Cambridge Blue - Alison Bruce [52]
‘Why?’
‘Well, to be honest, Colin wasn’t a nice bloke – I mean, especially from a half-sophisticated woman’s point of view; he looked bad, smelt bad and was a bit of a scrounger. But they got on fine.’
‘Unless Lorna was just put out by you flirting with her mate?’
Bryn twisted around, leaning on the back rest for the first time, and eyed Gary with what he hoped looked like mild amusement. He waited for Gary to do the body-mirroring thing before he replied. ‘Trust me, as far as her friend Victoria went, Lorna was just not the jealous type. And, as I said before, there was nothing going on between us, anyway.’
‘Well, then, what?’
‘Yeah, well, according to Colin, they met again. He even reckoned he was “on a promise”. I thought he was having me on, but he was adamant.’
‘But we’re talking some months ago, right?’
‘Yeah, January.’ Bryn could almost hear the tick-tick-tick as his bombshell counted down. ‘Colin’s dead.’
Only Gary’s eyes showed an instant response. The pupils dilated and his stare made Bryn feel pinned down. ‘And what was Colin’s last name?’ he asked.
‘Willis.’ Bryn’s throat tightened as he spoke. No wave of relief followed; he felt no burden lifting after this revelation. But what had he expected, anyway? After all, his conscience was far from clear.
‘You’ll need to make a statement,’ Gary told him.
Bryn just nodded, as he felt himself making a nauseating slide towards centre stage. It was for Lorna, he told himself. But, as he walked towards Parkside police station, shoulder to shoulder with his old classmate, he couldn’t help wondering how deep he was about to get buried.
TWENTY
Marks still looked pissed off. But even if there was no mood change apparent to the naked eye, Goodhew was certain his boss would have mellowed during the day.
Marks repeated the essence of Goodhew’s request back at him. ‘So, you’ve left Kincaide with this O’Brien guy, and now you want to follow up this Colin Willis lead?’
‘Absolutely.’ Goodhew plonked a bulging folder on to the desk. ‘I thought it would be a good idea to go through this stuff, just as a start. If there’s a connection to Lorna Spence—’
‘What happened to her bank statements and phone bills? You’re not gallivanting off on anything else until they’re properly done.’
‘They are.’ Goodhew slid out a thin plastic wallet from inside the front flap of the larger folder. ‘And there’s not much to know. She used her bank account for paying bills and drawing cash, but for little else. Her bills were mostly on direct debit and, aside from rent, rates, heating etc., she used just one credit card and one store card. She doesn’t appear to have been the type to bother about keeping paperwork, so we don’t have a complete set of household or mobile bills.’
He eyed his boss hopefully. ‘Without the detail, there’s not much to say, but I’ve requested a full set of both, as well as all calls relating to her office extension, a list of the incoming calls on her private numbers, and copies of her credit card statements.’
‘Nothing else?’
‘Not yet, no.’
Marks held out his hand. ‘Leave that with me, and you’d better hope I don’t find something you’ve missed.’ Goodhew felt sure he had spotted an encouraging gleam in Marks’ eye. ‘So, how are you proposing to look for a connection to Colin Willis?’
‘Aside from the file here? Maybe she mentioned him to someone at the Excelsior Clinic’
‘And while you’re at it, I suppose you could find out whether she ever mentioned Bryn O’Brien to them.’ Marks leant back in his chair and surveyed Goodhew through narrowed eyes. He tapped his temples as he thought. ‘And you may as well speak to Victoria Nugent, since, after all her name’s popped up a couple of times now. And if anything else does crop up, you’ll be burrowing into that while you’re there, I suppose?’
‘Something like that.’
‘Why do you think I sent you off to trawl through Lorna Spence’s paperwork?’
‘Because—’
‘Because I thought it was time you grasped the idea that I need to know where you are and exactly what you’re doing. I thought you’d be bored to death for a