Page 114 of Vengeance is Mine

Terry opened the folder. ‘The fourteenth of February 2015, you were arrested for threatening your wife with a knife.’

‘It was a misunderstanding.’

‘The twelfth of March 2014, you were arrested for assaulting Jamie Pratt.’

‘He threatened my sister.’

‘The second of November 2012, you were charged, along with your brother, with beating up two Liverpool football supporters.’

‘Things got out of control. They were taking the piss because they beat Newcastle. We’d had a few drinks.’

‘And then there’s this one: the tenth of August 2010. Perverting the course of justice. Lying under oath.’

‘My sister already had points on her licence. She’d have lost her job if she couldn’t drive.’

‘Lying under oath,’ Terry repeated. ‘Why should I believe you when you say a ghost and a terminally ill man killed Dominic Griffiths, when you freely admit to being in the house and taking part in his assault?’

‘Because it’s true.’

Terry looked at his watch. ‘Interview terminated at 09:37.’

The interview with Paul Cummings was even shorter. He hadn’t seen anyone coming up the garden path. He echoed Andrew’s words, more or less verbatim, when quoting John as shouting, ‘Shit, his parents are here’, before all three of them ran out of the front door. He admitted kicking Dominic a few times in the trunk of his body, but claimed Andrew performed most of the assault.

He was full of remorse and spent most of the interview wiping away tears with the sleeve of his sweater. He stated that he would never have gone to Dominic’s house if it hadn’t been for Andrew and John egging him on, telling him that Dominic should be taught a lesson.

‘Paul, do you drive a car?’ Terry asked.

‘Yes.’

‘What make?’

‘A Peugeot.’

‘Colour?’

‘Black.’

‘Did you use your car to travel to Dominic’s house on the night of the first of January?’

He nodded. ‘Andrew hasn’t got a car, and John’s only got a van. Andrew said the van would stand out a mile.’

‘How long were you planning this assault?’

‘We didn’t plan on assaulting him, just scaring him,’ he said, with frustration.

‘How long?’

‘I don’t know. A few weeks maybe.’

‘From the beginning of December then?’

‘Maybe. I don’t know how it started. Andrew said that some girl at work had told him who Dominic really was. We all knew him as Rupert.’

‘Who was the girl at work who told Andrew?’

‘I don’t know. Everyone gossips in that place.’

‘So, you planned to scare him. You chose which night to do it, and you had your car to get to and from Dominic’s house.’