‘We all hang out together now and again, have a few beers in one of our apartments. It’s cheaper than going out. Look, you’d have to be from another planet to not see that Lauren has a crush on Amber, the way she looks at her. Amber is a serial dater, loves meeting new people. Lauren is the opposite. She sits on her own at home with only Amber as a friend. I can’t really tell you any more than that as I don’t really have too much to do with either of them.’
Gina thought back to the little box under Amber’s bed. ‘Does Amber use drugs?’ If nothing else, she needed to add ‘drug purchase that may have gone wrong’ to the killer’s list of motives. Sometimes the simplest of reasons can be behind a murder and drugs and the money associated with them were powerful in the motive department.
He awkwardly shifted his weight to his other leg before grabbing the torn office chair in front of his makeshift desk made from a piece of old worktop. He slid the folders out of the way and placed his elbow on the wood. ‘No.’
Gina cleared her throat as she and Jacob stared at the man.
‘Okay. She may have dabbled on nights out. I know she had an occasional smoke or a tablet when she went clubbing, but that was it. Was she a druggie? No way. It was a special occasion thing. It’s nothing unusual. Everyone does it. Not me, of course.’
Jacob relaxed his stare and caught up with his notes.
‘What was Amber like?’ He was opening up. Gina was sure that if she could get him to talk, he wouldn’t stop.
He pulled the hairband from his hair and ruffled it, freeing it before bending over to flick the heater on. ‘It’s getting cold in here.’ He grabbed a thick, mangy-looking cardigan from the back of the chair and put it on. ‘Amber… she always seemed happy. She was popular. She had endless amounts of energy for going out, experiencing new things and life in general. She was so glad to get away from her strict home, it was like she’d won the lottery or something when she moved out from her dad’s house. She told us that at home she had to be in by ten and even then Daddy would constantly call. He moaned about her clothes and her friends. He turned up here a few times even when she wasn’t in. It was like he was trying to catch her out with a man.’ He grinned. ‘Anyway, living here, she was free and she was making the most of her freedom by dating, going out. I even recall her saying that she did a parachute jump last year. She didn’t tell Daddy that either. The man would have freaked at his cotton wool-wrapped daughter jumping out of a big bad aeroplane.’
‘Were you and Amber close?’ Gina wanted to get down to the crux of any relationship they may have had although looking at him, she couldn’t see that he’d be Amber’s type, but then again, she always told herself, determining who a person would chose to be with was impossible. Maybe she liked his laid-back demeanour. She inhaled the combination of week old sweat and burger grease that came from his cardigan as he shuffled.
‘No closer than anyone else in the building. We just hung out and drank together on rare occasions and as a part of a group. That was it. The things I mentioned are just what came up in mostly group conversation.’ The spot on his chin had begun to seep a little. He swiped his finger across it. ‘I should eat better really.’
‘Who lives in the bungalow at the back of this building? The one with the private road that passes alongside this block.’
Curtis started biting the inside of his mouth. ‘The biggest party pooper around. If we even fart too loudly, he’s over, telling us to keep it down or our tenancies will be terminated. That will be the landlord. His father owns this block and he makes sure we know it. Toilet is leaking? Three weeks to fix. I cough? He turns up telling me to shut up. That’s a bit of an exaggeration but you get my meaning. When we do drinks in the block, we have to keep all the windows shut and try not to be too obvious.’
Gina nodded. ‘What’s his name?’
‘Vincent something or other. Don’t know his second name. It’s probably Arsehole, Vincent Arsehole. He’s not even that old for a landlord, probably mid-thirties, maybe forty if he had a hard life. I don’t know what his problem is.’ Curtis laughed.
‘Are you a student too?’
He nodded. ‘I’m a mature student, I mean twenty-six is old, definitely mature. I attend college though, not university like Amber and Lauren. I’m doing a two-year mechanics course at the college in Bromsgrove. Hoping to have my own garage one day. I always loved tinkering with cars so after a few years of working in pubs and cafés, I thought it was time to sort my life out and follow my dream.’
‘Just to clarify, where were you between six and ten on the evening of Friday the twenty-second of January?’
Curtis’s brow furrowed.
‘That’s last Friday?’
He pulled the half roll-up from his pocket and placed it behind his ear. ‘Now I need a puff. I was here all night gaming and like I said, I was here and I heard Amber coming down the stairs. My curtains were shut and I didn’t see or hear anything else. I don’t go out that much. I’m always pretty broke so I stay in and game until late.’
Gina listened to Jacob’s pen hastily scribbling away. When he stopped, she continued.
‘Did you go out for a smoke at all?’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t go out at night, it’s too cold. I’d get into trouble if Vincent Arsehole found out but I smoke in the bathroom and blow my smoke out of the window. The fire alarm doesn’t pick it up.’
Gina’s shoulder dropped slightly. She was hoping that he would have been in and out on that evening, and that he’d have noticed something, however small. ‘One last question, have you seen anyone suspicious hanging around the car park or outside the apartments?’
‘Now that you mention it, yes, a figure in the bushes.’ He got up from his chair and beckoned Gina over. She hurried to the window where he pulled back the yellowing voile and pointed. ‘Right there, just to the side of the underpass. I’ve noticed this weirdo around since the New Year, only now and again, and it looks like he stands and stares at the flat. He wears a hat, like something Frank Sinatra would wear, but even under the street lamps all I saw was a shadow but no features. Was he stalking Amber? Is that what you think?’
Gina moved away from the window and headed back to the sofa, not sitting this time to Jacob’s relief. ‘At the moment we’re investigating and this is something we will look into. Can you describe this person?’
‘Yeah, a shadowy figure that looks male. Broad shouldered and average to tall. That’s all I know. I really didn’t worry about who it might be as I only saw him through the window now and again, never when I went out.’
‘Can you remember when or how often you saw this person?’
He scrunched his nose and paused. ‘About two, three times per week. I joked in my head that it was probably killjoy Vincent trying to gather evidence of our bad behaviour to catalogue, just in case he wants to chuck any of us out.’
‘Did you ever think to report this person?’
