Thank you, but I don't need any help.
- I don't mind. - No, I know.
We're on different sides. We shouldn't really.
I just needed to get out of there, to be honest. Get some air.
It hasn't even started yet.
That's what I'm saying. What's it going to be like when it does?
I mean... she's a bit of a tough cookie.
Which one?
What's all this in aid of, then?
This tight, white shirt business. Who's it for?
Someone through there, is it?
Through the funny mirror?
This what she like, is it? Dressing for the boys?
"Sorry, lads. Look. Don't touch."
"But don't look 'cos that's sexist." "Yeah, I know." I see!
- Stacey. - She don't fool me.
Unless it's for my benefit, of course.
But I don't think so. I know a dyke when I see one. That's not you.
- Stacey, can you... - Not with them fingernails.
Sorry, love, I'm interrupting. Go on.
Stacey...
calm down.
If you wanted me to be calm, you wouldn't have brought me in here, would you?
Whatever this is,
whatever you've got it in your head that I'm supposed to have done,
you'd better have it all thought through.
Because there are people out there
that would not take kindly to you trying to fit me up.
- No one's trying to fit you up, Stacey. - I feel sorry for you, is the truth.
This...
If this is going where I think it's going...
then I worry for you.
These are not people I can control.
Here's an idea, Stacey,
why don't we do the interview first,
and if there's time at the end, you can make your threats.
How does that sound?
Stop playing to the gallery. There's no one on the other side of that glass.
Not today.
- What was that about, fingernails? - Sit down, Hugo.
Right...
here we go.
Thank you.
Oh.
Did you book the table?
Uh, yeah. Seven for seven.
Good man.
Interview commences at 4:44 p.m.
Detectives Hobbs and Warren present.
OK, Stacey, if you could state your full name for me.
Stacey Doyle.
- And your date of birth. - June 18th, '82.
- And do you know why you're here? - No.
- You know who it's regarding? - No.
I'm guessing it's about Roderick, from what you've been saying,
but what that's got to do with me... your guess is as good as mine.
Better than mine.
We're here, Stacey...
because in the early hours of the 7th of December,
that's Friday just gone,
officers were called to the Peabody Flats in Olympia,
following reports of a disturbance at the home of a Roderick Samuels.
Yeah, Roderick. That's who I said.
When entering the property, they discovered Mr Samuels
lying in the hallway in a semi-comatose state.
He's now in Charing Cross Hospital in a fully comatose state.
The victim of thallium poisoning. Are you familiar with thallium?
Thallium's rat poison. It's colourless, odourless, tasteless.
Roderick consumed just short of half a pint of thallium
on the night of the 7th.
His situation is critical.
If he dies, we will be treating this as a murder inquiry.
And if we prove the person who administered the poison
is the person we think it is,
then that person, Stacey, faces life in prison.
Do you understand?
Does that give you a better idea of why you're here?
- You know Roderick? - Yeah.
Do you like him?
He's alright.
He goes out with Mary, doesn't he? Mary, my sister.
And they live together at the Peabody flat?
Well, they do now. It was hers to begin with, not his.
She'd been the one on the list. He romanced his way in.
- He's a charmer? - Mmm.
He can be.
How would you describe him?
Big, black...
and elegant.
Stands in the corner of the room at parties, like a grand piano.
So you admit you've been round to his flat?
- Say that again, sorry. - You admit you've been round to the flat.
No, don't say words like that, like "admit," like I've done something wrong.
- All I meant... - No, it doesn't matter what you meant.
- It's the way you spin it. Is she new? - Let me rephrase the question for you.
- Have you been to Roderick Samuel's flat? - 'Course.
Thank you.
When was the last time you went to see him?
No. See? Again.
I never go round to see him, do I? I go round to see Mary.
There's a difference. Yeah, an important difference.
- Why? - I know what you guys are like.
- And if she isn't in? - What? Who's this now?
- Mary. - She's always in.
And if she ain't, I wait. I have a drink with him, with Roderick.
So that's what we do. Wait until she comes back.
Back from...
From wherever she's been, mate. Bloody hell.
And this happens regularly? You and Roderick, drinking together?
Listen to what I'm saying.
Both of you. She's catching it off you now.
The way you described it, sounds like it's happened more than once.
All I'm saying is that if she ain't in for whatever reason,
then me and him, we'll sit down and we'll have a drink,
'cos that's what he likes to do with an evening.
This is the evening that you're talking about?
