Billy shifted in his seat and tugged anxiously at his wet crotch. His eyes flitted left and right behind his glasses, like they were searching for a way to break free of his head, and abandon the rest of him to his fate. “I, uh, it’s my wife who deals with that sort of… She’d know. If… I mean, if she was here, she’d be able to… to clarify.”

“She’s not here, though, Billy, is she?” said Logan. “In fact, we don’t know where she is. We tried calling your house. We even sent a couple of our most child-friendly uniformed colleagues over to have a chat, but it seems there’s nobody home.”

“She’s, eh…”

“She’s where?” Heather urged, giving him no time to think.

“Come on, Billy, where is she?” Logan demanded.

Billy tugged on his collar. Blew on his face. Ran a sleeve across his brow. “She’s at her… mum’s.”

“Her dead mum’s you mean?” Logan asked.

“Aye. No. I meant… her sister’s!” Billy yelped. “In… Cornwall.”

“What’s her sister’s name?”

“An..drie,” Billy said. It started off confidently enough, then rose into something like a question at the end.

“Andrie?” Heather echoed, sounding even more annoyed by this than she had been by ‘Senga.’

“She doesn’t have a sister. Does she, Billy?” said Logan.

Billy squirmed, like there was something inside him trying to wriggle its way out. The sweat was cascading down his face now, falling as drips from the tip of his nose and the end of his chin.

“She, um, she always… She always wanted a sister,” he squeaked, then he launched himself a good six inches into the air when Logan banged a hand down on the table.

“Cut the shite, Billy!” the DCI boomed. “You’re no’ on the telly now. This isn’t a bloody comedy sketch. Four people are dead. A child is missing. I strongly advise that you stop wasting my time and start answering my questions before you make me angry.”

“This isn’t him angry,” Heather added. “This isn’t even close.”

“But I’m getting there, Billy. I’m headed squarely in that fucking direction,” Logan continued, eyeballing him across the table. He inhaled through his nose, closed his eyes, and made a show of trying to calm his temper. “I tell you what I’m going to do,” he said, once he’d opened his eyes again. “I’m going to make it easy on you. No hard questions, just yes or no answers. How does that sound?”

Billy looked to his solicitor for help. She sat with a sour look on her face, but offered him nothing.

“Did you kill Archie Sutherland and his family?”

Billy recoiled. “What?”

“Yes or no answers, Mr Pinnock!” Logan said, his voice rising into a shout again. “Archie Sutherland. His wife. Her two daughters. Did you kill them?”