Luke Gibson wasn’t behaving as if he had a guilty conscience. When I opened the door to his interview room he was fast asleep, his head pillowed on his arms, the picture of innocence.
‘Aww,’ Georgia whispered from behind me as I drew the door shut quietly. ‘He’s out for the count.’
‘He’s probably knackered after his week away. From what his housemates said, he wasn’t planning on doing much sleeping.’
‘Are you waiting for his lawyer?’
‘He hasn’t asked for one.’
‘That’s stupid of him.’
‘But useful. You could make him a cup of tea,’ I suggested. ‘That might help to wake him up.’
‘Do you want some tea?’
‘I’m all right, actually. But thanks,’ I said, surprised that she’d offered. ‘You’d better put two sugars in Mr Gibson’s. He’ll need the energy.’
Her eyes danced. ‘Why? What are you going to do to him?’
I grinned. ‘Only ask a few questions. Nothing too strenuous.’
‘Shame.’ She bounced off towards the kitchen. There were brief moments where I thought we might actually end up getting on quite well. Then I would put my foot in it, or she would say something horrible, and we would end up where we’d started. She had probably been planning to spit in my tea, I thought, and part of me felt that was fair enough. I should apologise for what I’d said to Liv about her.
I should apologise, but I knew I wouldn’t.
The second time I went into the interview room I let the door thud home behind me. Luke raised his head with a start.
‘Christ.’ He blinked and rubbed his eyes. ‘Sorry, I was just … sleeping.’
‘Most people probably wouldn’t be able to sleep in these circumstances.’
‘I can drop off anywhere. Even if I probably shouldn’t.’
‘There isn’t much else to do in here. Anyway, someone’s sorting you out a cup of tea.’
‘Thanks, that’ll help.’ He shook himself and sat up straight. ‘I’m awake now.’
‘We’ll get started with your interview when my colleague comes back.’
He checked his watch. ‘What was the hold-up?’
‘There were a couple of other people I needed to speak to.’
‘Roddy and Orlando?’
I’d already reached the conclusion that he was clever but the question still surprised me. ‘Now why would you ask me that?’
‘Because you said you’d found personal items belonging to Paige in our house. I can’t think why you’d have singled me out to interview since I barely knew her. I assumed you’d want to talk to all three of us.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘Am I right?’
I started to fiddle with the tape machine instead of answering, knowing that I might as well have told him he was on the money. He was managing not to look smug when I glanced at him, but only just.
Well, you can have that one. If you think you’re cleverer than me, you’ll relax. And then maybe you’ll make a mistake.
When Georgia came in with his tea, he beamed at her.
‘Thanks. That’s really kind.’
‘Not a problem.’ She was blushing, I was amused to see. His eyes followed her as she walked all the way around the table to her seat, and again I had the jarring feeling I’d seen him somewhere before, or someone very like him …
‘Shall we get started?’ Georgia had her hand on the recorder, ready to go. I nodded, and during the preamble and opening questions establishing who he was I did my best to pull myself together and concentrate. He worked in a bank, he said, in the City.
‘Is that where you met your housemates?’
‘I was at university with Orlando.’
‘Which university?’
‘Cambridge,’ he said shortly, looking down at his tea instead of at me, as if he knew it would colour my opinion of him. It was one word but it invited me to make a whole host of assumptions about privilege and intellectual arrogance, and that obviously bothered him.
Or he knew I was making assumptions about his privilege and intellectual arrogance and he wanted to persuade me it was unjustified.
‘Was Roddy at Cambridge too?’ I asked, offering him safer ground.
‘No, he went to Leeds. Orlando and Roddy were in school together. We were all looking for somewhere to live in London at the same time and Orlando suggested sharing a house.’
‘Have you lived with them for long?’
‘Three years, something like that.’
‘Any arguments?’
‘We get on fine.’
‘Even though you have the smallest room?’
He grinned. ‘I’m used to it. And I pay less rent than the other two.’
‘And you do your own cleaning and ironing. I’d have thought you didn’t need to watch the pennies, given your job.’
‘I don’t have the same background as the other two. My mum brought me up on her own and there wasn’t a lot of money for extras. I don’t have anyone to dig me out if I run out of cash, so I make sure I don’t run out.’ The way he said it was matter-of-fact. He wasn’t ashamed of his past, I thought, and liked him for it.
‘Are you a member of the Chiron Club?’
‘Me? No. They wouldn’t want someone like me.’
‘What do you mean, someone like you?’
‘I’m not connected. I don’t have rich parents. They like people who are like them.’
‘Like your housemates.’
He shrugged. ‘I suppose so.’
‘What else do you know about it?’
‘Nothing, really. As far as I can see, membership mainly involves going to parties.’
And getting decent legal representation if there was the faintest whiff of trouble in the air, I thought. And something that had made Orlando Hawkes go pale when I hinted at it, something that had made Roddy Asquith too scared to speak to us at his home or in interview.
‘Tell me about Paige Hargreaves. How did you know her?’
