"That wasn't as helpful as I'd hoped," I said as we were scanned into the police station. "Why can't we find any motive for Ruby's murder?"
"At least we know where the knife came from now," Alex replied. "And whose possession it was last known to be in."
Ethan's. It made me even more anxious to talk with him, and I ducked under the door before it was halfway up. "Let's track him."
Detective Inspector Sebastian Flynn was lingering in the entrance hall. He flashed me an easy smile as he moved away from the touchglass partition. "Morning. I heard from Cassia that tonight's your hen party."
"That's right." I stopped and shuddered. "I don't know what we're going to be doing."
Alex caught up with me. "No strippers."
Sebastian grinned. "You should have seen ours... Don't look at me like that, Amber. I'm only teasing." He winked. "We didn't have any."
"You'd better not have done." I folded my arms across my chest. "Because you'll be in trouble."
"I promise we didn't." He sobered up. "But we did go to Underworld Eclipse -- and one of their bouncers has just come in here. Levi Ford?"
Alex exchanged a curious look with me. "He's a person of interest in our investigation: Ethan Sharpe's best man. I didn't pay much attention to the bouncers last weekend."
"I did." Sebastian shrugged. "I was around, so I took him to the interview rooms for you."
"Thanks," I said. "I guess we'd better see what he wants."
Alex and I went downstairs to the custody suite and found Levi in Interview Room Three. He'd stripped off his coat and so was looking even larger than he had the previous day; arms the width of tree trunks taut beneath the sleeves of his t-shirt. The table looked fragile beside him.
He glowered at us when we entered. "I only wanted to tell you something. Now I've been stuck in here."
I sat down. "The interview rooms aren't just for people who've been arrested. They're also a good place for us to talk in private. Have you thought of something that could help the investigation?"
"Sort of. I didn't mention it yesterday because Ethan told me in confidence, but I was with Jade last night, and she was so upset that she made me feel guilty. Not that it has anything to do with Ruby, but whatever helps the investigation..."
Of course it didn't have anything to do with Ruby. I resisted the urge to sigh. "Go on."
"The day before the wedding, Ethan had a big bust-up with Iberia about one of her old flames. He called me afterwards and said he didn't know whether to go through with the wedding or not."
I leaned forward, my ears pricking up. "Who was it? Who was the old flame?"
Levi rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the table. "His mother."
"Brittany Sharpe?" Alex repeated.
"Yes. I could hardly believe it. But Iberia had never been introduced to Brittany while we were at school. She swore that she didn't know Brittany was married or that she had a son. It only lasted one summer -- then she rekindled her relationship with Ethan."
And received a shock, no doubt, when she had been introduced to his mother. "How did Ethan find out? Did Iberia tell him?"
Levi sighed. "No, apparently she was trying to keep it quiet. It was Brittany who let him know."
***
We went to the Sharpes' flat as soon as we could. William Sharpe let us in, but he didn't actually emerge to greet us.
Raised voices drifted down the hallway. Following them to the kitchen, we found Brittany and Ethan.
They were standing on either side of the island unit. Ethan was facing us, his hands closed into fists on the steel. Rough words died on his lips as we appeared in the doorway, and in the silence, Brittany sniffled. She turned around, tears streaking her face. "Oh."
Clearly, neither had heard the doorbell.
"Hello," I said. "Ethan, we've been looking for you."
"I'm in the middle of something," he growled.
"No, you're not. You're on your way out of the room. But don't leave the flat -- we'd like a word with you."
He stared at us for a long moment, then left the room in two long strides and slammed the door behind him.
Brittany sank onto a stool, and we settled opposite her. The kitchen was large, but it felt strangely empty: too metallic and robust. After she'd insisted on playing hostess yesterday, I'd been expecting something more homely.
I got straight to the point. "The day before the wedding, you told Ethan that you'd slept with Iberia."
Her hands flew to her throat. "I... How do you know about that?"
"The truth always comes out in a murder inquiry. It was the summer before they got back together, wasn't it? She didn't know that you were his mother. Were you aware that she was your son's teenage sweetheart?"
"No!" Brittany's voice rose. She shot a frightened glance at the kitchen doorway and quietened it to a whisper. "William doesn't know. Look, I was never aware that Ethan had a girlfriend at school. William was always so strict that Ethan never used to tell us anything. Iberia was just my girlfriend. Later, when I met her again, no one but us knew what had happened. That's the way I wanted it to stay."
