came here to the building to get information. He said that he’d been to the police but that they’d told him nothing. He said he’d been questioned, I think.”
“Did you tell me everything about your conversation?”
Kate thought back. “I did. He was a friend but he clearly had a thing for Audrey. He said he worked in the hotel business.”
The detective was rapidly writing in her notebook. She looked up, and asked, “Can you describe him for me? What he looked like?”
Kate thought hard. She kept picturing the sketch she’d done that had changed somehow. She almost went to get it, then said, “I can draw him for you, if you’d like,” she said. “I’m better at drawing than describing.”
“Sure,” Detective James said, and passed Kate her notebook and pencil.
She quickly sketched Jack Ludovico, his smallish features that made him look more like a boy than a man, the hair that stuck up. The strange picture from her sketchbook kept jumping into her mind as she drew, getting in the way of her memory, so that his eyes came out wrong somehow, in a way she didn’t quite understand. Still, she handed the notebook back to the detective.
“His hair is red. I should have indicated that.”
“I’ll remember. You’re a good artist. This is helpful,” the detective said.
“It’s not perfect. I only met him the once.”
“It’s good. Thanks. Can I ask you one more thing? When did you and Corbin make the decision to swap apartments? Do you know when he first contacted you?”
Kate thought back. She remembered her mother broaching the idea of the swap after dinner on a Sunday. It was late February, she thought, or early March, the days still short.
“Sometime in late February,” she told the detective.
“Any chance you can be more specific than that?”
“Oh. I would say either the last Sunday in February or the first Sunday in March. I can ask my mum. She’ll remember, and if she doesn’t, she’s probably written it down somewhere.”
“That would be great.” Detective James closed her notebook, rocked backward a little in preparation for getting up. Kate noticed how perfect the detective’s posture was, her back straight, her wide shoulders back, and sat up a little straighter herself.
Before the detective had a chance to get up, Kate asked, “So Corbin was involved with Audrey Marshall? That’s why you’re here, right?”
“He was. Audrey kept a diary, and he’s mentioned in it. And we’ve confirmed from one of Audrey’s friends that they were involved for a period of time over the past couple of months.”
“Oh.” Even though she’d suspected it—known it, really—the blunt fact still surprised her. “So they were definitely involved. So he’s a definite suspect.”
The detective smiled and scratched at her wrist, underneath the strap of a chunky watch. “He is a definite person of interest, Kate. We’d very much like to talk with him.”
“I thought you had.”
“There was an e-mail exchange, but a London police officer went to question him at your flat and he wasn’t there.”
“No. He’s gone missing from there, I think.”
“How do you know that?”
Kate told the detective about her friend Martha, and how she hadn’t seen him around.
“If you communicate with Martha again, please ask if she’s seen him come and go.”
“I will. Are you going to arrest him?”
“We just really want to speak with him. Sooner rather than later.”
The detective’s phone rang, and she pulled it from her pocket. “Good, you’re here. Just come straight up. It’s one down from Audrey Marshall’s, the door at the end of the hall.” She ended the conversation but kept the phone in her hand as she said to Kate, “My colleague from the FBI will be coming up, as well.”
“Why the FBI?”
“There’s a chance, Kate, that this crime is connected with two previous crimes, one of which occurred in Connecticut, and that was when the FBI became involved. We’re following every lead, and I am very interested in seeing what you found in the storage unit downstairs.”
There was a knock on the door, and the detective jumped up to answer it. An Asian woman wearing a black leather jacket over a white top entered. She didn’t look a whole lot older than Kate. The detective introduced her to Kate as Abigail Tan, then asked, “Kate, can you come with us to the storage unit, show us what you found?”
Chapter 22
When Alan woke to find Kate gone he knew that something was wrong. She’d obviously had a change of heart, otherwise she’d have at least said goodbye.