‘Ani, you’re good,’ Chloe admits through the phone. I smirk because where’s the lie? ‘Who’s there with you, your mum?’
‘Nope. It’s me, Riri, the murderer and Fred.’
‘OK. Fred and Rodolfo, both of you need to stay exactly where you are. Try running and I’ll hunt you down. Ani, go back to your flat with Riri. I mean it, don’t lurk around. My officers will be there in two minutes.’
‘No, no!’ Rodolfo cries out. ‘Please, someone listen to me! That wasn’t the whole story! True, I lost everything but she helped me get everything back.’
‘Huh?’ Riri says.
‘My mom was British so I have dual-citizenship. My Spanish family don’t talk to me because of the museum incident so I saved up to come here. My only plan was to stay with a cousin in Leeds but that didn’t last long. I was unemployable and homeless. Then, I don’t know if it was magic or a miracle, Polly – Anastasia – found me. She turned my life around – helped me buy a flat. Told me about this cafe she wanted to open. Helped me get a cooking diploma, saying she felt so bad about what she did to me years ago. She was a good person. I have my whole life to thank her for. So no, I didn’t kill her.’
I gape at Rodolfo. Well, I didn’t expect that.
‘Why did you run then?’ Riri asks. ‘You tried to creep into her apartment, saw us, then ran. That’s guilty behaviour, mister.’
Rodolfo runs a hand over his now-sweating face. ‘I . . . have to go back home. There’s nothing for me here and I just . . . She said if something ever happened, there was a cheque for me. And Ani, she wrote you a letter. She told me.’
‘That still doesn’t explain why you ran.’ Riri isn’t speechless like me. ‘That only explains why you came here in the first place.’
‘I was more scared because the door was unlocked – Polly gave me a key. Then I saw Fred . . . I thought he was the murderer.’
That prompts Fred to admit that he was Mrs Kostas/Dimas’s long-lost relative – her son – and the two of them have a moment.
‘Hello?’ Chloe says. ‘So, there’s no killer there with you?’
I groan. ‘Nope. Come on, Riri.’