by M K Farrar
“Are you okay for us to record the interview?” Erica asked.
Paige nodded.
“Can I get you anything before we start? Coffee? Tea? Water?”
“Maybe some water,” Paige said quietly.
“Of course.”
A knock came at the door, and Shawn slipped into the room, and Erica threw him a smile.
“Miss Arland—” he started.
“Paige,” Erica corrected him.
“Sorry, Paige. It’s good to see you again. How are you keeping?”
She bit her lower lip. “I’ve been better.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“They held a memorial for Adam on campus this morning.”
Aah, Erica thought. So, I was right. The memorial has made her feel guilty about something.
“How did it go?” Shawn asked.
Paige didn’t look up. “I don’t know. I had to leave before it even started.”
Erica set the plastic cup of water down on the table in front of her. “Why was that?”
“Because I remembered something about that night.”
“The night Adam Humphries was killed.”
Paige pressed her lips together and stared down at the table.
“It’s okay,” Erica said softly. “Take your time.”
“I remembered why I lost time that night, and why my phone was found in the bushes.” Her voice broke, and she swallowed hard.
“Go on.” She encouraged her. “Just start at the beginning. You left the student union on your own?”
Tears filled the young woman’s eyes, and she nodded. “Yes, I did. I started walking back and then I became aware someone was behind me. I turned and realised I knew him. I was drunk so I wasn’t really worried at that point.”
“Who was it, Paige?” Erica prepared herself to hear the name Adam Humphries.
But instead, Paige said, “His name is Lucas Gill. He’s my best friend’s boyfriend—although they weren’t really boyfriend and girlfriend at that point, they were just kind of seeing each other, you know.”
Erica wondered how this was going to tie into Adam’s death. “And then what happened?”
“I kept walking, but I was drunk. I stumbled a bit, and Lucas caught me. I thought he was just going to help me stand up straight, but he was holding me too tight. Then he started talking about coming back with me, and I said I was going to go to bed, and he made out like I was inviting him, too. He was getting all... handsy... you know?” She glanced up at Erica as though to check she was being understood but didn’t look at Shawn.
Erica nodded to show she was.
Paige sucked in a shaky breath and continued. “He pushed me into the dark corner, where the bushes were. I tried to tell him no, and he punched me in the face. I was so disbelieving; I didn’t know what to do. It was shock. It must have been, ’cause I just kind of froze. He spun me around, so I was facing the wall and the bushes, and he pushed up my skirt, and—and pulled down my underwear... and then he—”
Her voice cracked, and spots of bright red flared in her cheeks.
“You need to tell me what he did to you, Paige,” Erica said.
“He raped me.”
Tear spilled down her cheeks, and she wiped them away with the back of her hand.
Erica wanted to ask her what this had to do with Adam Humphries, but for the moment, she needed to deal with this new accusation.
“I know this is difficult, but we’re going to need to get a statement from you about everything you remember—every little detail, okay? Do you remember what he was wearing at the time of the attack?”
Paige nodded. “Jeans, and white trainers, and a dark hoodie—I think it might have been dark green.”
“Good. There might be evidence of the rape on his clothes. Blood or semen. Do you know if he used a condom?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about. We will need to take a detailed statement from you, first of all, and then get you to the hospital. If he didn’t use protection, there are tests that need to be done, plus your injuries need to be checked over and documented for police record. I suggest you have a rape kit done as well.”
“It’s been days now, though,” Paige said, looking between them. “Can it still be done this long after the... the event?”
“Yes,” Erica confirmed. “Of course, it’s better if it’s done closer to the time, as it’s less likely to give positive results, but it’s not unheard of. Plus, you want to be seen as doing everything you can to prove his guilt. If he is going to be prosecuted, we’re going to need to get as much evidence together as possible.”
Paige nodded and picked at the dry skin around her nails. “I’ll do whatever I have to. I don’t want him to do this to anyone else.”
“I hope it’s okay me asking you this, Paige, I realise this is difficult, but is there any chance you also remember seeing Adam Humphries?”
“No, I’m sorry. I’ve tried to remember, but I just don’t. After Lucas had finished, I think I just pulled my underwear back up and ran back to my room. I didn’t see anyone else.”
Erica gave her a reassuring smile. “Okay, I believe you.”
And this time, she found she did.
She looked to Shawn. “Let’s bring Lucas Gill in for questioning.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The first thing Lucas Gill had done when they’d brought him in for questioning was demand a phone call, which he’d used to contact his wealthy parents.
Erica had no doubt that they’d be making calls to the best solicitors in the area. She didn’t know if his parents had given him any advice about how to behave, but he hadn’t stopped with his blubbering and blustering since they’d picked him up. Erica knew young men like Lucas. He’d get hot under the collar and run his mouth off with just the slightest bit of provocation. Young men like Lucas Gill, with his whole eighteen years of life experience under his belt, didn’t listen to anyone apart from a small handful of their peers, and even then, it was like the blind leading the blind.
She’d already read him his rights and made sure they had it on tape, but still he kept talking.
