At the station, Stone repeated his version of events in the formal setting of the interview room. Butchers accompanied Richard. The duty solicitor, who had been hoping for a quiet night in with a video, looked half asleep. Stone had exchanged his own clothes for overalls and had been fingerprinted and swabbed for DNA. He answered all the questions they put to him.
‘Sulikov rang you on Monday at 7.15. What exactly did he say?’ Richard asked.
‘There was a problem. One of the girls had OD’d… we needed to dispose of her. He said to pick the car up at eight near these units in Burnage.’
‘You got the car from Harper’s, didn’t you?’ Richard checked.
‘What?’ Stone frowned. ‘No. I mean it’s Harper’s car, bet he wasn’t too happy about it.’
‘But you didn’t get it from his place?’
Stone got prickly. ‘I told you, Burnage, industrial units,’ he sighed and shook his head as though they were beyond belief. He spoke slowly as if dealing with a dozy child, ‘the keys were in the ignition, dosh in the glove compartment, body in the boot.’
‘Then what?’
‘We take it to the place at the river. Get rid of the body.’
‘And after?’ Richard cocked his head.
‘Went for a drive.’
‘All night?’
‘Pretty much. Stopped off a couple of places. Don’t remember exactly.’
‘Why’s that then?’
‘Wasn’t exactly sober,’ Stone sneered.
‘Those your orders were they?’
He scowled. ‘Sulikov said to torch the car. Nice set of wheels, seemed a shame to do that before we’d put it through its paces.’
‘And Ann-Marie?’ Richard said quietly.
Stone’s eyes flicked away and back. ‘Jez lost control, just an accident.’
‘You saying Gleason was driving?’ Butchers asked. A nod.
‘We need a yes,’ Butchers signalled to the tape.
‘Yes,’ he hissed.
‘Funny that,’ Richard said, ‘you letting him drive, hard man like you. Thought you’d want to stay behind the wheel.’
Stone said nothing.
‘So, Rosa?’ Richard sat back surveying the man. ‘When you opened the boot what did you find?’
Stone shifted in his seat. ‘She were all wrapped up. Couldn’t even tell who it was.’
‘Was she stiff? Was she warm?’
‘For God’s sake,’ Stone squirmed.
‘Hard facts, Mr Stone. We need to know when she died, we need to know where.’
‘Don’t ask me,’ he complained.
‘We are asking you. What state was the body in?’
