Ten Guilty Men (A DCI Morton Crime Novel Book 3) by Sean Campbell, Daniel Campbell Page B

with when they left.’
    ‘Which doesn’t help at all, boss. Either it confirms they left just before two and were the last people in the house and thus have to be the killers, or it confirms someone else came in between them leaving and two o’clock.’
    ‘Or that someone else never left. What it does confirm is that by two o’clock in the morning, Ellis DeLange was dead.’

Chapter 14: Pied-à-Terre
    Morton and Ayala’s next port of call was the final suspect that they had an address for. Gabriella Curzon lived in the centre of Fitzrovia. Her one-bedroom apartment was three floors above a flower shop in a pretty old redbrick building.
    ‘Nice building,’ Ayala commented as the pair ascended towards Gabriella’s front door. ‘Shame about the noise though.’
    A constant hum of traffic went by below which hadn’t subsided by the time they reached the top floor. The door of Number One Eastcastle Place was open by the time they reached it. Morton knocked on the door anyway. They entered a small hallway with another open door at the end of it. Through the doorway, Morton could see a sofa upon which a woman was sitting. She beckoned them in with a slender finger. They followed the hallway into a huge living area lit with floor-to-ceiling windows through which bright sunlight beamed.
    ‘Miss Curzon, I presume.’
    Gabriella, like Ellis, sported dyed-blonde hair. But unlike Ellis, she bore no tattoos. Where Ellis looked every bit of her thirty years and then some, Gabriella appeared to be almost effortlessly youthful with high cheekbones and a warm complexion. She had a smartphone in her hand and was busy tapping away at the screen.
    ‘Gentlemen,’ she greeted them without rising from the sofa. ‘Welcome to my home. Do have a seat. Would you care for tea? The pot on the table is camomile, but if you would like something else then I shall fetch it for you.’
    Morton sat down, glad to have the harsh sunlight behind him rather than blinding him. He shifted until comfortable then produced his notebook and a pen. Ayala did likewise.
    ‘No thank you, Miss Curzon. Tell me about your relationship with Ellis DeLange.’
    Without so much as putting down her mobile, Gabriella answered without looking up: ‘She was my best friend. We’ve known each other forever. I became a model when I was seventeen–’
    ‘How old are you now?’
    ‘A lady never tells. Just kidding, I’m twenty-four. As I was saying, I had a scholarship to a boarding school when I was sixteen. Back then, Eli was the ‘it-girl’ of the fashion world and I was lucky enough that she came to speak to our six-form about the challenges of fame. I was picked to be photographed as part of a demonstration she did. We were all amazed at how good a photograph from a digital camera could be, but Ellis was such a sweetie. The moment she saw how my picture came out, she positively squealed with delight. She passed it on to a magazine. They didn’t want the photo, but they loved me. A few weeks later I dropped out of formal schooling, came down to London to crash on Eli’s sofa and never looked back.’
    ‘What sort of modelling did you do?’
    ‘I modelled clothes mostly. I did a few artsy shoots including a few with Ellis but everything I ever did was tasteful. Some of the girls I knew back then ended up doing less-than-savoury work. It was very competitive, and none of us ever made very much.’
    ‘And what do you do now?’
    ‘I still model, mostly catalogue shoots.’ She hit a few buttons on her phone and brought up an image of her dressed to the nines in a studio shoot. She flashed the phone at the detectives so they could see for themselves. ‘But I’m also studying. I won’t be pretty forever.’
    ‘Did you ever work with Lord Culloden?’
    She recoiled slightly at the mention of Lord Culloden. ‘Oh yes. He’s a manager for a catalogue company. Alex often hires both Eli and me. Well, he did anyway.’
    ‘Alex? Is that his name?’
    ‘Alex