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HS: For the tape, can you tell me what these are?
ME: They’re… they’re cigarette ends.
HS: Anything else? Can you describe them?
ME: Well, they’re brown, a bit of white… is that what you mean? A couple of them have lipstick on.
HS: Mr Edwards, these cigarette ends were found in the garage of your house. Do you have any light to shed on that?
ME: (Shakes head) I don’t know anything about that.
HS: Are you saying you’ve never smoked a cigarette in your house?
ME: No, I… I have. I mean… I don’t smoke as a rule, but sometimes if I’m offered… Ingrid always offered me a cigarette when she came round and… well, it was silly really, but I did have the odd one of hers.
HS: Only with Ingrid?
ME: Well, no. I had one with Lisa. On the Friday. She’s like me, more of an occasional smoker. I didn’t see the harm. We were both upset. Worried, I mean. About Rachel. I don’t see what this has got to do with anything.
HS: Mr Edwards, your wife is currently convinced you are having an intimate relationship with Lisa Baxter. She’s said she thought for a while that you were with Ingrid but believes she discovered on Friday afternoon that you were in fact with Lisa when she saw Lisa driving away from your home. Despite having spoken to your wife on the phone on Friday afternoon, Lisa did not say she had been with you at your home. When Rachel returned from a visit to her father, you made no mention of her best friend having been at the house, despite the evidence of the cigarettes. Indeed, you did a similar thing on another occasion with Ingrid. This is why Rachel collected first yours and Ingrid’s cigarette stubs, then yours and Lisa’s. She was planning to confront you about them but had not worked up the courage.
ME: What? What’s all this? What are you talking about? I would never… Lisa’s our closest friend. She’s practically family. I didn’t say anything to Rachel because Lisa had come to talk about Rachel’s obvious… her obviously troubled state of mind. It’s not nice to know that your friends have been talking about you, so we didn’t tell her. I said I’d talk to her and convince her to seek help. I didn’t want it to come as a shock. I was building up to it. I needed to ask her if she’d see the GP. But it’s not an easy thing to say, is it? How do you say that to someone you love? And we’ve not been talking much, so that made it even harder. But there’s nothing between Lisa and me, never has been, never will be. I mean, I love her as a friend, but that’s it. Honestly. I would never do that to Rachel, never. Neither would Lisa. She’s our oldest friend, do you know what I mean? And Rachel’s my wife. She’s the mother of my kids, for Christ’s sake.
HS: (Pause) Mr Edwards, a cigarette end matching those found in your garage was discovered near the pond in the town-hall gardens. Another two matching cigarette ends were found in the car park of Brookvale Leisure Centre. We have taken DNA samples from all of these cigarette ends, the ones found in your home and those found at the crime scenes. In light of that information, do you have anything you wish to add?
48
Ingrid
Transcript of recorded interview with Ingrid Taylor (excerpt)
Also present: DI Heather Scott, PC Marilyn Button
HS: Let’s look at last Thursday, the twenty-sixth of September. Can you remember where you were that night? It’s more recent, I suppose, so that might help.
IT: At home. Where else? Not like I can afford to go out, is it?
HS: Ms Taylor, we spoke to Pamela Bain, personnel manager of the records and accounts department of ICI.
IT: I see.
HS: She told us that after your trial period, she offered you a short-term contract, which you turned down. For the benefit of the tape, Ms Taylor is shrugging her shoulders.
IT: As I said, it paid a pittance.
HS: Can you explain why you accepted a lift each day from Mark Edwards, why you chose to give him the impression you were going into work in the same building as him?
IT: Look, he was lonely, all right? Poor guy needed somebody to talk to. He’d been kind enough to get me an interview; it would have been rude to tell him I hadn’t taken the job. I’m a nice person. Unlike some, I actually care about people’s feelings.
HS: Ms Taylor, can you explain how you meet your living expenses?
IT: Why are you asking me this when you clearly already know? I rent out my house in Helsby, so what? I don’t see what this has got to do with anything.
HS: Is there any reason you would choose to move opposite Mrs Edwards?
IT: I didn’t even know her then! Why on earth would I try and move near to her?
HS: Ms Taylor, going back to the evening of Thursday the twenty-sixth, the night Anne-Marie Golightly was murdered, Rachel Edwards says she asked you to come to an exercise class. Is that right?
