"Why the bag?" asked Shepherd.
Cooper pushed his spectacles further up his nose. "Sorry?" he said.
Shepherd pointed at the bag. "Why is my son"s phone in an evidence bag?"
"Because it"s evidence," Cooper said, speaking slowly and clearly, like a teacher explaining something to a particularly dull pupil.
"Evidence of what?" asked Shepherd. "I gave the video to Liam"s teacher and presumably she gave it to you."
"The headmaster, Mr Edmunds, gave us the video," said Hollis. "We"re now investigating the a.s.sault that took place."
"Fine, I understand that, but I still don"t see why my son"s phone is evidence. He didn"t take part in the a.s.sault, he didn"t film the a.s.sault. All that happened is that someone Bluetoothed the video to his phone."
"There"s no reason to get upset, Mr Shepherd," said Cooper.
Shepherd sat back and placed his hands palms down on the table. "I"m not upset," he said calmly. "I simply asked you a question."
"Frankly, Mr Shepherd, you"re here to answer questions, not ask them." He smiled and nodded as if he expected Shepherd to nod in agreement. Shepherd folded his arms and stared back at him. He was starting to get a bad feeling about the two detectives. Far from simply helping them with their inquiries, he felt that he and Liam were being treated as suspects.
"So, Liam, can you confirm that this is your telephone?" asked Cooper.
Liam looked fearfully at his father. Shepherd smiled encouragingly. "It"s okay, Liam," he said.
Liam nodded at Cooper. "Yes, it"s mine."
"And you had a video on the phone that you say was Bluetoothed to you? A video of a boy being a.s.saulted?"
"Do you know who the boy is?" asked Shepherd.
Cooper held up a hand as if he was stopping traffic. "Please, Mr Shepherd. Can you allow your son to answer?"
"I don"t appreciate the way you"re treating us like suspects," said Shepherd.
"We need to know where Liam got the video from," said Cooper.
"I didn"t film it," said Liam, quickly.
"It"s okay, Liam," said Shepherd. "Let me handle this." He smiled at the detective. "I"m not sure that my son needs to be involved any more than he already is," he said. "I"m sure dozens of pupils got the video it was probably pa.s.sed from phone to phone."
"You"re probably right," said Cooper. "But we still need Liam to confirm who gave it to him."
"Why?"
"Because we need to know who filmed the incident," said Cooper. "We know that Liam received the video via Bluetooth. And we know the number that it was Bluetoothed from, and we know who owned the phone that sent the video to the Liam"s phone. But we need Liam to tell us who was using the phone at the time."
"Maybe I"m being obtuse, but if you already know who sent the video to Liam, why do you need him to tell you?"
Cooper leaned forward. "We know which phone the video came from, but we don"t know who had the phone at the time," he explained patiently. "The last thing we want is to go and talk to the owner of the phone only to have him tell us that he didn"t have the phone at the time, or it had been stolen, or any other nonsense."
"But Liam won"t have to give a statement, or appear in court?"
Cooper sat back and clicked his pen. "All we"re doing at the moment is conducting an inquiry, gathering information," he said.
"I understand, but I don"t want Liam in court over this," said Shepherd.
"Mr Shepherd, as I"ve said several times now, we are just conducting an investigation. But if you continue to obstruct our inquiries, that most certainly would be an offence."
"Dad..." said Liam, his eyes wide.
"It"s okay, Liam," said Shepherd.
"Why don"t you tell them you"re in the police?" whispered Liam.
Hollis raised his eyebrows. "You"re in the job?" he asked Shepherd.
"SOCA," said Shepherd.
Hollis nodded. "Doing what?"
"I"m on the investigation side," said Shepherd. "Look, guys, I understand your concerns and I want to help. I was the one who reported the video in the first place, remember?"
"Then you"ll have no problems in continuing to a.s.sist us with our inquiries," said Cooper.
"With a view to charging who, exactly?"
"The boys who carried out the a.s.sault, of course," said Cooper. "And there is something else." He reached down and opened his briefcase and took out a small DVD player. He put it on the table and switched it on. "We had our technical boys take a copy of the video off the phone to enhance the picture and sound. They"ve put it onto a disc so we can see it in more detail."
He pressed the play b.u.t.ton. The DVD whirred and the screen flickered into life. The picture was bigger than it had been on the phone but the quality wasn"t much better. They watched it in silence, though Liam looked away towards the end, when the boy was being kicked in the stomach.
"You"ve identified the boys carrying out the a.s.sault?" asked Shepherd.
