Dead to Me by Cath Staincliffe

Author:Cath Staincliffe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

25

Janet found Rachel in the canteen while she was waiting for Sean to finish instructing his solicitor. ‘I should tell him we’ve been talking to Benny,’ Janet said, ‘and he might as well put his hands up and confess to everything. The guy leaks like a sieve.’

* * *

Sean Broughton had been badly shaken by the raid. For the first time he seemed to grasp that the police were seriously considering him as a suspect. He was agitated before they started. Janet wondered if there was any withdrawal going on, though she knew that Sean, once arrested and detained at the police station, would have been taken through the medical questionnaire and any drug dependency discussed. The custody sergeant would have determined that he was competent to answer questions.

‘Sean, the last time we spoke, you told me that you had removed Lisa’s phone from the flat and disposed of it, along with clothing she had brought from town, behind the shops on the parade on Garrigan Street. We now know that was not the case. How do you account for that?’

‘Dunno,’ he said uneasily.

‘What did you do with the phone?’

He didn’t say anything.

‘Sean?’

‘Wiped it clean, then sold it,’ he said quietly.

‘Who to?’ Janet said.

‘Bloke called Des Rattigan.’

‘When?’

‘Tuesday,’ he said.

‘What time?’

He opened his mouth as if to complain about the string of questions, then thought better of it. ‘Seven-ish.’ All his answers tallying with what they had established already.

‘Can you tell me why you sold the phone?’

‘For the money.’

‘There may have been information on that phone of use to the investigation into Lisa’s murder. Information you deleted,’ she said.

‘There wasn’t,’ he said.

‘I don’t know, do I, Sean? Because you destroyed it. And I have to ask myself whether that was because you had something to hide.’

‘No, I don’t, I didn’t,’ he said urgently, his dark eyes gleaming.

‘You also told me that you removed several bags containing clothes from the flat, but we now have evidence to show those items were never in the flat.’

He swallowed.

‘Can you explain to me why you made that up?’

‘It’s just – you kept going on about the shopping, I just said it.’

‘Are you now admitting that there was no shopping?’

‘Yes,’ he said.

‘We know Lisa had stolen some clothing in town. Do you have any idea what she intended to do with that clothing?’

‘No,’ he said thickly, but with little conviction.

‘If I told you we have reason to believe Lisa traded those items for Class A drugs, namely heroin, what would you say?’

He was still for a moment, though his eyes were jittery, darting here and there. ‘I don’t know nothing about that,’ he said. He was scared. Frightened of dobbing in Kasim, of any repercussions? Or of the prospect of a murder charge?

‘You have told me on several occasions that you went to the flat on Fairland Avenue at half past three to meet Lisa and that when you got there she was dead?’

‘Yes,’ he said.

‘You also told me that you covered Lisa with a duvet and rang the police – correct?’

‘Yes.

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