‘How did she seem when you last saw her?’
He shrugged as he stirred some sugar into his drink. ‘I didn’t know how to take Holly. One day she could be all smiles, the next she looked like she’d just lost her dog or something.’ He slapped himself on the head. ‘I’m sorry. I have this way about me. I sometimes say things that aren’t appropriate. I shouldn’t have mentioned death. Idiot.’ His leg jittered slightly as he took a sip of his drink.
‘It’s okay, Mr Elder. Please go on. How did Holly seem on Friday?’
He inhaled and put his glasses back on. Gina guessed he was in his mid-thirties. No wedding ring, quite handsome with his light stubble and designer suit. Gina wondered if the man in front of her could be the man Holly was hiding in her kitchen. Mr Blue Shirt.
‘On Friday, she seemed distracted. I’m the office manager amongst other things, which means I’m responsible for everything in the office and when things go wrong, I normally have to deal with them. I had a few billing complaints. Holly had wrongly charged a few customers and had sent out a couple of letters containing confidential quotes to the wrong clients. She also sent a notice of court action to a debtor who had paid the week before. I guess what I’m saying is her mind wasn’t on the job. She’d complained of having a headache, feeling sick, feeling tired, anything. I suggested she go to the doctors, she said she was fine.’
‘Did this result in any conflict?’ Maybe the person Marianne heard Holly arguing with was sitting right in front of her.
‘I’m afraid it did. She’d go on about how much she loved this job and wanted to progress further, to behaving like she didn’t care. She’d come in late, took longer breaks and was always checking her phone. I had to have a word with her.’
Jacob’s pen scrawled across his pad as he caught up. Gina rearranged the cushion behind her so that she could lean back a little. ‘What was said and how did she take it?’
A slight redness flushed across Rick’s face. ‘I didn’t enjoy our chat. She was defensive, saying that she was being picked on but she loved the work. She wasn’t happy with me.’
‘With you personally?’
He nodded.
‘Had something more than work gone on between you both?’
‘Okay, I slept with her but it was three years ago. She thought she’d be okay working for me when I interviewed her but it seems she found us working together uncomfortable. I think that’s what her funny moods were about.’
Gina wondered if that could be the case but she remembered how Lilly had mentioned Holly’s depression. Could Holly have been going through a bad patch and brought it to work? Maybe Rick had made his way to the party last night through the same route the gatecrashers took.
‘You say three years ago?’
He nodded and finished his coffee. ‘I met her in a nightclub in Redditch. We’d both had a few and went back to my flat. We woke up with a hangover in the morning. She got dressed, said she’d call me and that was it. I really hoped she would call for ages. One-night stands weren’t something I really did but I was out with friends and I really liked Holly. When she came for the interview, I was thrilled. A part of me hoped she might want to go out on a date but being her manager, I could never ask. She would have had to be the one who’d asked me. Workplace dating isn’t frowned upon here like some places but I didn’t want to complicate things unnecessarily.’
‘Did your relationship rekindle in any way?’
He shook his head and bit the inside of his mouth. ‘No. When we shared that night together, we were both a little merry from the drink and music. I realised I had no idea who Holly really was, I just built an image of a person who didn’t really exist. This Holly, the one working here, wasn’t anything like the creation in my head. She looked angry all the time, then sad. I offered to listen if she needed to talk. No strings attached – obviously. I’m here for all my staff. Happy workplace is a productive workplace, and all that. I was prepared to let her mistakes last week go. I felt she had potential. We all have bad weeks, it’s just that Holly had a few more than the rest.’
‘Thank you for being so candid about your relationship. Can you tell me where you were last night between the hours of nine and ten?’
His stance stiffened as he sat on the edge of the opposite couch. ‘Really? Am I a suspect? She just works here. I slept with her once three years ago and I’ve been nothing but totally honest about everything. Others in the office will back me up.’
‘We just need to eliminate you, Mr Elder.’
‘I was at home alone but I was FaceTiming my sister.’
‘Can we see your message history, between you and your sister?’
His brows furrowed. ‘I don’t have my tablet with me and I don’t use Messenger on my phone as I find it too distracting, so no. I’ll write my sister’s details down if you really want to check.’
Jacob passed the man a sheet of his notebook and a pen.
He snatched it off the table and scribbled a name, address and a phone number down. ‘She lives in Australia. I was trying to catch her before she went to work.’
Gina would get his alibi checked as soon as she got back to the station. ‘Did Holly socialise with anyone from work?’
‘Nah. We, all the staff, often met at the pub after work but Holly never joined in. I know she lived alone and, before you ask, I didn’t go stalking or anything. She told us she lived alone. It just surprised me that she didn’t want to come out. There’s a core of us ranging from early twenties to mid-forties and we do all sorts. Bowling, cinema nights. She wasn’t interested. She seemed too preoccupied.’
‘In what way?’
‘Like I said, she was always staring at her phone like she was waiting for a call or a text. I’d catch her looking out of the window, biting her nails when there were piles of work to do.’
