Case One (13 page)

“Ray Woods puts a bit more weight behind it,” Simmons said. “A DS rather than DC. And it's easier to make notes where the suspect can't see you. That way they can't pick up on the things you're most interested in.”

“Sneaky,” Holly said.

“No point giving them any help.”

He glanced at the monitor which now showed Drew Alford being ushered into the interview room next door and directed to a chair at the table. The main part of the screen was focused on Alford's seat, but in the upper right-hand corner there was a wider view, showing the entire interview room.

Holly watched Alford closely for a moment as he sat down at the table. She tried to match what she saw against what they thought he'd done. The trouble was, she knew her perception was coloured by everything else. Were his angular, unforgiving features and sullen expression really an indication of guilt, or would she have thought nothing of them if she'd caught sight of him on the bus or in the street? She couldn't tell.

“You know how this works?” Danny asked. “Have you done interview techniques?”

“Not really, just taking statements.”

“It's not that different – well, actually, yeah, it is.” He thought for a moment, then gestured at the monitor. “Basically Ray will get him to give an account of what he was doing yesterday. Doesn't matter if he says he was having tea with the Queen – once he's said it we've got it on record, so when we start to prove he was doing something else we've got the advantage. He has to explain why he lied.”

“What if he just comes out and admits it straight away?”

“We get to knock off early and go to the pub. He won't though.”

“How do you know?”

Danny gestured at the screen. “Look at his body language, the way he's sitting.”

On the screen Holly saw that Alford had his arms folded and was leaning back, as if to distance himself from the others in the room.

“They call that a closed posture,” Danny said. “No way we're getting to the pub for a bit.”

And as DS Woods took a seat in the interview room, Danny Simmons pressed a button on the monitor to bring up the sound.

“I'm Detective Sergeant Woods, attached to Morningstar Road station. The time is now 15:21 on Saturday February 5th and we are in Interview Room 2 at Morningstar Road station. I'm talking to – say your full name for the tape please, Drew.”

“Drew Thomas Alford.”

“Also present is—”

“Clare Hennessey, social worker acting as appropriate adult.”

“Thank you. – Drew, you know that you're not under arrest and you're free to leave at any time, is that correct?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. So you do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Alford said. “But this ain't going to court cos I didn't do nothing. Okay? So can we get on with it?”

With the formalities over, Ray Woods took a moment and leaned back in his chair. Finally he said: “Okay, I'm going to be straight with you. We're investigating a serious incident – an assault – that happened between six and seven o'clock last night near Drury House. The victim was a girl called Ashleigh Jarvis and we have witnesses who say that someone matching your description was in the area where we think the assault took place. Have you got anything to say to that?”

For a moment Alford looked at the table in front of him, then he shook his head. “No,” he said flatly. “They're wrong.”

“Okay,” Woods said. “We also have witnesses who say you had an argument with Ashleigh yesterday afternoon. Is that true?”

“No.”

“Okay. So can you tell me where you were between six and seven o'clock last night?”

Alford seemed to consider it, then he said: “At the offie.”

“An off-licence?”

“Yeah.”

“Which one?”

“On Reynolds Road.”

“Was anyone with you?”

“Yeah. Tyler and Skank, some others. Ask them if you want, they'll tell you.”

“How long were you there?”

Alford shrugged. “Dunno. An hour, maybe a bit more.”

“Doing what? That seems like a long time to be in a shop.”

“We weren't in it, were we? Round the side. It's where we go. Hang out.”

“Right, I see,” Woods said, as if it was all becoming clear. “So you were at the off-licence and then what? Where did you go after that?”

“Home.”

“What time was that, when you got home?”

Another shrug. “About seven. I don't know. I didn't look.”

“How long would it take to get to your flat from the off-licence on Reynolds Road do you think? Ten minutes?”

“I suppose.”

“Okay,” Woods said with a nod. “So let's assume you got home at seven and it took you ten minutes. That would mean you left the off-licence at ten to seven, and if you were there for about an hour you must have arrived at about ten to six. Would you say that was true?”

“Probably.” Alford shifted. “Listen, that proves I didn't have nothing to do with it, right? With what happened to her.”

“It might,” Woods said. “We'll have to ask the others if they can back it up though.”

“Ask them then, they'll tell you.”

“There you go,” Danny Simmons said, glancing up from his notes to see if Holly had followed what was said. “That's his account: ‘I was at the offie with Tyler and Skank from six till seven.' He's locked in.”

“You mean if he admits to anything different it proves he was lying?” Holly asked.

“Yep. And the more different versions he gives the worse it looks if it goes to court.”

“I get it,” Holly said. “
If you didn't tell the truth about that, how do we know you're telling the truth about this?
”

Simmons nodded. “It's all about how it looks to a jury.”

Then his phone chirped and he picked it up to look at the text.

“DNA results are in,” he said, standing up. “Think you can keep notes while I go and pick up the email?”

“Er, yeah, sure,” Holly said. “Just the main points, right?”

“Yeah. I'll be back in five.”

As he opened the door Holly looked at the monitor, then wheeled her chair around in front of it.

As if thinking it all through DS Woods made a note on his pad. Without looking up he said casually: “So tell me how you know Ashleigh Jarvis.”

“I don't. I've seen her in school, that's all.”

“But you know who she is?”

