‘And we don’t appreciate being lied to, Mr Hammond,’ Zigic told him. ‘Which is exactly what you’ve being doing since the very first moment we came here.’
‘I strongly resent that –’
‘You knew Joshua Ainsworth was told to resign over a serious assault and you lied to protect your reputation and the reputation of this facility. Now we find the woman he assaulted is involved in a relationship with a member of your staff. A relationship that clearly began while she was interned here.’
Hammond looked genuinely troubled. Field would have told him what they’d alleged so they’d lost the element of surprise, but Ferreira would bet the first he’d heard of it was within the last few minutes.
‘I can assure you we were not aware of this relationship,’ Hammond said. ‘Which member of staff are you referring to?’
‘Patrick Sutherland,’ Zigic said.
Hammond ran a nervous hand down his tie. ‘This is rather a shock, excuse me.’
‘Are any of your staff safe to be working with vulnerable women?’ Ferreira asked.
He didn’t answer, only looked at her with an expression of mild outrage that she guessed would have been stronger if he had had any way to refute the allegation behind the question.
‘Ainsworth and Sutherland were supposed to be your morally upstanding whistle-blowers, right? And now we have one of them assaulting Nadia Baidoo and the other one picking her off like a wounded gazelle almost the second she stepped out of the prison gate.’
‘We’re not a prison,’ he said reflexively.
‘But you have rules about relationships between inmates and staff, I assume?’
‘Nadia Baidoo is no longer a resident,’ Hammond said. ‘I can fully appreciate how troubling this looks though and I will be suspending Dr Sutherland with immediate effect, until we have carried out a full and thorough investigation into this alleged relationship.’
‘Judging by the physical evidence we found at Sutherland’s house, you might not get a chance to suspend him,’ Zigic said.
‘You should have security bring him out to us,’ Ferreira suggested. ‘Much quieter if we take him in from here than wait until he gets home. You never know who’s filming arrests these days.’
Hammond folded his fist into his palm, pressed his knuckles against his mouth. The panic was back, a haunted look coming into his eye; it was clear he was picturing the press circus descending on Long Fleet. The vans and cameras parked up on the verge, reporters filming outside the gates, speaking to the protestors. The eyes of the country drawn to a place that was supposed to operate behind a discreet veil. He would be thinking of the calls to his bosses’ office, the fears of the shareholders and how long he could hold on to this job from inside the eye of a media storm.
He was already sweating, a fine, shining layer across his forehead and top lip, slightly greasy-looking. The camera was going to hate him, Ferreira thought. It would turn him shifty and grubby, magnify his complicity until people started to ask, ‘Well, why would he look the other way on all those abuses? Was he doing the same thing as those doctors?’
Across his shoulder, through the gleaming picture window, she could see three women in dark green tabards working in the vegetable garden, hoeing the weeds from between the lines of salad leaves, the sun across the backs of their necks, each of them eyes down and forlorn-looking. She wondered if they were being paid to do it, knew the inmates were put to work here for a few pounds a day, but would management make gardening a reward rather than a job? Be good and we’ll let you go outside?
Hammond wet his lips. ‘This serious crime …’
‘Ainsworth’s murder,’ Zigic said. ‘What else would it be?’
Wearily Hammond reached for the phone, pressed a button and was immediately answered.
‘Catherine, have Dr Sutherland brought to my office, please.’
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
Sutherland was indignant at first, protesting his innocence in the hallway outside Hammond’s office, accusing them of trying to intimidate him into breaking his NDA by arresting him for a crime he obviously had no part in.
He kept it up as Ferreira cautioned him, speaking over her, addressing himself to Hammond more than either of them, as if he genuinely believed his job was in greater jeopardy than his liberty. Hammond watched him with his arms folded and his skin darkening in increments until it was a deep and livid puce and finally he snapped.
‘You are the absolute worst kind of hypocrite, Sutherland.’
Then he stalked back into his office and slammed the door.
‘No Securitect legal team for you, Patrick,’ Zigic told him.
As they pulled out of the main gates, Sutherland changed tack, asking how they could possibly think this of him in a subdued, almost fully defeated tone.
‘I’m a good person,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how you think I’d be capable of hurting anyone. Never mind actual murder.’
Neither of them answered him. Let him talk because he was giving himself away, showing them the line of defence he would put up once he was in the interview room. The longer he spoke the more they could refine their approach in questioning.
Zigic hadn’t expected him to break down and admit everything. Occasionally they got lucky and a murderer’s guilt did half of their job for them, but even a week on from Ainsworth’s death, Sutherland appeared to be stuck in denial and self-protection.
Maybe because he was innocent.
But Zigic felt sure he was guilty of something. Actually doing the deed or helping Nadia cover up her own crime. And that should be telling on him.
After a few minutes of silence, Sutherland spoke again.
‘I love Nadia,’ he said, his voice thickening. ‘And she loves me. This is a real relationship. However it might look to you and
