I can’t believe I’ve had a second flashback within minutes of the first. That’s unusual. And doesn’t bode well. I need to get out of here and get to Joel’s as soon as I can.

‘Yeah, fine,’ I say, taking a couple of breaths. ‘Never been better.’

I catch up with them in the basement, after another uniform has scrutinized my pass to make sure I’m not a terrorist, or worse, an undercover reporter.

‘There you are, thought I’d lost you.’ Jansen’s just opening the door to interview room number five.

‘Listen, there’s something I need to tell you. That case you’re working on, is it the Kleine case?’

He stops and turns, hand on the door knob. ‘Yeah, why?’

But suddenly I don’t know what to say. Or rather, I know what to say, I just don’t want to say it. I feel as if I’m perfectly balanced between two worlds. Jansen’s looking at me with raised eyebrows.

‘Look, we’re on the clock here,’ he says. ‘I’ve got less than twenty minutes before I either have to charge the guy or release him so …’

‘Okay, let’s get this over with first.’

He gives me a sceptical look, then nods. ‘Rashid’s in the viewing room.’

I join Rashid and we watch through the two-way mirror as Jansen enters the interview room. Gangsta-slumped in a chair is a North African man, Moroccan most likely. The suspect’s wearing a white tracksuit, with double gold stripes snaking down the arms and trouser legs. He’s got tramlines buzzed into his hair and a single stud winks from his ear when he moves his head.

Jansen steps into the room, pulls out the chair and sits down. He flips open a file and after quickly scanning it starts talking. Almost immediately the Moroccan shakes his head in response.

We’ve got no sound so I find the audio switch and flip it on.

‘So then what?’ Jansen’s saying. ‘Then you just happened to be there? Right at that moment?’

‘Bro, like I told you already.’

Jansen nods slowly, a sage pondering great insight. A good interviewer is like an actor, the role you play dictated by the situation, by the suspect themselves. Sometimes it takes playing several roles before you find the one that unlocks something in them.

Jansen pulls out a couple of photographs from the file and slides them across. He taps one of them with his forefinger.

‘See, the thing is we’ve got these images of you less than two streets away from the place where the burglary and assault took place.’