by M K Farrar
“Can we buy you both a coffee? You must have had a long drive down.”
The grieving parents exchanged a glance.
“Yes, okay,” Mr Humphries relented. “If you think it will help find whoever did this to Adam.”
The small group crossed the courtyard and entered the café.
Adam’s parents seemed to sense they were the focus of attention and shrank even smaller. Of course, the presence of the two detectives was also garnering them some attention. Even though they didn’t wear uniform, there was something about the air they carried that made people notice them.
“I’ll get the coffees,” she told them. “Go and grab a seat.”
Erica queued in the cafeteria-style coffee shop, together with all the young adults clutching laptops and phones, who she assumed were students, and older adults who were also clutching laptops and phones, who must have been faculty staff. She bought four black coffees, with milk in a metal jug, and carried them back to the table Shawn had located for them all.
Mr and Mrs Humphries sat side by side. Grief hung over them.
“Are you driving straight back to Middlesbrough?” Erica asked as she placed the coffees in front of the grieving parents. “Or are you planning on staying in London for a few days?”
“We’re driving straight back,” Mrs Humphries said. “The university asked us to stay until Saturday, since they’re planning on doing a memorial for Adam, and said they’d like us to be here, but I’d rather not.”
Erica made a mental note about the university’s memorial. A killer often decided to show up at those kinds of things, getting pleasure from experiencing the pain they’d caused others.
Mrs Humphries continued, “This place didn’t mean anything to us, or Adam, apart from it being the place where he was killed. We couldn’t see any reason in staying.”
“Unless we can do something to help with the investigation,” her husband added hurriedly. “We’ll stay then, if we need to, right, Pam?”
Pam gave a shrug that seemed to take as much effort as if someone was standing on her shoulders. “I really can’t see what more we can do. We told the officer who spoke to us back home everything we know.”
“You’ve questioned someone, though, haven’t you?” Mr Humphries said. “A professor at the school.”
“He’s the person who found Adam,” Erica said carefully, “so we needed to question him to rule him out. Our investigations are ongoing, and we want to make sure we’ve covered every angle.”
Adam’s father nodded. “Right, but like my wife says, we’ve already told you people everything.”
“Of course,” Erica spoke gently. “I’m sure it’s difficult to keep going over the whole thing, but sometimes when questions are asked in a different way, it might jog something you hadn’t thought of before.”
“That’s fine.” Mr Humphries closed his eyes briefly and sucked in air through his nose. “We’ll do whatever we can.”
“When was the last time you heard from Adam?”
Adam’s mother lifted her gaze to Erica’s. “Last weekend. On the Sunday. He always Skyped us on a Sunday, regular as clockwork. Other than that, he wasn’t much good at keeping in touch. I’d always send him messages, or call his phone, but he never wanted to answer. It always worried me, but I suppose he had more interesting things going on. But then I was right to be worried—” Her voice broke, and she bit down on her lip hard enough to cut the skin.
“I’m sorry, Mrs Humphries. I know this must be impossibly hard for you. I do have to ask these questions, though.”
She sniffed and swiped at her face with her hand. “Yes, I know. I’m sorry. Please, carry on.”
“When he called you last Sunday, how did he seem?”
“Exactly the same as normal. He didn’t really say very much, but that’s not unusual for Adam. I’m the one who tends to witter on, babbling about things he probably found to be ridiculously boring—what the neighbours were doing, and what we’d had for dinner, all that kind of thing. But I just wanted to keep the conversation going, you know? Keep his face on screen for as long as possible. Adam was our only child and—” She caught her breath, and her husband reached out to squeeze her hand.
He took over. “The house has been very quiet since Adam left for uni. We just wanted to feel like he was back with us, for a short time, anyway.”
“And now we’re never going to get him back.” She burst into tears.
Erica’s heart broke for them. She couldn’t imagine losing Poppy. Losing Chris had been painful enough, but though she’d loved him with all her heart, he’d never been her reason for living. Poppy was, though. If Erica ever lost her daughter, she genuinely couldn’t imagine knowing how she would continue through life.
“Do you have children, DI Swift?” Mr Humphries asked.
She gave a small smile. It was like he’d read her mind. “Yes, I do. A girl. I know how devastated I’d be if anything ever happened to her, so I promise I’ll do everything in my power to find out who took your son from you and make sure they pay.”
“No jail sentence will ever be enough,” he said, his voice like gravel against stone. “Not for what he’s taken from us.”
He was probably right, but that was all they had. Had she felt that same way about Nicholas Bailey after he’d murdered Chris? She wanted to say no, that she believed in the justice system one hundred percent, but there had been moments—the darkest ones, where she’d had to hold her daughter in the middle of the night as their little girl sobbed herself to sleep because she missed her daddy so much, that a corner of her heart had solidified and turned black with hatred. During those times, her protective nature as a mother had overtaken her professionalism as a detective, and she’d thought that if Bailey had been dragged into the same room as her, she would happily have killed him.
Erica managed to pull her thoughts from her dead husband and the man who’d killed him and refocused on Adam Humphries.
“Was Adam ever arrested?” she asked.