How much does he like to drink?
- Roderick? - Roderick.
A 50-year-old black bloke from the flats in Olympia. He drinks whatever he can get.
- So it's a problem? - Not for him. For him, it's a solution.
Maybe that's it.
Maybe he got himself so pissed up, he drank this poison stuff himself.
Think about it.
You hear stories, don't you?
People drinking whatever they can get their hands on.
Turpentine, all sorts.
Rat poison?
Go on, then.
Write that on your little pad.
Mary, your sister, gave us a statement
in which she explains that she's been in Kent for six weeks, in Ashford.
- If you say so. - No, she says so, not me.
In the paragraph Vanessa has highlighted for you there.
She said she called you, told you where she was going
and arranged for you to feed her cat.
That's correct, isn't it?
- I'll take your word for it. - Or is she lying?
I just said, I'll take your word for it.
Jesus...
Mary's statement is corroborated by the neighbors.
Kyle Petit.
They don't remember seeing much of Mary over the past month or so.
But they do remember seeing you. Several of them, and on several occasions.
That will be you coming over to feed the cat, presumably.
Or maybe just tell us what you were doing at the victim's home
in the middle of the night, as three witnesses claim.
Now, at this point, I'd just like to repeat what I said before.
Which is that you mustn't feel like you have to answer...
Did you book the table at the Thai place?
Why do people assume it's me who books the table?
...despite what detectives might allow you to believe.
Did you, though?
I'd also like to remind you that my client...
Yes.
...and by law she must be afforded regular breaks.
Now she's keen to talk to you. I think we can all see that.
But let's work together on this. Hmm?
How have you been, Jeremy? I haven't had a chance to ask.
- Fine, thank you. - Good.
Uh, Jeremy was in earlier this year,
representing a man who exposed himself in Bishops Park.
- The sunbather. - Hmm.
That's right.
The New Year's Day Sunbather.
But you're right, we should press on, providing Stacey's happy.
- Happy? - Well, willing.
Excellent.
Because what I'm about to say to you now will change the course of this interview,
and while I don't think you honestly believe you're going to leave
without being charged for the attempted murder of Roderick Samuels,
I do think you'll be surprised by how soon your arguments fall down,
and how quickly that charge is brought about.
So I want you to listen very carefully to the next thing I say.
We're not here today to work out if you poisoned Roderick Samuels or not.
We know you did... Listen, listen.
Just sit back in your chair and wait for me to finish speaking.
We know you did. And we can prove you did.
You don't have proof.
I'm saying we do.
You don't have the first idea.
I'm telling you we do, and that this is your opportunity to talk.
- You are under no obligation... - The night of the 7th, Stacey.
All gone a bit quiet.
Suit yourselves.
Alright, look, I like a drink.
And Roderick likes a drink.
So if I'm going over there to feed the cat or whatever,
we'll have a few at his and Mary's.
So that's what might have happened.
- "Might have happened"? - Happened. That's what happened.
But that doesn't mean that...
'Cos I know how it might look.
Like, people saw me.
I know how you'll twist it. How she will twist it.
So I come out the tube, turn left,
stop at the shop at the corner of Kenway Road.
I got him his whisky. There's a type of whisky he likes.
Mary asked me to pick it up for him while she was away.
I went round and I'm expecting him to be on his own.
But then she answers the door. Mary.
And I'm like, "Well..."
"Talk about a wasted journey! And all that.
Like, feed your own flaming cat. Know what I mean?
Like, get your own fucking whisky. What, did your last slave die of?"
But, uh, this... None of that matters,
because the thing is, well...
Mary...
Uh...
Her face is all blown up.
It's all fat.
It's blue.
He's gone and beaten her right up.
But she won't let us talk about any of that, will she, Mary?
She just says, "Oh! Come inside." You know, so...
So we go inside,
and he's just... sitting in the corner where he usually sits.
They've been watching football like nothing's happened.
And all he does is, he turns to me and says, "Did you get it?"
Meaning the whisky. And all I do is, I...
'Cos I'm so angry and I'm still in shock,
and all I do is nod.
Like a bloody idiot.
Well, he says...
"Mary's going to bed in a bit, aren't you, Mary?"
He's not asking her, he's telling her.
"Get us a couple of glasses and we'll have a few."
So Mary does what she's told.
And I go into the kitchen and I'm looking around.
And I think...
And I think..
I think...
What do you think, Stacey?
