‘Why not for her?’
‘It was the same date as her father’s and he died when she was nine.’
‘What about her mother?’
‘Remarried. Candice quickly became an inconvenience for her and her stepfather. They live in Port-au-Prince now. They wouldn’t even have been in touch on her birthday.’
‘None of her fellow students would have sprung something on her? Not Ria?’
‘How should I know? She didn’t reach her birthday.’
‘So you getting another year older and Candice still inhabiting a world populated by people her own age didn’t cause any friction on the night of yours?’
‘No,’ Marcus snorted. ‘If you knew us, if you had even a vague notion of how we were together…’ He clenched his face hard but couldn’t stop a tear from rolling down his left cheek.
‘Do you need a moment?’
He shook his head at Fabian.
‘I’m sorry. But I have to keep going.’
Marcus nodded and inhaled through his nose.
‘Let me refill that glass.’ Banner stood and he handed it to her. She headed out of the room to find the kitchen.
Chapter Thirty-Three
‘Thoughts?’ Fabian asked Banner before they’d left the drive. Marcus had looked perplexed when he’d mentioned the names Middleton, Riding, Wells and Mortimer.
Banner turned back to where Marcus’s father was standing in the doorway.
Fabian paused with her.
She nodded at Leonard and he closed the front door.
‘You spoke to him?’ He headed for his car and she followed.
‘Yes. Lives in Primrose Hill but from what I gathered the relationship with his son isn’t very close. He wasn’t invited to the wedding. Had only met Candice on a handful of occasions.’
‘Did he disapprove?’
‘Difficult to tell. He seemed very awkward around his son’s home.’
‘Marcus’s mother?’
‘Passed away some time ago.’
‘Anything else?’
‘His father never remarried. That’s all I got. No word about Stephan Cousins yet.’
Fabian glanced at his phone. Nothing from Harriet either. ‘So how about Candice’s younger man in Dubai?’
‘Whiting checked out Grant Tully. He hasn’t been in the country for over a year.’
‘That’s the one Marcus told us about.’
‘Think there are more?’
‘Could be. If there was a special arrangement maybe Marcus was prepared for it to be more than a one-off. You have to admit, it’s an odd way for newlyweds to behave.’
‘Sounds like they were just being pragmatic about the age difference.’
‘Would you consider it?’ Fabian immediately regretted the question. Banner’s husband was considerably older than her.
Her expression didn’t change. ‘Why shouldn’t marriage be flexible? No couple has the same needs.’
Fabian decided not to push the issue. That would mean they were straying further into personal territory. He walked around his Audi and opened the door. ‘We should talk to Ria Campbell.’
Banner opened hers and dropped into the seat. ‘She was interviewed by McMann.’
Fabian got in. ‘Let’s give her a call anyway.’
Forty minutes later, Ria Campbell appeared through glass entrance doors and joined Fabian and Banner outside in the empty quad of the Drummond-Moray School of Law. She was painfully skinny and her legs poking out from underneath her hefty orange duffel coat looked like they might snap with each stride. She had a dirty pink canvas kit bag which kept sliding down her arm as she approached them.
‘Sorry to interrupt your lecture.’ Fabian’s apology drifted away in a cold cloud.
Ria was frowning with pencilled-on eyebrows. Her dark curls were tucked into a brown fur hat, and her pallid complexion accentuated the acne around her chin. ‘Has something happened?’
He shook his head. ‘We’d just like to ask you a few questions, if that’s OK?’
Ria’s blue eyes flitted worriedly between them. ‘But I’ve already spoken to an officer about Candice.’ She seemed sleep-deprived as well.
‘I’m Detective Inspector Fabian and this is Detective Sergeant Banner. I just wanted to clear up a few things with you.’
She swallowed and nodded.
‘According to your first interview you didn’t know much about Candice’s relationship with Grant Tully.’
‘No. She met him outside of college. Didn’t really give up many details about him.’
‘So was there nobody else from college she was seeing?’
