Deserving Death by Katherine Howell Read Free Book Online Page A

asked.
    ‘She wanted me to go,’ he said. ‘I always wake up early, and she’s on nights – she’s a nurse at RPA. She wanted an undisturbed sleep-in.’
    ‘How long have you been together?’ Ella said.
    ‘A week.’
    ‘You drive home from her place?’
    ‘Yep.’
    ‘What time did you get in?’
    ‘I have no idea,’ he said.
    ‘It was 1 am,’ Ella said.
    Hibbins glanced down the hall where Sam Clarence had gone.
    ‘Yes,’ Ella said, ‘Sam told us. He was certain that you came in at one.’
    ‘So it must’ve been later than I thought when I left Amber’s.’
    ‘Unless you stopped somewhere on the way,’ Ella said.
    ‘I did have to get petrol,’ he said quickly.
    ‘Got the receipt?’ she asked.
    ‘Who keeps their receipts?’
    ‘Which service station did you use?’ Murray asked.
    ‘I don’t remember,’ he said. ‘One on the way home. In Petersham, I think.’
    ‘Pay cash or card?’ Ella said.
    ‘Cash.’
    Of course. She studied him. ‘You’re blushing.’
    ‘Because I know what you’re getting at,’ he said. ‘Sydenham’s not far from Marrickville, I could’ve driven past there on the way. But I didn’t. I had nothing to do with any of this.’
    ‘We’re just talking to everyone who knew her,’ Murray said. ‘Building the picture of what might’ve happened.’
    ‘Besides that, we never mentioned what time frame we’re checking,’ Ella said.
    ‘You said it happened last night,’ Hibbins said.
    ‘We didn’t say when,’ Murray said.
    Hibbins turned brighter red. He stood up. ‘Look, I have to go or I’ll be late.’
    ‘We’ll drive you,’ Ella said.
    ‘I’d rather walk.’ He went to the door and opened it. ‘If you don’t mind, I need you to leave.’
    ‘We’ll go downstairs with you,’ she said.
    ‘I’m not quite ready. I need to brush my teeth.’
    ‘Do you know a Maxine Hardwick?’ Ella asked.
    ‘No. I really have to finish getting ready.’
    ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘We’ll need to speak to you again.’
    Murray held out his card. ‘And be sure to call us if you remember anything else, such as which petrol station you used.’
    Hibbins took the card, waited for them to step into the corridor, then shut the door with a bang.
    Ella and Murray walked in silence to the lift. When the doors opened an elderly woman was standing there, so they rode it down without speaking.
    Once back in their car, Ella said, ‘Can that thing about the time frame be a lucky assumption?’
    ‘No such thing if you ask me,’ Murray said. ‘Here he comes.’
    Dave Hibbins burst through the building’s front door. They watched through the windscreen as he ran across the paved forecourt and onto the footpath without looking around.
    ‘Can’t have shouted at Clarence for long,’ Ella said. ‘Hardly even had time to ring the girlfriend.’
    ‘I bet he did though,’ Murray said.
    Ella called Dennis on speakerphone and told him about Hibbins’s anxious behaviour, then Murray read out Amber Jacobson’s address.
    ‘She’s a nurse, working tonight,’ he said.
    ‘Head round there after you’ve talked to Kristen Szabo and Robbie Kimball,’ Dennis said.
    ‘Roger that,’ Ella said, full of anticipation.
    *
    Area supervisor and peer support officer Julianne Rackley, all huggy arms and intense understanding gaze, had been waiting at The Rocks station when Carly and Tessa pulled in. Carly sat through the subsequent debrief without saying much at all. She didn’t feel like sharing her feelings about Alicia’s death here; she just wanted to go home. Tessa was silent too. Julianne worked hard, sweat stains growing under her arms as she tried to get them to open up, asked them about their emotions, outlined the counselling and leave available to them. Carly crossed and recrossed her legs, and Tessa sat with her elbows on her knees and her gaze on her boots.
    Finally Julianne took cards from her shirt pocket. ‘Here are my mobile and home numbers,’ she said, writing on the