Simon Kernick - Severed

'Right, let's not mention it, then.'

'Are you sure?'

'Listen, Tyler, if you want me to represent you, you're going to have to do what I say. Understand?'

'OK.'

'Can you remember anything at all about last night?'

I shake my head. It remains as blank as ever.

'We're going to have to get you tested for drugs. I want to know what you were dosed with.'

'Whatever it was, it was strong.'

'If we get bail, which I have to say at the moment I doubt in the extreme, I'm going to arrange for you to undergo hypnosis. It's important that we find out anything that might give us a clue as to who was behind this.'

'I know.'

'And you've got absolutely no idea who it might be?'

'I've thought about it all day, but I still don't know.'

'Might it be something to do with your past?'

'That's what I've been thinking. That it's got something to do with my army days.'

'Is there anything that happened that might have pissed someone off?'

'That's the problem. I can't think of anything specific. I served in plenty of war zones but I was just one of many soldiers. There's no reason why anyone would have picked me out for revenge. And why wait this long? I left the army getting close to four years ago; these days I'm just a middle-of-the-road car salesman. I'm not interesting enough to upset anyone that much.'

Adine sighs. 'Unless we find out who might have a reason for setting you up, the attention of the police is always going to keep coming back to you.'

'But there's no motive for me killing any of these people.'

'That's as may be, but be under no illusions, Tyler. The police'll be under huge pressure to get convictions for these killings. The Met have one of the lowest clear-up rates for murder in the country. They're not going to want it to go any lower, and with you, they've at least got a decent suspect. You were arrested leaving a house where four people were murdered. The fact that you made the nine-nine-nine call from within the property places you there at about the time of the murders.'

'But the fact that I made that call should count in my favour,' I say hopefully.

'Get real, Tyler. That's no defence.' She underlines something in her notes, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, then puts the pen down and gives me a stern look. 'No, what we've got to do is make you look like an innocent in all this, which is not going to be easy. The important thing is that you don't mention anything about the killings this morning at the house where you picked up the briefcase, or the dead girl you woke up next to this morning. I'm hoping that the person who set you up for her murder has kept his side of the bargain and given you all the evidence, rather than keep anything back to give to the police.'

'The problem is, it looks as though he's trying to get me to take the rap for everything, so why wouldn't he have sent another copy of the DVD to the police?'

'Because,' she says, 'if someone hands in that DVD anonymously and then phones to say that the killer in the film is you, it might have the opposite effect to what's intended. In other words, it might make the police suspect that you are being set up. If I were him, I'd think it was far easier just to leave things as they are. I mean, your situation is hardly a positive one.'

I concede her point. 'All right, then. What do I tell them?'

'As little as possible. The fact that Lucas has already talked to the police about his colleague's murder means you're going to have to admit to knowing about that. But we don't necessarily have to give the same version of events.'

I'm getting an uneasy feeling now. 'What do you mean?'

'You told me that Lucas told the detectives investigating his colleague's-'

'Snowy. His name's Snowy.'

'All right, Snowy.' She seems to find it difficult to say the name. 'You said that Lucas told the detectives that you approached him this afternoon to ask him to put a track on a briefcase, and that Snowy was the person who actually tracked it, but the two of you lost contact with him.' She pauses for a moment to consult her notes – not, I suspect, that she needs them. Adine's always had a photographic memory. 'You and Lucas parted company, and then the next thing Lucas knew the police were on the line telling him that his colleague was dead.'

'That's about right.'

'So we simply turn it around. You didn't approach Lucas about the case, he approached you. He said he was putting a track on the case and he might need your help dealing with the people who were going to be receiving it. As he was an old friend of yours from the army, you reluctantly said yes.'

'You are asking me to lie.'

'No, Tyler,' she says, folding her hands on the desk, 'what I'm trying to do is save you from going to prison for a long time. Now, we either do things my way or you're on your own.'

She pauses, waiting for me to contradict her. I don't, and she takes this as tacit acceptance of her plan.

'You might have been seen by someone near Snowy's body, so I think we should tell the truth here. Having reluctantly said yes, you and Lucas were also tracking the case, and discovered the tracker and Snowy's corpse at the same time. And it was then that you realized you were involved in something far more dangerous than you'd anticipated.' She stops. 'Did anyone see you go into the brothel?'

'No. I got in round the back, and I was wearing different clothes to the ones I was arrested in.'

'What about leaving?'

'There were a lot of people out watching the fire, but I was smoke-blackened, bleeding and all sorts. I doubt if anyone would be able to pick me out in an ID parade.'

'That's good,' she says, nodding slowly. 'When you and Lucas found Snowy, Lucas panicked. So did you. The two of you parted company, with Lucas apologizing for getting you involved.'

I'm beginning to feel sick. After everything that's happened, this feels like the final act of betrayal.

But Adine's on a roll. 'You didn't hear from him again until earlier this evening,' she says, 'when he told you that he intended to go to the house of the man he believed had had Snowy killed, and he wanted your help in case things went wrong. He identified the man as a gangster called Eddie Cosick. You were kept in the dark about what Lucas's involvement with Cosick was, and you tried to dissuade him from going, particularly when he suggested taking guns, but again you felt that you couldn't say no. You bitterly regret the fact that you accompanied him to Mr Cosick's house, but in your defence you say that you insisted the guns you took were for show only, and were unloaded. Are you getting all this?'

I'm having difficulty keeping up with the lengths Adine is willing to go to get me off the hook, but I reply that, yes, I am getting it all.

She reminds me that I have to remember every single word. 'Make one mistake in the story and they'll be on to you immediately. They're trained to pick up any inconsistencies.'

'I know. I was trained in anti-interrogation techniques myself.'

'Good,' she says with a cool smile. 'So, when you turned up, going in through an open door at the rear of the property, you discovered the bodies of three men who Lucas identified as Cosick and his bodyguards. But while you were in the room with Cosick, an unidentified assailant stabbed Lucas and escaped before you could either see or apprehend him. You immediately dialled nine-nine-nine to summon assistance and made strenuous but ultimately unsuccessful efforts to save Lucas. Only when you were sure he was dead did you leave the scene, the way you came in, afraid of being caught with the bodies, and that's when you were apprehended by the police. Which is exactly what happened, isn't it?'

'Yeah,' I sigh, 'that's what happened.'

'Good. Now we've got a plausible story.'