Adam’s father seemed surprised that Erica had even asked the question. “No, of course not!”
“What about drugs or alcohol, or gambling? Do you know if he had any issues with any kind of addiction?”
“Not at all. He was a good boy.”
Erica gave him a reassuring smile. “Of course. I’m just trying to figure out if there was a reason someone would want your son dead. Did Adam talk to you about having had an argument with anyone, either at the university or anywhere else?”
Pam Humphries had regained control of herself enough to speak. “No, Adam was one of those boys who kept to himself. I’m not sure he ever really had any friends, to be honest. Not real ones. He had a couple of boys growing up who I was friendly with the mothers, so we’d go for a cup of tea and the kids could play, but it never came easily to Adam. I always got the impression he was only really playing with other children because he thought it was expected of him. He was more than happy sitting on his own in the corner with a book. I think as he got older, he became more aware that he wanted to be a bit more sociable and get involved with others, but it was always a struggle for him.”
“Were you concerned about him leaving home and coming all the way to London on his own?”
“Yes, of course.” She nodded. “What parents wouldn’t be? But he was a sensible boy, and we trusted him.”
“What about a part-time job? Do you know if he was doing any work outside of university to supplement his income?”
“No, not yet. He had talked about it, but we figured it was best just to let him get settled in before he started worrying about taking on even more.”
She started to cry again, tears rolling down her cheeks, and her husband put his arm around his wife.
Erica thought it was time to leave them in peace. They’d barely even started their coffees, but as so often it was during these times, the hot drinks had served their purpose of bringing them together.
“Okay, thank you for you
r time,” she told them. “I really am very sorry for your loss.”
“Find the bastard who did this,” Mr Humphries said. “I want him to pay.”
“We will.”
Erica and Shawn left the café, leaving the Humphries to finish packing up their car with their son’s belongings.
“From the parents’ point of view,” Erica said, “he doesn’t sound like the sort of young man who would piss off someone enough for them to want to kill him.”
“How many parents really know their kids, though?” Shawn replied with a shrug. “Especially when they get to that age.”
“True, but the students we’ve spoken to who knew him said much the same. That he was quiet and a bit of an outsider. A loner, even.” Erica sighed.
They still didn’t have a reason why anyone would want Adam Humphries dead.
Chapter Fifteen
Paige checked her reflection in the mirror again. Her nose was no longer so swollen across the bridge, and her expensive foundation—which on her student’s income she couldn’t really afford, but had been sold to her with the promise of making the bruises almost invisible—had actually done a good job of hiding her black eyes.
A knot twisted in her stomach. She wished it was just her and Jasmine going out tonight instead of them taking Lucas and Ben along as well. But Jasmine was all excited about them having a double date, and she didn’t want to let her friend down.
Besides, there was also a part of her that worried if she didn’t hang out with Lucas and Ben, as Jasmine wanted, then Jas would find another friend to make up the foursome. What would happen to Paige then? There were other girls in halls who she spoke to, but none of them were as opening and welcoming as Jasmine. No matter how much she tried to fit in, even when Jas was there and was chatting with the other girls, too, Paige always felt like she was standing on the outskirts of everything, looking in.
Her replacement phone buzzed, and she picked it up and checked her messages.
Jasmine: On my way!
The text was punctuated with a handful of smiley faces and love hearts.
Paige sighed again. She wished she could get excited, but she couldn’t. Ever since she’d got so drunk that she’d blacked out, and then she’d woken to find Adam Humphries had been murdered, a black cloud had been following her around. She didn’t feel right in herself, and she did her best to fight against the memories that kept threatening to crowd in her thoughts. She didn’t really believe she was capable of hurting someone, did she? Was it in her blood? People always said things like ‘the apple never falls far from the tree’, and ‘blood is thicker than water’. What if those things were actually true?
She grabbed her bag and slipped her phone inside and then left her room. Jasmine was already walking towards her, a skip in her step. Her skin glowed, and her wavy blonde hair fell in sheets around her shoulders. She’d gone for jeans and a strappy top, but had her jacket looped over one arm. Paige had done her best to make an effort, but the jeans she’d chosen were of the baggy variety—she was still feeling bruised and tender to wear anything more close fitting—and her long-sleeved top covered a lot more skin than Jasmine’s did.
She didn’t miss the flicker of disappointment in Jasmine’s eyes that she hadn’t worn a dressier outfit. While she was happy to make up the numbers, there was no way she was going to give Ben any hint that she wanted to sleep with him, when that couldn’t be further from the truth. The thought of sleeping with anyone left her with that horrible twisting wrongness in her belly, and the sense of that black cloud settling over her, smothering her.
“Come on,” Jasmine hooked her arm through the crook of Paige’s, “the boys are waiting for us outside.”
They took the stairs down to the ground floor and pushed their way out into the dark evening. Another couple of weeks, and the clocks would go back, and then it would start to get dark by four thirty. She wasn’t looking forward to the long nights.
“There they are!” Jas exclaimed.
Lucas and Ben were waiting for them by one of the benches, Lucas sitting on one, his foot resting on the bench, while Ben lurked beside him, his hands shoved in his pockets.
