She read the same passage for the third time, but Kate could not concentrate on her book. Not bothering to find her bookmark, she dumped the paperback face down on the nightstand, and slid back under the duvet. The knock on the door was unexpected, and she closed her eyes and buried her head under the pillow, like that would shut the noise out. When the knocking didn’t stop, she let out a pitiful moan, crawled out of bed, and went to the door. Through the peephole she could see a white paper bag with the familiar logo of the nearby donut place printed on it. She pressed a hand to her forehead briefly and sighed before she opened the door.

“I brought you some breakfast,” Ben said with a grin, and rattled the bag.

Kate grabbed it, and the smell of sweet chocolate surrounded her. “Why are you here?” she said, turning around as she slumped off to the kitchen.

Ben followed her. “I’d love to tell you that I just wanted to bring donuts to my favourite colleague, but we actually have some work to do.”

“You could have called me first,” Kate said as she stuffed half of a donut in her mouth with one bite.

Ben shrugged. “I could have, but then you would even be grumpier, and I’d had to sedate you with donuts anyway. At least now you are not spreading the crumbs around in my car.”

Kate wrinkled her nose and tried to look offended. “What happened?” she asked, taking a bite of the chocolate donut.

“Sadie called this half an hour ago. Anthony Langdale was picked up in the early hours of this morning. Apparently he was driving under influence. They processed him, then locked him up. Since he’s already at the station it would be a good opportunity to have a little catch up with him.”

“I’ll get dressed,” Kate said, the tiredness suddenly gone. “You make coffee in the meantime.”

*

The light coming through the tiny window was not strong enough to reach the middle of the room. The neon light illuminating the table cast an unnatural whiteness across their faces. With the dark circles under his eyes and the pasty skin, Anthony Langdale looked like a zombie straight out of The Walking Dead. Kate leaned back and folded her arms. They agreed on the way that she’ll let Ben take the lead with this interview.

“Do you know why you are here?” asked Ben and pushed a cup of coffee in front of the young man.

Anthony looked at him warily, regarded the cup with another suspicious look, but decided it’s probably safe, and took a sip. “I screwed up,” he said and shook his head in disbelief.

“Happens with the best of us,” Ben said, his face full of sympathy.

“You aren’t normal cops, are you?” Anthony asked, like he just woke from a dream. His eyes focused on Ben and Kate, then regarded Officer Briggs in corner, wearing her neat uniform.

“We are detectives. We are not wearing a uniform, if that’s what you mean.” Ben said.

Anthony nodded. “I screwed up real bad, didn’t I?”

Ben let the silence set in. He was watching the young man on the other side of the table bury his face in his hands. He let out a wheezy breath.

“Your girlfriend was worried about you,” Ben said after a while.

Anthony wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his jumper. “She’s always fussing.”

“That’s just what they do. Girls, huh?” Ben nodded. “Still, we just can’t live without them.”

The young man snickered. “That’s right, man, that’s right.”

“So tell me, Anthony, what you’ve been up to since Friday afternoon?” Ben asked and leaned closer.

Anthony shrugged. “You know, just hanging out with my mates. We had a couple of drinks.” Kate did not like the smug look on his face.

“A couple of drinks?” Ben repeated. “I would imagine it was a bit more than that. You spent half the night here at the station.”

The young man’s face twitched. “We’ve been drinking. A lot. I lost count.”

“How about drugs?” Ben asked in a neutral tone.

Anthony shook his head. “Nah, I don’t do drugs.”

Ben took out a piece of paper from his folder and placed it in front of Anthony. He pointed at a line in the middle. “That says otherwise.”

Silence.

Ben continued. “Who are these friends of yours?”

Sweat appeared on Anthony’s forehead. “Just some guys.”

“Do they have names?”

The young man shifted on the chair. “Names?”

“Yes. You know, names. What do you call them?”

Silence.

“If I asked them, would they tell me you were with them on Friday night for instance?” Ben asked, but didn’t look at Anthony. He pretended to write something in his notepad and passed it to Kate. Anthony followed their movements, but did not say anything for a moment.

“Look, maybe I was alone. Sometimes I want to be alone, and like to drink by myself. Don’t you?” Anthony said and he sounded cranky.

“We ask the questions here, if you don’t mind,” Kate said with a pleasant smile, just like she was making small talk to a random neighbor.

Ben shuffled through the folder again, took out a picture and placed it in front of Anthony. Alice Langdale, wearing a floral summer dress and a cheerful smile looked up at them, locked forever in the past. It was a great picture. Officer Briggs found it on the girl’s Facebook page.

Anthony’s eyes bulged as he looked up at them. “What is this?”

“You know her?” Ben asked.

“Yeah,” Anthony said, nodding. “That’s Alice. My sister’s best friend. Why is her picture here?”

