He shook his head.
‘How old are you?’ Rachel said.
‘Sixteen.’
‘I can check.’
‘Fourteen.’
‘Not in school?’
‘Off sick,’ he said.
‘How’s that then?’ Rachel said.
‘Hurt my arm.’ He showed her the fresh scrape, beaded with blood.
She fought a smile. Cheeky little bastard.
‘Where d’you live?’
He sighed. ‘Manton Road.’
‘You know it’s an offence to lie to a police officer?’
‘It’s God’s truth,’ he said, outraged again.
‘And you not knowing anything about the murders, that true?’
‘I told you,’ he said, ‘you fucking deaf?’
‘Oi!’ she said sharply. ‘Stop swearing. What about the Perry twins? You know them?’
‘No.’ He spat on the floor.
Rachel thought he was lying, maybe not about the rest but about the twins. If they were as much trouble as Liam Kelly had implied, then every scrote, every scally on the estate, would know exactly who they were. And would either be nervously in thrall to them, or scared shitless and steering well clear.
‘Go on, Bradley Wiggins,’ she said, ‘on your bike.’
He jumped on and cycled off. Rachel couldn’t be certain but when he turned off into the estate the hand gesture he made looked suspiciously like he was flipping her the finger.
At the end of the day the team reconvened and Gill led them systematically through the different strands of the inquiry. As senior investigating officer, everything had been fed through to her and now needed to be shared with her detectives.
‘First off, where are we on ID? Kevin?’
He tapped his pen against his notebook. ‘Three possibilities for marriages with those initials on that date, one in Oldham, one in Bury and one in Manchester. John Smith and Ruth King, Judith Smith and Richard Kavanagh and Jennifer Simpson and Robert Keele.’
‘Any bells?’ Gill scanned the room to see if any of those names had come up in the course if the day. When no one responded she said, ‘Kevin, keep on with that, see if you can eliminate anyone.’
‘Yes, boss.’
‘OK,’ she said, ‘updates on forensics at the crime scene. As expected, the accelerant has been identified as petrol.’
When Mitch groaned, Gill said, ‘I know – ubiquitous but we may be able to be more specific. Meanwhile talk to petrol stations in a ten-mile radius, any cans filled in the days before the murder.’
‘Could be siphoned off,’ Pete said.
‘Yes,’ said Gill, ‘we should look at that as well. Access to and from the building looks to have been gained from the rear where there is a hole cut in the chain-link fence.’
‘Spoke to the current owners,’ Mitch said. ‘The site was last checked eight months ago. They’ve had the fencing up for three years, after a spate of break-ins and vandalism. Fairly quiet since. They want to sell but they’re sitting on the property until there’s an upturn in land values.’