‘Maybe Smith wants it to be true,’ said Charlie. ‘That he killed Mary Trelease. Better for his pride: he strangled his girlfriend when he caught her trying to force herself on his teenage stepson. In that version of the story, Smith gets to come out a hero, in his eyes and, for sure, in the eyes of most of the guys he’s been swapping stories with since the early eighties. I’d bet everything I own that Smith did sexually abuse Aidan. Maybe he couldn’t help himself, and hated himself for it—if he genuinely loved Aidan, he might well have done. If he tells the world and possibly himself, too, that Mary Trelease was the abuser, and that he put a stop to the abuse by killing her, he’s redeemed, isn’t he?’

‘Exactly,’ said Simon. ‘Think about the other version of the story: for years, he sexually abused the stepson he loved because he was lonely and desperate and fucked-up after his wife died. Then he got a new girlfriend—Mary Trelease, a cinema usherette whose own two kids had been taken into care, an alcoholic and a heroin addict. Smith brought her into the family home, into his bed, but even then he couldn’t let Seed go. He made Seed sleep in the bed with them . . .’

‘Aidan was his comfort blanket,’ said Charlie.

‘Whatever he was, Smith wasn’t willing to do without him. Maybe he stopped abusing him once he had Trelease to take care of his sexual needs, but Seed still had to lie there every night, listening to the two of them having sex.’ Simon kept his eyes on Proust as he spoke. He knew Charlie thought talking about sex made him uncomfortable, and he hated the way she studied his behaviour. It made him feel like an alien under a microscope.

‘You’ve read the brother and sister’s statements, sir,’ she said. Her less confrontational tone made Simon aware that he’d been raising his voice. Keep your cool. First, find some from somewhere, then when you’ve got it, keep it. ‘Aidan used to creep out on to the landing to get away from Smith and Trelease, but Smith would come out of the bedroom stark naked—he’d actually interrupt sex with his girlfriend—to drag him back in. If he was in that bed, Aidan had to be in it too: house rule. The brother and sister each witnessed it on more than one occasion. Both said that, as well as being aggressive, Smith was clearly scared.’

‘According to both siblings, Smith claimed he couldn’t sleep if Seed wasn’t in the bed with him,’ said Kombothekra, looking down at his notes. ‘Said he had panic attacks. Maybe he felt the same even after he got together with Trelease.’