocks. Fucking bollocks.’
‘You’re all over her, mate.’
‘Course I am, I fucking loved her.’
‘Bob…’
‘Listen to me, I’d wake up in bed next to my wife with come in my pyjamas, come all over me because I couldn’t stop fucking dreaming about her.’
‘Jesus Christ, Fraser.’
‘You going to charge me?’
Prentice pushes the tea towards me, ‘Drink it, Bob.’
‘Just tell me.’
‘It doesn’t look good, not good at all.’
‘I didn’t do it, Jim. I didn’t do it.’
‘Drink your tea, Bob. Before it gets cold.’
‘Let’s start at the beginning again.’
I push the plastic cup forward and sigh, ‘Whatever.’
‘When did you meet her?’ asks Noble, lighting up.
‘Last year.’
‘When?’
‘4 November.’
‘Mischief Night?’
I nod, no smiles.
‘Where?’
‘She was in middle of road outside Gaiety, pissed. She looked to be soliciting, so we picked her up.’
‘We?’
‘Me and Rudkin.’
‘Detective Inspector Rudkin?’
‘Yeah, Detective Inspector Rudkin.’
‘And?’
‘Brought her in here. Found out she was covered by Eric Hall over at Jacob’s Well and…’
‘Detective Inspector Eric Hall?’
‘Yeah, Detective Inspector Eric Hall.’
‘So what did you do when you found that out?’
‘I drove her home.’
‘Alone?’
‘Yeah.’
‘And that’s when it started?’
‘Yeah.’
‘And how often did you see her?’
‘Often as I could.’
‘Which was?’
I shrug: ‘Every other day. Got easier when Eric set her up over here in Chapeltown.’
‘So you’re saying Eric Hall, Detective Inspector Eric Hall, set up a convicted prostitute in a flat in Leeds?’
I nod.
‘Why the fuck would he do that?’
‘Ask him.’
Noble slams his palm down on to the table. ‘Fuck off, Fraser. I’m asking you.’
‘She told me it was like a thank you. Golden handshake.’
‘And you believed her?’
‘At the time.’
‘But…’
‘But I’ve since heard that he was pimping her and he’d got her the flat to set her up over here.’
‘How did you find that out?’
‘Joseph Rose, he’s listed on record as my P.I.’
Noble glances at Alderman.
Alderman nods at Prentice.
Prentice gets up and leaves the room.
Noble looks up from his notes. ‘OK. So for almost a year, beginning last November, you continued to meet Ryan?’
‘Yes.’
‘And this was usually at her flat on Spencer Place?’
‘From January, yeah.’
‘And during this time you were unaware that she was working for DI Hall?’
‘As a prostitute, yes. But I knew she still phoned him.’
