Janine Bluestock’s door was a subtle shade of blue. It felt kind of appropriate.
Bringing up the rear, Newport had fallen quiet. ‘You’re right,’ she muttered. ‘I’m not being fair. The Kellie situation has got the better of me.’
York pounded on the blue door. ‘Look, Holly, I don’t know who Kellie is, and I don’t need to know. It’s your business. But if you want to talk about it, you know where I am. I’d like to think the same comes back to me.’
Newport looked almost ashamed. ‘It does. Of course it does. But seriously, how do you know about her?’
York winked at her.
About to knock again, the door suddenly swung inwards. A young guy standing in pyjama bottoms greeted them with sleep in his eyes.
‘Yeah?’
The detectives flashed their ID and York introduced them. ‘We’re here in connection to an incident, sir. Can we come in for a minute?’
Stepping aside, the guy opened the door all the way. He rubbed his eyes as they passed.
‘Out last night, sir?’ asked Newport.
‘Yeah, yeah I was. And it’s Andrew.’
‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘We’re sorry to bother you so early, we didn’t expect anyone to be here. This is Janine Bluestock’s flat, yes?’
Blinking himself more awake, Andrew glanced up sharply. ‘What’s happened? Oh my god, is Jan okay?’
‘There has been an incident, Andrew. I’m sorry to have to tell you, Janine was found dead this morning.’
‘Oh god no,’ shuddered Andrew. He began sobbing in big wet gasps, grabbing for nothing. He stood, sat back down. Stood.
‘I know this is not easy, Andrew, but were you Janine’s boyfriend, flatmate, relative?’
Fighting for breath, the kid sat back down. ‘Oh my god, we were going to move in together, get engaged…’
‘Andrew?’
He looked confused. ‘She was my girlfriend. Well, last night...’
Moving from the window, York joined the conversation. ‘Last night?’
‘Yeah, we were at Black Crystal, you know, that club on the high street. We had a row…of sorts. Jan said she didn’t want to be with me anymore, said I was getting too full-on, you know. Wanted to concentrate on her career or something. It was only temporary, she didn’t mean it. Anyway, she disappeared back into the crowd. That was the last I saw of her. Oh, Jesus, what happened to her?’
He stood again.
‘Sit down, Andrew,’ Newport urged. ‘If you rowed, why are you here? Do you live here with her?’
‘Oh no, I’m in halls. Jan’s parents own this flat, they let her live here rent-free. She gave me her keys last night, wanted me to clear my stuff out. But I was drunk. I came in and crashed.’
The detectives shared one of their glances. York disappeared into the kitchenette. Newport began to stand. ‘Andrew,’ she said slowly, deliberately, ‘have you been anywhere near the fridge since you came here?’
‘The fridge? No, I told you, I went straight to bed.’ Andrew began to stand too. ‘What is this?’
From the kitchenette York suddenly yelled, ‘Holly, get him out of here, right now, go!’
Without hesitation, she grabbed the student by the arm and yanked him across the room. ‘Time to go, Andrew!’
‘Hey wait, you have no right –’
‘Listen, Andrew, if you want to see something that will scar you for life, be my guest, stick around.’
*
‘Taken a full bite this time, huh?’ said Will Graham excitedly. ‘Whoa, he’s really beginning to enjoy himself, isn’t he?’
Graham was kneeling at the fridge examining the human heart sitting on a dinner plate, centre shelf. It was bathed in a small pool of coagulated blood. Behind him, York chewed a plastic straw he’d picked up off the counter. Other uniforms were rifling through the small apartment, that familiar buzz and static filtering from one room to the next.
‘Where’s Holly this fine morning, Nick?’
York shifted his stance. ‘Holly’s married, Will. Remember that gold thing on her finger?’
‘Oh…yeah, I didn’t mean…erm…’
‘Besides which, she almost broke your wrist earlier. What’s wrong with you, you got a death wish?’
‘Maybe I’m into the whole fem-dom thing, you know,’ Graham smirked. ‘Whips and chains and all that.’
York plucked the half-chewed straw from between his teeth and threw it at Graham. ‘Concentrate, yeah?’
‘Yeah…I mean I am concentrating…I’m just, you know…what’s going on with you anyway, Nick, you look awful. Wheeler told me you collapsed earlier, is that true?’
‘True enough.’
‘Wow, someone’s got some sand in his vagina this morning! Need some sleep? Hey, I’ve got a joke about that. This old woman, right, she walks into this Chemist –’
‘Will! Con-cen-trate.’
‘Fine.’ Graham went back to work as Newport pushed her way into the flat.
‘How's the boyfriend?’ York asked.
‘Pretty shaken up,’ she replied, the anger back in her eyes. ‘He doesn’t have anything to do with it. If he does he should be on stage.’
He noticed Newport’s gaze shift attention to Graham. She shuddered slightly.
‘What is it?’
‘Nothing,’ she muttered. ‘Graham just gives me the creeps.’
York smirked. 'I think your little stunt back at the house has made things worse. It turned him on.’
‘You’re kidding!’
‘Anyway, forget that. Notice anything about the front door?’
‘Yeah, no forced lock again.’
‘So?’
‘So Janine Bluestock didn’t have her keys, she gave them to her boyfriend. He was going to clear his stuff out and leave the keys outside. Janine always hid them in the light fixture over the door.
'But Andrew never left.'
‘Exactly, so how'd the killer get them? How did he manage to get Janine Bluestock's heart in the fridge without waking the boyfriend?’
‘We don’t know that it’s Janine’s heart.’
‘Yes we do.’
‘So our boy’s good at picking locks, so what?’ said Newport.
York shook his head. ‘I think it's simpler than that. Anyone