- This might be a good time... - I think, "I'm not having this.
I'm not having this. That's my sister."
So, uh... I'm in the kitchen.
And I reach up on top of the fridge, and get down the poison, the rat poison.
And, erm, I pour myself a whisky...
top the bottle back up with the poison, and put the lid back on.
I slosh it around a bit and then I take it through.
And I watch him drink and drink, until it's, erm...
until it's done.
Until the match is finished.
Until he's on his knees on the carpet in front of the sofa.
And he's, like, all chokey and spluttery,
and he's, you know, trying to tell me something's wrong.
"I know something's fucking wrong, mate. You fucking deserve it, quite frankly."
Because he does fucking deserve it, doesn't he?
So, erm...
I just get up, I just leave him there.
Turn up the TV, and, erm...
go into Mary's room.
And then we just get into bed...
just lying there for a bit.
We haven't done since we were little.
And, erm...
in the morning, we come out of her bedroom.
And we find him, he's still breathing, just.
So...
I just step over him.
And we go.
Does that answer your question?
Detective?
Paul's stone just beat my scissors,
meaning I'm the one that has to follow you up the corridor and ask...
who you are.
- I am Detective Constable Kyle Petit. - And why you're really here.
Only, you just appear like this and we're not quite sure how.
- That's OK. - Or why.
That's OK.
It's like I think I told you. I'm here as part of my tier five training.
Practicing and learning interview technique.
If it helps you to receive feedback,
I found what just happened in there very inspiring.
I think it's fantastic how you've overcome the criticisms
leveled at you after the Edgar Fallon interview.
I thought most stuff people were saying about you was unfair, to be honest.
Especially as you got the result. I mean,
in the end, that's the name of the game, right?
Enjoy your Christmas meal.
And if you're feeling awkward about not inviting me, don't.
We've only just started working together.
Ladies, the time is now 6:30.
Meaning we can have a swift one at the Rose
before our Christmas Thai nosh-up.
Is that Paul Ottager?
It is, and he's got a new jacket.
Have they gone?
I think so.
How do we think that went?
We did well.
- Hmm... - Didn't we?
Claire, listen. Relax.
Relax. I'll just tell him I'm driving.
Go on, then. What's the new lad's story?
He stuck to his guns. Said he was here for the training.
I didn't like him. He was too... What's the word?
Nice.
He said this really funny thing, he said,
"We've only just started working together.
Now we're never going to be working apart ever again."
Finally!
She wants five.
We did that interview in the best way we know how.
We went by the book and we got a result.
But Vanessa and I...
We think something about it just doesn't feel right.
- She confessed. - You weren't in there, Paul.
No, I was sitting right there and I watched you do an amazing job.
Both of you.
Look, I know I'm only here for the Christmas meal,
but I'd say the same if I'd been on this with you from the start.
You cannot run this on a feeling.
What happens in here can never be about that.
At least wait for Roderick to wake up and ask him.
Well, he can't have known who spiked his drink.
Tony?
Well, you still haven't charged her. The interview is technically suspended.
We could just be on a break.
- Can we get the solicitor back? - We can try.
- No! - Stacey...
No, I am sorry. I've given you what you wanted.
I've said what I've needed to say, which is hard enough, so no. No comment.
Fine, then I'll speak. We need to get this right, Stacey.
I told you what happened.
There's no coming back in here. Not after we press charges.
You said to me, Stacey, before we started recording,
that I was wearing this white shirt to impress my male colleagues.
You said you knew that's what I was doing, in the way only a woman knows.
Well, we've listened to your story, Vanessa and I,
and we don't think it rings true.
A lot of it probably is true. Large parts of it, I'm sure.
But I don't think you poisoned Roderick Samuels.
- I think you'll find I did. - Prove it.
- What? - Yes. What?
Prove it.
Tell me something that proves it must have been you.
You said you had proof. You made a big thing of it.
Well, go on then.
- Sorry? - Out with it.
She's saying she thinks this might be a good moment
to read out your so-called proof.
I don't disagree.
We have CCTV of you buying the rat poison
at the shop on Kenway Road on the night of the 7th,
at the same time as you bought whisky.
We have traces of the same poison on your cardigan.
We have your lipstick and fingerprints
on a glass found on a coffee table at the scene.
A glass which you admit was yours and did not contain traces of thallium.
We have three witnesses who saw you arriving at the Peabody Flats
at 2:00 a.m. on the night that Roderick was poisoned.
