‘Aidan wasn’t so lucky,’ said Charlie. ‘And those bastards left him there to rot—their own little brother. Of course Smith was sexually abusing him, and even if he wasn’t, they knew what sort of life he was forcing on him. Aidan wasn’t allowed out, apart from to go to school—even that, only sometimes. More often than not, Smith kept him off school, for company. He wasn’t allowed to bring friends back to the house—that was while he still had friends. Once he started to withdraw into himself, they gave up on him quickly enough.’

‘He wouldn’t have wanted to bring anyone back,’ said Simon. ‘Would you want your mates to see that you shared a bedroom with your stepfather, if you were a twelve-year-old boy?’ He knew all about not wanting friends to get even the smallest glimpse of one’s home life. In his case, it was pictures of the Virgin Mary and painfully uptight parents he’d been ashamed of.

‘Whatever Smith’s done or not done, there’s no doubt Seed means a lot to him,’ said Kombothekra. ‘Even though Seed’s never visited him in any of the prisons he’s been in, Smith’s clinging to the hope that one day he might. Every time I speak to him, he asks me to pass the same message on to Seed. He never mentions his other two stepkids. I think he’s forgotten they exist. Sir, if you look at it from Simon and Charlie’s angle, the message might be Smith’s way of letting Seed know he’s going to carry on lying for him. I mean, even if he’s really lying for his own sake, he’d want Aidan to believe otherwise, wouldn’t he, if he’s hoping for a reconciliation?’

‘Is your head that easily turned, sergeant?’ Proust snapped. ‘That’s not what you were saying before Waterhouse and Sergeant Zailer turned up. “Tell Aidan I’d never let anyone hurt him—I never have and I never will”—you and I agreed, did we not, that Smith was referring to the murder of Mary Trelease?’

‘Why not take his words literally?’ Simon suggested. ‘“I never have”—all right, granted, that might be a reference to Smith having strangled Trelease, though it’s more likely to be a reference to his having covered for Seed and taken the blame. But what about “I never will”? Smith’s nowhere near Seed’s life now, is he? How can he stop people from harming him? He didn’t stop Martha Wyers from putting a bullet in Seed, did he? “I never will” is Smith’s way of letting Seed know that he’s going to carry on lying to protect him.’

‘We’re talking about a Neanderthal inebriate, Waterhouse. Precision of language is unlikely to be his primary concern.’