Rodney looked around the room, his arms folded, as if checking to see who might be listening.
Eventually, he leaned forward, closer to Dan. ‘It looked bad, and I knew that. I’m no fool. I’ve always thought someone set me up, but I just don’t know who. Think how easy it would be. I lived near the rugby club, where Ruby went missing, so if I’d been seen there, whoever it was would know that there was no one in where I live, because I’d never leave my kids on their own. My garage isn’t attached to my house and I wasn’t always good at locking the door. It was Brampton, a nice quiet town, leave your doors open and all that. There wasn’t anything worth stealing, just an old mower and some muddy gardening tools. It would have been easy for someone to sneak in there and kill her.’ He held his hands out. ‘If I’d killed her, do you think I’d be so stupid as to leave her belt in there? I’d have cleaned the place so that there was no trace left. And my car was there too. So easy to wipe William’s DNA on the seat belt. Whatever they used to clean up the blood would do that.’
Dan frowned. ‘I don’t know all about your case, but I’ve been reading about the case on the Internet before I came here and there are other things. On the night Ruby went missing, you were stopped coming back from where she was buried. You seemed agitated, evasive.’
‘Of course I was agitated. I’d been drinking. I thought he was going to breathalyse me. I didn’t know then what it was all about, but I thought that night I’d got lucky.’ He gave a small laugh. ‘The bloody irony, eh.’
‘Where had you been though?’
‘How do you mean?’
‘What the hell do you think I mean?’
Rodney narrowed his eyes, watching Dan, the gaze of a man who knew how to keep secrets.
‘You’re not writing anything down?’
Dan held his hands in the air. ‘I’m just trying to find out why Mark Roberts died.’
He sighed. ‘I don’t want anyone to go through what I’ve been through, so I’ll tell you. This stays between us, but I’d been to see a woman.’ He held up his hand. ‘Before you ask, I’m not going to tell you her name. It was the first woman I’d had any involvement with after Sarah left me, and I was in love with her. I know, it sounds soppy, but I promised I’d keep it secret. She was married, you see, and she didn’t want her children to suffer by her marriage breaking up. She’d been brought up by divorced parents and didn’t want the same thing to happen to her own children. And I agreed. I’d seen how my own had been affected when Sarah left. It was hard to explain, but they changed. More withdrawn, less confident. Less trusting. I couldn’t do that to her children.’
‘If she loved you, she wouldn’t let you languish here in prison.’
‘That was my choice, and I told her straight, but love makes you do strange things. That’s why I wouldn’t give evidence in my trial, because I knew I’d get asked that question. I don’t mean to make it sound heroic, but I sacrificed myself for that woman.’
‘And abandoned your own children. They lost you as a father and had to grow up in your shadow, the offspring of a murderer. Why wouldn’t you sacrifice her for them?’
‘Come on, you know why. I’d have been convicted anyway. There was blood in my garage. Ruby’s belt. William’s DNA in my car, Ruby’s too. I was at the scene of both. I had no chance. That’s what my barrister said, that I shouldn’t try to explain what I can’t explain. The prosecution barrister would tear into me. Why drag her into it as well?’
‘More than twenty years in prison, and you’ve suffered it all for love?’
Rodney smiled, his gaze wary. ‘I’m not telling you who she is. Nothing could come of it, and I made a promise to her.’
‘And your children still suffer.’
‘I can’t change that. Just think how they would feel if they found out that I’d sacrificed their happiness for another woman. Perhaps I went down a road I should have avoided, but now that I’m down it, things are best left how they are. Choices, Mr Grant, choices. That’s what we do in our lives. We make decisions, we pick a side, and we live with it. Like I’m doing.’
‘You haven’t told me much though. You’ve said you were framed and you’d been at a woman’s house you won’t name, but that’s it.’
‘That’s all there is to say.’
‘Do you see your children much?’
Rodney clenched his jaw. ‘Who would bring them to me?’
‘Whoever they went to live with.’
‘Their lives are better where they are. Leave them alone.’ He turned to wave at one of the guards. ‘We’re done here.’
Dan was taken aback by the sudden change.
Rodney stood up and began to walk out of the room, a guard walking to meet him.
Dan stood too but shouted after him. ‘You’re lying.’
Rodney stopped and turned.
Dan raised a finger towards him. ‘You’ve had twenty years and that’s the best you’ve got. You won’t name anyone, and you deflect, nothing more.’
‘I didn’t kill those children.’
‘But you’ll do nothing to prove that?’
‘My choice. Goodbye, Mr Grant.’ And with that he turned back towards the door and the waiting guard.
As he watched him go, Dan sighed. He didn’t believe Rodney Walker. He just didn’t know whether it mattered or not.