Fatal Act by Leigh Russell

when they didn’t feel under pressure. Once they were arrested and charged, the situation changed but for now he was under no obligation to answer her questions. If she scared him, he might clam up. So far she didn’t think he had even realised she was checking him out as a potential suspect, although his nonchalance could be assumed. It was going to be hard establishing the truth from someone trained to lie about his identity.
    N o one else gave a second glance to the fit young man standing at the bar wearing only a skin tight white body stocking. Watching him out of the corner of her eye, Geraldine could see why the receptionist had grinned at his name. While Dirk bought himself a beer, Geraldine sat at a table in a corner of the bar and looked around a smartly decorated area, all white and chrome. A few young people were seated at a table on the far side of the room. At the bar a young boy with white blond hair was chatting to a tall skinny girl. There was an atmosphere of subdued activity, although nothing was happening. A few people were sitting around talking.
    ‘Tell me about Anna,’ Geraldine said when Dirk returned.
    ‘Are you sure I can’t get you a drink?’
    ‘I’m fine, thank you.’
    ‘Oh, of course, you’re on duty.’
    He nodded knowingly, as though they were somehow in cahoots. Geraldine stared blankly at him.
    ‘A nna’s a great girl,’ he began cheerfully and then stopped, his eyes opening wide in an expression of shock which looked fake.
    Geraldine watched the performance without commenting.
    ‘Sorry,’ he mumbled, ‘it’s so hard to take it in, that she’s really dead.’
    Geraldine didn’t answer and was gratified to see that he looked unnerved by her silence. He took a gulp of his beer and wiped his lips on his sleeve.
    ‘What do you want to know?’ he asked at last, setting his glass down. ‘She’s dead, isn’t she? Died in a car crash.’
    ‘Who told you that?’
    He shrugged. ‘Everyone knows. It was in the papers. And, like I said, people talk.’ He sighed. ‘Poor Anna, she used to love seeing her name in the papers.’
    ‘W hat was the nature of your relationship with the deceased?’
    ‘The deceased,’ he repeated solemnly. ‘God, it sounds so final, doesn’t it?’ He sighed theatrically. ‘We were friends. We were good friends.’
    ‘Were you in a relationship with her?’
    ‘You mean did we have sex? Yes. We got together in her last year here, when I was in my first year. She came straight here from school, but I went to uni first, and then I had a gap year.’
    G rowing expansive, Dirk told her about his trip to Africa, where he had spent time helping in an orphanage. He didn’t appear to be deliberately trying to convince her he was a decent person, incapable of violence. He simply liked talking about himself. Finally he returned to the subject of the dead woman.
    ‘Anna was two years ahead of me here, but I’m – I was – a year older than her. We got together in her last year. It was great. She was just lovely.’ He sighed. ‘We kind of drifted apart when she left.’
    His face reddened slightly.
    ‘Did you meet someone else?’
    ‘Well, yes, there was – there is – someone else, as it happens.’
    Geraldine couldn’t imagine Dirk ever went for long without a girl in tow.
    ‘And anyway she hooked up with her casting director soon after she graduated, which was lucky for me, because Trevelyan’s a big cheese.’
    ‘Why was that lucky for you?’
    He looked surprised.
    ‘Anna asked him to take a look at me.’
    D espite all his studies and travels, there was only one topic that interested Dirk. He brought everything back to himself. He glanced at his phone and Geraldine pressed on, aware that she might not have much time.
    ‘Where were you on Friday night between two and three in the morning?’
    ‘What is all this? I mean, I know Anna’s dead, but it was an accident, wasn’t it? Why are you so interested all of a sudden? I mean, would