“But she was his little sister. This is unbelievable.” He pointed toward the door. “You’ve got all those bloody Pakis out there guilty as hell of grooming and raping and doing god knows what else to poor Mimsy, and you’re trying to pin the blame on Albert. Shame on you.”

Annie stood up and Gerry followed suit more slowly, again using her good hand to push herself up from the chair. “Thanks, Paul. You’ve been very helpful,” Annie said.

Warner just shook his head in disbelief and exasperation, then he got to his feet and walked toward the door. As he left the interview room, he gave them a backward glance and muttered, “Unbelievable.”

“Like they say in the movies,” Annie called after him, “don’t leave town, we might want to talk to you again.” And when he had left, she took out her mobile.

“WHAT DID he say?” Banks asked Ursula Pemberton.

“He told me it happened at a party in the hotel suite in Blackpool. They were celebrating something or other. It was a large suite and there were several rooms. At one point, Tony told me, Caxton asked him to accompany him, and they went to a darkened bedroom. There was a woman already in there, on the bed. She seemed surprised to see them and made to leave, but Caxton wouldn’t let her.”

“You mean he physically stopped her?”

“I don’t know. I don’t remember it exactly. Just that Caxton wouldn’t let her leave. Persuaded her to stay. One thing led to another and they ended up having sex, first Caxton and the woman, then . . .” She swallowed. “Then Tony.”

“He told you this?”

“I told you he was honest, even at his own cost.”

“Let me get this straight. Tony told you that he and Caxton raped a woman in a hotel room in Blackpool.”

“Yes. I suppose that’s what it amounted to. Though he never mentioned rape. I assumed I was supposed to think the woman succumbed to Caxton’s charm and Tony just happened to be a beneficiary of his largesse. None of that helped.”

“But if she wasn’t willing, it was rape.”

“I’m aware of that. Tony told me Caxton said she was the kind of girl who liked it rough, but Tony thought maybe her fear was genuine.”

“Yet he raped her anyway?”

“They’d been drinking. Perhaps drugs. I don’t know. All three of them. Look, Superintendent, this isn’t easy for me. It wasn’t easy for him, either. He wasn’t proud of it. He was disgusted with himself. He was in tears when he told me.”

“What did you do?”

“I held him and told him it would be all right. That was when he told me he was going to do something about it.”

“What?”