Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Zuri clears her throat. Jennie looks up, pulled from the memory of spin the bottle with the darkroom crew all those years ago to see her DS looking at her over the partition between their desks. ‘Yes?’

Zuri looks a little awkward. ‘Robert Marwood arrived while you were in with the DCI. I’ve put him into interview room three.’

‘Great, thanks,’ replies Jennie, anger flaring through her. The only way Campbell could have known that she took the photograph of the darkroom crew, and that Lottie Varney put her hand on Jennie’s during the interview that morning, was for Zuri to have told him. She’s always had a good relationship with Zuri. She’s a smart detective, committed and loyal to the job, and a good laugh when they’ve gone to the cinema or out for dinner together. It hurts that she’s gone behind her back. Why didn’t she talk to her if she was concerned?

Jennie shakes her head, swallowing down her emotion. Who’s she kidding? She knows why Zuri did it. She’s a by-the-book detective and she had a concern that her commanding officer might be compromised. Of course she did what the handbook told her to do – she informed the next in command. Jennie might have done it herself in a reversed situation. But it’s still pissed her off.

Shit.

She’s going to have to have a conversation with Zuri about it, but now isn’t the time. Standing up, she looks across the open plan. ‘Martin?’

DS Wright turns in his chair. ‘Boss?’

‘You can ride shotgun on the Rob Marwood interview. Come on,’ says Jennie, gesturing for him to get up.

As a grin breaks out on Martin’s face, Jennie sees a flicker of disappointment on Zuri’s. She tries not to feel bad. She has to harden herself if she’s going to make it through this investigation still in the lead. Zuri nearly got her thrown off the case, so it’s safest for her to sit things out here in the office. Right now, Jennie needs someone she can rely on in the interview room, and whatever is going on between her detectives, Martin has never been anything but supportive.

Rob Marwood has changed a lot in the past thirty years. Back when they were at school, he was a tall, lanky teenager, full of nervous energy and constantly in motion. The sun-kissed man sitting at the chipped Formica table in interview room three right now looks every inch the medical consultant that Jennie knows him to be. His once long blond hair is cropped neatly, the hippie clothes he once favoured have been traded for a perfectly pressed pin-stripe Paul Smith suit and pale orange open neck shirt. His boyhood kinetic energy has been replaced by an air of professional calm.

His face lights up when he sees her and he gets up from the table, offering his hand. ‘Jennie Whitmore, wow, it’s so good to see you.’

She’s slightly taken aback by his friendliness, but recovers fast and takes his hand, shaking it. ‘Good to see you again, Mr Marwood.’

‘Such awful circumstances,’ Rob says, putting his other hand on top of hers and giving it a squeeze. ‘But it’s so nice to reconnect.’

Removing her hand from his grip, Jennie gestures for Rob to take a seat. ‘This is my colleague, DS Wright, who will be joining us for the interview.’

‘Good to meet you, DS Wright,’ says Rob. His body language is open, his shoulders relaxed and his tone even and calm. He looks from Martin to Jennie. ‘I’m here to help in any way I can. I would have come sooner but I only just flew home from holiday.’

‘Where did you go?’ asks Martin, conversationally as he and Jennie sit down opposite him.

‘St Lucia,’ says Rob, smiling. ‘Was a bit warmer than it is here.’

‘Very nice,’ says Martin.

‘Thanks for coming in to see us now you’re back,’ says Jennie, keen to get going on the interview. ‘I understand you live in London now?’

‘Yes, that’s correct,’ replies Rob, glancing at the recording machine on the end of the table. ‘I have an apartment in Marylebone, although I’ll be renting it out shortly as I’m due to change jobs.’

Jennie glances down at her notes. ‘You’re currently an anaesthesiologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital?’

‘ Consultant anaesthesiologist, yes,’ corrects Rob with a touch of pompousness. ‘But, as I said, I’m only back in the country briefly as I’m due to start a new clinical role in Dubai.’

‘Congratulations,’ says Jennie, making a note on the notepad in front of her. ‘When are you leaving for Dubai?’

‘Well, I …’ Rob looks away. Fiddles with his cufflinks. ‘We haven’t tied down an exact date as yet but soon, within the next month.’

Jennie says nothing, just keeps her eyes on him.

He speaks to fill the silence as she’d hoped. ‘It’s nothing to worry about, there’s just a few wrinkles that need ironing out beforehand, that’s all.’