“This is fucking bullshit,” Lucas swore. “Yeah, I had sex with Paige, but she wanted it. She was practically begging me for it, rubbing her tits up all over me. She was the one who yanked up her dress and bent over for me to fuck her from behind. I can’t believe she’s pulling this shit!”
“We saw the bruises, Lucas,” Erica said. “She says you punched her in the face, and we saw the result of that ourselves.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know what kind of insane fantasy that bitch is living in, but there’s no way I hit her. Okay, maybe the sex got a little rough, but she kept encouraging me, saying stuff like, ‘harder’ and ‘give it to me’, like she thought she was in a fucking porn film. There was no point where she acted like she didn’t want it to happen.”
“So, how do you think she got two black eyes, then?”
He shrugged. “How the fuck should I know. We finished shagging, and she went off to her dorm room. Maybe she walked into a goddamned door?”
“You didn’t see her back to her room?”
“No. It was only across the courtyard. She’s an adult. Why would I have?”
“Chivalry?” Shawn suggested, his tone laced with sarcasm. He clearly wasn’t impressed by the young man’s bullshit.
Lucas snorted.
Erica checked her notes. “One of my DCs interviewed you after Adam Humphries was murdered, and you claimed to have been at the student union all night, except, we have you on CCTV leaving the union shortly before Adam Humphries did.”
His demeanour instantly changed at the mention of Humphries. “I was at the union all night. All right, maybe I was coming and going, but for the most part, I was at the union.” He threw up a hand. “If you’ve got that CCTV footage, check it. You’ll see I left after Paige, ’cause she’d bee
n giving me the eye all night, even though I’d been hanging out with her friend, and then we had sex, and I came back to the union again.”
“But you said you didn’t see Adam Humphries?”
“I didn’t! I mean, I saw him at the union, hanging around us all, but I didn’t see him again after that.”
“You were in the same area that Adam was killed, at the same time, but you say you didn’t see him?”
“I didn’t!” He looked between the two detectives. “Am I here because of some bullshit rape charge because some stupid girl has decided to feel guilty for fucking her best friend’s boyfriend, or am I here because you’re trying to accuse me of doing something to Adam Humphries?”
“We just want to talk about that night, Lucas. That’s all.”
“Bullshit,” he spat again.
He sat back, folded his arms across his chest, and jutted out his lower lip. “I’m not saying another word until my solicitor gets here.”
“That’s fine,” Erica said calmly. “You’re well within your right to do that. I find it interesting how you talk about Paige feeling guilty, but you don’t seem to feel any guilt yourself.”
He lifted both eyebrows. “Why the hell should I?”
“Having sex with the best friend of a girl you were already dating, maybe?”
“We weren’t dating. We’d messed around a few times, that was all.”
“But you’re dating now?” she pressed.
“Yeah, I suppose you could call it that.”
“And you don’t feel guilty that you slept with your girlfriend’s best friend?”
“Jesus? What the fuck is this? It’s not illegal to sleep around, and like I said before, we weren’t even properly together at that point.”
“Just getting an idea of your character,” she said with a tight smile.
Lucas scowled.
“So, you had sex with Paige, and she went back to the dorm—in your mind, unharmed—and what happened then?”
“I went back to the union. I hung out with my mates, and Jasmine, too, for a while.”
Erica checked her notes. “That’s Jasmine Newton?”
“That’s right.”
“And then?”
“I was with Ben Redding the rest of the night. We left the student union about the same time. I waited for him outside, and then we both went back to halls and hung out, playing computer games. You can ask him if you want. I didn’t have anything to do with this.”
“Shall I tell you what we’re thinking, Lucas? We think that you raped Paige, and Adam Humphries saw you do it. Adam left just after you, so maybe he picked up on your intentions and followed you out to make sure you behaved yourself. Hell, maybe he even liked Paige, too, and wanted to make sure she was all right. But then he stumbled upon you raping her and he threatened to tell everyone what kind of person you really are, and so you killed him to shut him up.”
Lucas’s mouth dropped open. “No! That’s not what happened at all. I never even saw Adam. I have no idea what happened to him.”
“So, you want us to believe a girl was raped and a young man was murdered, possibly within as little as an hour of each other, and the two things have no connection.”
Lucas lurched forward and slammed his hand on the table. “A girl wasn’t raped! She’s lying!”
“We’ve seen her injuries, Lucas. This isn’t just a case of your word against hers.”
“I told you how she got those injuries.”
“No, you didn’t. You speculated as to how she would have got them. That’s different.”
He stared down at the table, and then his head shot back up. “What if it was Adam? How do you know he wasn’t the one who punched Paige? Maybe she was the one who killed him, and she got injured while she was fighting with him.”
“Speculation isn’t going to get us anywhere. We need motive and we need proof, and we have a search warrant for your room. We have a motive in that Adam probably saw what you did to Paige, and if we can find something linking you to the murder, we’ll make sure you go down for it.”
He sat back with that same sulky expression, his nostrils flared. “That’s fine, ’cause you won’t find anything, and the reason you won’t find anything is because I’m innocent.”
She leaned towards him, both elbows on the table. “Are you, Lucas? Are you really?”
He glared back. “I said I was, didn’t I?”
