Case Closed

• Twenty-Three •

Lucy shut the door heavily behind her and took a seat opposite the mousy-haired man. Two muscled guards stood against the back wall, causing Eli to fidget nervously in his plastic chair. After reading the older man his rights, Lucy took a handful of sheets from her folder and turned them to face him. Justin's face - the ID photo from his revoked Yard license - stared up at them, heavy eyebrows shadowing his hard eyes.

"Do you know this man?" Lucy questioned, pushing the enlarged photo closer towards Eli.

"Er- yes. I mean- I did. Once. Not any more," he stuttered, leaning back from the photo.

She clicked on a voice recorder beside her. "'Ow did you come to know 'im?"

"We met at university, studied together. That was all, I- I didn't see him for years after that."

"Our sources say otherwise," Lucy said slowly as she flicked through the suspect files. 'An apparent family friend... visited the afternoon before the murder.' "Be truthful. What was the last time you spoke with Justin?"

"I'm telling you-"

"No, you're not. This isn't television, Mr Cattermole. A man 'as died. A man what was supposedly your friend. I need you to give me the truth."

Eli let out a long, shuddering breath. "That man was no friend of mine."

"Would you care to explain why?"

"We grew up together, yes. Neighbours for over a decade, and our parents were close enough. But Justin, I saw him do things, say things, that no child should do or say. I would've called him troubled if he hadn't seemed so- so normal otherwise."

A frown creased Lucy's forehead. "Things? What things did 'e do?"

"Well," Eli gulped, "there was this one time. We were kids, playing with those plastic guns, you know?" He waited for her to nod before continuing. "We were just messing around, normal stuff. But he pulled out a new gun from his cupboard. Cold, black metal. And when he pointed it at my head, his eyes turned so- so hard and empty. I didn't know who he was in that moment."

Lucy sat up straighter. "What did 'e do then?"

"There was a knock on the door and his mother came in with drinks. I ran from his house. But I don't doubt that he would've pulled the trigger if she hadn't appeared right then. Like I said. That wasn't the Justin I thought I knew. The next day at school, he acted as though nothing had ever happened."

Leaning back in her chair, she scribbled down a few notes on the sheet. "I think we've seen this before," she muttered, "at- at the castle..."

"Sorry?"

"Oh, don't you worry. Just something I need to pass on to the- Alfendi."

Eli crowned, crossing his arms across his chest. "Alfendi? Layton's son?"

"Ay, that's him," she said, puzzled. Anyone who knew too much about the Prof was a threat to the Mystery Room, and both he and Lucy knew it. Outside of the office, few could tell of his 'condition' and the pair aimed to keep it that way. It could bring them... unwanted questions.

"Justin spoke about him, the afternoon before he- before they found his body."

"And what did he say?"

"He was rambling, enraged that he'd been caught by a Layton. But it happened again, when he said Alfendi's name. He changed."

Something was pushing against the back of Lucy's mind, trying to fight its way into her consciousness amongst her swirling thoughts.

"What did you do that day, before and after seeing Justin?"

"That morning, I'd been at home with my wife decorating our spare room. I went out to get lunch, visited Justin in the early afternoon, at his request, and then returned home just after dark. Some work friends came for dinner."

After noting down the names and telephone numbers of his wife and friends, Lucy turned back to Eli for one last question. "At Justin's request?"

Nodding, he answered, "I received a call from the prison officer a few days before, saying that Justin had been practically begging to see me. I couldn't tell you why for the life of me. We hadn't had contact in 10 years."

"That's odd. And what did 'e say to you?"

"He mostly rambled, about the prison, about Scotland Yard, about you and Alfendi and some 'Barton'." He paused and raised his eyes to the ceiling. "Oh, and something else about a boat on the Thames."

"Interesting," Lucy mused, closing her folder and standing up. After shaking Eli's hand and letting him out the door with the two officers, she sat back down for a moment and flicked through the folder again.

A fair amount had come to light in this interview, which had been far more useful than her talk with Charles a few days back. The details about Justin's younger self had stuck in the back of her mind, like there was some little detail she couldn't quite pull out.

After pondering alone for a while, she stood and headed back up to the Mystery Room to begin entering the new evidence into the computer files. A fair amount of time passed, in which she finished copying up her notes and began taking statements from the list of friends Eli had given her. She read through the names two or three times before realising what was stopping her from moving on. There, right in the middle of the ten people he'd given her, was the name 'Charles Layton'. She double-checked the list and then rolled the chair over to the filing cabinet, where the notes she'd taken after Charles' interview were kept.

There was nothing, nothing in those notes about Eli, or even about this so called get-together between Eli, Charles and his other friends. Which meant one of them was lying to her. And in spite of her outward professionalism, Lucy found herself drifting towards incriminating Charles. Maybe the Prof really was starting to rub off on her.

During his interview, Charles had said that he had been with his father on the night of Justin's murder, and Lucy had yet to follow up on that information. She knew what this meant now though.

A couple of emails, circulated around the yard, later, she held the telephone out in front of her and began dialling the number. It rang once, twice, before the door to the office swung open and the Prof stalked in. Faster than lightening, Lucy slammed the receiver down and turned to face him. He paused for a second, frowning. "What was that?"

"Oh er- nowt'. A prank caller."

"Right," he said slowly, as she slipped the files off of the desk and into her pocket.
"How did the interview go?"

"A'ight, I got some interesting info about Justin's childhood, and also what Eli was doing on the night of the murder."

She handed him the file, having surreptitiously removed the notes about the meet-up with Charles and Eli's other friends.

After scanning through, nodding and making 'hm' noises every few seconds, the Prof passed it back to her. "What do you think of him then?"

"Seems genuine, to be 'onest. I know that's not much to go on, but I get the feeling y'know?"

Potty Prof snarled, "Any criminal can pretend, Lucy. I expect you to have learnt that by now."

"Ay, I know that. I was only sayin'."

"Good," he mumbled as his crimson hair faded.

They both returned to their work, Alfendi to the crime scene reconstruction and Lucy to the notes she was copying up.

There was still something bothering her, though. Ever since Eli had mentioned Justin's behaviour as a child, some piece of information had been wriggling around in the back of her mind, and she just couldn't pull it forwards.