Janet smiled.
‘Before you go down, get yourself up to speed.’ Gill nodded to the incident room where the latest reports were collated and displayed on the whiteboards.
When Janet went in, the indexers were typing away, inputting material on the HOLMES system, a web of information covering every last detail of the lines of inquiry. Invaluable for finding connections. Other staff, the readers, were analysing what came in.
Janet was familiarizing herself with the day’s developments, reading about Rachel’s encounter with Shirelle Young, when she felt a sting of recognition. She went to find Gill. ‘Where’s Rachel?’
‘In with Neil Perry, why?’
‘Shirelle Young, the description, that’s exactly how Elise described the dealer supplying drugs to the party.’
Gill’s face was intent. ‘Right, you leave that with me. We still don’t know exactly what Shirelle can tell us about the murders but she had a previous close relationship with the male victim in the double shooting and she has apparently lied to us on a number of points. We’re about to execute a warrant for her place. You can’t go anywhere near her.’
Janet was burning to find out more but had to distance herself. Anything related to Shirelle Young she must treat as though it had a great big No Entry sign slapped over it. That was the only way to ensure that further down the line there wouldn’t be any repercussions. ‘You don’t need to worry,’ Janet said, holding her hands up, ‘I don’t intend to.’
‘Better than monkey man, anyway,’ Noel Perry said once they were settled.
Janet ignored the comment, focused on getting down to business.
‘Mr Perry, earlier today you confessed to the murder of Richard Kavanagh. What we wish to do now is get a full statement from you about the events of that night, Wednesday night. Can you tell me what happened?’
‘We went to the chapel,’ he said.
‘You and-?’ She couldn’t put words into his mouth.
‘Our Neil. We went there and we shot him and then we set fire to him.’ His tone was gloating.
They needed more detail and Janet set about gathering it. ‘What time did you go to the Old Chapel?’
‘Half seven,’ he said.
‘And how did you get in?’
‘There’s a gap in the fence and then you go down these steps, to the cellar door.’
‘Did you know Mr Kavanagh would be there?’ Janet said.
‘Yeah. We’ve seen him, we was watching him.’
‘Why was that?’
‘’Cos we wanted to do him,’ he said.
Janet felt a chill at the casual nature of his words. ‘Do him?’ she said.
‘Kill him.’
‘Why was that?’
‘Old wino, i’nt he. Vermin. Needed getting rid of.’