‘That’s been done. It’s clear.’ Barnes briefly casts his attention to me. He knows the tapes were cleaned and probably knows they weren’t the only evidence meddled with. I get the feeling he’s more than just familiar with Jackson.Let’s see how this pans out.
‘You say the door was tampered with?’ Barnes asks.
‘Forced open. We took the lift to my floor and when we got out, the door to the apartment was ajar. Jackson kicked it open and was shot as soon as he stepped inside. I think I told Scarlett to look after him, I can’t remember exactly, but that’s what she did. I knew the intruder had a gun and I knew I could only match that like for like, so I went to the safe and took Jackson’s Glock from it.’
Trina jumps in. ‘Where exactly is the safe?’
‘In my office.’
‘Where’s that?’
I know what she’s getting at; sweat starts to form on mypalms but I don’t show my nerves. I’ve spent my life hiding emotions; it’s second nature. ‘The second floor. Upstairs.’
‘Mmhmm. So you, in your frantic state, had time to run upstairs, obtain a gun and come back down. In the meantime, the attacker just, what, hid?’
Bitch.‘With all due respect, Katrina, I don’t know what he did. I was upstairs.’
Barnes’s lips begin to tip but he puts a closed fist to his mouth until he’s composed. ‘Go on. You came back downstairs with the gun.’
‘Yes. Then I went to find him. There are two rooms off the lounge: a bathroom and a gym. I went into the bathroom where I thought sound was coming from. He came at me, ran at me. We tussled and the mirror broke. He picked up a shard of glass and ripped it into my side.’ I raise my arm and remind them both of my injury. ‘We kept fighting; somehow, we ended up in the gym room. I tried to kick the guns out of reach but only managed one before he pulled a chain around my neck. I struggled, we were thrashing around, I fell to the floor in the lounge and he was pulling on the chain. I couldn’t breathe and I could feel myself slipping; things going dark and blurred. He was killing me. Then I saw the gun I’d kicked, on the floor, just within my reach. Things started to go black. I snatched the gun, and just shot it at him. I didn’t aim for his head but that’s where the bullet wound up. I was shocked, stunned. I didn’t know what to do. I crawled to Jackson and Scarlett and that’s when the security guys came in.’
I’ve done it. It’s out there. Now Scarlett just has to keep to the story. I pull my hands through my hair and let my head hang, relieved that my statement is on the record and it’s the story I intended to tell.
‘Who was the man you killed?’ Trina’s tone is clipped, offensive.
I sigh. It’s still going.
‘He was my biological father.’
‘And why would your own father want to kill you?’
My dislike of this woman is increasing at a rate of knots. My temper is building. I turn my fist in the palm of my other hand on my lap. ‘I bought his company to sell it off.’
‘Forgive my naivety, Mr Ryans; I’m not a businesswoman.’ The way she uses my name is condescending. ‘Surely buying companies happens all the time and people don’t kill each other over it.’
It’s a statement. Had it been a question, I might’ve been inclined to enlighten her on how corrupt the world of business can be. But I won’t.
‘The company was his life, his prize possession, the only thing he’s ever treated with respect and cared for.’
‘So why would he sell it?’
‘Because I offered him an awful lot of money to buy it, Miss Martin, and the other key trait my father possessed was greed.’
‘This isn’t the first time you’ve been in a police station, is it?’ She catches me off guard and she knows it. A sadistic smile begins to turn on her lips as my jaw drops open and slowly closes again without making a sound.
‘To what are you referring, Miss Martin?’
‘Oh, there’s been more than one other time?’
‘Stop playing games, Trina,’ Barnes cuts in. ‘Ask him a question with purpose or we’ll wrap this up.’
She puffs and scowls at her senior. ‘You gave a statement once as a boy. In South Africa.’
She’s trying to establish motive. It’s underhanded, it’s dirty, but she’s played the game well.
‘That has nothing to do with this case.’
‘I beg to differ. I think it has alotto do with this case. You once gave a statement that your father?—’
