Would Lucy have left her mobile here?” “No.” Melissa eyed Brian as if he were mad

Brian looked at Melissa. “If you could fill me in on Lucy’s background,” he said. “Does she have a boyfriend, for instance?” “Did. They split up last year,” Melissa sniffled. “Know his name?” “Edward something-or-other.” Brian nodded. “Do you happen to know where he is now, this Edward?”

“Up at Oxford. Somerville, I think.”

“And when would Lucy have seen him last? Any idea?” The girl twisted her hands. “Dunno.” “Anything else you can think of?”

“Like?”

“Like what Lucy could have been doing in St Machar kirkyard? How would she normally get from halls to her lectures, for example?”

Melissa put head to one side. “Catch the bus if it was bad weather. Mostly she’d walk through the park.”

“Just to recap,” Brian resumed, “you said Sally had left the flat before you got up.” Melissa pulled a face. “She’s a bundle of fun.”

“What do you mean by that?” Brian probed. “Sally’s a real swot. Spends all her days in the library. Evenings too.”

“So she’s not likely to have seen Lucy Simmons at all that day?” Melissa shook her head. “No.” “What about Dominic?”

“What about him?”

“You’ve told me Dominic didn’t come out of his room that morning.”

Annoying

Melissa sighed. “Dom spends half his life in bed. He sits at the computer all night. Wakes me up sometimes, making coffee at four or five in the morning. Then he doesn’t want to get up for lectures…” She broke off. “Doesn’t want to get up for anything, really. And there’s another thing. Dom’s always creeping about.”

“I thought you said he spent the whole time in bed.” “I mean, like, when he isn’t in bed, he just sort of creeps up on you. You’ll turn round and he’ll be, like, standing there.”

“And you find that annoying.”

“Not annoying so much as weird.”

“So,” Susan summarised. “Correct me if I’m wrong, Melissa. You and Lucy were friends, but you didn’t get on with the other two.”

The girl shrugged. “It’s not that we didn’t get on. Just…well, like, we didn’t have anything in common with them.”

“But you didn’t fall out?” “Fall out? No. Not except…”

“Except?”

Melissa pulled a face. “The usual sort of things – nicking our stuff from the fridge, leaving dirty dishes lying around. It can be a real pain, you know.”

Susan thought of the place at Queen Street. She could identify with that. “You said Lucy didn’t have a boyfriend,” said Brian.

“That’s right. After she broke up with Edward, she didn’t want to commit to anything.”

“Could there have been anyone else?” he continued. “Anyone Lucy had a particular attachment to?”

“I don’t think so,” the girl wrinkled her brow. “Not unless you count Guy.”

“And he’d be?”

“Lucy’s art history tutor. She had a bit of a pash for him. Oh,” colour flooded Melissa’s face, “I shouldn’t have said.”

“Don’t worry,” Brian’s tone was reassuring, “we’ll use our discretion. Can you give me a surname?” “No. Sorry.”

“Never mind. We’ll check it out.”

Contacts

Melissa glanced at her watch. “Will that be all? I’ve got a lecture in an hour and I’ll need time to get ready.”

“Just a couple more things,” he looked up from his notebook. “Did your pal take a drink?”

“Take a drink?” Melissa puzzled. “Did Lucy regularly imbibe alcohol?”

“Alcohol? No. Hardly at all.” “What about drugs?” “No.”

“Not even the odd E?” he prompted. “When she was partying?” “Lucy wasn’t a party girl.”

He nodded. “Leave me a mobile number in case I have to get back to you.” The girl rattled off the number. “Oh, and one last thing. Would Lucy have left her mobile here?”

“No.” Melissa eyed Brian as if he were mad. “She’d have carried it with her?”

“Always.”

“Can you give me her number?”

Melissa thumbed through her contacts and flashed her phone at him. “Thanks.” He scribbled a note. Flipped his notebook shut. “That’s all I wanted to know.”

Susan tapped on Dominic’s door. There was no response. She knocked again. “Wha-at?” Thick voice. “Are you decent?”

There was silence, then, “Just about.”

After a brief interval, the door opened a fraction. She peered through the crack. “Dominic, is it?”

The lad nodded. Dominic Elwen was small, five foot four or so. Short legs encased in straight-legged jeans. Bare feet. A crumpled Nirvana T-shirt that could have been a collector’s item. Sallow skin. Black hair brushed back off a high forehead. Dark eyes under brows that met in an untidy straggle over a wide, flat nose. The eyes blinked at Susan now.

“DC Strachan. I have some questions for you.” Dominic stared, uncomprehending. “In connection with Lucy Simmons.” “Oh…right.” He rubbed sleep from his eyes and opened the door another fraction.

Susan caught a glimpse of a mouthful of bad teeth, smelled the sour reek of sweat. Behind Dominic, she could make out walls plastered with graphic posters, a computer desk piled high with papers, an unmade bed strewn with dirty clothes.

“When you’re ready. I’ll be in the lounge.”

Devastated

“Have you seen this, folks?” In the staff room of Seaton School, someone waved the local paper. “They’ve named that girl we were talking about the other day.”

“The one at St Machar?”

“Yes. Listen up. I’ll read it out to you.” The body of a young woman discovered on Tuesday evening in the grounds of St Machar Cathedral has now been formally identified as Lucy Simmons. A student at Aberdeen University, Lucy, 17, was in her first year of a History of Art degree and shared a mixed flat in New Carnegie Court at Hillhead Student Village. Friends were said to be devastated by her death and are receiving counselling from the university.

Seventeen. The blood drained from Maggie’s face. The same age as Colin. “What’s up, Maggie? Is it someone you know?”

“N-no…” she stuttered. “It’s upsetting, that’s all, when something like that happens so close to home.”

“Too true. All the same, let me read you the next bit.” Lucy’s parents, Virginia and Michael Simmons, an executive in the financial sector, have flown to Aberdeen from their home in Surrey, but are unavailable for comment at this time. However, we understand Lucy to be their only child.

“Poor souls,” there was a buzz of excited comments. “Can you imagine what they’ll be going through?”

“I know. They look such decent people, too.” “Is there a picture? Let’s see.”

More tomorrow.

Cross Purpose (£8.99) is the first in Claire MacLeary’s Harcus & Laird crime trilogy, featuring an unlikely pair of middle aged female private investigators. The second, Burn Out, and the third, Runaway, are available now. All published by Saraband Publishing https:// saraband.net