"Then why did you tell Ethan?"
"Because I was so uncomfortable with the arrangement." She passed a hand over her face. "My son, sleeping with her...not knowing what had gone on. I felt that it was his right. I was just too afraid to tell him until the last minute."
Alex braced his elbows against the table. "You were also jealous that he would get to keep Iberia for life."
"Yes. I was in love with her." Brittany hung her head. "I never stopped loving her. For Iberia, it was a summer's fling, but for me, it was a relationship. A romance." She shook her head. "One day, I forgot to remove my wedding ring before I met her. She walked away without looking back."
"You were a generation apart," I said. "She was the same age as your son."
"What do a couple of decades matter? Nothing can stop love. Age is no exception."
"But Iberia didn't love you."
"She never stopped loving Ethan." Brittany crumpled a tissue into her fist. "I should have been happy for my son. I was...I just wished it had been someone else. Anyone else."
"Were you jealous enough to harm her, Mrs Sharpe?"
She peered at me like a startled owl. "What? You can't think... I loved her!"
"What about Ruby?" Alex said. "She was involved with Ethan while he was engaged to Iberia. Were you aware of that?"
"Ruby?" Brittany's face darkened. "The bitch! No, I didn't know. I would have warned Iberia if I had."
"Did Ruby know that you'd slept with Iberia?"
"No. It was between myself and Iberia until Thursday night."
Then Ethan had talked it over with Levi. And although Iberia hadn't wanted Ethan to know, would she have told one of her closest friends?
Brittany dabbed at her eyes again and turned around on her stool. "I'd like to be left alone now."
We entered the empty hallway. I glanced around. "Ethan?"
No reply.
"Ethan?" I opened a random door and stuck my head inside a living room. "Where the fuck did he go?"
"Outside." William's voice boomed from the study. "For a cigarette. I don't let him smoke in here."
I exchanged an uncertain look with Alex. He shrugged.
Hoping it was the truth, we left the flat. The door locked behind us with a soft click.
"Three difficult relationships," I mused as we entered the lift. "Ethan and Iberia, Iberia and Brittany, and Ruby and Ethan. You know, Iberia would usually be the prime suspect for Ruby's murder, and Ruby for Iberia's."
"Ethan was angry with Iberia."
"Yes. But I'm interested in Brittany, too. She links clearly with both Iberia and Ruby. Iberia was the woman she wanted; Ruby was the woman betraying her."
"She said she didn't know about that."
"If we believed everything people told us, we wouldn't get anywhere. Get a team of PRBs to put her under surveillance."
Alex connected with them via his earpiece and organised it. We disembarked the lift on the ground floor and crossed the lobby, bursting into the cold air outside.
Ethan looked up from the edge of the road, a cigarette glowing between his lips. He blew out a steely cloud and stared at us.
"We need to talk about Ruby," I said. "And your knife."
"My knife?" His voice was gravelly.
"She was stabbed with a cake knife you purchased from Jade Beaumont last week."
"I didn't know."
"It was in your possession last."
"Someone must have taken it."
"Did it go missing?"
He hesitated. "I didn't look at it again after the day I bought it home. I don't know."
"Who's been in your flat since?"
"Everyone. Iberia preferred to invite the girls over there to plan the wedding, Levi came to collect the rings, my mother came..." He paused. Took a drag.
"Yes, we know about her and Iberia," I said. "Has your father been to your flat in the past week?"
"No."
Shame. He was still high up on my suspects list. "Okay. Why don't you take us to the flat now? I'd like to ask Danielle some questions about Iberia and Ruby."
"She'll tell you everything I have."
"I'm going to ask anyway."
"Fine." He dropped his cigarette and stubbed it out with his shoe. "This way."
We followed him down the street, and I watched him from the corner of my eye. It occurred to me that most of the group bore a curious lack of respect for Iberia. William had hated her for her class. Ethan had cheated on her. Ruby had betrayed her. In her own way, so had Brittany.
As we put the Sharpes' residence behind us, Ethan lit another cigarette. When he exhaled, the wind blew the smoke my way.
I coughed. "Are you sure you can't think of anyone who might have murdered Iberia and Ruby?"
"No." He turned his head, and his eyes didn't flicker under my heavy gaze. He just blew more smoke into my face.
I was forced to look away.