“You can ask, but I’d rather tell Miss Armstrong that in person. If you wouldn’t mind fetching her for me. Thanks.”
The man hesitated for a few seconds and then heaved out a sigh. “Very well. Marcel isn’t going to be happy about this.”
“Is he the photographer?”
“Yes. I’ll get her.”
They waited for the man to return. The pods rotated slowly until the one holding four people and lots of camera equipment came to a halt in front of them. A man with frizzy blond hair came hurtling towards them.
“What’s the meaning of this?” he demanded in a slight foreign accent. “We are extremely busy and have a very limited time to get these shots taken today. No, Caroline can’t see you, not now. I won’t allow it.”
“Sir, if you’d just calm down for a moment. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important.”
He glanced back at the pod and motioned for a tall brunette to join them. “Here she is. You have five minutes, that’s all.”
The brunette eyed everyone with caution.
“This is Caroline. You can have five minutes, no longer,” Marcel repeated and then marched off in a huff.
“Who are you?” Caroline asked. She wiped a few drops of sweat from her brow with a small hand towel.
Again, Katy and Charlie showed their IDs.
“We’d like to ask you some questions, Miss Armstrong,” Katy said.
“About what? I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“All will become clear soon. What time did you get here today?”
“We started early, around eight. I left home at six-thirty, or around that time. Why?”
“Did you see anyone strange loitering in your close this morning?”
Caroline wiped the moisture from her top lip. “No, such as who?”
“Okay, it was probably too early anyway. I’m sorry to have to tell you that your fiancé, Otis, was found dead after you left the house.”
Caroline staggered backwards.
A young cameraman who was within striking distance of her charged forward and steadied her. “All right, Caro?”
“No…she’s just told me…he’s…he’s dead.”
The man turned to look at Katy. “What? Who’s dead?”
“And you are, sir?”
“Roger. I’m a good friend and colleague of Caroline’s. I repeat, who’s dead? Oh God, no…” He faced Caroline again and touched her cheek with his right hand. “Darling, it’s not Otis, is it?”
Caroline nodded and rushed into his arms. “How? He can’t be…”
Roger swivelled around so he was staring straight at Katy. “Answer her, she has a right to know, damn you. Look at the poor girl, she’s beside herself. She needs answers.”
“I’m sorry. We can’t give you any answers right now. Our duty is to tell the next of kin as soon as we possibly can, before we begin our investigation. I have to ask, did Otis have any known enemies?”
“Wait…don’t answer that, Caroline. What are you saying? That someone killed him?” Roger frowned and hugged Caroline.
“Yes. We can’t go into detail, not until the post-mortem has been performed. But yes, it would appear that he was murdered outside your home between seven-thirty and eight.”
“No, this can’t be true. Why would anyone want to hurt Otis, after all he’s been through? Why?” Caroline wailed. She buried her head in Roger’s shoulder.
“He’s a lovely man. I’ve met him a few times. After what he’s had to put up with the last year, well, I find it inconceivable that someone would want to kill him.”
“I’m sorry, are you talking about the accident with his leg?”
“Yes,” Caroline replied. “We went through hell together. Most of my friends said they could never have coped if their partner had gone through something similar, but I love him. He’s the only man who has ever treated me right. Years of searching for a soul mate, and now he’s gone. What am I going to do without him, Roger?”
“Hush now, sweetie. You’re surrounded by good people. We’ll get you through this, I promise we will. What are you doing about the person who did this?” he demanded.
“Our best. We’ve taken witness statements from the neighbours.”
“They saw what happened? I bet they didn’t try and help him, did they?”
“No. In all fairness, I think it all happened too quickly for anyone to lend a hand.”
“Bloody cowards. We’re living in a world of selfish cowards. If I ever witnessed someone being attacked, I’d dive in there,” Roger vented his anger.
“It’s not always advisable, sir. Always better to call the police first.”
“Yeah, and what good would that do? Your mob are always slow to react to calls. My sister’s flat was broken into last month, took your lot three days to show up at her door, despite her ringing several times to see where you were.”
“That’s unfortunate. There are certain crimes which take priority, of course. Something like Otis’ case would be such a crime.”
Roger went to respond, but Caroline urged him not to. “I don’t want to know what could have happened to have prevented his death, what’s the point in that? He’s gone, and I want to know why. Who did it? Are they likely to come after me?”
“I would have said that’s unlikely. We have reason to believe their motivation was to steal your fiancé’s car.”
“No, not Chérie? He was devoted to that car. Bought her with his compensation pay-out from his injury. I urged him to get something for himself even though he wanted to put the money towards a down payment on a house. I told him I was happy renting for a while, and now my income is steadily increasing we would be able to get on the property ladder in a few years, we’d just need to be patient. And now this…”
“Chérie, is that what he named her? That was sweet, love.” Roger swept back the hair from Caroline’s face and smiled at her.
“Yeah, it was precious. She was precious to both of us. Why aren’t you out there looking for her?”
“We have a team back at the station trying to find the car. They’ll be using all the resources available to them, I can assure you. Can you give us a
