Dishonour by Helen Black Page B

your time.’
    Anwar set the empty glass down carefully in front of him.
    ‘I just wanted to confirm that I’m Raffy’s brother.’
    DI Bell was a study in calm. ‘Excellent. Now everyone’s been introduced I want to remind Raffique that he’s still under caution. Do you know what that means?’
    ‘I’m not stupid,’ said Raffy.
    Lilly cringed. The last thing anyone should be in an interview was cocky. Frightened, yes. Angry, possibly. Cocky, never. While Lilly understood that bravado was often the refuge of the terrified child, juries imagined only those with lots of experience of the criminal justice system would have the temerity to be cocky.
    DI Bell smiled. Lilly wasn’t the only one in the room who knew how juries thought.
    She put her hand on Raffy’s thigh hoping to remind him of her advice to say as little as possible; not to give them any ammunition.
    ‘Do you know why you’re here?’ asked DI Bell.
    ‘Like I said, I’m not stupid.’
    Lilly sighed. Her client was doing nothing except harming his own chances of getting out of here.
    ‘Then humour me,’ said DI Bell. ‘Tell me in your own words why you’ve been arrested.’
    Raffy laughed, the noise travelling upwards.
    ‘Is something funny?’ asked the inspector.
    ‘Not really.’
    ‘Then why don’t you tell me why you’ve been brought here, unless you want to share the joke?’
    Raffy licked his lips and nodded. ‘OK then, I’ll tell you what I think.’
    DI Bell’s smile stayed in place, his hands crossed on his lap.
    ‘I think there’s a war going on,’ said Raffy.
    ‘In Iraq?’
    ‘In Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, you name it.’
    Anwar put a hand on Raffy’s shoulder. ‘This is not the time or place.’
    ‘Brother, this is exactly the place,’ he shrugged Anwar’s hand away, ‘and this is definitely the time.’
    ‘Powerful is he who controls himself in anger,’ said Anwar.
    DI Bell leaned back in his chair, clearly enjoying the show. Lilly’s mind began to whirr. If she stopped the tape it would look as if she were preventing her client from incriminating himself. If she let him carry on he might alienate everyone who ever saw and heard this tape.
    Did Raffy realise he was digging a deep hole for himself? Did he care?
    ‘Most of all there’s a war going on right here, and you,’ Raffy pointed at DI Bell, ‘are on one side and we are on the other.’
    ‘Do you see yourself as a soldier then?’ asked Bell.
    Lilly had to do something. She couldn’t let Raffy condone any sort of violence. His outburst was as much about Yasmeen as a conflict thousands of miles away. Or at least in any juror’s mind it would be.
    ‘Could we move away from politics and stick to the matter in hand?’ she said. ‘I suggest you stop playing games, Inspector, and put the charge to my client.’
    DI Bell’s disappointment darkened his face. ‘This isn’ta game,’ he said. ‘I just wanted to hear what Raffique had to say for himself.’
    Lilly gave the policeman a hard stare. ‘Then put the charge to him.’
    Bell paused. No doubt he was hoping the loose cannon opposite would fill the silence. Lilly tightened her grip on Raffy’s thigh, held her breath and hoped it would restrain him.
    At last the inspector continued, ‘Raffique, it is my belief that you poisoned your sister. Is that true?’
    ‘Nope.’
    ‘So you didn’t crush Perocet and OxyContin tablets and put them in her drink?’
    ‘Nope.’
    ‘You didn’t leave Yasmeen to die?’
    ‘What do you think?’
    ‘I think you’re a strict Muslim, Raffique,’ said DI Bell.
    Raffy shrugged. ‘Not particularly.’
    ‘You sounded fairly extreme a few moments ago.’
    ‘There’s nothing extreme about my politics. Every Muslim feels the same.’
    ‘I don’t believe that.’
    Raffy sneered at the police officer. ‘And how many Muslims do you actually know?’
    They stared hard at one another. Lilly was surprised it was Bell who was the first to look away.
    ‘I think