Inspector Rames

Chapter 47

"I'm too busy."

I stepped aside and gestured with my hand. "Get out here and answer my questions before I arrest you for perverting the course of justice."

She skulked out the door and slammed it behind her. "That's not very professional."

I cooled my tone. "Bitching about your boss to the rest of the room isn't professional either. Frankie Jarsdel was found an hour ago with her neck snapped like a twig. She was just nineteen. Some sensitivity about the incident would be appreciated."

Alex glanced down and cleared his throat. "How well did you know Frankie Jarsdel?"

"Not at all," Riannon said curtly. "That's dear Nora's territory. She was always the family friend Lonn looked on fondly. Meanwhile, I was just another minion."

"Did Frankie ever pop into the lab to see him?" I asked.

"No one's supposed to stick their nose in without permission, and no one really bothers. I don't even know what Frankie looks like."

"Did Lonn ever talk to you about her?" Alex asked.

"I just told you, didn't I? I was staff to him, nothing more. We were friendly as co-workers, but we weren't friends." She backed off and raised a cocky, oddly-shaped eyebrow. "Can I go now?"

"Where were you between five and seven yesterday?" I raised my voice as the distance between us grew.

"At home. And you won't find anything wrong with that alibi this time."

***

The staff cafeteria was based on the ground floor, at the end of the lobby. It was a bright, double-height room filled with enough glass tables to seat a few hundred people, but only a handful were there. I picked out Nora immediately, sitting near the automatic doors with her head down and her shoulders hunched.

We dropped onto the bench opposite her, and she looked up with red-rimmed eyes. Her expression slackened when they fixed on us. "Oh. Inspector, Sergeant."

"Hello," I said softly. "We're sorry for your loss."

She'd taken her lab coat off, and now she rooted around in the pocket of her trousers for a tissue. Her short hair fell over her eyes. "Thank you. This has all been so sudden. First Lonn...now Frankie."

"We need to talk about Frankie," I said. "We've come to understand that you were close to her. Closer than Lonn and Janet."

"I suppose. I only met her last year when her mother died and she went to stay at Lonn's flat. We always got along. Lonn did once confide that he thought she was only herself when I was there."

"So would you say that you and Frankie were close?"

"Well, I only saw her occasionally when I was invited to dine with them." Nora swallowed thickly. "But she was always a pleasure to talk to, and I'll miss her."

"Did you ever discuss personal matters?"

"No. Just our enthusiasm for biochemistry."

"So you don't know if she had any enemies?" I was beginning to feel like a broken tabphone voice recorder.

"No. I don't know anyone she associated with apart from myself, Janet, and Lonn." She braced her elbows on the table and let her head fall into her hands. "Poor Janet. She never asked for any of this."

"Frankie told one of her flatmates that she was going to run an errand yesterday afternoon. Do you know what the errand might have been?"

Nora kept her head down for a long moment, seeming to collect herself. At last, she raised it. "No."