‘Actually, Smith hasn’t had a drink in more than twenty years, sir,’ said Kombothekra, causing the Snowman to bang his mug handle harder on the desk.

‘I think you’re wrong, sir,’ Simon told Proust. ‘I think Smith’s message to DS Kombothekra was very precisely worded: to let Seed know he’d continue to keep their secret, while on the surface seeming to mean only that he’d killed Mary Trelease—the meaning you took from it. You can’t say that just because he’s from a council estate he’s incapable of deliberately making a statement that has two possible meanings.’

‘But now that Smith knows Seed’s confessed, that he wants the truth to come out, wouldn’t that give him pause?’ asked Kombothekra. ‘I’ve heard the way he talks about Seed.’ He looked around the small office apologetically. ‘I’m the only one of us who has. Heard it first-hand, I mean. Seed’s all he’s got. I mean, I know he hasn’t got him, I know Seed wants nothing to do with him, but in Smith’s mind, Seed’s his life, the only thing he’s living for—the hope that one day they’ll be reconciled. Simon’s right, Smith’s not stupid. He knows there was no need for Seed to confess after all these years. Why would he keep up his so-called protection, knowing it’s unwanted?’

‘The last twenty-odd years of his life, banged up in one miserable, stinking hole after another, have been about protecting Seed,’ said Simon with feigned patience that he knew everyone in the room could see through. ‘Okay, maybe there was an element of self-interest—he was ashamed to admit he’d shared a bed with his stepson—but all these years sitting in his cell? He’ll have dreamed up a different story, a better one—himself as the self-sacrificing hero. Both the brother and sister have said how much Smith loves Seed—too much.’

Kombothekra nodded. ‘That’s what they told me, and they told Kerry Gatti the same thing.’

‘Gatti’s a fucking liar,’ said Charlie in a stony voice. Simon hid a smile behind his hand. She’d been furious to discover that according to Gatti’s version of events, he had willingly handed over two of his files to her. He’d also denied another of Charlie’s claims: that he hadn’t known, when she’d met him at the Swan pub in Rawndesley, that Martha Wyers had changed her name legally to Mary Trelease. Gatti wasn’t any more prepared to lose face than Len Smith was.

Simon said, ‘If Smith tells the truth now and Aidan takes his place in custody, what’s it all been for?’ He looked at Kombothekra. ‘You’ve got kids. Don’t you ever stop them doing something they’re gagging to do because you think you know what’s best for them and they don’t?’