All Orso needed was for Johnson to deliver something to Krasiniqe, who would deal with Murphy; that would end all the problems.
Johnson said he wasn’t feeling good about it, but Orso insisted he should go along with it. ‘I swear before God, on my children’s lives, that was all I did. Orso told me to pick up this package and go to visit a bloke called Courtney Ransford. I was to hand it over. That was all I did.’
Langton pressed on, asking about Gail and her children.
Johnson closed his eyes. ‘No sooner did Camorra sort out the Carly Ann thing, than another problem surfaced. Sickert was getting uptight: the police had been round looking for Murphy and he got his wires crossed — he thought they was coming for him. He was sick and he was screwing Murphy’s sister. I dunno what went on there; all I know is Mr Orso was furious and went round to Camorra in Peckham. I drove him there. I dunno what happened, as I was parked outside; he was there no more than fifteen minutes. Next thing, it all spirals out of controclass="underline" the press is full of pictures of Sickert and these two kids, and the bodies found at Murphy’s sister’s place. Mr Orso said to me he was shutting down the Peckham house, as Camorra was too much of a liability; but his main worry was that Camorra knew his entire business. He said he would bring Camorra to his place and keep him holed up there until he could get him out of the country. He said he had to clear up the Sickert problem first.’
Johnson continued, explaining that Orso and his wife and daughter went abroad for a holiday, while his men went to the bungalow. Camorra and Rashid Burry brought Sickert, and Murphy’s sister’s two kids, back to Peckham.
Langton leaned over the table. ‘So, are you saying that Camorra and Burry went to pick up Sickert?’
‘Yeah, I guess so.’
‘Gail Sickert was found murdered; so was her small daughter.’
‘I swear before God I dunno what they did. I was just looking after the house in Redhill.’
Johnson said that when Orso and his family returned from their holiday, he expected it all to have been finished with. However, Camorra was at the house when Sickert turned up with the two kids. He saw his wife, Ella, and started screaming about where his own boys were. Orso tried to calm him down.
Johnson was tired out. His head drooped, and he sucked in his breath. ‘Sickert did a runner out the back door with the kids. I couldn’t find him. I dunno where he went.’
‘Did you have a fight with him?’
‘I tried to get him to calm down, but he was real crazy; we had this fist-fight. One of the kids — the little boy — was trying to pull me off him.’
‘And Camorra was also at Mr Orso’s residence?’
‘Yeah, I’d picked him up while they was on holiday. By this time, he’d shut up shop in Peckham and Mr Orso was making arrangements for him to leave the country.’
It took another hour for them to read back David Johnson’s lengthy statement to him, and for him to sign it. When the trials were mounted, he would become a vital prosecution witness. The statement would have to be checked out; until Langton was satisfied, Johnson would be held at the station.
Armed with the information from Johnson, Langton waded into the interrogation of Emmerick Orso. On the advice of his solicitor, Orso refused to answer any questions and said only, ‘No comment.’ His arrogant, handsome face showed not a flicker of remorse when the charges were read out; he just stared straight ahead. Langton decided not to waste any more time on him and had him taken back to his cell.
The team were gathered in the incident room, taking a break, when Langton was asked by one of the uniformed officers if it was still permissible for Camorra to have food brought in. Langton joked that he wanted to personally check it out: with what Camorra had got away with so far, he wouldn’t be surprised if he had the key to his cell in the steak tartare! As they ate sandwiches and coffee, Camorra ate a three-course meal. Harry Blunt went on a tirade about allowing the bastard to eat special meals: his lawyer had requested the permission, as his client had an eating disorder! Langton seemed in no hurry to begin the main interrogation. Time was on their side.
Camorra was brought to the interview room with his solicitor. He was cocky, and said that he should be allowed to have a change of clothes; he indicated his scruffy tracksuit. The laces had been removed from his trainers and he wore no socks. He was asked to state his name and address, and whether he understood the charges he was to be questioned about. Anna wondered if, like Orso, he would play out the ‘No comment’ strategy, but he leaned back in his chair, smiling. He gave his name as Eugene Camorra and his address as Orso’s property.
‘Did you know Carly Ann North?’
‘Yes, very welclass="underline" she was my girlfriend.’
‘Could you tell us where you were on the fifteenth of November, last year?’
‘Yes, I was at my house for most of the day; in the evening, I was playing cards with four friends. If you want to know why I remember the exact date, it’s because that was the night she was found murdered. It was a terrible thing, to be told that one of the men working for me, Idris Krasiniqe, had killed her.’
Langton and Anna listened as he went into a lengthy explanation of how shocked and distressed he had been, as he had loved her. He was stunned when they told him that Carly Ann had planned to run away with Krasiniqe’s brother, Eamon.
‘I gave that girl everything. When I first met her, she was out whoring on the streets; she was on drugs and I took her in and cared for her. I wanted to marry her — nothing was too much for me to do for her.’
‘We will require a DNA sample from you.’
The man leaned forwards. ‘I had sex with the bitch before she left me, so whatever you need my DNA for won’t be any use. That’s how she tricked me — she made love to me and then, as soon as my back was turned, she ran off.’
‘Did you own a white Range Rover?’
‘No, it belonged to Mr Orso’s company. I never drove it. I’ve got a problem driving automatics — can only drive ones with gears — so I never used the car. One of my guys drove it: Rashid Burry.’
‘Are you saying that you were never inside the Range Rover? You were never a passenger?’
‘Could be. You see, I am trying to answer everything you ask me, because some of the charges you are trying to pin on me is just out of space, man. You got to understand, I work for Mr Orso; I am just employed by him.’
‘But you admit that Idris and Eamon Krasiniqe worked for you?’
‘In a roundabout way, yes; it’s like they work for me but also work for Mr Orso, know what I mean? He sends me the brothers and they stayed at the house in Peckham.’
‘Could you please list the names of the people you employed who lived at those premises?’
‘Christ, I dunno; they came and they went.’
‘Just start with recently: the men and women living at the house with you?’
It was like pulling teeth: each question, Camorra took lengthy explanations over, claiming he had a bad memory for names. He constantly threw in Rashid Burry’s name and, each time, made him seem more important in the running of the house. The more he talked, the more he attempted to distance himself from anything to do with the house in Peckham. He claimed not to be aware that some of the people over whose heads he ‘just gave a roof until they settled’ were illegal immigrants. He could not recall meeting Arthur Murphy, but said that perhaps he had not been at the house when Murphy had called round. He denied knowing Vernon Kramer and constantly implicated Emmerick Orso, saying that he was just his employee.
‘You gotta understand, I was more or less running a kind of bed and breakfast; there was a lot of traffic every week. I got someone cooking and doing laundry, but basically that’s all I was doing — running the place.’