‘It’s his day off.’
‘But they both worked Sunday?’ Harper nodded.
‘Anything going on between him and Rosa?’
‘No, I’d have noticed. I don’t like him round the girls.’
‘Why’s that, then?’
‘Bit rough round the edges, nasty mouth on him. They shouldn’t have to put up with that.’
‘Anything physical?’
‘Once or twice, harassment, copping a feel. I made it plain to him, any more of it and he’d be out.’
Richard nodded, wondering whether Stone’s harassment had involved Rosa this time and whether it had got out of hand. Whether sexual assault had led to murder?
*****
At the police station, introductions had been made for the tape and Janine and Butchers faced Stone and a duty solicitor across the table in interview room one.
Janine took in the truculent expression on Stone’s face, the insolence in his watery blue eyes. He was a big man, solidly built, with the look of someone who could ‘handle himself’. No match for a slender girl like Rosa.
‘You work for Mr Harper,’ Janine began. ‘Why did you steal his car?’
‘What car?’ Playing innocent. His eyes mocking her. Janine changed tack. ‘Tell me about Rosa Milicz?’
‘What about her?’
‘You like her?’
‘Not especially.’
‘Why’s that? She turn you down?’
Stone sneered. ‘No.’
Janine sensed the question rankled. She could feel the anger not far below the surface. Like many of the violent men she had dealt with, Stone had a short fuse and his aggression belied an insecurity that made him quick to respond to imagined slights or insults.
‘Mr Harper doesn’t trust you with the girls.’
‘What! A gentleman like me!’ He swung his neck this way and that as he mocked offence. The gesture reminded Janine of the dances of the rap artists Michael used to like; that male posturing, the come and get me pose.
‘When did you last see Rosa?’
‘Sunday. At work.’
‘Did you ever have a relationship with her?’
‘I prefer my brunettes with bigger tits.’ He leered pointedly at Janine.
Prat. She hoped he could read the cold loathing in her expression.
Butchers shifted uncomfortably.
‘Let’s go over everything very slowly again,’ she said, ‘just in case you missed something.’
An hour and a half later, Stone had maintained his brash front and they all needed a break.
In the corridor outside Butchers sighed loudly. ‘What about the witness?’ he suggested.
It was a good idea. If the witness could identify Stone and Gleason as the men she’d seen running from the blazing car, Janine would have stronger grounds for further interviews.
