Guilty Conscious by Oliver Davies (best ereader for students .txt) 📗

assaulting Stella Helman. If they knew each other, even a little, then I’m guessing he knew Billie too. Charlie as well, most likely. The case is dropped, Edward is clean, starts attending university. Cut to two weeks ago, Stella takes her own life. Now I’m guessing that her doing that had something to do with the assault. If she was taking prescription medicines, they could be tied to that.”

Mills nodded along, letting me rant.

“Around that time, Edward and his friends stop hearing or seeing Billie Helman, who now has a dead sister to mourn. If she also blamed Edward for that, maybe she wanted vengeance. Justice for her sister she didn’t get the first time round.”

“Also explains the state of him,” Mills added. “Whoever did that was angry, fuelled by their emotions.”

I thought back to Edward’s battered head and agreed darkly. That was a violent, desperate attack from someone thinking more with their heart than their head.

“Edward’s friends said that Billie used to go to university with them,” I recalled. “So, she’d know her way around the campus, maybe even have a key to some of the buildings.”

“And if she knew Edward, if they were friends once,” Mills pointed out, “she’d know about the cameras in the courtyard, how to get around without someone, like Freya, seeing her.”

“Reopen the case,” I told him, pointing to my computer. “I want to know the details of this assault before we go in there.” I held up a hand. “I am not talking to a girl about the assault of her sister without knowing the full story. That’s a vile thing to bring up like that.”

“Even that person’s a murderer?”

“A suspect,” I corrected him. “And still, not nice.”

“Alright.” Mills looked up from the screen. “I think they did know each other, sir. According to the report, Stella, accompanied by her older sister, reported Edward on the first of November in the morning. They were at a Halloween party the night before with Billie’s university friends, and Edward assaulted her there.”

“Two guesses as to who else might have been at that party,” I muttered.

“A full investigation was carried out, but without any strong evidence or witnesses, there wasn’t anything to be done. Edward got away scot-free,” Mills added in there at the end.

“Like Smith said, a common occurrence. Where was the party?” I asked. “Does it say?”

“Just says the residence of another student but doesn’t specify who or where.”

“Any other people listed?” I asked.

“A few characters references vouching for Edward,” he said. “One or two are anonymous.”

“Under eighteen,” I hazarded a guess.

“But there is one from a Miss Fox, a fellow student.”

I raised an eyebrow. “How many Foxes do you know, Mills?”

“Just the one, sir.”

“Let’s switch this up,” I decided. “I’ll go and talk to Edward’s parents again, see if they have anything more enlightening to offer about their son. You go and see Freya, see if she can give us a more personal tale than the one the others gave us earlier. Once we get the full picture of what happened with Stella, Edward and Billie, then we’ll go and have a chat with her. I don’t want to go blundering in without knowing as much as she does.”

I didn’t like being caught off guard, especially publicly. I did, however, like going and confronting people who lied to me in my investigations. I was better at it than Mills, he still had to practice his glower, and anyway, he would be better and talking to Freya than me. I still had to practice how not to glower.

He nodded and fished his phone out, doing the gentlemanly thing and calling the Fox household first. I decided not to bother, Mr Vinson struck me as the sort of man who’d want to kick me from his house and avoid answering questions, but if his son had something tangible to the Helman sisters, I needed to know.

There came a knock at the door, and a constable poked their head in, looking at me with a grim face.

“Chief?” I guessed.

He nodded, and I sighed, shooed him, relievedly, away, and walked over to her office. Sharp was waiting for me, perched on her desk, arms folded, foot tapping. Not good.

“Ma’am,” I greeted her, sliding into the office and shutting the door.

“Smith just filled me in.”

“She should be promoted.”

“This is tied to Stella Helman?” she asked, ignoring me.

I took a deep breath. “Looks that way. Edward Vinson was accused of sexually assaulting her a year ago. Edward’s friends named her sister, Billie, as being something of a harasser towards him.”

Sharp pinched her eyes shut, her mouth a straight line. “Not good, Thatcher,” she told me, opening her eyes. They’d lost their cutting edge, and she looked at me sympathetically. “A sexual assault victim who committed suicide tied to a gruesome murder in a university dorm?”

“I know,” I assured her. “It’s a bit of a train wreck.”

“Putting it delicately. If the press gets wind of this, puts this link together, it’s not going to be pretty. Not for Edward Vinson’s family, not for the Helman’s, not for us.”

“I know, ma’am,” I repeated.

“I’ll do what I can to keep it quiet, keep the press happy with your progress, but we need this tied up quickly and quietly, Thatcher.”

“I shan’t rest till it’s done,” I replied. She rolled her eyes at me, but her shoulder relaxed slightly. “What’s the next move? You bringing this Billie in?”

“Not yet, but she’s a suspect. At least in terms of motive. I’m heading out to Vinson’s parents' house again. Find out why they didn’t mention the assault accusation, but I’ll give the benefit of saying they were in shock.”

Sharp hummed. “Mills?”

“Going to talk to our witness again. She was friends with Edward and the others, but alone, we think she might offer up a bit more. Especially going in there knowing about the assault already.”

“Better than going in blind,” Sharp said approvingly. “What about the sister? Billie?”

“We know she went to the university, that the assault