A knock came at the door, and DC Rudd stuck her head around the corner. “Sorry, boss. The solicitor is here.”
A female solicitor, tall with short blonde hair and a sharp suit, pushed into the room. “Don’t say another word.”
Erica sighed. It was going to be a long shift.
Chapter Twenty-Eight.
As soon as Erica was done questioning Lucas Gill, she went back to the university with a warrant to search his room for anything that might help them prove the rape.
“I want any clothes he might have been wearing that night. If he punched the victim in the face, there’s a possibility that we’ll find her blood on the garments, and then we’ll know his story about her hurting herself later on isn’t true.”
Rudd nodded. “Yes, boss.”
She’d brought both of her DCs, plus Shawn, with her. She knew how hard rape cases were to prove, and she was determined Lucas Gill wasn’t going to walk, no matter how wealthy his parents or how expensive his solicitor might be. They had twenty-four hours with him that his solicitor couldn’t touch, and she intended to make the most of every second.
She’d needed to call her sister on the way to the university to ask her to look after Poppy overnight. There was little chance that she’d be getting home any time soon, and she hated moving Poppy in the middle of the night and disturbing her sleep. She ached with missing her daughter but knew Poppy would be safe with Natasha. Besides, sometimes she thought that Poppy probably had a better time at Natasha’s than she did at home. Since Natasha had other children, Poppy at least had her cousins to play with. At home, it was just the two of them, and it was as though there was a constant gap between them where Chris was supposed to be.
Lucas Gill’s room had the exact same layout as Paige Arland’s, only as though it was reflected in a mirror. Where Paige’s tiny bathroom was on the right-hand side of the room, Lucas’s was on the left. Where Paige’s window looked out onto the courtyard at the front of the building, Lucas’s looked out onto the canal towpath behind.
Erica thought to the young man sitting in the station, and a flare of anger went through her. What the fuck was wrong with these men? Entitlement—that was the root cause of it all. They thought the world owed them everything, and if someone dared tell them no, they’d just go out and take it. From speaking to Lucas, she could already tell what his home life would be like—wealthy, country club members who would rather starve than shop at Aldi or Lidl. She’d bet they weren’t happy about Lucas coming to the East London university, but perhaps the boy hadn’t achieved the grades he’d needed to get into Oxford or Cambridge, and that was one place where the parents’ money hadn’t been enough to pull some strings. With his expensive trainers and branded clothing, he probably owned the newest iPhone and had all the latest tech.
Sure enough, the latest model iPad sat on his bed, and a MacBook Pro was on the desk.
She jerked her chin at them. “Bag up both of those. There might be pictures or video that he’s uploaded or even sent to friends. You know what these youngsters are like with social media these days. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if he was bragging about what he’d done online.”
Rudd stepped forward. “Got it.”
It was only a small room and seemed crowded with four of them in here, but she wanted every inch searched thoroughly. She wasn’t sure what they were going to find, but she wasn’t going to leave here without some kind of physical evidence that would prove the rape of Paige Arland.
Rudd got on her hands and knees to check under the bed. Howard opened the chest
of drawers and rifled through the contents. Erica went into the bathroom to bag up the contents of the bin. She thought she’d be lucky to find a bloodied tissue or something, but there was always a chance.
She peered into the swing bin beside the sink. It was empty. Shit. She checked the rest of the bathroom, but there wasn’t anything that made her think it could be used as evidence. She left the bathroom and opened the door of the built-in wardrobe and went through each item of clothing. It was the usual assortment of shirts and sweaters.
She paused with her fingers on a dark-blue hoodie.
Isn’t that the same colour as the fibres that were found on Adam Humphries’ body?
The thought went through her head, but she kept her mouth shut. The warrant wasn’t connected to Adam Humphries’ murder. They were here because of the rape accusation, not the murder. But she couldn’t help feeling as though the two things were linked somehow. Maybe she hadn’t completely nailed down the connection, but she had a strong suspicion this item of clothing would help.
“I think this might be what Lucas Gill was wearing that night.” She took the top out of the cupboard to bag it up.
Shawn frowned at her. “Didn’t Paige say he was wearing a green top?”
“No, she said she thought it was a green top, but that it was dark. The CCTV footage is in black and white, so it’s impossible for us to get a definite colour from that either. She said it was a dark hoodie, and this is a hoodie.”
He was staring at her, and she tried not to shrink under his gaze. A part of her wanted him to understand what she was trying to do—maybe so she could have a coconspirator to shoulder some of the guilt—while the other part of her simply wanted him to accept what she was saying and move on. It wasn’t like her to break or even bend the rules, but she wasn’t going to just leave this hoodie here, knowing that Lucas would most likely be out in the morning, and the first thing he would do was come back here and get rid of anything that might be considered evidence.
Technically, taking anything from the property that wasn’t connected with the case was illegal, and if the solicitor were to cotton on to it, the evidence could be thrown out. It was risky, but was it worth the risk? Yes, she thought so. If they could see Lucas Gill go down for both Paige’s rape and Adam’s murder, it was worth it. She doubted this was the first time a detective had done something similar, and it probably wouldn’t be the last, either.