Jennie gets the impression he’s trying to convince himself rather than her. He’s definitely hiding something. ‘We’ll need to have up-to-date contact details for you during the investigation, so if you’re going to be leaving the country it’s important that—’

‘I thought this was just a formality,’ Rob frowns, his tone sounding more strained. ‘I’m here as a witness, a friend of Hannah’s?’

‘That’s right,’ says Jennie, keeping her tone professional. ‘But as the investigation is ongoing, we need to be able to contact you if any further questions arise.’

‘Okay, yes, of course,’ says Rob, nodding. He shifts his weight on the plastic chair as if suddenly uncomfortable.

Jennie narrows her gaze. There’s something going on with Rob and she wants to know what. She pushes a little harder. ‘Do you have an address in Dubai we can make a note of? Or your new employer’s details perhaps?’

‘That’s not really … I don’t.’ Rob stops himself. His composure slipping. ‘Look, the contact details you’ve got at the moment are the best ones. The Dubai job, it’s been put on pause, just temporarily, while a few things are cleared up.’

‘Is that usual?’ asks Jennie, her tone kind, encouraging.

‘Not really,’ says Rob, shaking his head. ‘But … look, you may as well know this, there’s been a malpractice claim that I’m caught up in. It’s nonsense, obviously, and I’ll be able to clear my name in no time and then everything will be fine and I’ll go out to Dubai and take up the new position.’ His voice is becoming more animated, but his smile is unconvincing, the worried set of his brow and folded arms telling a different story to his words. ‘It’s all a silly misunderstanding.’

Jennie nods along. Rob’s clearly agitated about the situation, but having discovered the details, she wants to move the conversation on. ‘I’d like to turn your attention back to 1994 and Hannah Jennings. How would you describe your relationship with Hannah?’

Rob smiles and this time it looks genuine. ‘Hannah? Well, she was like the twin sister I never had. We were the wild ones of our friendship group, kindred spirits. We both thrived on attention and adventure, daring each other to do more, to be more. She was an amazing girl.’

‘Was there ever anything romantic between you?’ asks Martin, just as Jennie had prepped him to before they’d gone into the interview.

‘God no, that would have been a disaster. We were too alike for that, but we made great wingmen for each other.’ Rob pauses. He smiles, as if remembering back to when he was with Hannah. ‘She was attractive. I knew that, obviously. I wasn’t immune to her charm, but I knew it’d be a bad idea. And anyway, Simon would’ve freaked out. He was such a bloody control freak.’

‘Did you do drugs together?’ asks Martin, ignoring the obvious follow-up question about Simon’s jealousy in order to stick to the prearranged questions. ‘You and Hannah?’

Jennie makes a mental note to ask more about Simon later.

Rob waves the question away. ‘We smoked weed from time to time, but then we all did back then, didn’t we?’

‘Just weed?’ asks Jennie.

Rob’s eyes widen. He knows that Jennie never smoked more than weed with them. ‘Sometimes Hannah and I might have experimented.’

‘Might have?’ Jennie asks.

Rob fidgets in his seat. ‘It was a long time ago so …’

‘Think back,’ says Jennie, her tone encouraging.

Rob’s expression tells her he’s at a loss as to how the information on drugs he took could be important. ‘We tried a few other things, just the two of us. The others never really fancied it, but I’ve always been fascinated by the effects drugs have on us humans. Hannah shared my curiosity.’

‘Did you take heroin?’ asks Martin, clumsily. ‘Did Hannah?’

Rob looks startled. ‘Like I said, it was a long time ago, we experimented but in as far as to say whether we—’

‘Did you?’ asks Jennie, holding Rob’s gaze. She’s getting fed up with him dancing around the questions, not giving a straight answer.

He closes his eyes for a moment. Gives a brief nod.

Jennie doesn’t take her eyes off him. ‘Tell me what happened.’

Rob exhales hard. Opens his eyes. ‘It was just the once, okay? Hannah had this thing about wanting to chase the dragon and I, well, I was up for trying anything back then. All the pressure my parents were putting on me to get the best grades and into med school, I needed to blow off some steam. And the drugs, they helped.’

‘Okay,’ says Jennie, nodding for him to continue.