She couldn’t step outside of her building without her gaze being drawn to the spot where Adam’s body had been found.
Flashes rose in her mind of those bushes, of her hands pressing against brick.
No!
She didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t want to know.
“All right?” Lucas wrapped his arm around Jas’s shoulders and pulled her in for a kiss.
Jasmine broke the kiss first, perhaps aware of her friend awkwardly standing by. “Sure. I’m starving. What about you guys?”
“Yeah, I can eat,” Ben said, but he didn’t crack a smile at Jasmine. Instead, he looked towards Paige and jerked his chin in a nod. “All right, Paige.”
She smiled but wished the ground would open up.
“A cheeky Nandos it is,” Lucas declared.
He grabbed Jas’s hand, and the two of them led the way, leaving Ben and Paige to fall in behind. One of the restaurants was situated on the high street, about ten minutes away. It was easier than going right into the city.
They walked to the restaurant. A small queue waited for tables, so they joined it. Jasmine and Lucas stood so close together, there was barely a sliver of air between them, while Paige stood with Ben. Paige tried to ask Ben a few questions, along the lines of ‘how are you finding uni?’ and ‘what do you think of your course?’, but she was lucky if she got one-word answers in return, and he made no attempt to ask her anything.
Finally, they were shown to their table. The two boys took one side while Jasmine and Paige took the other. Jas sat opposite Lucas, so Paige was stuck with Ben.
Paige lifted her chin to find Lucas staring at her, but he quickly glanced away.
“What are you going to have, Paige?” Jasmine asked her brightly.
She scanned the menu, but knew she’d have the same thing she always did. “Oh, just the chicken pitta and some chips, I think.”
“Yeah, sounds good. I think I’ll have the same.”
They went up and ordered and then returned to their table. Jasmine did her best to pull Paige into the conversation, but it was clear she was making a concerted effort. Ben barely said a word, sat playing with his phone, basically ignoring her. They’d all bought drinks—bottles of beer—but Ben downed his and then got up to go and order more before Paige had barely taken a sip of hers. Ben clearly wasn’t interested in her in the slightest—not that she was interested in him, either—and she was bored and wondering why the hell she’d agreed to any of this.
Their food arrived, and Jas and Lucas moved their attention from each other to their meals, though Jas pinched chips off his plate, while he threatened to smack the back of her hand and she giggled.
“You didn’t want to be here either, eh?” Paige said to Ben, hoping their lack of enthusiasm in this pairing might actually be something they could bond over.
He frowned at her. “What?”
“This matchmaking thing the two of them are doing with us. I get the feeling you’re not really into it.”
He seemed distracted, staring at Jasmine. Did Ben like Jas, too? Was that what all this was about? She couldn’t say she blamed him. Jasmine was probably one of the prettiest in their year.
“Lucas is my mate,” Ben said eventually. “He wanted me here.”
“Oh, yeah, I know that. And Jasmine wanted me here, too.” Her cheeks burned. This was getting more awkward by the second. “I just meant that I didn’t think that we were a good pairing.”
He glanced at her for the first time, as though just remembering she was there. “Us? A pair?”
She gave a nervous laugh, and it sounded fake and cringeworthy. “I got the impression that’s what they were trying to do. You know, set us up.”
“Us?” He was incredulous, as though he’d never heard such a ridiculous thing.
Paige wis
hed the ground would open up.
She shook her head dismissively. “I know, dumb, right? It was probably Jasmine orchestrating the whole thing.”
He didn’t say anything but went back to staring at Lucas and Jasmine. Did he have a serious crush on Jas or what?
Paige finished her meal and sat, fiddling awkwardly with her drink.
Ben must have realised how uncomfortable she was feeling as he leaned forward slightly to speak to her. “So, what do you think about this Adam Humphries business?”
Her stomach dropped. This was the last thing she wanted to talk about. “It’s terrible. Poor bloke.”
“Do you remember seeing him that night?”
She frowned. Where was he going with this? “Well, yeah. We all did.”
“You were pretty pissed, though, weren’t you? I’m surprised you can remember anything.”
What the fuck? What did he know? And why the sudden change in subject?
“I wasn’t that bad,” she defended herself.
“Don’t forget that Lucas is my mate, you know. My best mate.”
“Yeah, I know that. Jasmine’s my best friend, too.” She was desperate to turn the conversation away from that night.
“Jasmine’s your best friend?” He didn’t seem too sure about that.
“Well, I mean, we’ve only known each other since we started uni.”
Did he actually think she wasn’t good enough for Jasmine? Jesus Christ. He was a fucking dickhead. What was she even doing still sitting here?
She got to her feet, anger and humiliation burning within her. “Actually, I’m going to leave you all to it.”
“No!” Jasmine cried, though she’d barely said anything to Paige the entire evening. “You can’t go. We’re going to the pub next.”
“Nah,” Lucas said, “Ben’s got somewhere even better to go than the pub, haven’t you, Ben? Thought we could go and smoke a couple of joints and hang out, old-school.”
Jasmine’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, that sounds fun, doesn’t it, Paige?”