‘Let’s talk about the Ashcrofts,’ said Henley. ‘On the day Tabitha Ashcroft was sentenced you—’
‘That wasn’t a sentence,’ Larry interrupted, his voice raised and angry. ‘She walked away with a warning to behave herself. She committed murder. She killed my Sherri.’
‘And you threatened to kill her too, didn’t you?’ Henley pulled a witness statement from a file. ‘“I’m going to kill you, you fucking bitch. I’m going to take everything from you.”’
‘They dropped the charges.’
‘They may have dropped it but that doesn’t erase the words that came out of your mouth. You held on to that anger, didn’t you, Larry?’
‘No, I didn’t.’
‘You were determined to get Tabitha Ashcroft back for ruining your life. For killing your wife.’
Larry tutted and shook his head. Henley pushed a sheet of paper towards him.
‘What’s this?’ he asked.
‘This is a copy of a bank transaction. A payment of £10,000 from Graham Ashcroft’s bank account to Barclays account number 18740299, which is your bank account, right?’
‘Yes, but I can explain.’
‘Oh, I didn’t realise there was an explanation for blackmail,’ Henley said sarcastically .
‘It wasn’t … no, it wasn’t blackmail.’
‘Of course it was. After the police very kindly dropped the charges against you, you began a campaign of harassment against the Ashcrofts, didn’t you?’
‘Absolutely not. I wouldn’t waste my time on those people.’
‘You wrote them letters, made threats against them and then you started to demand money from them to make it all stop.’
‘He offered me the money.’
‘What, out of the blue Graham Ashcroft offered you money?’ Henley asked with clear disbelief.
‘To help with the funeral costs.’
‘You’re telling me that eighteen months after you buried your wife, Graham Ashcroft offered you ten grand?’
‘It’s not cheap to organise a funeral.’
‘I know it’s not cheap, but I also know that both you and your wife had funeral plans, so those costs were covered. So, you start with harassment and move on to blackmail. Told them things would get worse for them if they didn’t pay you.’
‘I didn’t blackmail them,’ Larry said weakly.
‘But you weren’t happy with the ten grand they sent you. You wanted more. You wanted revenge,’ Henley said as she subtly elbowed Ramouter.
‘Larry, you told our colleagues, DS Stanford and Eastwood that you didn’t know where the Ashcrofts lived,’ said Ramouter as he opened his laptop. ‘Do you remember that?’
‘That’s right. I don’t know where they live.’
‘But that’s not correct, is it?’ Ramouter turned the laptop around. On the screen was a residential street. ‘This is Cullen Lane. Do you recognise it?’
‘No. Never heard of it,’ Larry replied, his voice quavering.
‘And this house belongs to the Ashcrofts.’ Ramouter pointed on the screen.
‘I want it on the record that this footage wasn’t disclosed to me,’ Kalia chipped in.
