Quinn considers. ‘Well, I guess it’s possible, but the only time I ever see Welsh flags is rugby or football, and this kid doesn’t seem to be interested in sport at all.’
‘And Wales weren’t in the World Cup either,’ adds Baxter, team footie wonk.
‘So he wouldn’t even have seen the flag on TV,’ finishes Quinn. ‘Not lately, anyway.’
Baxter clears his throat. ‘Maybe we’re all overthinking this – what’s wrong with the bleeding obvious? Fisher and Morgan were having an affair – they were going at it in the kitchen that night and the kid caught them doing it.’
Gis looks round at him. ‘But if that’s the case, why didn’t Fisher just come out and tell us that right from the start? Why let things get so out of hand?’
‘Perhaps she was scared of losing her job,’ says Ev. ‘If she admitted having an affair with a student she’d probably be sacked.’
‘She’ll be sacked pretty damn fast if she’s convicted of assault,’ says Quinn darkly. ‘Those stilettos of hers won’t touch the bloody ground.’
‘Yeah,’ says Ev quickly, ‘but that’s just it. If she’s convicted – not if she’s just accused. Perhaps she decided her best bet was to keep on saying she can’t remember and banking on there not being enough evidence for the CPS to pursue the case.’
‘OK,’ says Gis, ‘so being devil’s advocate – why did Morgan make the allegation in the first place if they’ve been banging on the quiet this whole time?’
Ev shrugs. ‘Who knows why people do anything? Could be a power play, revenge –’
‘Or to get him off the hook with Freya,’ says Asante. ‘We know how jealous she was – I can see her losing it big time if she discovered Morgan really was having an affair.’
‘So – what?’ says Somer. ‘Freya finds out something happened between Morgan and Fisher that night, and Morgan tries to dodge the bullet by claiming she assaulted him?’
‘Lipstick on his collar,’ says Baxter, ‘told a tale to Hughes?’
‘It was the scratches,’ says Ev quietly. ‘She told me as much.’
Quinn gives her a dry look. ‘Yeah, well, you don’t get those playing bloody Scrabble, now do you?’
Baxter nods. ‘And Morgan wouldn’t be the first person to allege sexual assault to get themselves off the hook with their partner.’
The implication hangs in the air: it might well be one of the oldest tricks in the book, but the people who play it are almost always women. Not tough, athletic young men.
‘There was one thing,’ says Asante slowly. ‘At the end of the interview, Fisher’s lawyer said the kid’s been having nightmares. Perhaps the dragon thing is connected with that?’
He looks round but they’re not joining the dots – not yet.
‘What I mean,’ he continues, ‘is that if Fisher really did have sex with Morgan that night and the kid saw them, maybe that explains why he’s so disturbed? Sex probably looks pretty scary if you don’t know what’s going on and you’re only eight.’
Ev is nodding again. ‘I buy that. Especially a kid like him. From what I’ve heard he sounds pretty fragile.’
Gis takes a deep breath. ‘OK,’ he says. ‘It doesn’t look like we have much choice. We need to ask Marina Fisher if she’ll let us question her son.’
* * *
Adam Fawley
12 July 2018
15.55
The lunch they brought me is congealing on its plastic tray. Hardly surprising, given it’s been there over an hour. The lad who brought it didn’t have the courage to look me in the eye, just dumped it and did one. I might as well have ‘pariah’ chalked on the door. So when the keys clatter in the lock again I wasn’t exactly expecting a social call. I hadn’t even remembered Gis was back in the office. It’s a measure of how fast I’ve fallen that I don’t find the contrast between me and his post-holiday self humiliating. Though he clearly does. He hesitates in the doorway, then comes in and pulls the door to behind him.
‘All right?’
Hard to see how I could be any less ‘all right’, but what else is the poor bastard going to say?
He shrugs. ‘Just wanted to see how you’re doing.’ He looks round. ‘I don’t think I’ve even been to this station before.’
‘I’m surprised they let you in.’
He gives a dry smile. ‘Turns out the custody sergeant is an old mate from Training College.’
I shake my head. ‘All the same. You shouldn’t be here. It really isn’t a good idea.’
He glances at me and then away again, takes a deep breath. ‘Just in case you’re wondering – me and the team – none of us think that you – well, you know –’
They don’t think I raped and killed an innocent woman and threw her body in front of a train. Well, I guess it’s something.
I lean back against the clammy wall. ‘Thanks, Gis.’
‘So what have they got?’
I shake my head. ‘Trust me, you don’t want to know.’
‘If I didn’t want to know, I wouldn’t ask.’
I look at him. Is it fair to drag him into this? He has a family, a career. Just because I seem to be throwing mine away, can I really ask him to risk doing the same? But there’s another voice in my head – a louder voice – which is telling me he could be my only chance of getting out of this. I need help. Not from Penny McHugh, however sharp she is, but from someone who knows how police investigations work. Someone on the inside.
‘Look,’ he says now, sensing I’m misgiving. ‘I wouldn’t be a DS at all if it wasn’t for you. I owe you. So if I can help, just let me do it, OK?’
‘I don’t want to land you in the shit.’
‘That’s down to me. If there’s shit, I’ll deal with it. And if I find something, well –’
I’ve said it before and
