After about fifteen minutes the pair of detectives returned and I was taken back to be presented in front of the custody sergeant—a different one from the previous evening—to be de-arrested.

‘What does de-arrested actually mean?’ I asked.

‘In the light of new evidence emerging,’ the sergeant explained, ‘there are no grounds for having made the original arrest, so you are now being de-arrested. It is as if the original arrest did not occur.’

‘But it did occur,’ I pointed out. ‘So are you now admitting you made a mistake?’

‘Given the circumstances known at the time, the arrest was a reasonable course of action.’

There was no hope that he would ever admit that they had been somewhat hasty.

‘How about Mr Barnes?’ I asked. ‘Has he been de-arrested too?’

‘You will have to discuss that with the SIO in the case.’

‘SIO?’

‘The senior investigating officer.’

‘And who is that?’ I asked patiently.

‘Detective Chief Inspector Williams. He’s waiting to speak to you.’

This could be interesting, I thought. He was the man I had spoken with in Gary Bremner’s garden, the one who had explicitly told me to leave all the investigating to the police. Hence, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to seeing him again, and I don’t think he was particularly pleased to see me either.

I was taken to another interview room in Northallerton Police HQ.

The chief inspector had one of the detectives from the previous interview sitting beside him, and he informed me that the interview was being recorded.

Recordings are good, I thought.

‘What were you doing in Middleham Castle in the first place?’ the chief inspector asked as his opening gambit.

‘I was there investigating something,’ I replied.

‘What?’

‘The death of Gary Bremner.’

DCI Williams snorted slightly. ‘I thought I had told you to leave the investigation of Mr Bremner’s death to the police.’

‘I know, but you think it was a suicide while I believe he was murdered. So we are starting from different places. Did you even check his phone for fingerprints?’

He clearly didn’t like being asked if he’d done his job.

‘We did, and there were no fingerprints found on the phone.’

‘Not even Gary’s?’ I asked.

‘None at all,’ he replied.

‘But surely that is highly suspicious in itself. Why would Gary bother to wipe it clean after typing in a suicide note? How about DNA?’

‘There was also no DNA present on the phone.’

I just sat there looking at him.

‘Okay, Mr Halley,’ he said eventually. ‘Tell me what you have found out.’

‘All right,’ I said. ‘But tell me about the others first. Where is Chico Barnes?’

‘Mr Barnes has been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.’

At least that told me that Valance was still alive.

‘And will he now be de-arrested?’ I asked.

‘That may depend on what you tell me.’