‘Yeah, no, I don’t want a lawyer. I don’t trust them. Not after last time.’

She sighed. ‘We can tell you a certain amount. Anna Devine had her throat slashed, as you will no doubt have read in the papers.’ I winced. ‘She also had a head injury. It’s difficult to ascertain the order of these injuries, or which led to her death, if not both. We have not yet located the knife used in the attack. We’re pursuing a number of lines of enquiry.’

‘But this, you can’t use it against me, right? I mean, I was cleared.’

‘Yes. You were.’ Her tone strongly implied I shouldn’t have been.

‘Why don’t you take us through your movements the day before the murder?’ said Hegarty.

I looked between their impassive faces. I had said it all so many times already, yes I had been alone all night, no I had no witness to that except for Brandy, yes I had found the body, but hadn’t reported it because of my deep-seated fear of being once again accused of a murder. Which had happened anyway. I knew this was how they worked – put you through your story a hundred times, looking for cracks. But this time I had nothing to hide, especially now my secret was out. So instead of saying all that, I took a deep breath and once again went over the story of my actions right before a murder. Luckily, this was something I’d had a lot of practice at.

‘Notorious’ discussion forum, Comment on Casey Adams thread (September 2018)

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