‘I’ve been under a lot of pressure.’

‘You said if there were any problems, he was to call a number you’d given him.’

‘Don’t remember saying that.’

‘So you don’t remember who Sharpe was to call?’

‘Sorry. No.’

‘Must be contagious,’ said Hargrove. ‘Sharpe said he couldn’t remember the number either. Said he didn’t call because there wasn’t a problem.’

‘There you are, then,’ said Shepherd.

Hargrove studied Shepherd with unblinking brown eyes. Shepherd looked back at him. Now he knew what was coming. He forced himself to relax.

‘You had a visitor. On the fifteenth.’

‘I guess.’ He smiled. ‘You lose track of the days in prison.’

Hargrove was still staring at him. ‘You applied for a visiting order. Joe Humphreys. You put him down as a cousin.’

‘Bob Macdonald’s cousin.’

‘Who is he, Spider?’

‘Just a friend.’

‘Must have been important if you were prepared to compromise the operation to see him.’

‘I needed to see a friendly face, banged up in there.’

Hargrove chuckled. ‘Interesting choice of words,’ he said. ‘I had a look at the CCTV footage for the visiting room, the day Joe Humphreys visited.’

‘And why would you do that?’

For a brief moment Hargrove’s eyes hardened. ‘Just to put my mind at rest. It wasn’t the best picture quality in the world, but there wasn’t much of his face to see anyway, not with the baseball cap and sunglasses.’

‘It was a sunny day, when he visited.’

‘Yeah, that’s what I thought,’ said Hargrove. ‘How long have you known him?’

‘A few years, I guess.’

‘An elusive character, this Humphreys.’

‘In what way?’

‘He had photo ID to get in, but the address on the visiting order is a newsagent’s in Battersea.’

‘He moves around a lot.’

Hargrove settled back in his chair. ‘Going back to the phone conversation you had with Detective Constable Sharpe. Can you remember what you said?’

Shepherd had been expecting the change in subject so he wasn’t fazed by it.

‘Not word for word.’ A deliberate lie. Shepherd’s memory was faultless when it came to conversations.

‘Because I’ve listened to the conversation. Word for word.’

Shepherd kept on looking at the superintendent, kept a smile on his face, kept breathing regularly, kept his hands in his lap.

‘I think your exact words to Sharpe were that if there was anything untoward, he was to call the number you’d given him and tell him what had happened. “But that’s all. Don’t start raising red flags.” That’s what you said. What did you suspect might have happened?’

‘I just wanted reassurance that my boy was okay, that’s all.’

‘This man you wanted Sharpe to contact, he wasn’t the mysterious Mr Humphreys, was he?’

‘No.’

‘You’re sure of that? You being confused and stressed and everything.’

‘I’m sure.’

‘I’d like to talk to Mr Humphreys.’

Shepherd looked pained. ‘Like I said, he moves around a lot.’