“Yeah. I gave her my handkerchief, wrapped it round her wrist. It’s got my initial on it, G . . . Then I paid her, drove her back to Ladbroke Grove station. When I dropped her off, the last I saw of her she was picking up another punter. It was a red car, I’m not sure which make, could have been a Scirocco. I didn’t kill her, I swear before God that was the last I saw of her. Then I drove home, got back about half past ten, maybe nearer eleven . . .”

Tennison had been reading his statement as he talked. It was not word for word, but slightly abbreviated, as if he was getting used to repeating only the pertinent facts. “You saw a red car stop. Was it facing towards you or in the opposite direction?”

“Oh, it was coming towards me. I was going down Ladbroke Grove towards Notting Hill Gate.”

“So you would have dropped her on the pavement opposite the car? Or did you swerve across the road and deposit her on the other side?”

“Oh, I crossed the road. Then when she got out I drove straight down to the Bayswater Road.”

“You live on the Maida Vale/Kilburn border, wouldn’t you have gone the other way? It’s a quicker route, isn’t it?”

“I suppose so. I never thought about it, really. I went straight along to Marble Arch, into Edgware Road and straight to Kilburn to get a video.”

“Have you picked up girls in that area before?”

Marlow shook his head and looked down at his hands. “No, and I wish to God I hadn’t picked this one up either, but . . .”

“But?”

He looked up, and again she was caught by the strange color of his eyes. “She was very attractive, and I thought, why not . . .”

“George, had you picked this particular girl up before?”

“No, and I must have been crazy, after what happened up north. But I paid for that. I was drunk, and I swear to you she came on to me, I swear I was innocent . . . I served eighteen months, and when they released me I swore I wouldn’t mess around with other women.”

“Mess around? It was a little more than that two years ago, wasn’t it? You were also charged with aggravated burglary.”

“Like I said, I was drunk. I just snatched her handbag . . . It was a stupid thing to do, and I lived to regret it.”

“So you never knew this girl you picked up?”

There was a tap on the door and Sergeant Otley peered through the window. Irritated, Tennison went out to talk to him.

“The lab came through, that speck of blood on his jacket, it’s the victim’s. Thought you’d like to know. Oh, and the Super wants to see you.”

“That’s it? Nothing else? They can’t place him in the efficiency?”