The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf by Nick Bryan Page A

though.”
    Undeterred, Hobson pointed towards the floor next to Jacq. “Choi. You’ve been making friends with these people, you’re on their wanky wavelength. Get the fuck down there and find out what she knows before Ellie gets here and swoops her away.”
    “Who’s Ellie?”
    “Just do it, Choi.”
    Out of excuses, Angelina sat down next to Jacq and put a sympathetic hand on her arm. The terrified panting rasped to a halt.
    “Jacq, hi, you okay?”
    “I, um…” At least she didn’t faint. “What’s going on? What happened?”
    “It’s Angelina Choi, I’m one of the detectives looking into that murder. What do you, um, remember?”
    “I… I…” Jacq felt her own head, a smear of blood came away. “I was turning off the lift just over there, and someone grabbed me from behind and bashed me.”
    “Bashed you?”
    “On the, um, head. I woke up on the second floor, they’d left me there, turned the lift off and stolen my key, then, um, wedged two huge trolleys of rubbish against the entrance. I guess they must’ve…” Another pause, longer, before her eyes grew to their widest yet. “Oh God, did they rob the place? The owner will be so cross…”
    “No, um, nothing taken. I think.” She gulped. “So how did you get out?”
    “I had a spare lift key in my wallet, I always have a spare, I’m a very careful person. So what did they do? Why did they attack me?”
    Another look up, in case Hobson would give some guidance, but he only shrugged. So Angelina spat it out: “They, um, killed Matt, I’m afraid.”
    Jacq didn’t speak another word, just gasped so deep that her belly inflated. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she passed right out, falling onto Angelina’s shoulder.
    “She’s going to blame herself, you know,” Angelina murmured as she lowered Jacq to the floor.
    “Sure. Fine.”
    “No need to be so horrible. So what do you think?”
    “Not sure. She might’ve done it, she was here at the time, alibi’s bit thin, that gash on her head could be self-inflicted.”
    “What do you mean she might’ve done it ? She totally didn’t!”
    “Why? Because she’s a cuddly lovable flower child who says things like the owner will be so cross ?”
    “Yes! She’s not that kind of person!”
    “What kind of person? The quiet kind? Matt was quiet, and you spent a day yammering about his secret life as a fucking psycho!”
    “That was because…”
    The argument was cut short by a burst of sirens from outside. The law, at last. Two police cars, a van full of officers, an ambulance, and more flashing lights behind those.
    Hobson took a swift turn to take in the entire room, as if checking what to hide before the teacher comes in. And yet Jacq was the one acting suspicious?
    The first police car opened up before it even came to a halt, and a woman in a long coat — much like Hobson’s — leapt out and marched straight at the door.
    She stopped just inside to look down at the bloody footprints on the floor near the stairwell, and then stared Hobson out for a few seconds. “John. Why have you been stamping through the blood? You didn’t think that might contaminate the evidence?”
    “It was an emergency.”
    “I see. So the body’s in the stairwell?”
    “Yeah.”
    The policewoman turned away from them both, never even acknowledging Angelina. Seemed rude, considering she’d called 999. After registering the name she’d called Hobson, Angelina looked up at him. “So is this Ellie?”
    “Yes, this is Ellie. She’s both my ex-wife and a police detective.”
    “Shit.”

EIGHT: Little Questions
    EIGHT
Little Questions
    They stood in twitchy silence, watching as the Inspiration Gestation Station filled up with policemen. The cops scraped at the blood on the floor, crowding up the stairwell, bringing in men in white, taping off the lift and door.
    Jacq was pulled away by paramedics, but no sign of Matt’s remains being moved. Angelina desperately wanted to be gone before the