Gill sipped at her coffee.
‘Tandy,’ Lee said, ‘he was at the English Bulldog Army meeting at the George Inn. The same night the twins were there, Sunday the sixth.’
‘They met then?’ Gill said. ‘Exchanged numbers?’
Janet had finished the caution and preamble. ‘Is there anything you wish to say?’
Noel Perry looked dull, impassive, then his expression broke. Hard to tell whether it was a grimace or a smile when he said, ‘I did it, I killed them.’
Gill froze. Lee stared at the monitor, open-mouthed.
‘Let me be clear,’ Janet was saying, ‘you’re admitting responsibility for the deaths of the two victims known as Lydia Oluwaseyi and Victor Tosin found in the warehouse on Shuttling Way after the fire which was started on Friday the eleventh of May?’
‘Yeah.’ He braced his hands on his knees, legs apart.
‘Fuck me,’ murmured Gill, ‘that was easy. Lee, take a message. Tell Janet to carry on, we want a full statement, A to Z. We want to know exactly how the deaths were carried out and how he set the fire. His movements before and after. And motive.’
‘I’d hazard a guess,’ Lee said dryly as he left.
On the other screen, Rachel was going through the charge and Gill notched the volume up. Neil Perry answered the first question, ‘No comment.’ And the second. ‘No comment.’ Gill leaned closer, intrigued now at an emerging difference between the brothers.
Janet began by letting Noel speak uninterrupted. She would then revisit each point of his story and tease out the detail.
‘I went there on Friday, and it was like with the dosser. I shot ’em and then torched the place. That’s it.’ He shrugged.
Could it have been any balder? ‘What time on Friday was it?’
‘Dunno,’ he said.
‘Afternoon, evening?’
‘Dunno,’ he said.
‘Was it dark?’ Janet said.
‘Yeah.’
Janet felt a prick of doubt. One-word answers were never a good sign.
‘How did you get into the warehouse?’
‘Off of the bridge, by the canal, there’s a broken bit in the panelling there, you can get through then to the building. In one of the doors.’
‘The door wasn’t locked?’
‘Padlock’s long gone.’ More voluble now.
‘Had you been there before?’ Janet said.
He hesitated. Why? ‘Yes.’
‘Why was that?’ Janet said.
‘To get some stuff.’
‘You mean drugs?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Who did you get the drugs from?’
‘The nignogs.’
‘Are you referring to the victims, Lydia Oluwaseyi and Victor Tosin?’
‘Yeah,’ he said.
‘On Friday you went in the warehouse door, then what?’ Janet said.
‘Shot ’em, like I said.’ He rolled his shoulders back, twisted his head to and fro as though he was tired of the situation.