Free Deserving Death by Katherine Howell Page A

listened to and comforted. But Linsey’s treatment of her stung. The time she needed her most, she held herself back. Carly understood why but struggled with the pain and anger. She wanted to say something cruel, to hurt Linsey just as she’d been hurt.
    She felt Linsey’s gaze on her and said, ‘Alicia’s dead. Murdered. That’s why I came here. I needed you.’
    ‘Oh my god.’ Linsey went white with shock, her eyes filling. ‘I’m so sorry.’
    Carly felt an instant stab of remorse. She loved her. Why do this? Why break it to her like that? She let the back of her hand touch Linsey’s as they walked.
    ‘I’m so, so sorry, Carly. I had no idea.’ Linsey’s voice was choked. ‘God, if I’d known that, I would’ve . . . would’ve . . .’
    Carly blinked back her own tears. ‘You would’ve just felt bad. There was nothing you could do.’
    ‘I could’ve told them, and held you.’
    It was the emotion talking. Linsey couldn’t have done that, and they both knew why.
    Carly said, ‘It’s okay.’
    ‘I’m so sorry,’ Linsey said again. ‘Have you talked to Chris? Does he know?’
    ‘The cops said I couldn’t phone. They said they’d tell him and her mum and dad.’
    ‘Oh god, Carly.’
    They walked in silence for a moment, then Carly said, ‘It wasn’t just that. Something weird’s going on with Tessa.’ She told Linsey about John Morris coming to the station then picking Tessa up. ‘Tessa lied to me about it and I can’t understand why.’
    ‘You think they could be seeing each other?’ Linsey said. ‘She might feel weird about it because he and Alicia broke up so recently.’
    ‘But she also didn’t tell the detectives that her brother was at the club last night.’
    Linsey looked at her. ‘You can’t be thinking she’s somehow involved?’
    ‘I don’t know. Maybe. Because why lie about who was at the club, and who was at the station door?’
    ‘But she’s friends with Alicia,’ Linsey said.
    ‘But why lie?’ Carly said again.
    They didn’t speak for a block, then Linsey said, ‘I do get what you’re saying.’
    ‘I’m not sure I know what I’m saying,’ Carly said.
    The backs of their hands touched again.
    Linsey said, ‘We’ll be home soon.’
    *
    The control room for the city council’s CCTV system was tucked away in a grey multistorey building in Surry Hills. The supervisor was waiting in the foyer. He was a solid man in his mid-forties, a dark suit jacket buttoned snug around his middle, black shoes with a sharp shine, light brown hair trimmed short.
    ‘Detectives Marconi and Shakespeare,’ Ella said. ‘You’re Janssen?’
    He nodded. ‘Your boss told me this is about a homicide?’
    ‘Yes.’ That was all the detail Dennis would’ve given him about the death and all Janssen would get out of them too. The curiosity in his eyes could stay there.
    ‘Follow me.’ The supervisor headed down a corridor. He walked with a slight limp. ‘What exactly are you after?’
    ‘Footage from the street outside Castro’s nightclub, taken last night,’ Murray said.
    ‘That’s no problem at all.’ He sounded confident, all business. He ran a swipe card through a reader and pushed open a door. The big room they entered was dim, most of the light coming from the multiple screens on the consoles and on the wall. Ten people sat typing on keyboards or speaking into headsets. On the screens Ella could see all over the city: outside the town hall, at Circular Quay, in the heart of The Rocks. Footpaths bustled with pedestrians and traffic stopped and started with the lights.
    Janssen sat at an empty console. ‘What’s the time frame?’
    ‘Between eight and half past in the evening,’ Ella said. They’d see if anyone harassed Bayliss on the street or appeared to follow her in. ‘And then between midnight and one.’
    He started to type. Murray moved away a few steps to watch the work of another operator, a wiry woman who manoeuvred a joystick on her console, her