perimeter was contained by two twenty-foot- high fences studded with cameras and patrolled by officers with dogs.
Alison had objected on principle to the coroner being summoned to interview a convicted murderer, and having voiced her objections sat in stubborn silence for the entire journey. Still suffering the effects of the previous night's sleeping pills, Jenny was too tired and preoccupied to attempt talking her round. She was thinking about ghosts, whether they were real or imaginary, and if it made any difference either way.
Alison broke her silence as they walked across the rain- spattered tarmac to the prison's main entrance. 'They've got no sense of perspective, priests. Just because they're governed by conscience they think everyone else should be, too.'
'I thought you were a believer,' Jenny said.
'I was, but things change. And so do people.'
'How is DI Pironi - are you two still friends?'
'He calls now and again.'
'I see.'
'What's that supposed to mean?'
'Nothing - but I can't help remembering that the two of you used to go to church together.'
'There was never anything between us, Mrs Cooper. Certainly not in that way.' Alison tugged indignantly at the strap of her handbag. 'Anyway, I was still with Terry.'
Father Starr was waiting for them inside the door. After a polite greeting, he led them to the front of a queue of impatient lawyers waiting to collect their security tags and signed them in. The officer behind the glass screen treated him with unquestioning respect, as did each of the guards they encountered on their journey through an unending series of corridors interrupted by heavy steel gates. Even Alison started to thaw, calling him 'Father' as if she were a devoted member of his flock.
He explained that Craven was being held in the close supervision circuit inside the segregation unit while his mental health continued to be assessed. The stress of being locked in a cell around the clock was destabilizing him further, but he was caught in a catch-22: the prison psychiatrist's idea of help was to persuade him to accept responsibility for a crime he hadn't committed. Protestations of innocence were treated as delusional.
Jenny said, 'This prison must seem quite tame after La Modelo.'
Starr smiled, as if she had mildly embarrassed him. 'I see you've been doing your research, Mrs Cooper.'
'I'm intrigued to know what brought you here.'
'We're an international organization. We go wherever we are needed.' He attempted a joke: 'And you've been short of Catholic priests ever since your King Henry decided we lived better than he did.'
He stopped outside a room at the end of a window- less corridor and knocked on the toughened glass pane. The door was opened from the inside by a heavy-set prison officer with the flattened nose of an ex-boxer. Father Starr asked him if he would mind waiting outside during their interview. The officer glanced dubiously at Jenny and Alison.
'It's perfectly safe,' Starr said. 'You know I trust him like a son.'
'You're a better man than me, Father,' the guard said, and stepped into the corridor. He turned to Jenny. 'I'll be right here if you need me.'
They entered an interview room not much bigger than a cell. The man sitting at the small table in handcuffs rose to his feet. 'Good morning, Father.'
'Paul, this is Mrs Cooper, the coroner, and Mrs Trent, the coroner's officer.'
Craven glanced at them shyly and nodded in a cautious greeting. He waited for them both to be seated before following suit. Jenny had read on the file that he was in his upper thirties but his face looked much younger. A prison- issue navy tracksuit hung shapelessly from his skinny frame. There were tiny hints of his age in the creases on his forehead, but it was as if the teenage boy had been held in suspended animation.
Father Starr said, 'As I explained to you, Mrs Cooper has to determine Eva Donaldson's cause of death. She does this free of the police and criminal courts and has a reputation for dogged independence.' Jenny shot him a glance. He ignored her and continued. 'She needs to take a statement from you. You have to tell her precisely what happened.'
'I'll be taking the statement,' Alison interjected, and pushed a form across the desk. 'This states that what you have to say is the truth and that you're liable for prosecution if anything you include in it is false. Do you understand?'
'Yes.' Craven spoke quietly, looking to Starr for reassurance.
Jenny said, 'You mustn't think of this as being like