Page 60 of Her Last Breath

‘I am sure it was a match for my own. Just as I am sure that this is an attempt to frame me.’

‘Do you not trust the chain of evidence that the police force adhere to?’ Jane replied, incredulous. ‘I can tell you that that won’t stand up as a defence in court.’

‘My client is not—’ started Nadia, only to be shut off by Kangna.

‘I am suggesting exactly that.’

‘The evidence of theft is clear,’ DS Johnson reiterated.

‘I did not steal. I am not a thief.’

‘Then how do you explain these items being taken from the homes of your patients?’ he continued to push her. ‘Families trust you to care for their vulnerable loved ones. They trust that you will be providing a service they can’t, with empathy and compassion. Instead, you used the access you were given to not only steal but to make a quick profit by selling your stolen goods on.’

‘Look at you,’ Kangna said mockingly, staring at Jane as she spoke. ‘You have nothing on me, so you are desperately trying to fabricate a narrative in which I am a villain. Well, let me tell you something. I am not some dirty little Paki from the streets of Burnley. I am a well-educated woman from an upper-class family in India. I grew up in a beautiful house, with servants, where my life was one of ease and luxury. So, pack away your narrow-mindedness and understand that I have no need to do what you are accusing me of.’

‘Then why did you abandon that life of luxury to come here and wipe arses for a living?’ Jane said in an equally mocking tone.

Kangna ignored her, carrying on her rant.

‘As to those loving families you talk about, they are too lazy to care for their own. They are too precious, claiming benefits and slobbing around, to wipe the backsides of their so-called loved ones. So please don’t try and lecture me on the affections that might exist between these people.’

Jane looked at Nadia, but the brief was holding in her feelings, just about. Although her bulging eyes showed she was just as shocked as Jane at the outburst.

‘I’m sorry, Kathy, but I still don’t understand why a woman from such a privileged background would come all this way to struggle and work two jobs?’

Kangna didn’t respond.

‘The truth is that you are not here by yourself out of choice. Your husband has been barred from applying for immigration because he committed fraud and your children remain with him in India. Isn’t that true?’

Kangna was taken aback that Jane knew so much, for the first time seemingly unsure of herself.

‘We searched your home this afternoon. And we spoke to your neighbours too. Very helpful, they were.’

Jane smiled at her, but earned only a scowl in response.

‘You work two jobs here to support your husband, your children and your mother-in-law,’ DS Johnson read from his colour-coded file. ‘You also need to make regular payments to a Sri Narinder Gupta, amounting to a thousand pounds a month.’

DS Johnson showed the documented evidence to Kangna and her solicitor. Kangna smoothed down her hair, licking her lips.

‘Mrs Kandasamy, you work as a band seven specialist hospice nurse, is that correct?’ DS Johnson probed. Kangna nodded. ‘For the record, can you please state your answer.’

‘Yes.’

‘And your monthly take home salary is two thousand seven hundred pounds?’

‘Yes.’

‘And your extra shifts as an agency care worker for Pennine Hills Home Carer Services, they bring in an extra thousand pounds a month?’

‘Yes.’

DS Johnson showed Kangna printouts of Western Union money transfers to her husband and a printout of her bank account, with highlighted lines of regular cash transfers to the visa agent Gupta.

‘Then how do you account for the fact that you are sending to your husband and your visa agent far more money than you earn?’ he demanded. ‘Including your rent and expenses, how are you funding this?’

Nadia was looking at the receipts from Western Union and bank account statements that Pawel Kowalcyzk had discovered in her client’s home, as Kangna steadfastly ignored the evidence Jane was presenting to her.

‘You clearly had a good scam going on here, didn’t you?’ Jane said, steel in her voice. ‘Until Alice Rogers caught you stealing from her grandmother and threatened to ruin it all for you. You tried turning the situation around, falsely accusing her. But that wasn’t enough though, was it? You had to silence Alice, because you didn’t want to risk an investigation taking place, which could cost you everything.’