‘No. Plenty of interest but she was always a hundred per cent focussed on her work.’ Ria chuckled a little and rolled her eyes.
‘Why do you do that?’ Fabian chuckled slightly too.
‘What?’ Ria looked pensive again.
‘You think she worked too hard?’
‘She seemed too grown up.’
‘“Too grown up”?’ Ria and Candice weren’t much older than Tilly.
‘She’d told me about Marcus and that she was getting married. I thought she was crazy… at least to begin with,’ she quickly added.
‘So what changed your mind?’
‘I realised how set on her plan she was.’
‘Interesting way of putting it.’ Banner rubbed her gloved hands together.
Fabian continued. ‘D’you think she was happy with Marcus?’
Ria nodded. ‘Yeah, I believe she was.’
‘She wasn’t being pressured to marry?’
‘No. Candice called the shots. She wanted what Marcus had to offer.’
‘Doesn’t strike me as very romantic,’ he commented.
‘I’m not sure if romance was ever part of the deal.’
‘Sounds a little cold.’
Ria smiled at Fabian, but her eyes were full of sadness. ‘That was Candice. She had it all planned.’
Fabian was starting to see that. ‘What was part of the deal then?’
‘Stability. She wanted to finish her studies and marrying him allowed her to do that. It wasn’t as cold as it sounds. They were good together.’
‘Did you see them together then?’
‘No, but when she spoke about him it seemed like she was very comfortable with the set-up. She lost her father when she was a kid, so I could kind of see it.’
‘You said she had plenty of interest here. Was there anyone in particular you remember?’
‘First year, everyone was asking her out. Even one of our lecturers. They all quickly got the message though.’
‘One of your lecturers?’ Banner stopped rubbing her hands.
‘Mr Brennan. Divorcee. Complete lech.’ Ria chuckled again. ‘Funny thing is, he was probably too young for her. He’s only in his forties.’
Fabian didn’t laugh. ‘Did he bother her?’
‘Not for long. He moved on to the other girls in the class.’
‘Did you tell the other officer this when they interviewed you?’
‘Yeah. I don’t know if they spoke to him or not.’
Banner was consulting the notes on her phone and nodded at Fabian that they had.
Ria acknowledged it and looked mortified. ‘Honestly, though, he’s a perv but he wasn’t stalking Candice. Just tried his luck. Like every other guy.’
‘I bet people resented that,’ Banner suggested.
Ria frowned but Fabian knew what she meant.
‘What d’you mean?’
‘Constantly being asked out. It’s the sort of attention other girls might have liked.’ Banner studied her as she tugged her bag further up her shoulder.
‘I don’t know. I don’t really know the other girls.’
‘You two were very close?’ Fabian watched the strap slide to the edge of her shoulder again.
She shook her head. ‘Not especially. But I don’t think anyone really was with Candice.’
That didn’t convince him. ‘But you sa
t with her.’
‘Yeah. She struck up a conversation with me on the first day of term. I thought she might move on when she got talking to some of the other girls, but she didn’t.’
‘She had no other friends here?’
‘Not that I know of. We had the same lectures and went to lunch together.’
‘Odd that such a popular girl would—’
‘Choose me?’ There was a flash of hostility in Ria’s eyes.
‘No…’ But Fabian was struggling to salvage his line of thought.
Banner rescued him. ‘That she wouldn’t have made lots of other friends.’
‘I thought it was because she was as shy as me. Then I realised she just didn’t have time for the others.’
‘Did you feel flattered that she chose you as a friend?’ Fabian probed.
‘Yes. I was relieved somebody wanted to sit with me. But Candice was… well. If I’m honest, Candice was pretty… dull.’ She bit her lip as she checked their reactions. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t say that. But she warned me about her depression and her extreme mood swings. Can’t say I ever noticed them though. Sometimes she seemed really exhausted, occasionally forgot to touch up her make-up, but I didn’t really see her personality change that much. Certainly no big upswing.’
