Page 92 of Vengeance is Mine

‘It was. It changed Harry into someone I didn’t recognise. That time he came to the station and saw—’ He stopped in his tracks.

‘What?’ Terry asked, looking up into his father’s eyes.

‘What?’ Ian replied innocently.

‘You were going to say about the time he came into the station and saw someone. Saw who?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You do, Dad.’ Terry edged closer. ‘Who did he see? What happened?’

‘I can’t… remember. It’s fuzzy.’

‘No, it isn’t. Your memory is good today. Who did Harry see when he came into the station? Was it Dominic? Did he see him there after you’d arrested him?’

‘It was a very dark time for us all,’ Ian said quietly. He placed what remained of his sandwich down on the paper bag and pushed it away. ‘It was twenty years ago. It was a different world back then.’

‘What happened?’

It was a while before he spoke. ‘We couldn’t get Dominic to talk. We didn’t know he was taking that drug he was on. If we had, it might have given us an insight into his behaviour. He kept saying he couldn’t remember. He didn’t know Stephanie. He’d never met her. He didn’t know how she came to be on his allotment. We questioned him for hours and hours, going over the same thing, and he wasn’t budging.’

‘Surely Harry wasn’t questioning him?’

‘No. I didn’t even know he was in the station. I was in that interview room for hours. Someone…’

‘Go on,’ Terry prompted, when his dad fell silent.

Ian turned to looked out of the window. He couldn’t look at his son. ‘Harry had come to the station. He was always turning up, even though he was on compassionate leave, asking how we were getting on, if we’d arrested anyone yet. Someone let him into the observation room without telling me. He watched the entire interview with Dominic.’

‘Oh my God.’

‘We were charging him for hiding the body, but we couldn’t do him for the murder. Not then anyway. We put him in the cells and let him stew for a while. We all needed a break. You know what it’s like when you’re trying to break a suspect. I needed some air. I smoked back then, as you know. I was in the car park. It was bloody freezing, but I needed some nicotine inside me. I’m standing there smoking. I turn around and I see DS bloody Jason Carr going into the cell block with Harry. I couldn’t get in there fast enough.’

‘Do I dare ask what happened?’

‘When I got there, Jason was nowhere to be seen. He’d unlocked Dominic’s cell door and left Harry to it.’

‘What was he doing?’

‘He had him by the scruff of his neck, pinned against the wall. He literally had him off the ground. He was right in his face, telling him to confess. He said he knew he’d killed Stephanie, and he needed to hear him say it.’

‘What did you do?’

‘I grabbed Harry and eventually managed to pull him off him. Dominic dropped to the floor, then… Harry kicked him.’ Ian looked down, ashamed.

‘What?’ Terry was almost out of his seat. The shock went through him like a charge of electricity. He had never known Harry to be violent. ‘Where did he kick him?’

‘The stomach. He only did it the once. I managed to stop him. I pushed him out of the cell and closed the door.’

‘Bloody hell, Dad. Did Dominic confess?’

‘Yes. Soon afterwards. Then his parents got him a solicitor, and it all came out about him being a bit depressed and moody, and he retracted his confession and stuck with the story that he didn’t know what he was doing at the time Stephanie was killed, and then said he had no memory of confessing. By then I wanted to kick him myself. It was all a big mess.’

Terry remained quiet and watched his father pick up the remainder of his sandwich and return to looking out of the window. He finished it in three bites, chewing slowly before swallowing.

‘Would you like me to make you a drink? I’ve brought biscuits.’

‘Thank you.’