Read Online Deserving Death by Katherine Howell - Free Book Online Page B

some mates in Surry Hills.’
    ‘Talk to anyone on the way?’
    ‘Not that I remember.’
    ‘Anyone awake when you got in?’
    He shook his head.
    ‘How well did you know Alicia Bayliss?’ Murray asked.
    ‘I’ve met her a couple of times and said hi. That’s it.’
    Ella said, ‘Tessa didn’t tell us initially that you were there. Why would that be?’
    ‘I guess she didn’t think it was important.’
    ‘You guess.’
    ‘I can’t think of any other reason,’ he said.
    Hmm.
    Murray opened his notebook. ‘Tell me the names of your mates, both those at the club and the ones at home.’
    Robbie sighed.
    *
    They bought sandwiches at a cafe near the whitegoods store and ate them in the car. Murray drove towards Marrickville, where they would interview Dave Hibbins’s girlfriend at her place, while Ella phoned Dennis and read out the names of Robbie Kimball’s housemates and the friends he’d been with at Castro’s.
    ‘None have records,’ Dennis said, after a moment of typing. ‘I’ll add them to the list of people to be interviewed.’
    ‘How’s it going with the Castro’s CCTV?’ Ella asked. She’d told him earlier what Szabo had said, and had since persuaded herself that a clear image of the blond man who’d hassled Bayliss wasn’t too much to hope for.
    ‘Sharp and Watkins are on their way now, so I should hear soon.’
    ‘Fingers crossed,’ she said.
    Clouds were gathering when they knocked on Amber Jacobson’s door. She opened it and eyed them and their badges, then let them into her flat. She lived on the third floor of a newish building overlooking Marrickville Road and the noise of the traffic came through the open windows with the midday breeze. She was twenty-five, she said, and had known Dave Hibbins for five months through work. ‘But we only got together recently.’
    ‘Have you spoken to him today?’ Ella asked. The pastrami and salad was repeating on her. She swallowed a burp.
    Jacobson hesitated. ‘He rang earlier. He said you’d probably come over.’
    It was what Ella had expected. At least she’d admitted it. She looked honest. Ella knew that didn’t always mean much, but she liked to see it. She liked to imagine that the world still contained people who’d tell the truth.
    ‘What happened here last night?’ Murray said.
    ‘Dave came over and we had dinner – Indian – and watched a DVD.’ Jacobson pushed her hands into the pockets of her jeans. The wide neck of her shirt slipped off her shoulder and she tried to shrug it back on.
    ‘What time did you start watching it?’ Ella said.
    ‘Late. Ten or so.’
    ‘What time did he arrive?’ Murray asked.
    ‘Six. Around there.’ She’d given up on the shirt. Her bare shoulder was tanned.
    ‘You ate dinner for four hours?’ Murray said.
    ‘We also, uh, went to bed.’ She blushed. ‘The dinner and movie were after.’
    ‘What time did he leave?’ Ella asked.
    ‘About quarter to twelve. We’d both fallen asleep, then I woke up as the movie was finishing. Then he went home.’
    ‘And this morning you slept in,’ Ella said.
    Jacobson nodded.
    ‘Had Dave been in touch today before he called to say we were coming?’ Ella asked.
    ‘He texted this morning,’ Jacobson said. ‘At about eight. I didn’t hear it but I saw it when he called.’
    ‘What did it say?’ Murray asked.
    ‘That he’d had a great time, and he asked me to call him when I woke up.’
    ‘Would you have done so?’ Ella said.
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘Because you didn’t have such a good time?’
    ‘Something like that.’
    ‘Why?’ Murray asked.
    Jacobson took her hands from her pockets and sat down. ‘I’m starting to think it’s not going to work. He’s not . . . I don’t know. I went out with a guy once who was seeing someone else at the same time. It almost seems like that. Like he’s not fully here with me.’
    ‘Like he’s thinking of someone else?’ Ella said.
    Jacobson nodded.
    ‘Has he ever talked about