Bryant & May 08; Off the Rails

“Nobody really hears who comes in when we’ve got our doors shut,” explained Ruby, in an effort to ease the tension. “Not unless someone’s really drunk and noisy.” She shot Theo a look. “Why don’t we show you Matt’s room?”

Bryant climbed the stairs to the second-floor landing. Ruby went ahead and pushed open the door in front of him. “I haven’t touched anything.”

“Give me a minute. I just need to look.”

“Sure.” Ruby looked uncertain, and remained on the landing, chewing a nail. Bryant wished he had brought his Crime Scene Manager, Dan Banbury, with him. He saw a mess of a bedroom, towers of books on an unmade bed, three pizza boxes, old newspapers, clothes strewn across the floor. It was impossible to know where to start. In order to arrange a meeting with his mysterious friends, Hillingdon could have used his phone, which he probably still had on him, his laptop, which was here, or half a dozen other food- and beer-stained communication devices. Then again, he might simply have bumped into an acquaintance at college. London may be the surveillance capital of the world, thought Bryant, but running a trace can be just as tricky as it’s always been. He had a good rummage in Hillingdon’s bedside table, then poked through the clothes in his closet.

This year’s student fashions appeared to involve tiny grey cardigans and checked shirts that made the wearer look like a premature grandfather. Perhaps my clothes are finally fashionable, he thought without much conviction. There was nothing illegal or even vaguely interesting to be found here. He considered impounding the laptop, but needed to get Hillingdon officially registered as a missing person first. Disappointed, he was about to leave when he saw the Post-it note stuck on the back of a book entitled Future Paths: Urban Development and Public Transport. It read ‘PAY TOBY BACK’.

“Is this Mr Hillingdon’s handwriting?” asked Bryant. Ruby came in and checked the note.

“I think so.”

They descended to the front room, where the group was breaking up. “Just a moment,” cautioned Bryant. “Mr Brooke, why did Matthew Hillingdon owe you money?”

Toby Brooke could not have looked more guilty if he’d been caught drowning a sack of puppies. “I lent him some,” he answered lamely.

“How much exactly?”

“I can’t remember.”

“Try to haphazard a wild guess.”

“Seventy-five quid.”

“Did he say what he needed it for?”

Brooke would not meet his eye. “No.”

“Go on, then, bugger off,” snapped Bryant. “But I know you’re lying, and I’ll be watching you.”

? Off the Rails ?

28

Observations

“You did what?” asked May, incredulous.

“I fingerprinted them,” said Bryant, pleased with himself.

“Why would you do that? They’re not even suspects.”

“A student vanishes from the underground system – more specifically, he vanishes in the same station where we suspect that a psychotic killer may be hiding out – and those closest to him can’t come up with a single reason why this could have happened. Mr Fox doesn’t select victims at random. I haven’t been able to find any link between Gloria Taylor and Matthew Hillingdon, but if either of them had a connection with Mr Fox and was unfortunate enough to run into him in the tube, we’d have cause and effect. And perhaps those students hold the key to his disappearance. Plus, we might get lucky from the partial. Dan’s running it right now.”

“Hm.” May was far from satisfied. “How did they react to you?”

“Oh, the usual bluster, deflection, sarcasm and showing off. Underneath the displays of bravado they’re just your average annoying college students. Their alibis aren’t exactly watertight, either. Fontvieille’s the only one I’ll be able to verify. Sangeeta ate alone, Brooke was at the movies, Nicolau swears he was in his room and Cates was waiting by herself at Russell Square station. Oh, and I saw another book similar to the one you showed me, called Haunted Underground. It was lying on the table by the window, but nobody seemed to know who it belonged to. The girl Ruby didn’t recall seeing it before, but it has her name written on the flyleaf. There was something else, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on…an atmosphere of tension. It felt as if somebody in that room was keen on keeping certain bits of information hidden from me.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t just your natural suspicion of the young?”

“I delight in the young folk, as you well know.”

May tried not to show his amusement. Bryant would have more easily been able to describe and date the architectural details of their house than recall anything about the five students he had just spent an hour with.

“Well, come on, then. I don’t suppose you did any better. What did you spot that I missed?”

“Specifically? Okay, here are some of the notes I made. It’s just the group’s emotional background.” May produced the little black leather notebook Bryant had given him for Christmas and opened it. “Ruby Cates may well be dating Matt Hillingdon, but she’s in love with the rich boy, Theo Fontvieille. Her pupils dilate every time she looks at him. She knows more than she’s telling. Then, as you say, there are the highly suggestive books.

“There are other undercurrents; Rajan Sangeeta feels the same way about Ruby. She’s the only one he’s not defensive with, and he always backs her up. Perhaps he made his feelings known and she rebuffed him; it might explain his spiky attitude. The rich boy is also worshipped from another quarter; Toby Brooke lowers his eyes whenever he speaks to Theo, and meekly accepts his criticism. This is probably a class issue, because Toby is constantly being reminded that he’s the only working-class member of the household, and looks up to Theo even when he’s being insulted. He has a chip on his shoulder almost as large as Sangeeta’s. Theo doesn’t care about breaking hearts. He looks after number one, Theo Fontvieille. Theo used to date Cassie Field but now they’re just friends. He still meets the others at the bar, which hurts her.”

“Well, that very impressive – ” Bryant began.

“I haven’t finished yet. Nikos Nicolau is obviously besotted with Cassie Field, but she’s repulsed by him. By the way, according to Nikos, Ruby is so competitive with the other flatmates that it’s making her bulimic. She gives herself away by making elaborate excuses for her disappearances after mealtimes. The household is in debt, because there’s a stack of unpaid final bills in the kitchen. Presumably Theo could help everyone out and lend them some cash, but he chooses not to, so everyone borrows from Toby, who appears to have suddenly come into money in the last few days. He’s entirely dressed in new clothes, the price tags for which are in the kitchen wastepaper basket. He’s also sporting a brand-new laptop that only went on sale at the Apple Store at the beginning of this week.”

“You got all that from one fifteen-minute visit to their flat?” Bryant was staggered.

“They interested me,” said May, simply.

“Hm,” harrumphed Bryant.

“Is that all you’ve got to say?”

“No. I suppose you were very thorough, in your own way.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. You’re like some kind of gossip columnist. I don’t pick up stuff like that. And you missed an extremely interesting piece of evidence.” Bryant enjoyed knowing something no-one else had noticed.

“All right,” May said, sighing, “out with it.”

“Well, there’s the business of the Oyster cards. Travel passes are oddly personal things. If you’re a student and keeping an eye on your money, I imagine you know exactly how much you have left on your card. I took a look around Matt’s bedroom. In a household where there are students sharing the same kitchen, you might have your own shelf in the fridge, but you keep the important stuff somewhere close to your bed.”

“I can see that. What’s your point?”

“Matthew Hillingdon was travelling back from Spitalfields to meet Ruby. So why was his Oyster card in Toby