The interviews with the three older cousins took some time to set up, And even though we were going over a lot of ground already covered, we hoped something in there could give us a clue we had previously missed. I re-asked some old questions slightly differently, hoping to get something new. Charlotte, the oldest of the cousins, didn’t seem to be Aimee’s biggest fan but was short on actual information. No matter how many different ways I asked, it came down to Aimee was boring and didn’t do anything. A lot of photos of the girls featured playing when they were little, and they had seemed close, but teenage girls could be difficult, so maybe they grew apart.
After asking more questions about their history, Charlotte revealed that, after they started high school, Aimee withdrew from social things, like she thought she was too good to hang with Charlotte anymore. She wouldn’t come to play with Charlotte after school anymore or to parties or sleepovers.
And then she both surprised me and gave me the first new piece of information for the day when she whispered, “I know Mum doesn’t want to say it to her sister because Aunt Penny thinks Aimee was perfect, but even Mum didn’t like the way Aimee behaved.”
Further questions didn’t get me anything else, and I really hoped Brooke had fared better. He was already at his computer typing his notes when I wrapped things up and headed back into the office area.
“So?” I leaned against the edge of his desk.
He glanced at me but frantically continued typing while I glared at him.
“Ah, excuse me Detective Grayson?” I asked in a far sterner tone.
“Sorry,” he muttered, looking flustered. “Sorry, just had to get that thought down.” He sat back and moved his chair back as if to get away from me.
Oh hell no. My original question was forgotten. “I’m sorry, do I smell or have bad breath or something?” I asked, making a show of smelling my own breath.
“No, no,” he stammered.
I continued to glare at him. Even dickhead narcissists backed down when I glared. And he didn’t disappoint. He did, however, stay back where he was, even when I asked him how his interviews had gone with Jeff and Stacey. He glanced at his computer a few times before answering.
I sighed and stood up. “For God’s sake, you aren’t going to catch the gay if you get too close to me.”
He didn’t make eye contact but pretended to be looking at his notes. “No, I know that. I just didn’t want you to get the wrong idea.”
God, I wanted to kill this kid, but there was no point. I tried to remember why I had come over to his desk in the first place. “So tell me about the interviews.”
He seemed happier with this topic and talked almost more quickly than I could follow, but the gist was neither Stacey nor Jeff said anything new or even anything vaguely interesting. When I pressed for more, he said he got the vibe Stacey didn’t like Aimee for some reason, even though Jeff was the doting concerned uncle, and it didn’t sit right.
“What didn’t sit right?” I pushed.
“The vibe,” was the only answer I got.
I frowned and tried again. “Do you think they are hiding something?”
“I’m not sure about Stacey. Maybe she doesn’t even really know why she didn’t like Aimee. But I know for sure Jeff is hiding something.”
“Like what?”
Brooke frowned as he thought about how to answer. “I’m not sure, so I don’t want to say.”
“Spit it out.”
“Did you ever look in Charlotte or Ryan’s rooms?” he asked instead of answering.
“I never had a reason to. Why?” I ignored one of the other detectives on my team, grumbling at his desk.
Now Brooke looked a little less sure, glancing at the still-grumbling detective. “Look, it’s probably nothing, but there were no photos.” I waited for him to continue. “The photos you keep going back to at the Short house. Penny said Jeff printed most of them and gives them to the kids for Christmas and birthdays, even Easter. So why don’t his own kids have photos?”
I mentally went through the photos in my mind, but he was right.
The grumbles got a bit louder, so I directed the next question to the other detective. “So what do you think? What did you hear in the interview?”
He shrugged. “Nothing new. This isn’t a remake of The Castle. The ‘vibe’,” he said, even doing the air quotes, “doesn’t tell us jack shit.”
I glanced back at Detective Grayson, who I wanted to kill more days than not. “Except sometimes it tells us everything.”
When I left the station for the night, I was still restless about the case and frustrated with Grayson. I rang Nick on the way home, thinking it would probably go through to message bank but at least I would still get to hear that voice telling me to leave a message.
Surprisingly, he picked up on the first ring. “Hi.” He sounded happy to hear from me. God, even one word was enough to make me feel warmer.
“Hi. I’m thinking of getting pet pigs.”
“Umm, well…” He obviously wasn’t anticipating that and wasn’t quite sure what the correct response was. “I’ve never had a pet, so… ahh.”
“Oh no, these pigs will be mine, with absolutely no connection to you at all.”
“Of course. Sorry, yes, well—”
I chuckled. “I meant for your own good. The less you know, the better. I’m seriously thinking of killing a co-worker, and pigs eat pretty much anything.”
That got a laugh. “Well, the whole ‘the less I know the better thing’ didn’t really pan out for you, did it? Grayson again?”
“Yeah. The dickwad couldn’t even sit close to his desk because I was standing too close, and he didn’t want me to get the wrong idea.”
Nick’s voice didn’t sound so warm anymore “What the fuck! If the wrong idea is that he is a reasonable human being, he can rest assured there is no danger. Can you not do something about this bloody twat?”
I kind of loved how angry he sounded on my behalf. “If you’re happy to let me vent away when he pisses me off, that’s all I need. Fortunately, his one redeeming feature is he’s good at his job, so there really isn’t much point making an issue.”
“Are you on your way home? It sounds like you’re in the car.”
“Yeah, how about you? Are you still at work? It sounds like you’re outside.”
“Actually, yes and no. I’m working but not in the office. I’m in Byron.”
“Sorry? You’re in Byron?”
“Yes,” he laughed. “I’m working very hard.”
I heard a faint voice calling, “Or hardly working!”
He ignored the voice. “You know we were looking at Rainbow Beach for a new property, but a possible opportunity has come up here, and Eric and I popped up for the day to have a look.”
“Just popped up to Byron for the day? Okay, umm, so you will still be back before Saturday?”
“Yes, definitely. We’ll head back home later tonight. What did you have in mind for Saturday?”
“I’m not sure, but I thought we could do something. Up to you.”