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JIM
Nicky Forbes’s expression was complicated: proud and defiant, but with a touch of something else
too that I read as surrender. We were close to getting a breakthrough, I knew we were, but then
Woodley’s phone rang.
It was the world’s most stupid, immature ringtone. Of all things it was the Star Wars theme tune,
and just like that it destroyed the moment.
Woodley was mortified. I was furious.
Nicky Forbes laughed. ‘You are so fucking incompetent,’ she said.
I felt an ache in my temples as Woodley, instead of turning the phone off, took it out of his pocket
and looked at it.
She wasn’t as close to giving up as I’d thought. She was combative. But that was OK. That I knew I
could work with, but Woodley wouldn’t shut up, he said, ‘It’s Fraser. I’d better take it.’
Nicky Forbes was watching, not missing a trick. I desperately didn’t want her to get the upper
hand. The Reid technique depends on the interviewer keeping control of the process, moving from
one stage of the interview to the next. It can be a long process and we’d only just got started. As
Woodley slipped out of the room, I tried to regain control. ‘Let’s discuss what you were doing on
Sunday, twenty-first October.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘Let’s discuss why you are here wasting my time and harassing me when you should
be looking for Ben. Where’s Ben, DI Clemo? Where is he? You actually have somebody in custody,
and you are here, targeting me. You know nothing about me! Nothing! Do they charge police for
wasting their own time? Do they? Because that is what you are doing. My family is everything to me,
it’s everything. At this moment in time, I can’t cope with it very well, but that is nobody’s business
apart from mine and my husband’s. It’s not a criminal offence to take some time out, so stop treating
me as if I am some kind of monster. My life has been difficult, and I cope with that the best I can. Do I
want a son? YES! Do I want Charlie back? YES! Do I find my family too much to cope with
sometimes? YES! Did I take Ben? NO, I DID NOT! Am I a monster? NO, I AM NOT! Do I love my
husband, my daughters, my sister and my nephew? YES, I DO! Is that it? Is that all your questions
answered?’
It was the way she said it, hand slamming down on the table as she made each point, as if her very
existence depended on my understanding those things.
Faced with those words and her certainty, I simply felt everything start to slip through my fingers:
the interview, and the case I wanted to build against her.
I pulled my chair back, loosened my collar.
Outside the kitchen door the mist was still thick, and it was impossible to see more than a few
metres into the garden.
Get a grip, I told myself. Get back into it, hold your nerve, you can do this, but then Woodley
reappeared and when I saw the look on his face I knew that I’d be lucky if I came out of this with
even a shred of dignity.
He held his phone up as if it had something written on it that I should read. ‘We have to go,’ he
said. Something about the way he said it made me understand that it wasn’t negotiable.
‘Thank you for your time,’ I managed to say to her, and the chair scraped on the floor as I stood.
There was a static noise in my head. It had a size and a shape, and it was swelling as if it was being
pumped in.