The Whole Truth

DK: And what happened during those thirty minutes?

AF: Again, as I’ve said before, we talked about the stalker –

DK: Nothing else?

AF: No –

DK: No small talk at all? Not even about your wife? They were friends, weren’t they?

AF: Ms Smith asked after my wife, very briefly, when I arrived. But that wasn’t why I was there.

RG: So what course did the conversation take?

AF: She talked me through what had been happening – specific incidents – dates and times –

DK: She’d kept a record?

AF: Informally, yes. But it was more like a diary. It wasn’t something she was happy to hand over.

RG: For the record, no such diary has been retrieved from Ms Smith’s flat.

AF: Well, it was there that night – it was on the coffee table.

DK: When she went through these dates – did you make notes?

AF: No. When I got out my notebook she got nervous and asked me not to write anything down. She wasn’t ready to make an official complaint.

DK: So we only have your word for it.

AF: As I said, she didn’t want to escalate things –

DK: So as I said, we only have your word for it. Because no one else seems to know anything about this ‘alleged’ stalker of yours.

AF: I can’t speak to that. I only know what she said to me. And as we’ve since discovered, a man called Hugh Cleland had recently had an altercation with her, and could well have taken it further.

RG: Again, for the record, Hugh Cleland’s fingerprints have not been found anywhere in Ms Smith’s flat.

PM: What about his DNA?

RG: Samples have been taken from him. We await the results.

PM: Does he have an alibi for the night in question?

RG: Enquiries are ongoing, that’s all I can say at this stage.

DK: [to Fawley]

So, if Smith thought Cleland might be stalking her, why didn’t she tell her boss? Her colleagues?

AF: She told me she’d never seen the man’s face. She may have been wary of accusing Cleland until she had proof it was definitely him.

DK: What about her family and friends? She could have talked to them.

AF: My impression was that she was a very private person –

DK: Private or not, I find it odd. Very odd. Especially since, according to her parents, Ms Smith had already had a similar experience some years before.

AF: She said nothing about that to me.

DK: Someone who’d had an experience like that, surely they’d be very unlikely to keep it to themselves if they thought it was happening again.

AF: As I’ve already explained, I’m not in a position to speculate about Ms Smith’s behaviour. She was my wife’s friend. I barely knew her.

DK: You knew her well enough to have a drink with her.

AF: She offered me a glass of wine. It seemed churlish to refuse.

DK: How much did she drink?

AF: In my presence, just over a glass.

DK: The PM suggested she’d had rather more than that.

PM: There’s no way of ascertaining precisely when Ms Smith consumed the alcohol identified at the autopsy. DI Fawley can only comment on what happened in his presence.

DK: So she’d had a bit to drink, she’s upset, so, what? You put an arm round her?

AF: No.

DK: Give her some comfort?

AF: No.

DK: After all, she’s been through a break-up, she’s vulnerable –

AF: No.

DK: She’s an attractive woman, your wife is pregnant, it’s easy to see how one thing could have led to another –

AF: It didn’t happen. And I deeply resent your reference to my wife –

DK: Perhaps Smith went along with it to start with – perhaps that’s why you thought she was OK with it. Perhaps she was the one who initiated it – maybe she’d fancied you for years, who knows. Only then suddenly she’s changing her mind – trying to push you off –

AF: [shaking his head]

DK: And now she’s struggling, starting to scream the place down –

AF: No. No no no –

DK: You get your hand over her mouth – anything to shut her up –

AF: I did not touch her at any point and she was alive and well when I left.

DK: You didn’t kill her –

AF: No.

DK: You didn’t rape her –

AF: No.

DK: You didn’t even have consensual sex with her –

AF: No. Absolutely not.

RG: [slides across a sheet of paper]

This is a copy of the forensics report which we received earlier this morning. The lab has isolated a quantity of male DNA in relation to the Smith case. And it’s not Hugh Cleland’s.

PM: But I thought you said you were still waiting for his DNA results?

RG: We’re awaiting his results, yes. But this isn’t his. We know that for a fact because it’s a perfect match for someone else. Specifically, to a sample stored for elimination purposes in the police national database.

AF: I was at the flat. Of course my DNA is there.

RG: I’m not talking about what they found at the flat. I’m talking about what they found on the body.

AF: What?

RG: It’s very simple. Your DNA was found on Emma Smith’s body. Perhaps you could explain that for us.

AF: It must be a mistake.

[pause]

The only thing I can think of is that there was some sort of accidental contact – perhaps our hands touched when she gave me the wine.

RG: You’re saying that’s what happened?