“I didn’t have much of a choice, did I?”

“I understand you knew Stanley Wilson quite well?” Thackeray ignored the tension which made the air in the enclosed space tingle. “You must have expected that we’d want to talk to you. Now, tell me how you met him, would you? Where and when?”

“I met him at the Devonshire, the way you do,” Harman said. “It were ages ago. I can’t remember exactly when, can I?”

“Bought you a drink, did he?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“And the relationship developed from there?” Thackeray offered Harman a cigarette which he lit with trembling fingers. Given the contempt radiating from “Omar” Sharif he felt more sorry for Harman than he might normally have done. After all, there was no reason yet to suppose that Harman had strangled Wilson after some lovers’ quarrel.

“I suppose,” Harman said, his eyes shifting uneasily now.

“And it became physical?” Thackeray insisted.

“Well, yeah, it did, as it goes. Now and then. It weren’t a great love affair or owt.”

“But Stanley was quite a lot older than you, wasn’t he?”

“A bit. A few years.”

“So how old were you when you met him?” Thackeray guessed his Asian DC would not like the answer, at least if it was even marginally truthful. Harman glanced down at the table while Sharif simply glared.

“Sixteen,” he said and Thackeray thought that was close enough not to argue with. He knew Wilson preferred young men but as far as he knew he had never been accused of being a paedophile, in Britain at least. He seemed to prefer to play on the very edge of legality claiming, as no doubt he would have claimed in this case, that his partners knew their own sexuality and were willing.

“So you became his boyfriend,” Thackeray went on, carefully keeping his tone neutral although he could sense the young Muslim DC seething beside him. “How long ago was this? Months? Years?”

“Three, four years ago,” Harman said. “I don’t remember exactly. It’s always been a bit on and off. Stanley weren’t the faithful kind, if you know what I mean. He was always on the lookout for summat new.”

“Did he pay you?” Sharif said suddenly, his voice thick with emotion. Thackeray glared at him and Harman flushed uncomfortably.

“No, he bloody didn’t,” Harman said passionately. “It weren’t like that. I’m not a bloody rentboy.”

“I take it you were a regular visitor to Stanley’s house?” Thackeray asked, the question apparently as innocuous as the rest.

“Yeah, course,” Harman said. “He couldn’t come to mine, could he? I still live at ’ome, don’t I?”

“With your parents?”

“My mam. My dad did a bunk years back.”

“The reason it’s important, Martin, is that your fingerprints will be around the place at Stanley’s house so we’ll need to eliminate you. You’ve no objection to us taking your prints, have you?” Thackeray’s tone left no doubt that a negative reply was not an option. Harman shook his head miserably.

“When were you last there, do you reckon?” Thackeray pressed him.

“Last week,” Harman muttered. “Thursday or Friday maybe.”

“And not since?”

“I’ve not seen him since.”

“Not quarrelled, have you?” Thackeray asked quickly and saw Harman flinch.

“No, he were busy, that’s all,” Harman said. He hesitated for a moment, glancing at all three officers in turn before evidently making up his mind to continue. “Well if you must know he were in a right funny mood. Excited, like.”

“Any idea what he was excited about?”

“He didn’t say much, but he had a lot of holiday brochures in t‘front room so I guessed he were planning a trip. I thought maybe he’d come into a bit extra, like. Most o’t’time he were skint, but now and again he’d be flush and that were when he went away to one of his exotic spots. Course I knew what he went for …”

“He didn’t take you with him?” Thackeray asked.

Harman laughed thinly.

“Fat chance. It weren’t me he were going to Thailand for, or wherever. Get real.”

“But you didn’t see him again?”

“Well, when I thought about it I reckoned maybe he were all worked up because he’d found someone new. I were going round there about a week ago and I saw this black lad coming out. Right good-looking, he were, nice gear an’all. I just knew Stanley would go for him if he got half a chance. So I thought I’d bugger off for a bit, didn’t I? Chances were he’d not last long and then Stanley would come crawling back to me.”

“That had happened before?” Thackeray pressed.

“One or twice, yes,” Harman admitted. “I told you. He were always on the pull, was Stanley.”

“But there were other reasons why men might call on Stanley, weren’t there?” Sharif asked. “You knew he was carrying on some filthy pornographic trade there.”

“If you’ve been crawling all over his house you must know he had a little business going,” Harman said, apparently unperturbed. “It were nowt to do wi’ me, that. I’m not into all that stuff, pictures of kids an’ that. Nor were Stanley, as it goes, but he reckoned he could make a few bob out of them that were. He were good wi’computers, were Stanley. You must have seen all the stuff he had upstairs in the back room.”

“Are you saying you didn’t help him? Come on,” Sharif sneered, with fierce scepticism.

“I never,” Harman said. “I don’t know owt about computers. I’m not into all that technology stuff.”

“It must have cost him to set all that up, though,” Thackeray observed. “How did he fund all that on his wages?”

“I don’t know,” Harman said. “He had some of it before I met him. He did once say that someone loaned him some money, but I’ve no idea who. It’s not summat you could ask the bank for a loan for, is it?”

“And you didn’t raise any objection to the nature of this … business?” Thackeray asked.

“It were nowt heavy,” Harman said. “Just pictures of kids on beaches, in the park, family snaps, that sort of stuff. Not hardcore. At least that’s what he said.”

“And you believed him?” Sharif’s intervention was scornful. “You expect us to believe that?”

“It’s the truth. I had nowt to do wi’it.”

“So we won’t find your fingerprints all over the computers?” Thackeray asked.

“No, you won’t,” Harman said. “I told you, I know nowt about computers. Never learned. And Stanley used to say that the beauty of the thing was that nothing important ever came off those machines. It were all stashed away there with passwords and codes — what is it? Encryption? All his contacts, customers, everything was in there.”

“But he copied videotapes. Surely you know that?”

“He had a few customers for tapes,” Harman said. “But mostly it went out over the internet. He said that were much safer. He didn’t like doing the tapes but a few customers who couldn’t use a computer liked them. He said if he ever got caught they’d be the ones who got done because he had their addresses, road names an’that. A lot of the others he only had computer addresses and he said that were much safer. Anonymous, like.”

“Anyone you know take the tapes?” Thackeray asked.

Harmon shrugged.

“Special customers, Stanley said. Did it as a favour. I got the feeling there was someone important though — the person who bankrolled him, maybe. He talked once about his insurance being in that machine.”

“His insurance? What did he mean by that?” Thackeray asked sharply.

“I’m not sure,” Harman said slowly. “But I reckon there was stuff in there someone didn’t want let out.”

“You think he was into blackmail?”

“He had plenty to go on, didn’t he?” Harman said easily. “But I don’t know who so it’s no good asking. I took care to keep well out of Stanley’s business affairs. Too clever by half, I reckoned he might be. I wanted nowt to do with it.”

“So you say you haven’t seen Stanley this week,” Thackeray changed tack sharply. “So you can tell me where you were on Wednesday.”