‘Your wife’s initials are KM. She also told me her date of birth is the eleventh of August 1953. Why on earth would you buy her a cross engraved with someone else’s initials and birthday?’ Boon asked.

‘I . . . didn’t notice the letters and numbers when I bought it,’ Barry said hesitantly.

‘We seized the crowbar from your toolbox. I’ll bet when forensics do some test marks with it, they’ll find a perfect match to the crowbar marks on the coffin,’ Boon said.

Barry bit his lip and didn’t reply. Boon and Stanley could see he was agitated and trying to concoct another plausible answer. Stanley didn’t give him time to think of one.

‘Forcing open a coffin and stealing from the body is a serious offence, for which you could go to prison. I can’t begin to imagine what the other inmates will do to a man who stole a cross from a dead nun.’

Barry looked even more worried.

Stanley continued to twist the knife. ‘I imagine the other inmates will take their own divine retribution . . .’

Barry had heard enough. ‘I didn’t open the coffin with the intention of stealing anything!’

Boon leaned forward. ‘Then tell us exactly what happened.’

‘Lee had gone off to speak with Mr Durham and Dermot went to call the police. I just wanted to see if there was a body inside. If there wasn’t, we could have moved the coffin and carried on working. I used my crowbar to open it and was shocked when I saw the body.’

‘Did you realise it was a nun?’ Boon asked.

Barry nodded. ‘She was wearing nun’s clothes. Also, her hands were held together on her stomach like she was praying.’

‘Show me,’ Boon said.

Barry interlinked his fingers, with his thumbs up. ‘She was holding a little wooden cross in her hands and some of them bead things religious people have.’

‘You mean a rosary,’ Stanley said.

‘And where was the cross you stole from her?’

‘Around her neck.’

‘Why did you feel the need to steal it?’

Barry sighed. ‘I don’t know . . . it looked nice, and I thought I could maybe sell it for a few quid. Katie was feeling a bit down, so I gave it to her instead.’

Boon suspected he gave it to his wife as a form of apology for assaulting her.

‘Did your wife know it was stolen?’ Boon asked, just as a matter of procedure.

‘No. I told her I found it on the building site,’ Barry replied.

‘Did you take anything else from the coffin?’ Stanley asked.

‘No.’

‘Are you sure? It won’t make matters any worse if you did.’

‘I swear . . . it was just the cross.’

Stanley read over the interview notes. Barry agreed they were correct, then signed and dated each page.

‘What’s going to happen to me now?’ he asked.