Dying Eyes by Ryan Casey

alone?”
    Danny began to fidget in his chair. “Just‌–‌just stuff, y’know? Just general stuff. But we had a bit of a disagreement and…‌and then I left. I don’t know where she went after that.”
    Brian took note as Jonny wiped his steamy glasses. “So what you’re telling us is that you and Nicola had a row, and then you left. After that, no one saw her. The following day, you try to kill yourself.” Brian threw his pen onto the desk. “You’d better have a good alibi, Danny.”
    “I do.”
    Brian smiled sarcastically. “Well, your grandma didn’t see you again that night, so you’d better enlighten us.”
    Danny’s cheeks blushed, the first bit of colour Brian had seen in them all interview. “Turn the memory card ‘round.”
    Cassy frowned. “Memory card?”
    “The memory card, in the camera. Flip it over, then stick it back in.”
    Marsden arched his neck over the table towards the camera to see whatever it was. McDone fiddled with the silver camera until the memory card port popped open. Bloody technology. There was a reason he hated it; it hated him . He pulled out the tiny memory card and flipped it onto its side, slotting it back into the camera with a satisfying click.
    He switched it on again. New photographs. Bloody hell‌–‌double sided memory cards. Technology just got better and better.
    “Those are the pictures I deleted from my computer, all right?” Danny said. “I didn’t want her to find them. Then I found out about her.”
    Brian flicked through the photographs. Some portrayed another girl, blonde and naked, her nipples erect. Others showed Danny holding the camera above him and the girl, legs intertwined, sweat dripping from their bodies.
    But the time-stamp proved most interesting about the pictures. All between eleven and twelve. And then they stopped, at twelve.
    “This doesn’t disprove anything, Danny,” Brian said. “You can only account for your little sexual encounter until twelve o’clock, you cheating little toerag. If we call this girl now, she could tell us that you stayed with her all night, could she?”
    Danny smirked. “You told me Nicola was killed some time after eleven. You asked me where I was after eleven. That’s where I was.”
    “So you have a little argument with your girlfriend and then you go and cheat on her to prove a point. Do you make a habit of sleeping around, Danny? Are women all just meat to you?”
    The door handle rattled. Jonny tried to rest his hand on Danny’s tense shoulder, but Danny knocked it away.
    “McDone,” the voice at the door said. It was Price. Brian zoned back into the room now. Screaming and shouting in the corridor. “If I get my fucking hands on that murderer, I’ll fucking kill him, I’ll fucking kill him!”
    Price lingered by the door. “The girl’s parents are here. You’d better bloody tell them what you’ve found and get them out of my police station before I let them loose on the boy myself.”
    Jonny whispered something to Danny. Danny’s voice was rising, getting more het up and uncomfortable. Cassy stepped up and walked towards the door.
    “Something wrong, Danny?” Brian asked.
    Danny’s eyes were red. His hands shook as if a volcano inside his flesh was waiting to erupt.
    Jonny Marsden stood up and eased Danny to his feet. “I think that’s enough for one day, don’t you, Detective?”
    “Danny, if there’s something you have to tell us, tell us. Otherwise you’re getting thrown to the wolves whether you like it or‌–‌”
    “I wasn’t cheating.”
    “Right, come on.” Jonny tried to link his arm through Danny’s and squeeze him out of the other door.
    “McDone.” Cassy and Price stood by the door, hesitating and mumbling to one another as the shouts of Nicola’s mother grew closer to the interview room, definitely beyond the front desk.
    “What do you mean, you weren’t cheating?” Brian asked.
    The duty solicitor pulled the door open and poked his head out to