They were woken by you banging angrily with your fists on Roderick's front door.
One of them even heard you saying,
"I'll kill you, you black monster.
I'll fucking kill you."
Right.
Thank you. Now can I go and smoke that, please?
- Wait, you were calling that proof? - What we're saying...
I know you were calling it proof earlier, but for my own sense of sanity...
- What we're saying... - Yes?
We are simply saying what you and I both know to be true:
this is the kind of evidence that would see the CPS agree to press charges.
And should it then go to trial, it would, beyond reasonable doubt,
link Stacey with the attempted murder of Roderick Samuels.
That's almost the same thing, but it's not proof.
Jeremy, please listen to me, because for once we're on the same side here.
What I am putting to Stacey now
is that despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary,
and despite your detailed and emotional confession,
I do not believe that we have reached the correct outcome in this case.
- Which is ridiculous. - Which is ridiculous, I agree.
Not least because it puts my career on the line,
and Roderick's chances of justice under threat.
You were right, Stacey.
My colleague Tony is sitting behind that glass, guiding me through this.
No doubt with a very concerned look on his face.
I'm not even sure if this is police work I'm doing now, Stacey.
I'm just...
As one of my colleagues said to me just now, I'm running on feelings.
About you. About men.
About who we are,
women like us, in their world.
And it is theirs, isn't it?
See, I think there's something more to this.
Something worse.
Truer than confessing.
And that's why we're back in here.
So, in a second,
I'm going to hand over to Vanessa.
I'm going to ask her to ask you one remaining question.
And if I've got this wrong, then I genuinely apologise.
How long were you sleeping with Roderick Samuels?
Talk to me, Stacey.
- We weren't, anymore. - I can't hear you.
You asked me if I was sleeping with Roderick.
And you said?
I said I weren't anymore.
'Cos I wasn't.
That's the answer to your question.
And why do you think I asked?
Because I'm ashamed of it.
You promise me something.
Promise you'll put in your notes, or however you do it,
that I never came in here wanting to say any of this.
Everything is on the record.
OK, look...
As I said, I like a drink.
And Roderick likes a drink.
That's how we met in The Nelson, the pub.
Not that I was on the lookout, because I'm married.
Not happily, but that's not the point.
So when I meet him... I fancy him and all that, but, erm...
It's just friendly. It's nothing else.
But Mary, well, she never put herself out there, not with men.
Just... never had the confidence.
She might be 33 but she's still my sister, so...
I'm like,
"There's this fella I know. You should meet him.
I think you'll be good together."
'Cos I did, at the time. That's what I thought.
Before anyone knows what's happening she's asked him to move in with her.
At the Peabody flat?
Yeah, that's right.
Uh, you know, I'm round there from time to time.
A lot of time.
And me and him, well, we get on, like at The Nelson,
in a way that Mary, bless her heart, she can't join in with.
So, you know...
...before you know it, I'm round at Mary's whether Mary's there or not.
And, uh...
one thing leads to another and, uh...
me and him, we've started something.
'Cos my life's lost its sparkle.
And it's been carrying on for some time. Months.
I'm not proud of myself,
but I'm happy, 'cos...
Well, I'm convincing myself she's alright with it, or that she's none the wiser.
And he's like a pig in shit, isn't he?
He's got me and Mary where he wants us.
Mary's running round, picking up for him 24-7,
and if she don't do what he wants,
or does it, but not in a way he wants it, then...
And if he's had some of the whisky that I've brought
like an idiot, because I can't stay away, like...
she gets it. Like...
He's physical.
That's what's going on.
I can see it when I go round there.
Bruises.
Different colours in the bruises.
That's what they go like.
All funny colours, like petrol in a puddle.
And I can't... What am I supposed to say or do? Huh?
I ain't got a leg to stand on, have I?
So I don't feel like I can talk about what he's doing to her,
because what I'm doing is just as bad.
Yeah, so in the end, I call my brother in Ashford
and I tell him to take her for her own safety,
and get a ticket and a train down there, but she keeps coming back, doesn't she?
'Cos she thinks she's in love with him, but she ain't.
And because she knows that the longer she stays away for,
the worse it is for her when she does finally come home.
And he's gonna ask her where she's been. What's she going to say to that? Well?
And... at the same time I'm still screwing... I'm st...
I'm still screwing him.
I'm still... Fucking slag that I am.
Stacey.
Stopping off at the bloody shop for his whisky.
