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We arrive at the interview room. Monroe makes a face at me as he turns the door handle, quietly letting us both into the room. Storm and Remi are inside, sitting at a table opposite Jacob Jabari.
“Diana Bellona has entered the room,” says Remi for the benefit of the tape. She grins at me and indicates a chair against the wall that I can sit on to watch.
I notice that Jacob looks uneasy to see me, which is interesting. When he sees me looking at him he gives me a smile. I do not return it.
Monroe deposits the drinks on the table, and he leaves.
Storm hands a coffee cup to Remi. He takes one for himself and pushes one across to Jacob Jabari. “Talk us through your recollection of Friday night, Jacob,” he says.
“It was a fun night. We went to a few bars.” Jacob lists them out. “Everyone had a good time, like Charlie told you.”
Storm raises his eyebrow. “You discussed this with Charlie?”
Jacob looks a little defensive. “Sure man. We work together. We see each other around the office. What else are we going to talk about? I mean, his girl was missing. How is she doing anyway? Did she say anything?”
“What do you think she would say?” says Storm.
“I don’t know. Where she’s been. What happened to Rachel, I guess.”
“Where she’s been,” Storm repeats. “That’s an interesting way of phrasing it. Do you think India went somewhere of her own accord after the attack on Rachel?”
“That’s not what I meant at all,” says Jacob. He looks back and forth between Remi and Storm and an expression of mild disbelief comes on his face. “You don’t seriously think that I know something, do you?”
“You’re the one who asked about her. Did you like India? Is that it?”
Jacob looks offended. “No way. India is not my type. At all. You know what I’m saying?”
“That you don’t go after your friends’ girlfriends. Is that it?” says Remi.
Jacob does not hear the acid edge to her words. “Not this time for sure,” he says. “She’s a wolf.”
“A werewolf,” corrects Storm mildly.
“Yeah, whatever. Imagine dealing with that every full moon. Hairy-scary isn't my thing.” He chuckles as if he expects Storm to do the same. When Storm does not, he quickly stops laughing.
I glower at him. The creep. How dare he say that about India? Storm and Remi on the other hand don’t react at all to his words. I quickly adjust my face before Storm sees me being unprofessional. I am going to need to learn to keep my cool.
“Charlie claims the relationship between him and India was good,” Storm says. “What do you think about that?”
“Sure. He was going through a bad-girl phase. He liked her well enough. He even asked her to move in with him. Can you believe that?”
“Why is that difficult to believe?” says Storm.
“Because Charlie only likes to mess around with the bad girls. He was dipping his toe into the ghetto, you know. Trying to be all cool and that. But he never actually got serious with any of them. He’s not really into otherkind. It’s a bit low for him.”
“You just said he asked India to move in with him.”
“Came as a surprise to me.”
“Maybe he liked India better than the others.”
“Nah. I could tell he thought Rachel was hot. If he wasn’t so busy slumming it with India, it would have been Rachel he was after. That sweet innocent butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth thing she had going on was just his sort of thing. You know what I’m saying?”
“What are you saying?” says Storm.
“I’m saying that maybe India got the vibe that he liked Rachel. Girls hate that, man. They can tell. And Rachel was way hotter than India. Smoking hot in that red dress that night. Maybe India was jealous.”
“We questioned some of your other friends who were at the bar on Friday. And they all said things were good between Rachel and India. You’re the only one telling us it wasn’t.”
