Briggs maintained eye contact and the man looked away, his hair bouncing as he did. He looked different without his quiff, if not a little scruffy with a few kinks around his ear.
‘I was out.’
‘As you know, Francesca Carter’s body was found last night. She’d been murdered in her home. Can you imagine how her family felt? I need to know where you were!’ Gina glanced at the wall clock and all they could hear was the hand ticking away.
‘I didn’t do anything to her. I was nowhere near her house. This is all because of my past, isn’t it? I’ve paid for what I did. I got rehabilitated and took some hospitality qualifications. I did everything I was supposed to do. They said I could start afresh and have a normal life and now this happens. You have nothing on me because I wasn’t there.’ He scratched his arm under his jacket. Welts began to surface on his pasty flesh and his cheeks flushed.
‘All you need to do to clear this up is tell us where you were.’
He shook his head several times and closed his eyes.
‘Mr Dawkins, a woman was murdered and, yes, you have a past conviction that involves sexually assaulting a girl. That puts you in the picture. Where were you?’
Eyes still closed, Robin snorted and rolled his shoulders. ‘I can’t.’
‘You have no choice, Mr Dawkins.’
Briggs maintained his stare but it was no good, the man refused to even open his eyes. He began grinding his teeth and his tiny sideburns moved up and down with every clench.
‘What size shoes do you wear?’
He opened his eyes and scrunched his nose. ‘What?’
‘Shoe size?’ Gina eased off slightly.
‘Nine. What’s that got to do with anything?’
‘Thank you.’ She made a note on the file and paused for a moment, just long enough to make him feel comfortable once again. ‘Where were you last night?’
His hands shook as he gripped the plastic cup of water and took a sip. ‘Work.’
‘We know you weren’t at work.’ Briggs had filled her in with their most recent update before stepping into the interview room. On checking out his workplace, the truth had come to light. Elvis had not been at work during the time of the murder.
‘Maybe I wasn’t. I work all shifts. I can’t remember what time I finished.’
‘How about Monday night? You were fired. You were the one who tipped off the gatecrashers, weren’t you, and Mr Avery found out and fired you? One of your colleagues confirmed that today. Why are you lying to us?’
He exhaled slowly and scratched his nose. ‘I haven’t told Cass that I was fired. I was out walking the streets so that she’d think I was at work.’
‘Which streets?’
‘Really?’ He scraped the chair across the floor and crossed his ankles as he slouched back.
‘Yes. A woman was murdered while you were out walking the streets. Which streets?’
‘I. Can’t. Remember.’
‘Did you know Holly Long?’
He shrugged his shoulders.
‘For the tape, Mr Dawkins shrugged his shoulders. Does that mean you don’t know if you knew her?’
‘Okay, I knew her. I saw her drinking on a couple of occasions in the Angel Arms but I don’t really know her. I barely recognised her at the reception but when the news reports came out, I recognised her from the pub.’
Gina glanced down at her notes and flicked to the next page. ‘No one can place you behind the bar at the time of her murder. The statements we have state that your girlfriend, Cassandra Wilson, was manning the bar all night and was mostly on her own.’
‘I was there. I may have popped out for a cigarette but that was it. I knew some of the people at the party and she was managing okay.’
