‘We ended up in an interview room across the way. Just the two of us. And Derek told me then that he knew what I’d done. He said he’d been watching me throughout the trial. That he’d seen my feelings towards Hirst go from distaste to disgust and all the way through to hatred. Derek could tell how desperate I was for Hirst to be convicted. And yet I didn’t respond at all when evidence suddenly emerged that could achieve what I so badly wanted. Evidence that could convict Hirst. It was at that moment that I realised for the first time just how much smarter than me Derek really was. He was a million miles ahead. And he knew without question that I’d been involved in the new evidence.’

‘What did he do?’ Sarah asked.

‘He bawled me out. Just like you’d expect. He called me one of the most unprofessional, stupid sons-of-bitches under the sun. And he was right. I had no place doing what I did. No place at all.’

Michael felt his voice begin to break as he remembered Derek’s fury in that moment, guilt and regret threatening to overwhelm him.

‘It’s OK, Michael.’ Sarah placed her hand on top of Michael’s as she spoke.

Michael stood up, taking his hand away. He was not ready for Sarah’s touch. For anyone’s. Not with the thought of Derek Reid at the very forefront of his mind.

He moved away, back towards the whiskey bottle that had noticeably diminished in the past thirty minutes. He half-filled his glass and sat back down.

‘Derek bawled me out,’ Michael repeated. ‘But when he was done he covered my arse. He didn’t have to do that for me – he barely knew me back then – but he did it.’

‘How?’ Levy asked. ‘What did he do?’

‘It was what he didn’t do,’ Michael replied. ‘He didn’t cross-examine Tina on the tattoo. Didn’t even mention it. He just acted like she had never said it.’

‘Why?’ Sarah could not understand. ‘Surely he had to challenge it?’

‘I guess he felt he couldn’t risk it. Tina was a kid, so the chances are she would have opened up about our conversation if cross-examined at all. Which would have cost me my career and God knows how long in prison, for perverting the course of justice. Derek decided to protect me, and so he said nothing.’

‘How did Hirst take that?’ Levy again. ‘The only witness against him adds a killer piece of evidence out of nowhere, and his barrister just leaves it? Hirst was no fool. How’d he react?’

‘He was apoplectic. By the time we got to the custody suite at the end of the day he was already confined to his cell. The security staff wouldn’t let him out to see us in the normal way; it had taken seven of them just to get him into his cell in the first place, so no way were they letting him out. Which meant we only got to see him through the wicket in his cell door.’