Stopping off at the photo booth in Earls Court tube,
every time I'm there, and for what?
To sit in front of a stupid fucking little mirror?
So I can put my make-up on so I can look nice for him?
I can't stop myself, can I?
And he can't stop, neither.
And Mary can't stop any of it.
Or so I thought.
'Cos she phones me up one day
in the middle of the afternoon when she's meant to be in Kent,
and she says to me,
really quiet, calm...
"There's a rat in the house."
I'm like, "Speak to your landlord."
She goes, "No, it's not in the building. It's just in our flat.
Nowhere else. Just in the flat."
And I still don't get it. I'm, like, still talking about the cat.
I'm going, "Well, I know it's old, but can't the cat sort it?"
And she has to spell it out for me.
"This is not something the cat can deal with."
She asked me to get the poison,
and bring it over next time I'm round.
And apart from that,
the only thing I need to remember is that Roderick don't need to know about it.
She wants rid.
She's decided.
She knows about you and Roderick?
Yeah.
She didn't say anything.
'Cos she knows, yeah.
Do you know what breaks my heart more than anything?
It's that she still chooses me...
over him.
Her sister. Hmm. Some sister!
You're actually doing really well. But you know what's coming next?
I'm going to ask you to go over it just one more time.
The 7th. That night.
How do we get there?
How did Roderick end up in hospital?
Why does Roderick end up in hospital?
Will you do that for me?
OK.
I get the whisky and the poison from the shop at Kenway Road.
And I go round theirs. This is the 7th.
And, erm... she answers the door.
And...
She answers the door, isn't it?
All black and blue, all swollen up, just like I said.
She's really calm.
She wants me to hand it over to her.
She wants the drink... the drinks...
so I hand them over
and I say, in a loud voice so he can hear me over the telly, I say,
"Sorry, Mary, can't stop. Not tonight."
And I left.
I left her to it.
The plan.
When it's all my fault.
When she doesn't know what a wonderful person she is.
And if there's anyone that should be putting an end to it, to him...
...it should be me.
But I can't go home, you know.
Uh, so I stay around the area, milling about. Have a drink.
Walking around Sainsbury's Local until the people there wonder what I'm doing.
I just hang around, because I know what she's doing.
And if that's what's happening...
then either he's dead,
not that I care...
or she is.
'Cos if he's caught her trying to poison his drink, then that's it.
He'll kill her.
Uh, so I go back up there.
At 2:00 a.m.?
Banging on the door, threatening to kill him?
I don't know what's going on, do I?
I...
No one's answering. I can't stand it.
Uh, eventually she does answer the door and she's just...
lost, and confused, and he's lying on the carpet.
Uh, he's still breathing, just.
And the telly's still on and Mary's no good to anyone.
She can't sit still, she can't stand up, so...
So I made a promise to myself.
Then and there.
Whatever happens next...
when you people come calling, and I know it won't be long...
I'm gonna take the flak.
I'm gonna put myself in the firing line for once.
'Cos Mary's been in the firing line all this time.
For her.
That's what I thought I'd done.
Merry Christmas.
Listen to me. I want you to think about everything I've said to you in here.
You've got a bloke in hospital.
You've got a woman who has admitted the crime. It's done.
Doesn't matter what woman's done what, so long as you put someone away.
It's still solved. You've done your job.
- Not true. - What harm can it do?
Please, for Mary. For...
For me. For Mary.
- She's a better woman than I am. - I don't care about Mary.
- Interview suspended at... - Please, look at me.
- Stacey, no. I'm sorry. - Please, please...
It is still justice.
My job, our job is to find the perpetrator of the crime.
Justice is for judges, juries.
I thought we had a connection.
I thought you understood.
No, I do.
You met a man you wanted.
A man you find physically attractive.
And even though he was wrong, you couldn't stop.
Yeah.
But none of that matters.
None of that makes your sister not guilty.
Interview suspended at 19:57.
Stacey, you'll be taken downstairs where you'll be bailed.
OK, Stacey,
I'm going to walk you through what happens next.
You'll be taken downstairs...
What was all that about?
That was... one of those bits they don't teach on the course.
- Ah, you're alright. - I don't mind.
It's fine.
...anything that might prejudice a future trial.
Do you have someone you can call who can come and take you home?
The right outcome.
- Even though it wasn't? - Even though it wasn't.
Paul's bought a new jacket to impress you with.
Shall I... hold the lift?