The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die: The first book in an addictive crime series that will have you gripped. Marnie Riches

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       Chapter 7

       2 January

      When Ad opened the door to his Museum Quarter apartment in Sluitstraat, George pushed passed him.

      ‘Do you know Fennemans showed up at my place over Christmas? Offered me a half-smoked packet of cigarettes as a peace offering. I told him to fuck right off. Got any of that nice Leerdammer?’ she asked.

      ‘Oh, Happy New Year to you too,’ Ad said, clearly bemused.

      George’s brain was whirring today, processing all the information that had come her way in the last week. Al Badaar’s still-untraceable comments. The Moment being denounced as a pro-terror virtual rag, thanks to her blogpost. The Jewish community in Utrecht, publicly decrying the local police’s inability to arrest a perpetrator. She felt like she was riding the rollercoaster right up to the top. It was a good feeling.

      She heard Ad close the door behind her. Casting a glance around the anonymous-looking boys’ living room, her gaze rested momentarily on a card which sat coyly on a bookshelf by the flatscreen TV. It had Santa Claus on the front, blushing and receiving a heart from Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. It said, ‘Happy Christmas, Boyfriend’ in green, shiny lettering. Her rollercoaster became stuck half way up and she didn’t like the look of the drop to the ground.

      George tried to marshal her thoughts. An empty food cupboard and hunger to see her friend had driven her here. Ask him about a sandwich. Ad always has food. Focus.

      Ad reached out to take her coat.

      ‘Coffee?’ he asked.

      ‘Is that card from your girlfriend?’ she heard herself say before she could claw the words back. Damn.

      Ad frowned incredulously as his flatmate, Jasper, shuffled out of his room. Jasper, normally so preppy and clean-cut, was wearing pyjamas and scratching himself. His blond mop of hair was dishevelled. He sported a day’s worth of stubble.

      ‘Happy New Year, guys,’ he said in English with a thick Dutch accent. He picked up the disgusting Santa card and waved it at her. ‘Mine,’ he said. He winked at Ad.

      ‘You came back yesterday?’ Ad asked him.

      ‘Never went home. I’ve been at Marianne’s until last night. House-sitting while she’s working round the clock on the bombings. The stuff she’s been telling me would give you bloody nightmares.’

      ‘Aren’t you supposed to be at lectures?’

      ‘Med students don’t start ’til tomorrow. Anyway, I’ve got man-flu. It’s going round.’

      ‘What do you mean you don’t believe in sudden flu?’ Klaus said to the detective.

      He watched the ratty little man with a quiff and leather jacket looking around his apartment. Joachim had been reported missing, and now the police had eyes for everything. Especially this fool. And the girl. Where had she gone? She said she needed to use the toilet but she had been five minutes and counting. Even women didn’t take that long to pee. He hoped she wasn’t snooping around his medicine cabinet. And fuck it if he hadn’t left his bedroom door ajar.

      ‘I mean, you two had arranged to travel to Heidelberg together,’ the detective said. ‘Via Utrecht. That’s what Guttentag’s mother told our colleagues in the Baden-Württemberg police.’

      ‘Yes, I’ve already answered their questions. At length.’

      ‘Imagine how Joachim’s parents feel. You’re supposed to be his friend, aren’t you?’

      Klaus rolled his eyes and strode over to his Gaggia coffee machine. ‘I’m not going to grace that with a response.’ He started to grind some beans and then fixed himself an espresso. He didn’t bother to offer one to quiff boy in his ill-fitting Elvis get-up.

      ‘We’ve checked his phone records,’ the detective said. ‘You called him only an hour or so before you were due to meet, didn’t you? You were possibly the last person to speak to Joachim before he disappeared. What did you say to him?’

      Klaus wracked his brains for the right thing to say. What would get this idiot to leave him in peace so that he could unpack and get on with the new term? He had some nice pralines in his case that would go well with the coffee. If it was an invited visitor that was sprawled all over his elegant leather sofa, Klaus would have been only too happy to share them. But he had no intention of getting them out in front of this nagging toe rag. And where was that girl?

      ‘Look, I was feeling ill. It came down suddenly. You know how flu is. One minute you’re shivering a bit, the next you’re on your back. I went out for paracetamol. Ask the shop owner on the corner. He’ll corroborate what I’m telling you. And then I was in for the rest of the night with the stereo on. The walls are thin here. Ask my neighbour. I bet he heard my every cough and fart.’

      The detective looked at him with suspicious eyes like black marbles. ‘Woah! We’re a bit defensive, aren’t we? Nobody’s accusing you of anything, Klaus.’

      Just as Klaus began to feel sweat bead under his arms, the girl finally emerged from the bathroom. She had bad skin that clashed with her red hair, Klaus noted. But she had an excellent figure. She was a three out of ten head with a seven-and-a-half body. Maybe even an eight. He would probably fuck her if he had met her somewhere dark, like a nightclub and if he had had enough to drink.

      She hooked the red hair behind her ear to reveal small pearl earrings, which Klaus liked.

      ‘We’re very, very busy with the investigation into the bombing, as you can imagine,’ she said, perching on a chrome kitchen barstool. ‘But obviously, Joachim is a student of the department connected to the Bushuis attack and we can’t afford to ignore an exchange student going missing over the holiday period. We need your help, Klaus. Where could Joachim be? What other friends might he be visiting?’

      She was looking at him with inquisitive eyes. He tried to select a label for the particular shade of blue that her irises were.

      ‘Look,’ he said. ‘I’m as stumped as you are. I cried off sick. That’s the last I heard of him. I can’t think where he could be. I hope you find the poor guy soon. He owes me a round of drinks and thirty euros.’

      As the detectives stood to leave, Klaus was quick to show them out, deftly pushing the door to his bedroom shut en route.

      Breakfast à trois felt distinctly awkward to George. Together, they sat at the kitchen table in silence. Ad stared at the screen of his laptop, intently reading the responses to George’s blogpost. Jasper sat playing with his balls through his pyjama bottoms and slurping his coffee loudly.

      ‘Do you have to do that?’ she asked him.

      Jasper shrugged, stretched out his legs and farted loudly. He laughed heartily at himself. George wished he would go back into his room or go out. Men like Jasper were deliberately provocative. Looking for a reaction. She knew she was an easy target for a wind-up.

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