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Steph cleared her throat and launched into the cover story she’d come up with. The team didn’t want Mary Ellis to be publicly associated with the Oxford murder in any way, not just yet.
‘The police there have been investigating a murder which took place in the early hours of New Year’s Day, a young woman called Lisa Turner – I’m sure you’ve heard about it over the past six weeks?’
There were brief nods from both men, frowns furrowing both of their brows.
‘Well, during the course of this investigation, which is proving to be a tricky one, they decided to look at hotel records to identify men who checked in for just one night on New Year’s Eve. They’re working on a theory that it was probably someone from outside Oxford who carried out this murder, and made his getaway the next morning.’
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Mike’s gaze was fixed on the table, his face expressionless, but she could tell he was thinking the same as she was.
What an absolute load of nonsense.
It was, but it had been the best she’d been able to come up with at such short notice, and anyway, what did it matter?
These two wouldn’t know police investigation procedure from a dental procedure, she thought, and ploughed on.
‘Anyway, your names came up as a result of this trawl of the hotel records. Can you confirm which hotel you stayed at that night, please?’
Edward and Satish exchanged glances.
‘I think it was called … The Bellingham? Is that right, Ed?’ said Satish. There was a little quiver in his voice; he was looking more terrified every second, Steph thought with interest.
‘Yes, The Bellingham,’ Edward said calmly.
Excellent. Thank you for that, Steph thought. The police had, of course, no idea where the two men had stayed that night, no such trawl of hotel records having taken place; with no evidence whatsoever that it was someone who had stayed in a hotel that night who had carried out the murder, it would have been a mammoth and probably entirely fruitless task. Still, it had been good of the two men sitting in front of her to give up the information so freely.
‘Great, that tallies with the information we’ve received,’ she lied blithely, and sensed rather than saw Mike stiffen next to her.
‘And, bearing in mind that we’ll be able to check this on CCTV, can you give me a brief account of your movements that night, and the following morning?’
Edward and Satish exchanged glances again.
‘Well, we arrived about 3.30, and checked in. Then we went for a few beers at a couple of pubs near the town hall, The Bear Inn one of them was called – it’s quite famous? And then we went for some food at, ermm …’
Satish pulled at his tie, loosening it, a bead of sweat running down his forehead.
‘At Zizzi,’ Edward said quickly. ‘We just wanted something quick, and pizza seemed like a good idea. Lines the stomach, you know.’
He smiled, a genuine enough smile, Steph thought, although she’d already noted how accurate Mary’s impression of his voice had been. He spoke in a peevish, nasal manner which she knew she would find most irritating if forced to listen to it for too long.
‘And after dinner?’ she asked.
‘After dinner we went to an Irish bar, O’Neill’s. They had a band on; we bought tickets a couple of weeks before. It was a good night. We saw in midnight there and then went back to the hotel. It wasn’t a late one – we’d been out since four so we’d had enough by then. Neither of us are massive drinkers. We would have been back in our rooms around … 12.45?’
Edward looked at Satish, who nodded.
‘About that, yes,’ he said quietly, and wiped the back of his hand across his forehead.
‘The next morning we went for a run around nine, and ended up on the canal towpath. It was blocked off at one point and that was when we heard there’d been a murder. So we just went back to the hotel, showered, and had some breakfast and then came home. Not sure what else I can tell you,’ Edward said, and smiled again.
‘OK. And, why Oxford? Why did you decide to go there for New Year, in particular?’ asked Steph.
Edward shrugged.
Satish glanced at him, then said, ‘We just picked it at random, really. Neither of us had any real plans for New Year’s Eve so we thought we might as well do something together, and we fancied going out somewhere different but didn’t want to travel too far. We thought about Bristol, but we’ve both been there loads of times so we just plumped for Oxford instead. It’s a beautiful city and, well …’
He shrugged too, and Steph looked from one of them to the other and back a couple of times, then nodded.
‘Right, well, thanks for your time, gentlemen. As I said, just routine, and I’m sure we won’t need to bother you again.’
