‘One of them. He specialises in management accounting.’
‘Sounds riveting.’
11
Darkness was beginning to fall. Gina clenched her hands to ease the cold numbness of her fingertips.
A couple of couches filled the university reception and led to a stairwell and a small café. The smell of coffee made Gina’s mouth water. It had been a while since she’d had a drink and her throat was drying quickly. A few minutes after checking in, a man appeared through a door and smiled. ‘Are you from the police?’
Gina walked over to him. ‘Yes, and you’re Mr Collins?’
The man nodded.
‘DI Harte and DC Wyre.’
‘Follow me. Oh, I forgot my manners, it’s been a long day. Can I get you both a drink?’
Gina checked her watch. After speaking to so many people, time was racing away and they really needed to get back to the station for a briefing and to tie up with O’Connor and Jacob. ‘We might have to pass on that one.’ That statement was a painful one. She’d just turned down a coffee.
They followed him up the stairs until they reached a small room with a couple of tables in it. ‘We can talk here. Come through, take a seat.’ He grabbed a couple of crisp wrappers and an open can of pop and threw them into the bin.
‘Thank you for seeing us at such short notice.’ Wyre opened her notebook as they sat.
‘When your officer called me and said what had happened… well, it floored me. Amber was so well liked. She was popular, funny and really clever. Such a waste. I can’t begin to understand how her family must be feeling.’
Gina glanced at the email containing some of Amber’s information that O’Connor had sent to her. ‘So, she was a year two student and you lecture in management accounting. How often did you see her every week?’
‘About three times.’
Gina listened as she took in his features. His dark hair was glossy but messy and his pinstripe shirt tucked into black jeans, topped with a smart jacket, made him look the part of a lecturer. He pushed his round glasses further up his nose. Jaw: chiselled and slightly stubbly. He was handsome in a slight, ‘I’m not trying’ kind of way. Gina guessed he was around thirty-five years old. ‘Would you have a list of people she socialised with during lectures and breaks? We really need to speak to her friends.’
‘I knew you’d want to know that. I’ve printed off some of their details. These were her close group of friends from the course. I don’t know who she would hang around with outside the course though.’ He placed the printouts on the table in front of Gina.
A list of four names, complete with addresses filled the page. Gina glanced at the names, none of which she recognised. ‘Thank you.’ She passed it to Wyre. ‘You mentioned to my colleague that you and Amber had spoken in a confidential setting. Can you tell me what this was about?’
He swallowed. ‘She came across as confident most of the time but I saw another side to her. A few weeks ago, I don’t remember exactly when. It was before Christmas and I was just leaving for the night. She was standing outside, back against the wall by my car. It had been raining and she was soaking wet. She looked shaken. I asked her what was wrong and wondered if she needed any help.’ He paused and stared out of the window at the falling snow.
‘And…’
‘She was freezing. I took her to the café that you saw on the way up. No one was there. I bought her a machine coffee and sat her at the table. After a couple of minutes she’d warmed up a little. She told me that when she’d reached her car, someone had been hiding around the side of the building, looking at her and taking photos on his phone. In her words, she said they freaked her out. She said she’d been alone and it was dark except for the flash from the phone. She told me that she called out to them, asking who they were and what they wanted, but there was no answer so she ran. I checked with security for CCTV but our cameras on the car park were out of action so there was nothing we could do. Anyway, I walked her to her car and she left the campus safely. After that, she reported no more incidents so I assumed everything was okay.’
Gina leaned back in the plastic chair. ‘Did no one report this?’
‘I did ask Amber if I could call the police but she seemed to want to get home after she’d calmed down and she said it was nothing and that she wanted to leave it. I reassured her that I was always here to talk if she needed someone.’ He scratched his stubble and placed his elbows on the table.
‘Is this something you do with all your students? Offer to talk, I mean.’ Gina knew she sounded abrupt in her questioning but it was too late to take it back.
The muscles on his face tightened. ‘Of course. If they have problems, their study suffers. I can point them in the right direction if they need counselling or help. Do you have a problem with me caring for my students?’
Gina looked down at the table. ‘It’s just routine, Mr Collins.’ She cleared her dry throat. ‘How did she seem after that night?’
The little twitch on his temples subsided. He was no longer grinding his teeth. ‘Pretty much back to normal. She thanked me for helping her that night after a lecture. She said that maybe she’d exaggerated what she saw and not to worry about her. She seemed happy and was with her friends so I didn’t worry about it, not until I found out what had happened. Is it definitely her?’
Gina thought back to the body they found in the lake and the photo that Lauren Sandiford had sent to her, it was without a doubt, Amber Slater, although formal identification hadn’t taken place. Unless Amber had a twin, it was Amber. ‘It’s looking like it is Miss Slater although we haven’t had definite confirmation of that.’
The man’s eyes reddened after he rubbed them. ‘She will be sadly missed. Is there anything else I can help you with?’
‘Have you ever had any kind of relationship with Amber Slater that goes beyond professional?’
