“The apartment was finished two and a half years ago,” Amanda said. “Tyler moved in just over two years ago.”
“So he probably had it wired up then,” Greg said. “How much did the apartment cost him?”
“Five hundred and fifty thousand New Sterling. There’s over four hundred thousand outstanding on the mortgage. He was late with several payments.”
“So he doesn’t own it. I thought he was rich.”
“By our standards he’s loaded. But he had one hell of a lifestyle, and he didn’t star in that many action interactives. Strictly C-list when it comes to the celebrity stakes. He’s definitely short of hard cash.”
Greg went over to the bed, running a hand along the edge of the mattress. “Did he make any recordings of himself with Claire?”
“I’m not sure,” Amanda said. “Let me check if Alison’s loaded the list in yet.” She opened her cybofax and linked in to the station ’ware. “We’re in luck, she’s just finished it. Let’s see…Yes, there’s three crystals of Claire.”
“When was the last one dated?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“Why the interest?” Mike Wilson asked.
“That’s a lot of recording time for one girl,” Greg said. “And Claire doesn’t come over here that often, or stay long when she does. That suggests he records every time. So why didn’t he record last Wednesday night?”
“He did,” Amanda said instinctively. She could see where he was going with this. “And the murderer took the memox crystal because he was caught by the cameras in here. Which implies that whoever the murderer is, he struck very quickly after Claire left. So close the recorder was still on.”
“No messing,” Greg said.
Tamzin Sullivan had returned home. When Amanda, Greg and Mike Wilson were shown into the bungalow, the bereaved girl was sitting in the lounge. To show her grief at the loss of her future husband she was wearing traditional black in the form of a less traditional micro dress with a deep scoop-top.
Colin, from Hothouse, was fussing around with her mother while a seamstress made last minute adjustments to the shoulder straps, a makeup artist was finishing off the girl’s face.
It was Claire who had answered the door and ushered them in. As soon as the sisters glanced at each other the atmosphere chilled to a level below that Tyler’s apartment had ever reached. Daniel, who was lurking behind the sofa, shrank away from the visitors.
“This is not an appropriate time for you to be here,” Margina said imperiously. “TheStarlight crew will be here any minute.”
“I apologize for interrupting you at what is undoubtedly a difficult time,” Amanda said; it was her best official sympathy voice. She marveled she could manage to keep it irony-free. “But I’m afraid we do have some questions for Tamzin, and Claire again. We’ll be brief.”
Tamzin glanced at Colin, who gave a small nod.
“I’ll help in whatever way I can,” Tamzin said. “I want Byrne’s murderer caught. Have you found the piece of scum yet?” Her gaze flicked pointedly to her sister.
“We have a possible suspect.”
Mike Wilson showed her his cybofax, running the image. “Do you recognize this man? We think Byrne knew him.”
Tamzin leaned forward with considerable interest, fabric straining. Amanda saw Wilson’s glance slither helplessly down to her cleavage, and prayed hard no one else had seen.
“No. I don’t.”
He went onto show the image to Margina, Claire, and even Colin. They all said they had never seen the man before.
“What about threats?” Amanda asked. “Do you know if anyone was being abusive to him recently?”
“No,” Tamzin said. “There was nothing like that. He did have a few crank callers, everyone as famous as us has them; but the agency screened them for him.”
“I’d like a record of them, please,” she told Colin.
“I’ll get it squirted over to you,” he promised.
“Thank you. Greg, anything you need to know?”
“The pictures in your fiance’s apartment are interesting,” Greg said. “How long’s he been buying them?”
Tamzin blinked, slightly baffled. “Since he moved in, I suppose. Byrne appreciated fine art, music, culture; he wasn’t just an action hero, you know. He was friends with a lot of people in the media and arts. Inspiring people. He was even writing a script for a drama that we would star in together. Now that’s talent.”
“Yes, I’m sure. The pictures are all original, aren’t they?”
“They’re Byrne’scollection,” Tamzin said in pique. “Of course they’re original.”
“I see. Thanks.”
Amanda had somehow expected more; she had seen Greg interview suspects before. When he didn’t ask anything else, she said: “I’d like to talk to Claire alone for a moment, please.”
Margina’s face tightened in fury; she gave her youngest daughter a warning glare as she stalked out.
Tamzin didn’t even bother with that; she ignored everyone as she left. It was Colin who was left to take Daniel’s hand and lead the lad away.
Claire slumped down petulantly into the sofa. She was wearing an oversize rouge T-shirt and baggy black jeans; cloaking while Tamzin exhibited. Always opposites. “Now what?”
“I really will be brief,” Amanda said. “This is going to be personal, I’m sorry. Did you know about Tyler’s obsession with recording events in his bedroom?”
“You’ve found the memox crystals?” Claire asked in a small voice.
“Yes, we did.”
“I knew you would. Byrne liked me to watch them with him. He enjoyed the ones of him with famous people. There were a lot; actresses and singers, socialites, people like that. I know it was all wrong, but one more bad thing on top of all the rest didn’t seem to matter much, not by then.”
“Do you know if he was recording the pair of you that night?”
“I don’t know. I knew he did sometimes. I didn’t ask. I never wanted to think about stuff like that.”
Amanda took a quick look at Greg, who was watching impassively. There was no clue as to what he saw with his sixth sense. “Thank you, Claire. I know that wasn’t easy. I’d just like to go back to that night one more time. Did you see or hear anything unusual there?”
“No. I told you already, there was nothing different.”
“Not even with Byrne-he wasn’t acting oddly?”
“No.”
“He didn’t do anything that made you angry, or upset?”
“No! Why are you asking this? You think I did it, don’t you? I didn’t!I didn’t!Tamzin thinks I did. Mum hates me. I didn’t want any of this. You think I did?” Tears were starting to slide down her cheeks. She wiped at them with the back of a hand, sniffling loudly.
“Okay, Claire, I’m sorry. And you’re sure you didn’t recognize the man Mike showed you on the cybofax?”
“Yeah, I’ve never seen him. Who is he?”
“I wish we knew.”
As soon as they all got back into Amanda’s car, she turned to Greg. “Well?”
“Claire’s telling the truth. She didn’t kill him.”
“God damn it! I’m sure she knows something about this.”
“Not that I could sense. She certainly didn’t recognize the killer’s face, there was nothing odd about the apartment that night, and Byrne was behaving normally. You’re going to have to come at it from a different angle.”
“Shit.” She faced forward and gripped the steering wheel. “It has to be someone with a big vicious grudge eating at them.”
“The murderer knew all about the cameras,” Greg said. “Not that Tyler exactly kept it a secret. That makes it more likely to be a jealous boyfriend or husband of some girl that Tyler’s had up there.”
“Then why the hell can’t we find a match for his face?”
