Blind to the Bones. Stephen Booth

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СКАЧАТЬ parents were on friendly terms anyway, so we were thrown together a lot.’

      ‘And after school, you even ended up going to the same university.’

      ‘No,’ said Dearden. ‘You have that wrong. I went to Birmingham University. Emma was at UCE, where she attended the art school. That’s the University of Central England. It’s a former polytechnic.’

      ‘Right.’ Fry looked at Alex Dearden and saw the little superior smile. He thought he had the better of her now, and was feeling more relaxed.

      ‘But our universities were close enough that we thought it might be a good idea to pitch in together and rent a house,’ he said. ‘It beats being thrown in with a load of strangers. You don’t know who you’re going to have to live with for three or four years when you do that. It’s madness. At least I knew Emma wouldn’t be too much trouble. And our parents thought it was a good idea, too. They put the money up front for the deposit, of course.’

      ‘Of course,’ said Fry. She had never been to university herself, and had never had any parents either willing or able to put the money up to rent a house for her. But she nodded and smiled to encourage him.

      ‘And your other housemates – one was Neil Granger.’

      ‘Ah, well, he’s a bit of an odd character, is Neil.’

      ‘Odd?’

      ‘Well, don’t get me wrong. He’s OK really. But he didn’t mix with us so much back in Withens, you know, because he was one of the Oxleys.’

      ‘I’m sorry? Could you explain?’

      Dearden shifted on his seat and his smile faded. He glanced at Gavin Murfin, unnerved by the silent one, as they always were.

      ‘You’ll have to find out about the Oxleys,’ said Dearden. ‘They’re a bit of a rough lot, always in trouble. We never normally had anything to do with them. Actually, I thought you would know of them already – they’ve all got criminal records, of course.’

      He looked at Murfin again, who stared back at him blankly, in the way that only Murfin could. Holding his gaze, Murfin began to work his jaws a bit, as if he were chewing gum. But Fry knew that he hated gum. He said it was like going out with a prick-teaser – it promised to be food, but never was.

      She looked down at the notes she’d brought. ‘I think I have heard the name Oxley, now you mention it,’ she said.

      Dearden looked relieved. He was on safe ground again, talking to people who were on the same wavelength. He was uncomfortable about his attitude to the Oxleys, and he didn’t like having to justify himself. Fry filed away that piece of information for future reference.

      ‘Neil Granger is some kind of cousin of the Oxleys,’ said Dearden. ‘There’s Neil and his brother Philip, and they were brought up with the Oxleys. But he’s a decent enough bloke, Neil. When you’re talking to him, you can forget he’s an Oxley.’

      ‘He was at the same school with you and Emma? In the same class?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘And which university did he go to? Birmingham or Central England?’ She shuffled her papers. ‘I’m afraid I don’t seem to have that information, either.’

      Fry looked at Alex Dearden with a hopeful expression, and was pleased to see the complacent smile was back.

      ‘Neither,’ he said. ‘Neil wasn’t at uni.’

      ‘But he shared this house with you in, where was it, Bearwood? Why did he go all that way to share a house? I don’t understand.’

      ‘It was a bit of a coincidence, really. At first, when we went down there, it was just the three of us – me, Emma and her friend Debbie, who was on the same course. The two girls were big pals, you know, and they went everywhere together. But there was a fourth bedroom in the house, and after a while we started to think we’d have to try to find someone else to share. To be honest, the rent was a bit of a struggle for the three of us. You don’t appreciate what expenses you’re going to have, you know – books and all that. Emma and Debbie had a lot of equipment to buy for their course work.’

      ‘And there would be socializing, I suppose?’ said Fry.

      Dearden looked at her suspiciously. ‘Why do you suppose that?’

      ‘Well – student life. There’s a lot of socializing, isn’t there? Or so I’m told.’

      ‘A bit. But if you have any sense, you don’t go mad. Not if you want to get through your course with good grades, which we all did.’

      ‘I see. But life was proving a bit expensive, all the same?’

      ‘Yes. Things we hadn’t budgeted for – Council Tax, electricity, the phone bill. You know.’

      ‘Yes, I do know.’

      ‘Anyway, it was around then that Neil got in touch. He said he had a job to go to in Birmingham. It was a two-year contract on a development project on the inner ring road, as I remember. Neil wanted to know if we’d let him rent the other room in the house. Our parents weren’t too happy, but we talked about it between us, and we decided to go for it.’

      ‘Because he was somebody you knew, rather than a stranger?’

      Dearden hesitated. ‘Well, the thing that really swung it was the salary he was earning. He was getting good money on this contract, and the rest of us were just students living on loans. So we thought he’d be useful.’

      Fry wanted to do something to remove that smile now, but she needed to keep Alex Dearden on her side. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Murfin chewing more quickly, as if he had found something with an unpleasant taste in his mouth that he wanted to spit out.

      ‘Mr Dearden,’ said Fry, ‘did it ever occur to you that Neil Granger might have a particular reason for wanting to rent the room in your house?’

      ‘It was just convenience, I think. It can be quite hard to find reasonable rented accommodation, especially in a city with so many students.’

      ‘No, what I meant was – do you think he might have had an additional reason? A personal reason.’

      Dearden still looked puzzled.

      ‘An interest in Emma Renshaw, perhaps?’

      He raised his eyebrows then. ‘Good heavens. Neil? No, I think you’re wrong.’

      He didn’t quite say ‘again’, but he might as well have done.

      ‘Thank you, sir. In that case, can you tell me about any boyfriends that Emma had during the time she was in the West Midlands? I’m sure she must have had some, despite what you said about the lack of socializing.’

      Dearden shook his head. ‘There were a few boys Emma and Debbie talked about sometimes. I didn’t take any notice, really. When the two girls went out, they always seemed to go together. So I’m afraid I don’t know if there were any particular boys involved in their lives. Well, all right, I expect there were. But I’m sure Neil wasn’t СКАЧАТЬ