talk about. On tape, their reactions vary, from Ian's assertion that "wasn't no hairbrush that I ever saw," to Reggie's attempt at innocence with, "Mikey might've nicked one from that shop but I don't know that, do I," and, "I never took no hairbrush, Mum. You got to believe I never would've took no hairbrush," to Michael's, "We didn't have no hairbrush, we didn't have no hairbrush, we didn't, we didn't," which rises in what sounds like panic with every denial. When Michael is gently told, "You know one of you boys took that hairbrush, son," he agrees that, "Reggie might've, then, but I didn't see," and "I don't know what happened to it, do I."
It is only when the presence of the hairbrush at the Dawkins building site is brought up (along with the fingerprints upon it, in conjunction with the blood and the faecal matter on its handle) that the reactions of the boys escalate to their most emotive. Michael's begins with, "I never...I told you and told you I didn't...I didn't take no hairbrush...there weren't no hairbrush at all" and segues to "It were Reggie done it to that baby...Reggie wanted to...Ian took it from him...I said to stop and Reggie did it." Reggie, on the other hand, addresses all his remarks to his mother, saying, "Mum, I never...I wouldn't hurt no baby...Maybe I hit him once but I never...I took his snowsuit off him but it was all mucked up, that's why...He were crying, Mum. I knew not to hurt him if he were crying." During this, Rudy Arnold is silent, but Laura can be heard throughout, moaning, "Reggie, Reggie, what've you done to us?" as the social worker quietly asks her to drink some water, perhaps in an attempt to silence her. As for Ian, he finally begins to cry when the extent of John Dresser's injuries are read to him. His grandmother can be heard weeping along with him and her words, "Sweet Jesus, save him. Save him, Lord," suggest she's accepted the boy's culpability.
It is at the point of the hairbrush's introduction into the interviews - three days after the toddler's body was found - that the boys confess fully to the crime. It is, perhaps, one of the additional horrors of the murder of John Dresser that when the perpetrators of this ghastly crime confessed, only one of them had a parent present. Rudy Arnold sat by his son throughout. Ian Barker had only his grandmother and Michael Spargo was accompanied only by social workers.
Chapter Twenty-Three
WHOEVER HAD KILLED JEMIMA HASTINGS, AS THINGS TURNED out, was someone who'd worn a yellow shirt to do it. Lynley learned the details of this article of clothing upon his return to New Scotland Yard, where the team was meeting in the incident room and a photo of the shirt - now in the possession of forensics - was newly up on one of the china boards.
Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata had arrived from the New Forest, Lynley saw, and he also saw from Barbara's expression that she wasn't happy about being recalled to London, blood-stained yellow shirt or not. She was fighting back a need to speak, which in her case meant fighting back a need to argue with the acting superintendent. Nkata, on the other hand, seemed acquiescent enough, displaying the easiness of disposition that had long been an integral part of his character. He lounged at the back of the room, sipping from a plastic cup. He nodded at Lynley and tilted his head towards Havers. He, too, knew she was itching to walk on the wrong side of whatever line Isabelle Ardery had drawn for her.
"...still unconscious," Ardery was saying. "But the surgeon indicates he'll be brought round tomorrow. When that happens, he's ours." And to Lynley, bringing him fully into the picture, "The shirt was among the clobber in the Oxfam bin. It's got a significant bloodstain on the front of it, right side, and on the right sleeve and cuff. It's with forensics, but for the moment we're assuming the blood is our victim's. Agreed?" She didn't wait for Lynley's reply. "Right, then. Let's put a few things together. We've two Oriental hairs in the victim's hand, no defensive wounds on her, a pierced carotid artery, and a Japanese man in possession of the murder weapon and with her blood on his clothing. What've you got to add from today, Thomas?"
For the team, Lynley recapped what he'd learned from Yolanda.