Haroon Malik asked for a moment alone with his client, and Banks and Annie paused the recording equipment and left the room. When they came back and resumed, Sunny seemed more relaxed. Sometimes interviews went this way, Annie reflected. The suspect lied and denied everything up to a point, then decided that a slightly sanitized version of the truth might be more acceptable. Next thing, maybe Sunny would be wanting to make a deal.

“The girls whose statements we have are all under the age of consent,” said Banks. “What do you say to that?”

“How would I know what age they are? They all look the same to me.”

“I take it by that you’ve decided to admit you do know the girls, but you’re claiming you didn’t know how young they were. Am I right?”

“That’s right. Can I help it if girls like me? Think I’m handsome. And there was no prostitution. These girls like to party. You don’t have to pay them.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere. But I thought it was you who got paid?”

“There’s no call for that. And I want to make it perfectly clear that I had nothing—nothing at all—to do with Mimsy’s death.”

“But you did know her, and the details of her death?”

“Yes. Of course. I read the papers.” He gave Annie a scathing glance. “And that one came round the takeaway along with her friend and tried to fool us into believing they could tie our food to her stomach contents. No way.”

“No way she’s had your food, or no way we could tie it to your takeaway?”

“I Googled it. It’s not possible. Scientifically. So you’ve got nothing on me.”

“Why did you Google it?” Annie asked.

“What?”

“About the stomach contents. Why did you Google it?”

“I was curious.”

“Sure you weren’t worried?”

“I have nothing to be worried about.”

“But you admit you were lying a few minutes ago when you denied all knowledge of these girls?”

Sunny looked down at his hands on the desk. “Yes. All right. I thought you were going to blame me for something I didn’t do just because of the color of my skin.”

“And now?”

Sunny turned to Haroon Malik. “I know I didn’t do anything wrong, so I’ve nothing to fear. I have no reason to lie.”

“Good decision, Sunny,” said Banks. “Maybe we don’t have any forensic evidence. Yet. But we do have plenty of witnesses and victims who are willing to testify against you and your friends. Your girls are starting to talk, Sunny. What you did to Mimosa has got them really upset with you. Some of them claim you beat them up if they refused to go with men you brought to the flat. They want us to put you and your friends in jail so they can get on with their lives.”