‘I didn’t.’ He saw my frown. ‘She was a friend of a friend of a friend. I ran across her a couple of times when we were out. I knew her well enough to say hello, not enough to have a conversation.’
‘Was she ever in your house?’
‘Not that I recall.’ He thought about it. ‘Maybe when I wasn’t there. Sometimes I sleep … elsewhere.’
‘Elsewhere?’
‘You’ve seen my bedroom. It’s on the small side. I usually persuade girls to invite me to their place because it’s more comfortable.’
‘Does that happen often?’
The eyebrows went up again. ‘That’s a very personal question.’
I laughed in spite of myself. ‘It’s not meant to be. I’d still like you to answer it.’
He drank some of his tea before he answered, taking his time while he thought through why I might be asking. ‘Often enough. Are you hoping I can narrow it down to a specific date because you don’t know when Paige was in the house?’
Basically, yes. ‘We’re still at the start of our enquiries,’ I said. ‘We’re trying to put together what happened and when. Any details help.’
‘I can’t tell you anything more than I’ve said already, I’m afraid. I never saw her in the house. No one ever mentioned she’d been there. And no one ever told me she was dead.’ He frowned. ‘That’s something I’ve been thinking about. How did she die?’
‘We don’t know yet.’
‘You haven’t done a post-mortem?’
‘It was inconclusive.’
‘So it could have been natural causes?’
I shook my head. ‘Not from the way her body was treated after she died.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘She was dismembered,’ I said coolly.
‘Jesus.’ He looked genuinely shocked, the colour leaching from his skin. It took him a moment to recover his composure. ‘I’m sorry to hear it, obviously, but I barely knew her. I didn’t even recognise her name when you asked me about her at King’s Cross.’
I opened my folder and took out a picture of the bag. ‘Do you recognise this?’
‘No.’ He sounded definite.
‘It was in your bedroom.’
‘Where?’
‘Behind the door.’
He shook his head. ‘There was nothing behind the door.’
‘This bag was there when I searched your room.’ I tapped the picture with the end of my pen. ‘Look at it again. Are you sure you don’t recognise it?’
‘I’ve never seen it before.’ He looked at me. ‘I’m telling you the truth. Someone must have put it in my room, and recently. It wasn’t there when I was packing for Scotland.’
‘Who would put something in your room?’
‘I don’t know. One of my housemates? One of their mates? Maggie, the cleaner, if she thought it was mine?’ He shrugged. ‘I don’t know who did it, I’m afraid.’
‘When you say Paige was a friend of a friend of a friend, who’s your friend in that list?’
‘Roddy, I suppose,’ he said reluctantly. ‘He had a pal at university who ended up working for a production company that made documentaries. He knew Paige through his mate.’
‘And did they socialise much?’
‘You’ll have to ask Roddy.’
I had, and hadn’t got anywhere.
‘Do you remember Roddy’s friend’s name?’ Georgia asked.
‘Jonny Gough.’ He spelled it for her. ‘She’s a girl. No idea what it’s short for. Jonquil, probably.’
‘Do you know the name of the company she works for?’
‘No … but I do have her number in my phone.’
‘I thought she was Roddy’s friend,’ I said, amused.
‘Jonny and I – we’re not exactly friends. We had a bit of a thing for a while.’ The corners of his mouth curved up irresistibly and I stared at him, mesmerised. It was too familiar; where had I seen that smirk before?
Georgia shifted in her chair and knocked against the table leg, which jarred the table and made tea slop over the side of Luke’s mug. He lifted it with a sharp, ‘Careful.’
‘Sorry. I’ll clean it up.’ She jumped up and hurried out of the room. I leaned across and suspended the interview. It was going to look really good on the transcript. I hoped I didn’t have to read it out in court. More than that, I hoped I wasn’t going to need to read it out. I’d been prepared to treat Luke as a suspect, and he wasn’t out of the woods yet, but I’d be sorry to arrest him. I was as sure as I could be that he had been honest with us so far.
Luke had lifted my notebook out of the danger zone while I was dealing with the tape machine. He handed it to me. ‘You don’t want to get it on your notes.’
‘We might as well take a break since we’ve had to stop.’
His eyes darkened with disappointment. ‘I was hoping I could leave. I’m sorry if I haven’t been helpful but it’s not deliberate. I’ve told you everything I know.’
I thought he probably had, but I wanted to ask him what else he knew about the Chiron Club before I let him go. ‘I’ll try to wrap this up as quickly as I can.’
‘OK.’ He hesitated. ‘It’s just there’s someone waiting for me.’
Of course there was. ‘Waiting here? In the office?’
‘I was supposed to see her when I got back from Edinburgh. I had to call her to let her know where I was.’
He certainly didn’t waste any time in moving on from the Edinburgh girl, I thought, but I kept that to myself. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’
‘Thank you. I appreciate it.’
Georgia returned with handfuls of paper towels and started mopping the table. As I headed for the door, he said something to her in an undertone. It made her laugh out loud. I glanced over my shoulder to see him looking up at her, his face full of mischief. I had seen that look before, I knew it.
I still couldn’t place him and it was driving me mad.