Ben shot the next question. “Have you met Alice recently?”

Anthony stared at them, his mouth opening and closing, fish-style. “What? I haven’t seen her for over a year.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Anthony said, and his face twitched again.

Ben leaned over to Kate and whispered in her ear. Kate nodded, then turned to Anthony. “I think you saw her more recently. I think you actually met her this Friday.”

Anthony blinked. “I told you, I was with my mates! What is this with Alice anyway?”

Kate smiled. “You said you were alone.”

Anthony grabbed at his hair. “No, I mean, yes… I mean… Why are you asking me about Alice?”

Kate grabbed the folder and took out another picture. She slapped it on the table and pushed it next to the other photo.

Anthony gasped. “What the fuck?” He covered his mouth with trembling hands and gagged. “Is she…? Is she…”

“Dead?” Kate asked, her icy voice cutting like a knife. “Yes, most definitely dead.”

The young man’s hands hovered over the picture, like he was debating whether to pick it up. He decided not to, and instead grabbed his coffee and nearly spilled it. He turned to Ben. “What is she saying? Why is she showing me these pictures?”

“You don’t know?”

Anthony paled. “How did she die?”

Kate stood up and walked over to Anthony’s side. “I was hoping you could tell us.”

*

Her legs twitched as Kate tried to sit still on the uncomfortable chair. She wanted to pace up and down, but the office was the size of a closet, so unless she took over the corridor where everyone would stare at her, pacing was not an option. Ben and Officer Briggs were poring over phone records on the other side of the desk.

“Any luck?” Kate asked.

Sadie Briggs looked apologetic as she shook her head. “No, Ma’am. I’m afraid this won’t be enough.”

“Damn it!” Kate punched her thigh. “Bloody kid shut up, and we haven’t got anywhere with him. He’s clearly lying!”

Ben looked up. “Kate, calm down. There’s no point stressing yourself out. We know he’s lying, and we’ll get to him. Aruna is processing his fingerprints. If they are a match, Anthony can say whatever he wants, it won’t matter.”

Kate leaned back and let out a sight. “What if they don’t match? What if they are just partials?”

Officer Briggs spoke quietly. “The phone records shows that he made a call from Aurora around eight p.m. Then there was another call two hours later, that was picked up by the signal tower in Pine Creeks. It won’t prove that he was still there at midnight, but it already makes him look bad, because he tried to convince you that he wasn’t here.”

“He lied about his alibi!” Kate said, frustration dripping from her voice. “Then he deleted his call history!”

“Doesn’t prove anything,” Ben replied.

“I talked to Mike, he sent a request to the phone company,” Sadie said. “Once we have that, we’ll know whom he called.”

The sudden piercing sound startled them all. Ben pressed the answer button. “Petersen.”

The voice on the other end sounded cold. “Morning, Detective. I understood your request was urgent.”

“Yes, Aruna, thank you for coming in personally on a Sunday.”

“Well, Detective Petersen, I must say it was rather pointless. The prints taken from your guy, Anthony Langdale, were not a match to any of the prints found on the victim’s car, anywhere in the parking lot, or the victim herself.”

“Are you sure?” Ben asked.

When Aruna spoke, Kate wouldn’t have been surprised if she saw icicles coming through the receiver. “Detective, are you insinuating that I don’t know how to do my job?”

This was Kate’s turn to silence Ben, who let out a frustrated groan and grabbed his temples. “Of course, he’s not saying that. Aruna, we know you are the best,” she said.

“Kate, I can assure you, I double checked,” Aruna said, sounding considerably friendlier. “And as promised, tomorrow you’ll have my full report, including the medical examiner’s findings.”

“Thanks, Aruna, and sorry for ruining your Sunday,” Kate said.

“Not at all, Kate, not at all,” the other woman replied and hung up.

If Sadie Briggs thought anything about the conversation with the forensic expert, she did not say so.

“We are ordering pizza for everybody, this is our usual Sunday thing,” she said instead. “I was wondering if you would like to join us. You are part of the team, even if just temporarily.”

Kate didn’t miss the passing smile on Ben’s face. “We’d love to!” she said before Ben could make the mistake of declining it, out of some weird principle she would not understand.

Officer Briggs clapped her hands. “Brilliant! See you in the canteen!”

As soon as Sadie Briggs left, the dark clouds seemed to reappear on Ben’s face. “So, this was a dead end.”

Kate nodded. “I still think Anthony knows more than what he says. But we can’t link him to the crime scene. I think it’s time to pay a visit to Alice’s family and look into this mysterious Tommy.”

Ben agreed. “Why don’t you go ahead and get started on that pizza? I’ll call her family and then join you.”

Leaving the room the last thing Kate saw was Ben grabbing the phone with a heavy sigh.