Fabian wondered if it was Ria who had resented her good-looking friend more than anyone else.
Banner scrolled the screen on her phone. ‘You told the last officer that she was in good spirits the day before she died.’
‘Yeah. I think she was doing something with Marcus that Friday.’
Fabian could feel his ears starting to get numb with the cold. ‘Did she say what?’
‘No. I didn’t get that much of an insight into her home life. We both walked to the car park from college that evening; she dropped me home and then headed back to Ealing.’
‘And that was the last time you saw her?’
Ria nodded at him, unblinking.
‘Do the names Middleton, Riding, Wells or Mortimer mean anything to you?’
Ria scrunched her face and shook her head at Fabian.
‘Think hard. Any relevance to Candice?’ Fabian waited as she squinted, her attention briefly focussed on the lawn behind him. ‘What about Stephan Cousins?’
‘No.’
‘OK.’ Fabian got the impression there was plenty of eyes on them through the windows that surrounded them. ‘This Mr Brennan…’
‘Garth Brennan.’
‘Is he around today?’
Ria nodded. ‘You just pulled me out of a lecture with him.’
Fabian looked at his watch. ‘What time does your lecture finish?’
She looked at hers. ‘Another hour yet. You’re not going to come up with me, are you?’ She seemed horrified. ‘He must already know that it was me who put you onto him.’
‘Has he treated you any differently since?’ Banner looked up at the windows.
Ria thought about it and bit her lip. ‘Not that I’ve noticed.’
‘He was Candice’s lecturer. If he saw her the week she disappeared he shouldn’t be surprised to be questioned,’ Fabian placated.
Ria nodded and looked a little relieved. ‘I’d really rather you didn’t come up after me though.’
‘Where do we need to go to find him?’ Banner asked.
‘First floor, 3a. Just past the library.’
‘We’ll speak to him after the lecture’s finished,’ Banner assured her.
‘We’re only watching something online for the second hour. I can do that at home.’ She hitched her bag further up her shoulder.
‘OK. Head home if you’re uncomfortable.’ Fabian looked at Banner. ‘We’ve got your mobile number.’
‘You really think it was somebody from here? Somebody who might have followed Candice home?’ Ria’s eyes darted around them and she dragged her bag up her arm again.
Fabian caught how her red painted fingernails had been severely bitten. ‘If it was, we’ll find them.’
She nodded, turned and left without looking back at them.
‘So we’ve got an hour to kill.’
Fabian looked at his watch again. ‘Fulham Broadway’s only twenty minutes away.’
Chapter Thirty-Four
Fabian pulled his Audi onto the forecourt of Rad Radials. The main garage doors were open and there was the whine of impact wrenches from inside, but Fabian headed for the smaller door to the office and walked in. Banner followed.
A petite girl in her early twenties, wearing a black lace cold shoulder top with her long red hair in ringlets, was seated behind the front desk. ‘Mr Forbes?’ She addressed him. ‘Sorry but it’ll be another half hour yet.’
‘No. I’m Detective Inspector Fabian and this is Detective Sergeant Banner. I understand DS McMann spoke to you today.’
Her jaw and gum briefly halted and she nodded. ‘I spoke to him again about half an hour ago.’
Gaynor Middleton had something Fabian rarely encountered – a genuine cockney accent. He noticed her red hair extensions were much darker than her real locks. ‘We were in the neighbourhood. Do you have five minutes to speak to us now?’
She looked behind her through a doorway into the garage and her hair swung with her head. Two men in navy blue overalls were working on the wheels of a silver Citroën. Her curls bounced back.
‘Go on then.’
‘Were you able to recall the date your father relayed the story about the man he picked up near your home?’
‘I’m sure now it was the second of August.’
‘Why d’you say that?’
‘It had to have been a Thursday evening. Thursday is my day off. Any other weekday I have to pick up my son, Vincent, from my friend’s flat after dinner but he was definitely with us when Dad told me the story at the table.’
‘You’re sure?’
