The session had begun with the lawyer explaining that Derek intended to make a full and frank confession in the hopes of leniency in the courts. Everyone in the room knew that, even with leniency, Derek would spend most of, if not all, the remainder of his days in jail.
“Talk me through that night,” Joseph asked.
Derek extended his arms out in front of him, drumming on the table. “Hard to know where to start. It had been just another day, hadn’t it? We’d been working hard. Like I said, one of the cranes was on the blink so it was a late one. Meant I had to cross paths with Gerald. He’d been doing a lot of late shifts recently. Wanted to make some extra money he said. I don’t know why. He always seemed to be doing all right. This night he was more than all right.”
“Why was that?” Ray asked.
“He came up to me earlier on, big smile on his face. Had his promotion, hadn’t he? On a par with me. And of course, he had to rub that in my face.”
“What did he say?” Joseph asked. They needed the full details now, not just supposition.
“The thing with these foreign lot is that they’re so insincere. Of course he was happy, he bloody should have been. No way he had earned it,” he spat, letting them know just how scandalous he found it. “I told him that as well. Told him the whole thing was a sham. And that were the truth as well. They only gave him the role cos he was a darkie and he’d be able to rein in all of them other negroes who couldn’t be arsed to do as they were told. He was just their Uncle Tom. Well, he didn’t like that.”
“What did he do?”
“Oh, he lost it. Lost it big style. Called me a load of names and I tell you now, if you think I’m racist, you wait till one of their mob opens up on you and tells you what they really think. Cracker this, whitey that.”
“Did he say anything else?”
“Oh, just the usual clap-trap he always came out with. That he only wanted to do his job and he was fed up with me taking it out on him and that he was going to make a proper complaint and stormed off out of my office.”
“So when did that happen?” Joseph said, flipping through his notebook as he spoke. “According to your timecard, you clocked out at a little after half ten?”
“I did. Went off and found a lock-in. Don’t ask where, they ain’t cutting my sentence for that.”
“What happened then?”
“I had a couple of pints,” Derek shrugged. “Talked to a few people, then went back to see what they were all up to. I told you, I can’t trust the lot of them. That place is screwed now with me in here.”
“What time did you go back?”
Derek shook his head. “I don’t know for certain. Probably twelvish. Could have been later. I wasn’t really watching.”
“Fair enough,” Ray said. It wasn’t of great importance. “Did you find him?”
“Well obviously,” Derek said scornfully. “He was down in the warehouse, where you found the blood and all that. Said he was doing inventory. Heard that things were going missing, which was clearly rubbish.”
“What makes you think that?” Joseph asked, drawing another demeaning look from Derek.
“You reckon them sorts are interested in preserving stock or stealing it?”
“I don’t understand what you mean, Mr Nadderley,” Ray said.
“I mean that if you see a black lad rooting around your warehouse, you know he’s on the rob. Gerald Trainer was no different.”
“Did you ever catch him stealing? Sounds like something you could have had him sacked for, which would have solved all your problems,” Ray pointed out.
“No,” Derek said.
“Did you ever mention any specific concerns about him to your employers?”
“I mentioned all of them,” Derek’s bluster returned. “Said it was a terrible idea from day one.”
“Not all of them,” Ray clarified. “Gerald Trainer himself.”
“Not on his own, no.”
“Okay,” Ray said, not needing to add further commentary. If Derek didn’t see his hypocrisy already, he never would. “Then what happened?”
“I called him out. Told him I’d be reporting him. That’s when it happened. He got right up in my face, all aggressive and such.”
“Define aggressive.”
“You know. Ranting, raving. Complete nonsense and stuff. Unhinged. I feared for my safety. I really bloody did.”
“What did he say, though?” Ray insisted. They had to burrow deeper into the story, to understand if Derek really did fear for his life.
“Said he was going to be my boss one day. That I’d call him sir. Shouting at me, right here, right in my face.”
“Did he strike you?”
“That coward? No chance. He turned and sauntered off once he’d said his bit.”
“Then what happened?” Ray repeated the question and Derek carried on, blissfully unaware that his defence was being torn to shreds by his own testimony.
“Well, I had to protect myself, didn’t I? He was a big brute, so I picked up the closest thing I could and hit him with it.”
“What did you hit him with?”
