DC Ainsworth sat on the edge of the sofa, one leg jiggling. ‘Ah,’ he said, leaning forwards, his arms propped on his thighs as he propelled himself up with a bounce. ‘Thank you, Miss…’
‘Balantyne,’ Laura said. ‘Ms Balantyne.’
‘Well, Miss Balantyne, thank you for your help,’ he said. He was dressed in a sharp black suit with a grey tie. His shirt was so white it almost shone and he looked unreasonably bright given his lack of sleep. ‘I’m sure your friends can take it from here.’ He raised his eyebrows and waited while Laura hovered at the door.
‘He wants you to leave, Laura,’ Beth snapped. She knew Laura hated to miss out, but she had no patience with her friend right now. She wanted to rub her eyes and her throat felt as though she’d been shouting. She’d had hardly any sleep and was in desperate need of coffee. Instead she had to deal with a bucket-load of questions and Laura’s ridiculous attitude.
Laura pressed her lips together, but she left the room and shut the door behind her.
DC Ainsworth watched her go, and then frowned. He walked over to the door and opened it.
Laura was standing outside with her ear pressed up to where the wooden door had been.
‘Perhaps you don’t understand, Miss Balantyne,’ he said, his tone clipped. ‘There are penalties for wasting police time.’
Laura blushed. ‘I have to get to work anyway.’ She glared at Beth.
Beth knew what that meant: You will tell me everything later. Another thing she had no energy for.
DC Ainsworth watched as Laura disappeared into her bedroom.
‘Thank you for seeing me so early,’ he said, closing the door and turning back into the room. ‘I was hoping you could run me through everything again. I want to make sure I have all the information.’ He sat bolt upright on the soft sofa, glaring at them with raised eyebrows.
They told the story again. And again. The repetition on top of exhaustion ate at the edges of Beth’s focus, making her feel dizzy. ‘Would you like coffee?’ she asked, interrupting Jonan. She had no idea what he’d been saying.
‘Is there a problem, Miss Meyer?’ DC Ainsworth raised his eyebrows. ‘You seem… agitated.’
‘I’m just exhausted. I think caffeine might help.’
‘Black, two sugars,’ he said with a nod and turned back to Jonan.
Beth shut the door to the kitchen, grateful for the moment of quiet. Her phone lay on the work surface, and she powered it up as the kettle boiled. The noise of the coffee grinder hid the incessant beeping of a barrage of messages as they fired their annoyance at her, making her head ache. She held her thumb on the scanner and raised her eyebrows as the notifications came up.
They were all from Charlie.
She dialled his number. ‘No, I haven’t read and listened to them all,’ she said, hearing the annoyance in her voice. ‘Amelia fired me, remember? What possible reason could you have to call me that many times? The headline please?’
‘Amelia has brought the event forward. It’s tonight.’
Beth’s throat tightened. A chill ran down her spine. ‘Tonight?’ She swallowed. ‘Why tonight? We’re not ready.’
‘Of course we’re not bloody ready!’ Charlie shouted down the phone. ‘That’s why I need you here. Now. We need to figure out how we are going to make this thing work.’
Beth sighed. ‘I can’t. The police are here. A friend of mine was abducted last night and I was one of the last people to see her.’
Charlie was silent.
Beth could hear him shifting on the other end of the phone, but he said nothing.
‘Charlie, what is it?’
‘That must be what she wants to talk about. Your friend who was taken. Was it the spirits?’
‘My friend was taken by a person. A solid person made of flesh and blood. I know, because I saw him too.’
‘He may have been flesh and blood, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t influenced by the spirits. Look, I know you think I’m crazy, but Amelia has a point. There has been weird stuff going on. People are acting strangely.’
Beth slammed her hand down on the work surface. ‘People are acting this way because Amelia has whipped them up into a panic.’
‘Is that so, Miss Meyer?’
Beth spun around.
DC Ainsworth stood in front of her, Jonan behind him. He was watching her, eyes dark, brow furrowed, as he waited for her reaction.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I’ve got to go, Charlie.’ His protests were cut off as she hung up. ‘That was my boss.’ She poured three cups of coffee from the cafetière, spooned sugar into one and handed it to DC Ainsworth.
He nodded as he took it. ‘I assume you’re talking about Ms Amelia Faustus?’
Beth poured milk exceptionally slowly into the other two mugs, trying to buy time to think. ‘Yes, yes, she’s wonderful trying to save the world and all that.’
He frowned. ‘You don’t sound convinced. Do you have a problem with Ms Faustus?’
Beth pressed her lips together to stop herself from saying something she would regret later. She handed Jonan his drink and picked up her own. ‘Shall we?’ she said, gesturing back to the living room.
DC Ainsworth nodded, his jaw tightening.
‘Do I annoy you, Detective?’ Beth said as she sat on the sofa in the lounge. ‘I’m sorry if I seem irritable, but I’ve had very little sleep and I’m worried about my friends… Both of them.’
‘Why did you leave them last night? That’s been puzzling me. You took an old man, injured and just out of hospital, and left him with a woman he had never met, in the middle of the night. Why would you move him at that time? And if you did, why would you drop him off with a stranger and leave? Furthermore, why would you leave Doriel alone at night, in her dressing gown, with a man you barely know? I’m sure you can see my many problems with this story.’
Beth clenched her jaw. She felt heat flush her cheeks but refused to look away.
‘I went to get Jonan,’ she said, her voice steady and firm.
‘Okay, where was he, and why did you need him?’
‘He was at The Monk’s Inn, in Fishpool Street.’
The DC jotted the name down in his notebook, and then looked at Jonan. ‘Why would you stay in a hotel round the corner from your house? Or were you just visiting the bar?’
‘I was meeting an acquaintance,’ Jonan said, tilting his head to one side, leaning back in his chair and crossing his legs. He looked so relaxed, so unconcerned, but Beth could feel the tension pouring from him, and the effort it took to portray composure.
‘Who was this acquaintance? We’ll need to contact them, to check your alibi.’
Jonan flushed. His hands curled into fists, but otherwise he didn’t move. ‘I was with Amelia Faustus.’
The detective’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Were you now?’ He shot a look at Beth, the edges of his mouth turning up. ‘And you needed collecting from this meeting why?’
‘We had a prior arrangement,’ Beth said.
‘Of course you did.’ DC Ainsworth smirked. ‘And you couldn’t call him up? let him know your plans had changed? Or did you not trust him to leave Ms Faustus’s company?’