“Yeah. I just said. She's at school.”

“Did you see her or talk to her on Friday?”

“No.”

“Not at all?”

“No.”

“What about Lauren Booth? Do you know her?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you see her on Friday?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“I just said, didn't I?”

“What about on the estate, around four o'clock?”

“What about it?”

“Well, when we talked to Lauren she said you approached her and Ashleigh as they were walking home.”

Alford didn't speak immediately. He kept his arms folded and his gaze on the table in front of him. Finally he said: “Okay, so I saw them.”

“You talked to them?”

“So?”

“What about?”

Alford shrugged. “Can't remember.”

Woods shifted slightly. “Lauren told us there was an argument, between you and Ashleigh. Is that true?”

“No.”

Woods looked at his notes. “You didn't say that Ashleigh was a ‘snotty bitch'?”

“No.”

“Are you sure? Why would Lauren say that if it wasn't true?”

“She don't like me.”

“Oh? Why not?”

“Don't know, do I?”

“What about Ashleigh? Does she like you?”

“Dunno.”

“Do you like her?”

Alford shrugged.

“Do you fancy her?”

“No.” He said it as if the idea was an insult.

“So why did you talk to them? I mean, if you think Lauren doesn't like you and you don't fancy Ashleigh…”

“I just saw them, that's all.”

“Was it because you thought Ashleigh had been disrespecting you and you wanted to have it out with her?”

“Who says that?” Alford said resentfully.

“Several people we've talked to. They all seem to think you were annoyed because Ashleigh had said something disrespectful about you.”

“I don't know.” Alford folded his arms tighter across his chest.

“You don't know what she said?” Woods asked. “I thought it was pretty common knowledge. Didn't she say she wouldn't want to have sex with you because she thought you'd got herpes or Aids? Didn't she say she thought you were a tosser?”

The DS leafed back through his notes as if he might have got it wrong and needed to be sure. “Wasn't that what she said – ‘a tosser'? – Yeah, it's here. She said you were a tosser.”

Woods looked back to Alford. “So if she's calling you names and saying you've got herpes or Aids…”

“Listen!” Alford snapped angrily. “I told her to keep her mouth shut, all right? That was all.” He leaned forward and jabbed a finger at Woods for emphasis. “I told her and then I walked off. I didn't have nothing to do with anything else and you can fuck off if you think I did.”

“Okay, Drew, calm down,” Woods said, unmoved by the outburst. “She insulted you and you didn't like it. That's fair enough.”

“Yeah? Well, she shouldn't have said it, that's all. But that don't mean I did anything else. I told you where I was. I wasn't nowhere near her.” He gave it a moment to emphasise the point, then sat back and folded his arms again as if that was his last word on the subject.

Then, from the speakers, Holly heard a knock on the interview room door and on the monitor she saw it open a short way. She couldn't see or hear what was said, but after a moment Woods turned back to face Alford.

“We need to take a break,” he said. “Shouldn't be more than five minutes. Is that okay?”

Alford shrugged.

“Okay. Interview suspended at 15:33. Ms Hennessey will stay with you. Would you like a drink?”

The observation room door opened behind Holly and Danny Simmons came in.

“What's going on?” she asked.

“DNA,” he said, moving to stop the recording equipment.

“Is it his?”

“Yes and no.”

20.

INCIDENT ROOM
MORNINGSTAR RD STATION
15:44 HRS

“They ran profiles on three samples,” Danny Simmons said. He was writing on the whiteboard at the same time. “There's the semen found internally by the rape exam, a pubic hair also from the rape kit, and a head hair from Ashleigh's coat. The head hair doesn't match anyone ­– not Ashleigh, not Alford. The pubic hair does though. It's Alford's. It matches on sixteen alleles, so it's definite.”

“And the semen?”

“No match.”

“Bollocks,” Ray Woods said.

“Yeah, well it came from someone's, just not Alford's.”

Woods let out a heavy, frustrated sigh. “So where's that leave us? What's going on?”

He looked at the board.

“Alford must have had sexual contact with Ashleigh for his pube to be there, so how come it's not his semen? ­– Could there have been two of them? Alford and someone else?”

Holly had a thought. “What if Alford used a condom and the other one didn't? Or maybe Alford didn't – er…” She stumbled and felt herself flush when she realised what she'd been about to say. “Didn't
finish
.”

She felt the heat in her face intensify as the two men looked at her.

Woods shifted. “Maybe you could find us a coffee while we talk about this?” he suggested.

“Sarge, I
do
know the facts of life,” Holly said, determined not to be beaten by her discomfort, or to be sidelined because of it.

Woods took a moment, then glanced at Danny Simmons who just shrugged. It seemed to be enough.

“Okay,” Woods said. “I'm just going to pretend you're twenty-six, okay? So don't expect any soft soap.”

“I think I can cope,” Holly said.

“I think she can, too,” Danny Simmons added matter-of-factly.

“Right, so – this.” Woods tapped the board to bring them back to the subject. “We think there could have been two of them. Alford uses a condom, the other one doesn't.”

“Actually, I think we're wrong about two suspects,” Danny said, scanning the report. “There's no trace of spermicide from a condom according to the lab, and the breakdown in the semen sample indicates that it was at least six hours old at the time of the rape exam and could have been present for up to twenty-four hours.”