45

They were back in the interview room. Sarah met Stephenson’s eyes for a moment, but he immediately looked away from her towards the corner of the room, as if she was no more than an annoying irrelevance.

Steve said, ‘Can you just confirm this is your statement, Mr Stephenson.’

Stephenson said, ‘Yes, that is my statement.’ His lips twitched and he looked away again towards the corner of the room.

His lawyer began reading.

‘On the sixteenth of October 1987, I returned home from my day with Katherine Herringham in the early evening to find that it was impossible to open the front door to my flat. I knocked but got no reply. I went around the back of the property and used the external fire stairs to climb to the door, but my wife, Abigail, had locked it from the inside. I banged on the door but she didn’t answer. I knew the lock on the sash window at the front was broken so I went to the downstairs neighbour and asked to borrow his ladder. I climbed into the sitting room and went straight to the stairs down to the front door to see why it wouldn’t open. Tania was there, dead, at the bottom of the stairs, blocking the doorway. My wife had locked that door from the inside. That was why I couldn’t get in.

‘Abigail was lying on the bed in the bedroom. She had drunk herself into a stupor. I sat in the sitting room trying to decide what to do. I should have called the police but I couldn’t send my own wife to prison. She was pregnant. It was terrible but I decided to dispose of Tania’s body. I pulled up the carpet from the stairs because it was stained. Later it was useful to wrap the body in.

‘I deny any other involvement in Tania’s death.

‘On the advice of my lawyer, I shall answer no comment to any further questions.’

Sarah had no doubt that it would be pointless but Steve still had to ask the questions. Stephenson answered without ever looking away from the corner of the room, which seemed to hold his fixed attention.

‘Were you having a sexual relationship with Tania?’

‘No comment.’

‘Did you rape Tania?’

‘No comment.’

‘What was Tania doing in your house?’

‘No comment.’

No comment, no comment, no comment.

They put Stephenson back in his cell. Sarah called Elaine.

‘How are you getting on?’

‘We’ve finished. I’ve dropped Katherine home. There’s just the two rapes to charge. After Tania went missing, Stephenson told Katherine he couldn’t continue the relationship, as he called it. He felt too bad about Tania. He was bricking it, of course. Didn’t dare push his luck.’

‘You going off duty then?’

‘Yes.’

There was a pause.

‘Fucking hell, Sarah. What the hell is it now?’

‘We need to arrest Stephenson’s ex-wife and I’d really like to interview with you, if you could make it.’