‘Yes, sir.’

‘Sick to your stomach, I believe you said.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘From the very beginning, Mr Price?’

‘Sorry? What d’ya mean?’

‘I mean, were you “sick to your stomach”, as you say, from the first time you knew what they’d done?’

‘Yeah. It was disgusting. Animals don’t even do that sorta ’fing.’

‘And you told us that this was very shortly after the murder, wasn’t it?’

‘Yeah.’

‘No more than three days after, you said.’

‘Yeah. Probably less.’

‘So no later than December 18th? Three days after the murder of the Galloway brothers?’

‘Like I said. Probably earlier.’

‘Was this the first time you had heard about the murder? When Mr O’Driscoll and Mr Kash told you what they had done?’

‘Course it weren’t. It was all over the bloody news. Everyone’d heard about it. In my area, anyway.’

‘So did you already have an opinion on the murder? Before speaking to your friends?’

‘Bloody right I did. I fought it was disgusting. You don’t do that sorta fing to anyone. Whatever they’ve done.’

‘OK. You already had strong views, then. And then your old school friends suddenly announced that they had murdered the Galloway twins.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Did you tell them there and then how disgusted you were with what they had done?’

‘I . . . erm . . . I . . . No. No, I didn’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘Well they’d just bloody murdered two big fellas, hadn’t they? What would they do t’me if I’d started going on at ’em about it?’

‘But you were their friend, Mr Price. They wouldn’t attack you, would they?’

‘They would if they thought I was gonna grass on ’em, wouldn’t they? They don’t like me enough to risk a bloody life sentence, do they?’

‘Then why on earth would they have ever told you about it in the first place?’

Price did not answer immediately. Cole’s question had clearly not occurred to him.

He glanced towards Epstein, seemingly looking for help. Epstein did not look back. Price was on his own.

‘I . . . I . . . look, I don’t understand. What d’you mean?’

Cole jumped on the opportunity.

‘What I mean, Mr Price, is that apparently Mr O’Driscoll and Mr Kash would not hesitate to kill you if you expressed so much as a little disquiet about what they had done. Which means that they did not feel they could completely trust you. So why, then, Mr Price, would they take the risk of telling a person they could not completely trust all about a crime for which they could be sent to prison for the rest of their lives?’

Price stayed silent. Perhaps realising his error. Cole’s question – Cole’s speech, really – made perfect sense. And it demanded an answer.

Price finally gave one.

‘I guess they just wanted to boast.’

There was no confidence in Price’s voice. It sounded as if even he did not believe what he was saying.

‘That’s it, is it, Mr Price?’