Malina and Biljana Dragić arrived at the station promptly for their follow-up interviews. They met Neda Stojanović, the translator who had sat in on their original interviews on the night of the murder.
The two sisters looked tired and nervous but were soon put at ease by Mags Richardson’s breezy efficiency, and Moray Ruskin’s friendliness. Warren had decided to downplay the importance of the interview, in the hope that a more relaxed atmosphere would make the interviewees more open.
Both interviews started with the women being shown a headshot of Ray Dorridge, the farmer that the White Stag’s glass collector, claimed to have seen arguing with Cullen.
Both women denied knowing, or recognizing, Dorridge. Warren wasn’t entirely surprised. There was no record of his name, or his contact details in the massage parlour’s ledger. Neither his phone records, nor the massage parlour’s, gave any indication that he had ever visited, or had dealings with the business. Inquiries were ongoing to see if there were any other links, but so far it seemed that he largely shunned social media, so was unlikely to have had contact with either of the two women, or for that matter Stevie Cullen, that way.
The only app that he used with any regularity was an online dating site. They had requested the records from the site to see if he could have socialized with either woman that way, or their aunt, who would seem to be more in his age range. The app also catered for same-sex relationships, so they decided to check if Stevie Cullen was also a member. It would be embarrassing to say the least if they missed a connection because they were too old-fashioned to think of it.
In the meantime, Warren chafed at the continued delay at retrieving the mobile phone records for the two sisters; he wouldn’t be entirely satisfied until they arrived.
When specifically asked if Dorridge could be the black-clad killer, the two women had shrugged and admitted that he might be. Neither had sounded confident.
Turning to the events at the time of the killing, the two women largely repeated what they had said before about hearing Cullen scream.
‘I still don’t think the timings add up,’ said Richardson, in the post-interview debrief, agreeing to disagree with Martinez, who again theorized that Malina had heard Cullen scream, not her sister.
‘I’m more interested about what happened after Cullen was stabbed,’ said Grimshaw. ‘They’ve changed their story on that.’
‘I wouldn’t say changed,’ countered Martinez, ‘they’ve just remembered more details.’
‘Still, don’t you think it weird that they both suddenly remember all those extra details about what happened?’ said Grimshaw.
‘Not really, they’ve had a couple of days to process it,’ said Martinez. ‘You know how unreliable witnesses are. It’s not uncommon for them to remember things weeks or even months after the event. And they’ve probably talked about little else since it happened.’
Grimshaw scowled but conceded the point reluctantly.
‘Whatever the reason, their accounts match the evidence that we saw better,’ said Warren. ‘Stevie jumped off the table after being stabbed, then collapsed with the blade still in him – which would account for the bruises on his left side. The killer then removed the knife and fled the scene.’ He looked at his notes. ‘Cullen then got back to his feet, and the sisters helped him back onto the massage table, where they tried to stem the blood flow. He then bled out on the table.’
‘It certainly matches the evidence at the scene,’ said Martinez.
Warren was forced to agree, but something in his gut didn’t sit quite right.
They really needed those phone records.