“I didn’t kill Mimsy. Why would I do that? And our girlfriends were all well treated. Better than they deserved. Do you think I don’t know what’s going on?”

“Enlighten me, Sunny,” said Annie.

“They’re trying to paint a different picture. Nobody got raped or beaten. And we didn’t know anything about the girls being underage. Far as we knew, they were all willing to do everything they did. More than willing. They liked to party. We partied with them.”

“Did you supply them with drink and drugs?”

“You have a drink at a party, don’t you? It’s only natural.”

“So you’re not a practicing Muslim, then?”

“I never said I was, did I? What’s that got to do with anything? That stuff’s got nothing to do with me. I’m British, I am. I was born here. My father was born here.”

“No one’s saying you’re not British, Sunny, just that you tend to be a bit less so when it suits you. Like earlier.”

“What do you mean?”

“What Americans call the race card.”

“I don’t expect no special treatment because I’m brown.”

“But that’s just it, Sunny. You do. When you think you can get it. You seem to think being of Pakistani origin exempts you from the rules the rest of us have to play by. And it works the other way. Whenever we call you on anything, you’ll call foul and say it’s because you’re of Pakistani origin, saying we’re out to get you because of the color of your skin.”

“Well, that’s what it feels like. You’ve no idea what it’s like. You’d have to be me to understand.” He tapped the center of his chest. “My dad told me that when he was a kid, people used to say we lived ten in a room and ate KiteKat by choice. Like we were animals or something. But we had a culture. We had a religion. We had morals. You see these young white girls today in their short skirts and torn stockings, looking like prostitutes, talking and swearing like they do, the language they use, drinking in the street, having sex whenever they feel like it, taking drugs. They’re just rubbish. If any of our daughters behaved like that, we’d kill them.”

“Well, that’s another issue, and not one that concerns us here. All we’re interested in is whether you killed Mimsy.”

“I didn’t.”

“So you say. There must have been something about the girls you liked, no matter that you say they were rubbish, seeing as you spent so much time with them. Let’s get back to the parties, Sunny. Especially the young girls.”

“They were all up for it. We didn’t make nobody do anything they didn’t want.”

“That’s a matter of opinion.”