DS Saunders and DC Chapple led me through the back to an interview room. In the corridor outside was a storeroom and on the door a sign read: ‘Risk of health hazard, Rettendon exhibits’. In that cupboard, behind that door, were my friends’ clothing and personal effects, no doubt soaked in their blood. I don’t know if I had been shown it deliberately for effect, or if it was a mere coincidence, but it made the whole horror story real. When the detectives sat me down, they asked me about my military career, adding that the gunman had executed the trio with ruthless efficiency. ‘Someone who knew what they were doing, Bernie. An ex-military man, perhaps?’ I said I knew what it looked like, but I had not murdered my friends. I was told that I had to understand that a lot of people believed I was involved. ‘Even if you didn’t pull the trigger, Bernie, you had good reason to see the back of them. They were threatening to shoot you. Maybe it was a case of you or them?
