“Why did you do it?” Banks asked Jason. “Surely it wasn’t because he saw you taking drugs? Surely you didn’t think he’d tell? And so what if he did? Was it because he was Middle Eastern? One of them? The migrant hordes. He was just a child, Jason. He was only thirteen.”

Jason just shook his head.

Banks let the silence stretch for a while, then handed over to Annie. “Did you know Samir before that night in the park?” she asked.

“No,” said Jason. “I mean no, I didn’t know him at all. Ever. Stop trying to trick me. And there wasn’t no night in the park.”

“Is that where you got your drugs? The house on Hollyfield Lane? Did you know it was a trap house for the county line?”

“You’re way off beam. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t you? Am I? Did something go wrong? Did Samir shortchange you? Did he sell you a bad product?”

“I never bought nothing off of him.”

“You’re a bright boy, Jason. Look at you, you go to a posh private school. Your sister doesn’t. Lisa only goes to Eastvale Comprehensive. That’s how she got assaulted, walking home from there after a dance. Did you think it was Samir who did that to her? Or someone like him? Maybe if she went to a private school, like you, it would never have happened. How does that make you feel? Does it trouble you?”

“It’s not my fault. I hate that fucking school, all right? I never asked to go there.”

“So what happened?”

“My dad. Mum and Dad. They wanted me to go, become a doctor or a lawyer or something. Go to fucking Oxford or Cambridge or somewhere. I never wanted it. They could only pay for one of us to go.”

“And you were their best bet?”

Jason just glared at her.

“Interesting as all this is, DI Cabbot,” said Ms. Lucas, “I can’t really see the point in this line of questioning. Can we move on to the matter at hand?”

“Maybe I don’t know enough to judge,” Annie said, “but I’ve met both of you, and I’d say Lisa is by far the brightest. Was it you who planted the idea in her mind that her attacker was dark-skinned?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Sure you do. It sounds like the kind of thing you would say. The kind of thing you wrote about in that article they wouldn’t publish in the school magazine.”

“The school’s corrupt. They make their money from terrorists paying to have their kids educated here so they can infiltrate us and kill us.”

“Do you really believe that?” Annie asked.

Jason said nothing.

“The matter at hand, Ms. Cabbot,” said Ms. Lucas. “No sense going off on ideological tangents.”