‘It was about a month before she disappeared. Late on the Saturday night we went to the darkroom, just the two of us. Hannah had sneaked the key off Simon on their date earlier in the evening and after saying goodnight to him she’d gone to the school. She was waiting to let me in through the external basement door when I arrived. I could tell she’d had a drink, but she didn’t tell me about the other stuff she’d taken until after we’d smoked the heroin.’ He takes a breath and wipes the sheen of sweat from his upper lip. ‘Things went wrong really fast. She had a bad trip, a bad reaction to something or the cocktail of stuff she’d taken didn’t mix well, and she started convulsing, vomiting. Then, next thing I know, she’d passed out, and whatever I did I couldn’t bring her round. I panicked. Didn’t know what to do. So I grabbed her and rushed to A it was just a bit of fun.’ He looks back at Jennie. ‘You can’t believe I’d ever hurt Hannah?’

Jennie doesn’t answer. She would never have put Rob down as a potential murder suspect, but he’s changed a lot from the lanky, hippie teenager that she knew thirty years ago. He might look more polished, and it’s clear that he’s working hard to try to maintain the calm, professional persona he’s cultivated, but the sweet soulfulness that she always associated with him has gone.

‘Hannah’s medical notes said she had marks on her neck when she was brought into the A it was just a feeling.’

‘Useful to know,’ says Jennie, glancing at Martin, who is making a note of what Rob has just said. ‘You mentioned that Simon Ackhurst, Hannah’s boyfriend, could be controlling?’

Rob looks surprised to be asked the question, clearly having forgotten what he’d said about Simon earlier. ‘Yeah, I mean, basically he was punching well above his weight with Hannah and he knew it. He wasn’t dodgy or anything, but he was the captain of the football team and he had a reputation to protect, if you know what I mean? To be honest, I felt sorry for him, especially as he wasn’t even getting laid.’

Jennie tries not to show her surprise; she’d always assumed Hannah was having sex with Simon. Hannah had told her she’d lost her virginity at fifteen and went on the pill just after that. The way Simon had always talked, it was as if they were at it every night. ‘He hadn’t slept with Hannah?’

‘I know, weird right?’ says Rob. ‘They’d been together for ten months as well, but no, for all Simon’s endless talk about sex, they weren’t doing it. If Hannah was shagging someone, it definitely wasn’t Simon. That’s probably why whenever another guy started showing Hannah attention, he’d get a bit paranoid.’

‘Did he get paranoid about anyone in particular?’ asks Jennie.

‘None of the kids, but he hated the rumours about Hannah and Mr Edwards. The rumour mill had been getting louder in the weeks leading up to her disappearance and I know she and Simon argued about it.’

Jennie remembers Hannah had been annoyed with Simon in the last week or so before she disappeared. She’d complained to Jennie about him being clingy and how he’d floated the idea of them getting engaged more than once and then got into a huff when Hannah had told him there was no way she was going to get married. ‘Was he ever violent with her?’

Rob looks shocked. ‘Simon? God, no. He was all mouth.’

Jennie isn’t so sure. Simon was a champion athlete. He was broad and powerful, and although Hannah might have been tall, she was delicate. Simon could easily have overpowered her. Did Simon confront her about the rumours, did the fight turn physical? Or did Edwards kill her?

‘What were you doing the night Hannah disappeared?’ asks Martin.

Rob nods, apparently happy to be off the topic of his friends fighting. ‘I went to the cinema alone that night; I watched Four Weddings and a Funeral . I gave the police the ticket stub when they interviewed me back then. It should be in your file.’

Jennie frowns. It’s not in the file, and there’s no cinema ticket stub in the evidence catalogue either. With each discovery of sloppy investigation during the initial misper case she feels a rising anger at how they failed Hannah – losing evidence is unforgivable. But then she watches Rob; he’s looking nervous again, fiddling with his cufflinks. ‘Was that the first time you’d seen the film?’

‘I … No, I’d seen it once already but, you know, it was such a riot when we all went that I wanted to see it again.’ Rob smiles but, like earlier, the smile feels false.

Jennie makes a note on her pad to ask Naomi to double-check Rob’s alibi. She knows he’d seen the film before – they’d all gone to see it a couple of weeks earlier, and Rob had been very vocal about how rubbish he thought it was.

As Martin closes the interview, Jennie feels her phone vibrate. Pulling it out, she reads the message from Zuri:

We’ve found Duncan Edwards.