Page 119 of Too Close To Home

Harrison looked down at the table, forcing the reaction back under control before it could show on his face.

Then he looked up again. “Andy, your vehicle was seen on ANPR entering the garage forecourt at approximately eleven fifteen p.m.” He paused briefly before continuing. “Shortly afterwards it was recorded heading towards the woodland track outside Hartswick.”

Andy leaned back in the chair. “I told you. I went to get summat to eat.”

“How did you pay for that?”

Andy chewed his cheek. “Cash.”

“Why couldn’t you use the cash for the pint?”

“Cause then I wouldn’t have none for tea, would I?”

Harrison chewed on that. Then, “Where were you between seven thirty and eleven p.m.?”

Andy said nothing.

The silence stretched across the room.

Harrison reached into the file and withdrew a sheet of paper. He slid it across the table. “Is that your telephone number?”

Andy leaned forward to read it.

Said nothing.

Harrison clasped his hands loosely on the table. “We have obtained communications data relating to that handset which has allowed us to establish where your phone travelled on Wednesday evening.” He held Andy’s gaze, waiting to see what he’d make of that. “Would you like to tell us anything at this point?”

Andy looked sideways at his solicitor.

The solicitor leaned into his ear, whispering too quiet for the recording.

Andy sat back again. “No comment.”

Harrison had expected that. So he pulled another document from the file. A map. He turned it so Andy could see and slid it across the table.

“Your phone connected to the mast covering this area.” Harrison tapped the map with his pen. “The King’s Arms pub. It remained there from approximately six thirty until around eleven fifteen. At eleven thirty-three your handset connected to another mast.” He circled a location on the map. “Here.”

The woodland track.

The same place Harrison had stood with Jake Whitton two nights earlier.

Where he’d kissed him.

“Do you recognise this location, Andy?”

Andy didn’t look up.

He didn’t answer either.

Harrison tapped the map again. “That is the section of woodland where vehicles can drive off the road without being easily seen.” He paused. Waited. Then, “And it is also the location where Emily Fisher’s phone had been manually switched off.”

Andy bounced his knee under the table as if psyching himself up to crack. Experience had taught Harrison there was little point rushing to fill the following silence. Given enough of it, most people felt compelled to say something.

Then it burst out of him. “Told you I lost my phone!”

Harrison remained calm. “In your earlier account, Andy, you stated the handset had been smashed at work. Can you explain that to me?”

Andy scratched both hands over his scalp. “I thought it’d been smashed!”