‘And what did he say?’

‘He accused Derek of doing exactly what I’d done. Said he was in cahoots with the police and the CPS and the judge. Everyone, basically. And he threatened him, said that they were all going to pay.’

Michael’s words trailed off once again. A new thought was registering.

‘He basically threatened to do exactly what he’s done. What he’s done to everyone but me so far. To everyone except the guy who actually wronged him.’ Michael could not stop the tears from falling as reality hit home. ‘They all died for what I did. And Longman? Derek? They had nothing to do with it. Jesus, it’s my fault. Derek’s dead and all he did was cover for me. All he did was protect me from my own stupidity.’

Michael stopped speaking. He had to. His voice had finally broken. Sarah stood up and stepped towards him, but he stopped her with a raised hand.

‘I need to finish,’ he said, forcing down a sob.

‘Yes.’ The agreement came from Levy, her tone still professional. ‘Yes, you do. I still need to know how Longman fits in to all of this.’

Michael nodded his head in response and took a slow, deep breath to regain his composure. There was no point in wiping his face. It would not stop the tears coming. Instead he took a full gulp of whiskey and continued, his voice faltering throughout.

‘That was the last we heard from Hirst. We were fired from the case from that moment. He wanted the trial aborted and a new legal team appointed. To start from scratch. But Longman didn’t allow it. Longman didn’t believe that Derek or I had anything to do with the new evidence. I mean, he knew Derek, he’d been Derek’s pupil-master and Longman knew for sure that he wasn’t capable of corrupting evidence, whatever Hirst alleged. And I guess it didn’t occur to him that a pupil would do what I had done. So Longman wouldn’t let Hirst’s decision to fire us – a decision he thought was wrong – derail the trial. Instead he ordered Hirst to either carry on with us or carry on alone. Hirst chose the latter.’

‘So Longman didn’t think the evidence was suspect?’ asked Levy.

‘Oh no, he knew something was up,’ Michael replied. ‘He just got the wrong person. It turned out that when Derek was looking at me as I tried not to react to Tina’s evidence of the tattoo, Longman was looking right at Blunt. He saw what Derek saw, just on someone else. So he was convinced that Blunt was behind it.’

‘And he didn’t stop the trial?’ Levy asked, looking perplexed. ‘Why?’

‘I can hazard a guess. I think it’s because Longman also thought that Hirst was too dangerous to be on the streets. Longman was a clever man. A very, very clever man. He could see Hirst for what he was and there was no way he was letting him go if he could help it. And he probably thought that Derek had made the same decision when Derek didn’t cross-examine Tina on the tattoo. So Longman did nothing. He allowed the evidence to go through, and in doing so he fuelled Hirst’s paranoia that we were all in it together. That we’d all conspired to convict him.’