Page 44 of Murder in the Family

Nice to see you, Peter.

PETER LASCELLES

(standing to one side)

Come in, come in.

CUT TO: Bill, Alan and Peter having tea in Peter’s sitting room, overlooking the back garden. Most of it is patio. There’s a slightly rusted barbecue in one corner and a child’s swing. The tea is in cups, and on a tray with a jug and sugar bowl.

BILL SERAFINI

So we’ve been talking to Mitchell Clarke.

PETER LASCELLES

I rather thought you might.

BILL SERAFINI

And he’s convinced that he was targeted for purely racial reasons.

(holding up his hands)

I don’t mean to disrespect you or your procedures – we’ve had issues of our own in the NYPD, as I’m sure you know – but it’s something we just have to cover off.

PETER LASCELLES

I’m well aware that’s what he thinks, and I’m not going to sit here and claim that the Met had an impeccable record back then. But in Clarke’s case, it’s not quite as black and white as it might seem. In any sense of the word.

BILL SERAFINI

Explain that to me.

PETER LASCELLES

Clarke told us he was a journalist, and that’s right, he was. But he had a finger in a whole lot of other pies too. If you look at the sort of stories he was writing most of them were all of a piece: crime, drugs, gangs. He knew that world and he had connections in it, and he didn’t just use those connections to gather raw material.

We knew full well he was a small-time drug dealer, but at that point we never caught him with enough of the stuff on him to bring a prosecution.

BILL SERAFINI

He denies supplying Luke Ryder, and as far as we can determine Luke wasn’t even a user.

PETER LASCELLES

Ryder didn’t have a serious habit, no, but we did find evidence to suggest he’d dabble recreationally. Cocaine mostly.

BILL SERAFINI

So you thought Mitchell was there to sell Ryder some gear. Even though he wasn’t carrying any coke at the time?

PETER LASCELLES

We did, yes.

BILL SERAFINI

But Ryder had no money on him when he was found, right?

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