‘That.’ He waved his hand up and down like he was airport security checking her for bombs. ‘Making everyone do what you want.’
She had no response. But flames licked the base of her throat as she realised what was off about this whole interrogation.
‘You’re not treating this as a murder,’ she said calmly.
‘Why would you say that?’
‘I’ve sat in enough interrogations to know the kind of things you guys ask for different crimes. You’re not treating this as foul play. Or you’ve beentoldnot to treat this as foul play.’
Avery’s ears went red.Bin-fucking-go.
‘They’re going to rule it a suicide, aren’t they?’ His lips formed a thin line but he didn’t correct her, so she kept going. ‘But you’re not as dumb as them, are you, Avery? You reckon there’s something else going on. Tell me.’
Avery looked up at the red camera light flickering in the corner. Who else was watching? ‘We’re finished, Ms Barbarani.’
9
Nella
The police station was just across the road from her office.
The crime scene.
In the dark, the cold blue lights of the police cars made the strip look like it was underwater. The blue-and-white-checked tape was taut around the walls of her red-brick building and officers in dark blue plastic suits were coming in and out, typing on iPads and nodding and shrugging at each other. Was it all for show? If they were treating it as a suicide, the forensics team, even though they were trained to look for clues objectively, would have tunnel vision when it came to looking for evidence.
Maybe the pressure from Tom had got to him? Fuck.Tom.
She checked her phone, which she’d turned toDo Not Disturbduring the interview. Tom had called seventeen times. Daisy: 9. Pearl: 3. Ian: 1.
She spotted a familiar red car parked across the street but turned her back to it and pressed one of the missed calls randomly.
‘Nel?’
‘Daisy, are you okay?’
The younger woman’s sobs strained down the line.
‘Daisy, you don’t have to talk about—’
‘Nella, it’s so awful!’ she choked out. ‘He was there and now he’s not! He seemed so nice ...’ She sobbed again. Her reaction was perfectly normal for someone who’d never really experienced death before. That had been Nella six months ago, but now, all she felt was numb. She pressed the phone tighter to her ear, hoping some of Daisy’s emotion would filter through her ear and into her bloodstream. Not only had she left her employees for six months, but now she’d scarred them for life by bringing in Clarkson for his final hours on earth.
‘The police said Ian found him,’ Nella said.
‘Mmhmm.’ Daisy blew her nose away from the speaker, and when she came back, her voice was thick, but sturdier. ‘We’re all here at Pearl’s now. Ian’s still in shock, I think. He left his gym bag in the backroom, that’s why he went back. I thought he just brought it into the office for show!’
Nella smiled in spite of everything.
‘Anyway, Pearl and I locked up and everything was fine. I checked on Clarkson, asked him if he needed anything, gave him the code to set the alarm like you told me to and then we left.’
‘What time was that?’ Nella bit her lip as the forensic officers all went back inside.
‘Uh ... it must have been about twenty to six.’
Figures. Clarkson probably would have turned his charm on Daisy, keeping her back so he could subtly look down her shirt, no matter how pressing the ‘inconsistency’ he’d found. Nella’s paralegal was young, with coppery pink hair and tanned skin, that beer-drinking, no make-up, ‘one-of-the-boys’ type guys like Clarkson always had a weak spot for. Nella had tried to be that girl once, but it never worked out; she was toohigh maintenance, and beer tasted like acid.
‘I didn’t see Ian.’ Daisy lowered her voice. Nella could hear the others talking loudly in the background. ‘But I’m sure he would have got there when he said he did.’
‘Which was when?’
