“Lisa didn’t see her attacker,” Annie said. “She had no idea what color he was. He came from behind, knocked her down.”

“She saw his hand.”

“Did she? Or did you convince her that she did? You got her so confused, Jason, that she thought she’d been attacked by a dark-skinned person because you believe they’re the ones who do all the raping and assaulting in this country, don’t you? You see, Lisa never mentioned that he was dark-skinned when we started our investigation, when DC Masterson first questioned her.”

“She was in shock then. Confused.”

“It was you who confused her. Your own sister. Just to fit in with your sick beliefs.”

“DI Cabbot, is any of this really relevant?” asked Ms. Lucas.

“I’m trying to discover whether this was a hate crime,” Annie said. “I’d say that’s a reasonable line of inquiry, wouldn’t you?”

Ms. Lucas sighed. “Very well. Carry on. But you’re on a short leash.”

Annie squared her shoulders. “Were you getting your revenge for what happened to Lisa, Jason? Taking it out on the first dark-skinned person you could find? Did you do it for Lisa? Because she couldn’t go to a posh school? Because she got assaulted on her way home from a dance at the local comprehensive? Did you kill Samir for Lisa?”

Jason put his hands over his ears. “Stop it! I don’t want to hear anymore. I didn’t kill anyone. I want to go home.”

“Look,” said Banks, gently taking over the questioning again. “I understand, Jason. Honest, I do. You had all this stuff going around in your head about migrant hordes, Lisa had been assaulted, you’d been smoking marijuana, then all of a sudden this young Arab lad just turns up out of the bushes. He was running away from someone. Someone he thought was going to harm him but was simply charged with taking him home. But he ran into you, didn’t he? He startled you. That’s understandable. And you took out your knife and stabbed him. Why? Did you think he was armed? Did you think he was going to attack the two of you? Big strapping lads. Bigger than him, older than him.”

Jason started shaking his head from side to side and banging his fist on the table. Ms. Lucas put her hand on his shoulder to calm him. Banks glanced at Annie. There wasn’t much point going on right now, he thought, so he gave her the nod and they left the room.

“I’M NOT going to lie to you, Chris,” said Banks, “but Jason is very upset back there. I think he finally realized the enormity of what you’ve both done, and it’s overwhelmed him.”

Chris Myers gave a sly grin. “Jason’s no fool,” he said. “Besides, we weren’t in the park that night, so why would he say we were?”