‘Let’s go back to the phone call…’ Janet began again.
After another hour of persistent questioning, examining Sean’s account in minute detail, presenting him time and again with the inconsistencies, there was a knock at the door. Rachel went to answer it and returned with a piece of paper that she gave to Janet. Janet opened the paper: CCTV from Arndale – Lisa shoplifting items and placing them in her own bags. Oh, yes! Another piece of the puzzle. But why was Sean lying? In the light of murder, shoplifting was way down the priority list. So why bother trying to cover up that? Or were his lies designed to conceal his part in Lisa’s death? Janet still had no idea. All she could do was continue to chip away.
‘That was fresh evidence,’ she told Sean. ‘I am able to tell you that we now know Lisa was shoplifting in town, that she came home with stolen goods. I’ll ask you again: can you tell me where those items are?’
Sean angled his face up to the ceiling, let his hands slump by his sides. Submission. ‘I took them,’ he said, then looked briefly at Janet. ‘I got rid of them.’
Janet resisted the temptation to make eye contact with Pete or to turn round and see Rachel’s reaction at the breakthrough this represented. It was important to maintain the connection with Sean. As long as he was still talking to her, she was in effect the only person in the room with him. ‘Why?’ Janet asked. To sell them on? Funding a drug habit was no easy thing. ‘Why did you take them?’
‘I just did.’
‘What did you do with them?’
‘I got rid of them, I told you,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Where did you get rid of them?’
He sat for a few moments, his eyes downcast. Running through the possibilities? ‘In the bins, the dumpsters behind the shops, on Garrigan Street.’
‘When?’
‘Straight after. After I saw her.’
‘Before you rang the police?’ Janet said.
‘Yes.’
‘So, you did leave the flat?’
‘Yes.’ He swallowed.
‘And Lisa’s phone?’
‘I took that too.’
‘What did you do with the phone?’
‘Same,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘Dunno.’
‘There must be a reason,’ Janet said.
‘No, I’m just… I wasn’t thinking right.’
‘Why didn’t you tell us this in your original statement?’ Janet said.
He shrugged, shook his head. He looked close to tears.
‘Sean, is there anything else you’d like to tell us?’
‘No.’
‘Anything else you’d like to change from your original statement?’
‘No,’ he said.
‘Sean, I need to ask you something now, and I want you to think very, very carefully about your answer. Can you tell me anything about how Lisa died?’
