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

allegations.” She winced again, looking down at her mug intensely. “Do you remember anything about that? What happened?”

“He didn’t do it,” she muttered. “None of us believed it.”

“I just want to know about what happened. The facts as you know them, Freya. Take your time,” I added when she hesitated, taking a quick slurp of my tea.

She was quiet for a while, and then she sucked in a tight breath. “It was a Halloween party,” she began. “It was at Charlie’s house; his older sister was throwing it. We all went, and Billie brought Stella. It was the first time we really met her, and she was sweet. Stuck close to Billie, who made sure she didn’t drink or anything. They were only staying for a bit because they were going to go and watch films or something. I don’t remember much of it,” she admitted. “I remember dancing with Vanessa, and then Billie came running over all frightened and frantic because she couldn’t find Stella. We helped her look, and we found eventually, sitting in a spare room. She wouldn’t talk, just sat there and stared, so Billie picked her up and took her home. Next day, the police were round, wanting to talk to Edward. Stella said he…” She swallowed loudly.

“It’s alright,” I assured her.

“None of us believed it,” she said.

“You spoke up for him,” I said, remembering her name as a character reference, and she nodded, frowning.

“Me, Charlie, and a few others. It got dropped, there was no evidence or anything, and we all sort of forgot about it, to be honest. It was a big party. People were drinking,” she said. “Then Billie dropped out, and she started tormenting him. Threw a stone at his car, left horrid notes at his door. Campus security had to be told about her.”

“When was the last time you saw Billie?” I asked.

“About a month ago, maybe? I was with Ed getting lunch, and we saw her. He was really shaken after it, just sat and trembled, looked so sick. I stayed with him after to make sure he was okay. It’s nearly October, though,” she pointed out. “It was always worse around October.”

And this October, with Stella dead as well, things might get even more violent.

“What about Stella?” I asked. “Did you ever see her again after the party?”

“No. We all stayed away from her,” she said. “Because of what she did to Ed,” her voice quiet, the tone hard to pinpoint. Guilty, almost, perhaps because of what ended up happening to Stella.

“You heard about her taking her own life?” I asked gently. Freya nodded, wiping tears from her face.

“I don’t know why,” she said. “I hadn’t seen her. Billie would know.”

“They were close?”

“Their mother left when they were little, so Billie acted more like a mum, really.”

That was useful to know. A sister who was more a mother, who’d raised her younger sibling, who would be considerably more protective, more passionate than any other typical sibling dynamic might be.

“It must have been a very tough time,” I said simply.

“None of us had thought about it in a while,” she answered.

“What about Edward? Did he ever talk about them?”

“No. Complained about Billie, called her a bitch, and said that security needed to do better at keeping her off campus.”

“What about Stella? When he heard about her death?”

Freya shrugged. “He was shocked, of course, but none of us had seen her for so long. We didn’t know why she did it…” Her voice trailed off at the end, the slight lie wearing her down. They all had a very good idea as to why she might have done it, but that would mean admitting something about their friend that I doubted any of them wanted to believe.

Especially now.

“Do you know where Billie is now? After she left university?”

“I think she started working somewhere, but I really don’t know. She loved university,” Freya added quietly. “She had a really good mind, you know, really smart. People were surprised when she left, especially the professors.”

“Was she close to any particular professor?” I asked.

Freya nodded straight away. “Professor Greenberg. She said once that it should have been Edward who left. None of us really liked her for that,” she admitted, her nose scrunched.

Professor Greenberg. A woman, that was useful. If Billie’s mother was out of the picture, I wondered if there was another older woman she turned to for advice. Academic figures often act as surrogates, and I considered the possibility that Billie, as avid a learner as she might be, could have stayed in touch. We were due a visit with Professor Altman too, so I tucked it away for then.

“What about their father?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Couldn’t say, sorry.”

“That’s alright.”

“What does this have to do with Edward?” she asked. “All this about Billie? Do you think it was her?”

I hesitated, took a sip of tea to give myself time to think, then folded my hands on the table. “These allegations against Edward could be a part of what happened to him. We need as big a picture as we can get, so we know which details to narrow in on.”

Freya looked thoughtful about that and nodded again, tracing her finger around the edge of her mug. “Billie was never the sort of person to take something lying down. Always argued with professors, always called people out. When she was upset, you knew.”

There was an edge to her voice as she spoke that caught my attention, though whether she was sorry to be pushing Billie our way or happy to, I couldn’t quite tell.

“I’ll leave you to it, Freya,” I told her. “Thank you for all your help. Oh.” I stopped myself, standing from my chair. “What time were you going to meet him? In his room?”

Her face blanked for a moment, then she said, “Usual time. Just before seven, gives us time before I get the bus home.”

I nodded, thanked her again, then walked out to the hallway, sticking my head