"One of them is at your son"s school," said Cooper. "We know who he is but we haven"t spoken to him yet. We want to know who took the video."
"Why"s that so important?" asked Shepherd.
Cooper pressed the stop b.u.t.ton. "Listen to the soundtrack," he said. He pressed play again and boosted the volume. There were shouts and curses and the screams of the boy being attacked, but there was a single voice urging them on: "Go on, kick him, kick the b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Harder, go on, give it to him, kick the black b.a.s.t.a.r.d."
Now Shepherd understood why the police were so keen on identifying whoever had been filming the attack. It was racist and in the police"s eyes that made the a.s.sault much more serious.
"You hear that?" asked the policeman.
"Yes," said Shepherd.
"So I"ll ask you again, Liam. Who Bluetoothed you the video?"
Liam looked over at his father. Shepherd nodded. "You have to tell him, Liam."
"A boy in the year above me at school," said Liam.
"His name, Liam," pressed the detective. "What is his name?"
"Peter Talovic."
"Can you spell that for me, please?"
Liam hesitantly spelled out the name.
"Is that consistent with what you know?" asked Shepherd.
Cooper didn"t answer but Hollis nodded.
"Talovic? Is that Serbian?"
"Bosnian," said Hollis. "The phone number is registered to the boy"s father. Jorgji Talovic. He was a Bosnian refugee who fled the former Yugoslavia, but he"s a naturalised British citizen now."
"But that"s not relevant to our inquiries," said Cooper, clicking his ballpoint pen impatiently. "When was this?" he asked Liam. "When did Peter Talovic Bluetooth the video to you?"
"About two weeks ago."
"And where did this Bluetoothing take place?"
"What do you mean?" asked Liam.
"Where were you when you got the video?"
"At school. In the playground. He was giving it to anyone who wanted it. He said it was fun."
"And anyone who wanted it got it from Peter, did they?"
"Some kids got it from other kids. I Bluetoothed it to three or four kids."
"But Peter was the one who took the video, right?"
Liam nodded.
"Did you see him make the video?"
"No," said Liam.
"We"ve already agreed that Liam wasn"t there when the attack took place," said Shepherd.
"Please allow your son to answer the question," said Cooper.
"You"re trying to trip him up," said Shepherd. "You"re asking the same question in a different way. He"s already told you that he wasn"t there when the attack took place. So he couldn"t have been there when the video was made."
Cooper sat back in his chair and clicked his ballpoint pen. "If your son hasn"t done anything wrong there"s no question of tripping him up," he said.
"My son isn"t here to be interrogated," said Shepherd.
"I was simply asking a question, Mr Shepherd. There"s no need to be hostile."
Shepherd had a sudden urge to grab the detective and smash his face down onto the table, but he forced himself to smile. "I"m not being hostile, Detective Cooper," he said softly. "I"m simply looking after the interests of my son. We"re happy to help you, and I would point out again that I was the one who first brought this to your attention."
"To the school"s attention," corrected the detective.
Shepherd nodded, accepting the point.
Cooper leaned forward and smiled ingratiatingly at Liam. "So, Liam, when Peter Bluetoothed the video to you, did he say anything?"
Liam frowned. "Like what?"
Cooper shrugged. "Anything at all."
"He just said it was a cool video, a video of a boy being happy-slapped."
"But did he say anything of a racist nature?"
"Like what?" asked Liam.
"Did he, for instance, refer to the racial group to which the boy belonged?"
Liam looked at Shepherd. He was close to tears again.
"Look at me, Liam, not at your father," said Cooper.
"I don"t understand the question," said Liam.
"Did he say that the boy in the video was black?"
"No."
"He didn"t refer to the boy in a derogatory manner?"
Liam shook his head. "I don"t think so."
"Is that yes or no?" asked Cooper, leaning forward.
"It"s what he said," interjected Shepherd. "He doesn"t know."
"He didn"t say that he didn"t know, Mr Shepherd. He said that he didn"t think so."
"I don"t remember," said Liam.
"There you are," said Shepherd. "He doesn"t remember." He pushed back his chair and stood up so that he was looking down at the two detectives. "I think you have the information you need, detectives," he said. "I think we"ll go now."
Hollis stood up. "Thank you for coming in, Mr Shepherd." He smiled at Liam. "And thank you, Liam, for being so helpful."
"Come on, Liam, let"s go," said Shepherd. As Liam stood up, Shepherd pointed at the phone in the evidence bag. "Can we have Liam"s phone back?" he asked Cooper.