Having discussed the upcoming football season and listened to Ross’s pessimistic views on Preston’s promotion chances, they left him to it. When they looked back, he’d settled back into his swing seat with a fresh cigarette, sunglasses on and head tilted back. Presumably, once they were out of sight, he’d be texting around, warning people that a couple of amateur sleuths were in town.
‘Did you believe him?’ Colin asked.
Adam nodded.
‘I think the fact that he told us the real reason behind the fight shows that we can trust him, even if it was taken by questionable means…’
Colin glanced over at him, pleased to see that his impressed expression negated his words.
‘Very tricksy,’ Adam said. ‘Sadly, the chat raised more questions than answers.’
‘How so?’
‘Firstly, why did Sam lie about the reason behind the fight? Does he have something to hide? Secondly, Ross looked pretty miffed that he missed out on being his brother’s best man. Might he have had something to do with bumping off his competitor who took the title by means of blackmail? Finally, who has the room key? Whoever has that surely is the person behind the murder.’
Colin looked jaded at how little they’d achieved so far. It felt like gardening – however many weeds you ripped from the ground, there were always more waiting to spring from the gaps you’d created.
‘The method of murder also remains a mystery,’ Adam added, piling more onto Colin’s already full plate. ‘He wasn’t battered to death, which means that it wasn’t a crime of passion – the police would’ve spotted any outward damage. Which means that whoever killed him had planned it, which very much rules Sam and Ross in.’
‘Both had means,’ Colin agreed. ‘One was being blackmailed on threat of a secret being exposed and the other was seeing his twin suffer, having had his best man title taken from him.’
Frustration rose in the air between them.
‘The only way is forward,’ Adam said. ‘Let’s go see what Vicky’s breaking news is.’
Vicky Watson was surprised to see the two men outside her door, but stood aside to let them in anyway, at Adam’s request. Having always had a slight crush on her, Colin kept his gaze low, focusing instead on the rough grain of the floorboards.
The door clicked behind her and she made her way to the corner of the room, throwing herself into a velvet chair next to a writing desk. From it, she took a bottle of water and guzzled thirstily from it.
Colin snuck a glance in her direction, pity panging in his chest. Judging from the mascara smudged below her bloodshot eyes, whatever news she had to impart was not good.
Adam took in the room. It was almost identical to theirs; similar abstract art on the walls and a large window with a view that matched theirs. The big difference was that her room had two single beds.
A light bulb illuminated in Adam’s mind. But first, to business.
‘Vicky, we’ve come to speak to you about Danny.’
She sniffed, trying to hold back a sob, but to no avail. The floodgates burst open and she let out a wail.
Both men’s eyes widened in alarm as they looked at each other, both pleading silently with the other to be the one to do something about it. Eventually, Colin rolled his eyes and got up from the bed, tiptoeing towards her slowly as one might approach a wild animal that might lash out at any second.
He tore a tissue for a box that was sitting on the table and reached it to her. She accepted with a quiet thank you before blowing her nose and placing the used tissue in the bin at her feet. She took a minute to compose herself, apologised and fixed them with a sad smile.
‘What do you want to talk about Danny for?’ she asked.
‘Well, obviously you heard about what happened to him…’
She confirmed that she had with a slight nod of her head.
‘…Well, we don’t think that it was accidental. We think someone meant to kill him, so we’re asking around. Someone hinted that you might have some information.’
‘Ross,’ she said. A statement, rather than a question.
‘Can you tell us what you know?’
‘As you know, Danny and I went out for about a while, about three years ago. He broke up with me and we started seeing new people. My mum and dad hated him, so it was never going to last, and I was quite relieved when he ended it. About three weeks ago, he started texting me again, completely out of the blue. Maybe he thought that there was a chance of seeing each other at the wedding and he was getting his feelers out early.’
‘Did you text back?’
‘Yes, but only a few times. I told him I had a boyfriend and that it was inappropriate for him to be contacting me. It didn’t stop him. In fact, not even my boyfriend ringing him put him off, even though Neil gave him a right old shouting at.’
‘Where is Neil?’
‘He was here last night, but had to leave after the party because he was working today. He’s coming back tonight… I hope.’
With that, she burst into tears again. This time, they let her get it out of her system without interfering. She wiped at her eyes, smearing black across her cheeks like warpaint.
‘Why wouldn’t he come back?’ Adam asked when he thought it was safe.
‘Because… I slept with Danny once he’d left. He’d said sorry downstairs at the party for texting, and told me to pass his apologies onto Neil. He’d already gone by this point. At the end of the night, there was a knock on my door. It was Danny. I was drunk and I didn’t know what I was doing, but I let him in. He seemed… pleased with himself.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You know, the usual Danny Costello swagger – boasting about this and that, and he was walking with a spring in his step.’
This news was unexpected. According to Sam, Danny was pissed off and cooped up in his room, still feeling stung about their argument. Although, him being up here, propositioning his ex-girlfriend explained where he was when Ross went a-knocking.
‘Did he say why?’
‘We didn’t say much at all, if you get my drift…’
Something permeated the room – an awkwardness that Adam felt he could almost decant from the air and bottle. It hung thick around them.
‘Do you remember what time this was?’
Colin asked the question, his words acting as a welcome candle in the dark.
‘He came up at just after one o’clock and left at about quarter past. He didn’t hang around.’
‘And that’s why you’re worried Neil might not come?’ Colin said.
She nodded, fresh tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
‘Is there anything else that happened?’
‘Actually, yeah,’ she said, straightening up in her chair. ‘When he was putting on his jacket, after… you know… an envelope fell out. It was open at the top, but I couldn’t see what was in it. Though, when it dropped on the floor, it sounded heavy.’
‘Heavy?’
‘Yeah, it was loud. It didn’t bang, it sounded more like a slap. Like it was full of folded paper or something.’
A physical clue – interesting.
With nothing more to go on, they left Vicky’s room and were half way down the corridor when Adam turned back, hammering on the door again. Vicky opened it, tears flowing like a river down her cheeks.
‘I was just wondering if… well…’
He paused, wondering how to word it to keep the offence to a minimum.
‘Spit it out,’ she said.
‘Well, our room has one double bed and you have two singles. I’m assuming that, after what happened last night, Neil won’t be coming tonight, so was wondering if you fancied swapping rooms? It’d make our lives so much easier.’
The door slammed shut in Adam’s face milliseconds after he finished asking the question. Colin dragged him away before Vicky returned with something sharp.
‘Idiot,’ his friend said, punching him on the arm.