Gaynor nodded at Banner.
‘That’s well remembered,’ Fabian encouraged. ‘Did he describe the man to you?’
‘No.’
‘What exactly did he say happened?’
Gaynor clenched her jaw.
Fabian realised the memory was upsetting her. ‘In your own time.’
Gaynor inhaled, quickly composed herself and continued. ‘Said he’d only just turned out of our drive and taken a right onto Heskin Road when a guy signals him to stop.’ She let them absorb that and Fabian nodded for her to carry on. ‘My dad didn’t have his light on but he thought, why not? Said he asked my dad to take him to Bishops Park but when they got there he asked him to drive him over the bridge and into Putney. Dad said he got the impression the guy just wanted to chat and he was happy to let him. He was in the cab for about an hour before he let him out.’
‘Did he say where?’
Gaynor shook her head at him. ‘No. Or if he did, I don’t remember.’
‘And he didn’t have any trouble with him?’
‘Exactly the opposite. Said he wished all his fares were like that. Not like some of the loonies he got. There were plenty of those.’
‘And you’ve given the details of the ones your dad specifically mentioned to DS McMann?’
‘As many as I can remember.’
But Fabian was more interested in Joe Middleton’s ideal fare. ‘Did this man give your dad a good tip?’
‘Don’t know.’
‘No other details he gave you?’
‘I’ve been racking my brains but I think that’s all he told me.’ Gaynor sounded apologetic.
‘That’s fine. We have to be elsewhere now but if you do remember any other details you have DS McMann’s number?’
She nodded at him again.
‘Good. We won’t disturb you any longer.’
‘We’ll be in touch when we have any news.’ Banner turned after Fabian.
‘Do you think that was who murdered Dad?’
They both stopped at the door.
‘It’s possible.’ Fabian answered. ‘Have another think about anything else he might have
said.’
Outside Fabian speed-dialled Harriet. Still engaged. That wasn’t a good sign. Perhaps she was ringing around to try and locate Tilly?
‘No description.’ Banner strode with him back to the car. ‘If it was Cousins only Joe Middleton could tell us and he’s dead.’
‘But now we have a date, even if Gaynor’s recall is a little hazy we can at least focus on CCTV for Heskin Road around that time.’
‘If there’s any installed there. It was a residential street he picked him up in. What about the camera in his cab?’
‘No. He only turns it on at night, remember? I want the footage we’ve got checked regardless though. And we’ve got the credit card transactions from his cab.’
‘Maybe they paid with cash.’
‘Or perhaps they thought they could get a ride with Joe Middleton well over a month before they killed him because they’d get lost amongst all his other fares.’
They both got back into the Audi.
Fabian locked his belt and started the engine.
Banner secured hers, called Finch and put him on speaker. ‘Any feedback on Cousins?’
‘He’s regained consciousness, but he’s disoriented. Doctors are examining him now.’
‘I want him back at the station as soon as he’s been given the all-clear.’ Fabian was relieved. Now doctors were involved, playing for time was less of an option for Cousins.
‘I’ll call you as soon as they’re done. You on your way back?’
‘One more stop off to talk to Candice Langham’s lecturer,’ Banner informed him.
‘Cousins’s sister is demanding to be released. Wants to go to the hospital.’
‘Tell her by the time we arrange a car he should be on his way back.’
‘Will pass that along.’ Finch hung up.
‘You sound very sure.’ Banner put the phone in her pocket.
‘We’ll work through those alibis with both of them this evening.’
‘Lauren Reid might have something to say about that.’
‘Did she seem spooked to you before Cousins collapsed?’
Banner nodded. ‘You picked up on that too? Have to say, that’s the first time I’ve seen her actually chase an ambulance.’
Fabian cracked a smile. ‘Let’s see what Mr Brennan has to say about Candice Langham.’ He accelerated. ‘Can’t afford to miss class.’
Never Say Goodbye: An edge of your seat thriller with gripping suspense (Detective Tom Fabian Book 1) Page 10