‘I am?’

‘Yes. You are in danger of drowning in criminality. I can throw you a lifeline, it’s up to you to decide to catch it or not. You are standing on the side of the road, a vehicle is approaching you, it is a bus, but it is more than that, it is the last bus. You can catch it or let it go past you. The lifeline, the last bus, you have this one opportunity to help yourself. If you don’t take this opportunity you start to work against yourself. If you’re frightened of drowning, I suggest that you help yourself. I was talking to a barrister the other day who told me that it’s always best to play with a straight bat.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘What I mean is that we will be reopening the investigation into your uncle’s death. We now believe he was murdered by your brother. By doing so, he made your father wealthier by six million pounds, more when Oakfield House was sold. That made you and your brother stand to inherit the money in the fullness of time, in the interim you could access it to featherbed your lifestyle.’

‘You’ve done your homework.’

‘So you’re catching the last bus?’

‘What else can I do?’ She sighed and looked at the floor.

A tension left the small room.

‘Not a great deal.’ Hennessey spoke softly after a pause to allow Nicola Williams’s reply to register. ‘In fact, any other strategy will only worm you into a hole you’ll never get out of. Don’t drown, stay as near the surface as possible.’

‘The straight bat?’

‘The straight bat. What did you know of your uncle’s murder?’

‘Nothing for ten years, until a week ago this evening. I thought that Uncle Marcus had drowned in the bath.’

‘What happened last Saturday night?’

‘Rufus killed Mummy and Daddy.’

Another pause. ‘I’m pleased for you, and I’m pleased for myself that you’re taking this stance, but here I have to caution you…’

‘I don’t want to be cautioned…I’m in a state of shock…I still want to wake up. The only way I can come to terms with what has happened is to tell you…you see, it was at the meal at the Mill that we learned the truth…that we were broke…we had nothing…Daddy just laughed at it. He was a strange man, obsessed with petty things, everything in the home had to be “just so”, but big issues, the important things in life, just didn’t reach him. Anyway, we left the Mill, Rufus had gone into a cold fury…we drove home. I drove. Mummy was crying, Daddy was singing, Rufus was staring straight ahead, not even blinking…’

‘Rufus could kill your uncle so as to put your uncle’s fortune into the hands of your father but he couldn’t control your father’s spending of it.’

Nicola Williams wiped her eyes. ‘If you’re used to having money then poverty hides a real fear…it would be bad enough if Daddy had lost his money…but what Rufus couldn’t handle was that he’d murdered for that money…then Daddy had squandered it. He’d murdered for nothing.’

‘Poor Rufus,’ growled Yellich. Hennessey glared at him.

‘That money, properly invested…’ Nicola Williams took deep breaths…‘What we could have had if only Uncle Marcus had drowned, if only Daddy had just an ounce of Uncle Marcus’s business sense…if only…’ She forced a smile. ‘That’s going to be the hallmark of the rest of my life…if only. This time last week, it didn’t matter that I was a low-grade civil servant in my thirties, because Daddy’s money paid the rent and bought my clothes and kept my car on the road…now all I’ve got is my salary.’

‘You may not even have that.’

She shot a glance at him.

‘Depending on what happened at the bungalow last Saturday night, you may be an accessory to murder. If that’s the case, that’s your job down the tubes; even if you escape prison, you’ll be drawing Social Security.’

She drew breath sharply. ‘You said you were allowing me to catch the last bus.’

‘I am. That doesn’t mean to say you’ll escape prosecution.’

Nicola Williams clenched her jaw. ‘I want immunity from prosecution in return for a complete statement implicating my brother.’

‘You and your brother have the same ruthless streak, don’t you?’

‘Same tyrannical father, same weak mother who failed to protect, you have to become ruthless to survive. Maybe Daddy killed his brother in a sense, Rufus was just the murder weapon…I think I’ll be chewing that one over for some time to come.’

‘No deal about the immunity request.’

‘Oh, I think there will be…I mean, I have a loyalty to my brother, but I have a loyalty to my parents, I have a loyalty to my uncle and I have a loyalty to myself. But like every other human being, I can only serve one master. Other masters have to fend for themselves.’ She sat back in the chair, recovering composure, recovering confidence. ‘I have not yet told you what happened at the bungalow.’

‘I can guess.’

‘I’m sure you can, Chief Inspector, but you can’t walk into York Crown Court asking what you guess to be used as evidence, can you? Rufus won’t be spilling any beans.’

She held eye contact with Hennessey, then Yellich, then Hennessey again. ‘You’ve got no hard evidence at all, have you? Nothing at all. But I can make and sign a statement that will enable you to clear up three murders. That will look good on your service record, and it’ll be good for the statistics of this police force. So how about it?’

‘I can’t say yea or nay. The Crown Prosecution Service will have to pronounce on the issue of immunity from prosecution in return for Queen’s evidence.’ Hennessey spoke sourly. He knew she was right. He also knew she’d get her immunity. ‘I have to give them a measure of your evidence, it’s a question of letting the dog see the rabbit.’

‘Turn your play thing off and I’ll tell you.’

Hennessey said, ‘The interview is terminated at two-thirty four p.m.’ He switched off the machine, the red light faded.

‘Well…’ Nicola Williams smiled. ‘We got back to the bungalow…Rufus disappeared and returned with a long piece of metal, a car jack handle from the garage…he killed Mummy first…brought it straight down on her head…I think he did that so she’d never know the story about Uncle Marcus. It all happened quickly…then he turned on Daddy…really angry…told Daddy how he’d murdered Uncle Marcus…how he’d planned it, once he had realized how wealthy Marcus was and once he’d realized how Daddy had survived all the years by dipping into Marcus’s pocket…he said Marcus hadn’t got much of a life anyway…so we may as well have the money. We could use it, Marcus couldn’t, with his hermit-like existence…what use was all that money to Marcus…confess I’ve never seen Daddy sober up so quickly…then Rufus really went mad, beating Daddy’s brains out saying, “That was my money…that was my money…six million pounds…gone, gone…”.’

‘Then?’

‘Then after we’d collected ourselves, he dragged the bodies into the garage and we cleaned up the mess together. He did most of the clearing up, I followed after him because he wasn’t very thorough.’

‘We thought…well. Sergeant Yellich here thought the clean house spoke of a woman’s touch.’

‘He was right.

‘He went back to his cottage on the Sunday. I stayed behind, going over the cleaning until I felt I’d got all the blood up…then I went to the garage and said goodbye to my parents. So you see, I wasn’t really lying to you when I told you I’d seen and spoken to both my parents on the Sunday afternoon. Then I returned to London. Rufus returned the next night, Monday/Tuesday night, put the bodies in the Volvo, drove them a little way out into the country and buried them in a field. So you see, I haven’t really committed a very serious crime.’

‘Accessory to murder. That’s serious enough.’

‘That could be argued. I didn’t assist with any murder. I didn’t know it was going to happen. When I cleaned up the mess I was in a state of shock, under the thrall of my brother…my state of mind was temporarily unbalanced…I would plead guilty to a lesser charge of obstructing the police with their enquiries…but for immunity from prosecution for that petty crime, you get the evidence you need to wrap up three murders. The GPS will go for that deal, won’t they? Or is it an it? Won’t it?’ Nicola Williams stood. ‘Now, if you’ll kindly escort me back to my brother’s cottage, I’ll be able to collect my things and leave before Rufus returns from the base, he’s drawn weekend day duty officer this weekend. You can arrest him when he returns at about five p.m. It’ll be neater than arresting him at the base. And you’ll know where I am…it’s not in my interest to do anything but cooperate fully and completely. I’ll let you know my new address.’