“How were you feeling by the time he took the photos?”

“I was feeling nervous. Danny Caxton was scaring me a bit, saying things, and the way he looked at me. I felt my heart beating fast. I didn’t know what he meant. And the smile had gone. I suppose I was a bit tipsy, too. Like I said, I wasn’t used to drinking. I asked him where Helen Shapiro was, and he laughed and said he didn’t know. I think he said something rude about her, but I didn’t really understand it. Then he sat on the bed and patted the spot next to him. I sat down. I think I told him I wanted to go home.”

Banks could tell that despite Linda’s calm veneer she was getting upset the more she spoke. It was hardly surprising, given what was to come. “You don’t have to tell us all the details right now,” he said, “but did Danny Caxton rape you?”

Linda looked Banks in the eye first, then Winsome. “Yes, he did.”

“And did you struggle?”

“As best I could. I didn’t know what was happening, what he was doing. It might be hard for people to believe this today, but I was a virgin, and I was ignorant of the realities of sex. Oh, we talked about it at school, but that was all a load of nonsense, like rubbing willies and so on. It wasn’t anything like . . . Yes, I struggled because I was scared. But he was far stronger than me. And it hurt.”

“Then what happened?”

“After?”

“Yes.”

Linda averted her eyes, staring down at a robin hopping over the lawn by the fence. “It gets very hazy, but when Caxton finished, he rolled off me. I made to stand up. It was hard. I was winded, and he’d made me sore . . . you know. I felt sick from the champagne. But Caxton said I couldn’t leave yet, and he pushed me down again, then he told the other man it was his turn, to hurry up.”

“And what happened then?”

“The younger man raped me, too. There was something . . .” She stopped, as if trying to find the right words. “Something reluctant about him. Like he didn’t really want to do it, but he wanted to please Caxton. Maybe he’d been pushed into it, you know, maybe Caxton was challenging him to be a man or something. But what happened had excited him, and he’d passed a point of no return. I don’t know. Maybe I’m being fanciful, using hindsight, but I don’t think he felt comfortable.”

“But he did it anyway? Did he rape you as well?”

She turned her head away. “Yes.”

“So this man was both a witness and an assailant. You didn’t mention this to DI MacDonald?”

“No. I just told her someone else was there. I never told my mother, either.”

“Or the Leeds police?”