Peter Hamilton: Manhattan in Reverse

‘Yeah.’

‘And there was no hint given, to any of you, that he might have been in trouble with somebody, or had a quarrel?’

‘No, none.’

‘What about amongst yourselves — there must have been some disagreements?’

‘Well, yes.’ Carter gave his tea a sullen glare, not meeting the detective’s look. ‘But nothing to kill for. It was stupid stuff… who liked what play and why, books, family politics, restaurant bills, sports results, philosophy, science — we chewed it all over; that’s the kind of thing which keeps every group alive and interesting.’

‘Name the worst disagreement Justin was currently involved in.’

‘Bloody hell!’

‘Was it with you?’

‘No!’

‘Who then?’

Carter’s hands tightened round the mug, his knuckles whitening. ‘Look, it’s nothing really. It’s always happening.’

‘What is?’

‘Okay, you didn’t hear this from me, but Antony likes to gamble. I mean, we all do occasionally — a day at the races, or an evening at a casino — just harmless fun, no big money involved. But with Antony, it’s getting to be a problem. He plays cards with Justin. He’s been losing quite heavily recently. Justin said it served him right, that Antony should pay more attention to statistics. He was a legal student, he should know better, that there is no such thing as chance.’

‘How much money?’

Carter shrugged. ‘I’ve no idea. You’ll have to ask Antony. But listen, Antony isn’t about to kill for it. I know Justin, he’d never allow it to get that far out of control.’

‘Fair enough,’ the detective said. ‘Do you know if Justin had anything worth stealing?’

‘Something valuable?’ Carter appeared quite perplexed by the idea. ‘No. We’re all students. We’re all broke. Oh, don’t get me wrong, our families support us here; the allowance is adequate for the kind of life we pursue, but nothing more. Ask Antony,’ he added sourly.

‘I wasn’t thinking in terms of cash, possibly an heirloom he kept in his room?’

‘Nothing that I ever saw, and I’ve been in there a thousand times. I promise you, we’re here only for our minds. Thoughts are our wealth. Which admittedly made Justin the richest of us all — his mind was absolutely chocka with innovative concepts. But nothing a thief could bung in his swag bag.’ He pantomimed catching a thought, his beefy hands flapping round his head.

‘I thought Justin was an astrophysicist,’ Francis said.

‘He was.’

‘So what ideas could he have that were valuable?’

‘Dear Mary.’ Carter shot Francis a pitying look. ‘Not industrial ideas, machinery and trinkets for your factories. Original thoughts. Pure science, that was his playground. He was hinting that he’d come up with one fairly radical notion. His guaranteed professorship, he called it.’

‘Which was?’

‘I haven’t got a clue. He never really explained any of his projects to us. Justin could be very conservative, in both senses. The only thing I know is, it involved spectography… you know, picking out the signature of specific elements by their emission spectrum. He was running through a collection of photographs from the observatory archives. I could help him a little with that — spectography is simple physics. We were speculating on how to improve the process, speed it up with automation, some kind of electromechanical contraption. But we never got past a few talks in the bar.’

‘Did he write any of this project down?’ the detective asked. ‘Keep notes, a file?’

‘Not as far as I know. As I said, a fanciful speculation in its early stages. Talk to any science stream student and you’ll get something similar; we all have our pet theories that will rock the universe if they’re proven.’

‘I see.’ The detective dabbed the tip of his pencil on his lips. ‘How long had Mr Raleigh and Miss Caesar been an item?’

‘Oh, for at least a year. ’Bout time too, they’d been flirting ever since I knew them. Bit of a relief when they finally got it together, know what I mean? And they were so well suited. It often helps when you’re friends for a while first. And they’re both bright sparks.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘There. If you want a qualifier for our group, I suppose that’s it. We’re all top of the league in what we do. Except for dear old Chris, of course. But she’s still got the intellect. Gives as good as she gets every time.’

Gareth Alan Pitchford rifled through his notes. ‘That’ll be Christine Jayne Lockett?’

‘Yeah. She’s our token artist. The rest of us are science stream, apart from Antony; he’s law. Chris dropped out of the formal route after she got pregnant. Loves life in the garret. Thinks it’s romantic. Her family don’t share the opinion, but she gets by.’

‘What is your field of study?’ Francis asked.

Carter glanced up, surprised, as if he’d forgotten the two of us were there. ‘Nuclear engineering. And a hell of a field it is, too. Do you know the Madison team in Germany is only a few years from building a working atomic reactor? Once that happens and we build commercial reactors to generate electricity, the world will never burn another lump of coal ever again. Isn’t that fantastic! It’s the science of the future.’ He stopped, apparently in pain. ‘That’s what Justin and I always argued about. Damn!’

‘Justin disagreed with you about atomic power? I thought he was an astrophysicist.’

‘He was. That’s why he disagreed. Damn silly star gazer. He kept insisting that fusion was the way forward, not fission. That one day we’d simply tap the sun’s power directly. What a beautiful dream. But that was Justin for you. Always went for the high concept.’

‘Can you tell me roughly what time you got the phone call from Mr Griffin telling you something was wrong?’ the detective asked.

‘That’s easy enough. It was just after half past eleven.’

‘I see. And where were you?’

Carter’s face reddened slightly. ‘I was with Chris in her studio. We went back there together after the meal.’

‘I see. Was that usual?’

‘Sometimes I’d go there, yeah. Nothing unusual about it.’

‘What exactly is your relationship with Miss Lockett? Her number was the first which your room-mate gave to Mr Griffith.’

‘We have a thing. It’s casual. Not serious at all. Is this relevant?’

‘Only in that it gives you and her a definite location at the time of the murder.’

‘Location…’ His eyes widened. ‘You mean an alibi.’

‘Yes. Providing Miss Lockett confirms it.’

‘Bloody hell, you’re serious, aren’t you?’

‘Absolutely. So tell me what you did after receiving the phone call from Mr Griffith.’

‘I went straight to Dunbar. Hailed a cab. It took about twenty minutes. They’d found the body by that time of course. I think you were there yourself by then.’

‘I probably was.’

‘You said you went straight to Dunbar College from Miss Lockett’s studio,’ I said. ‘When did you call Miss Caesar?’

‘As soon as I got to Dunbar. The police were everywhere, so I knew it was a real mess. I used Peter’s phone before I went into Justin’s room.’

‘Where was she?’

‘At her room in Uffers… Uffington College.’

‘And she arrived straight away?’ Gareth Alan Pitchford asked.

‘You know she did. You were the one who let us in to Justin’s rooms, remember? Uffers is only just down the road from Dunbar, it’s less than four minutes walk away. I expect she ran.’

‘Okay.’ The detective closed his notebook. ‘Thank you very much. We’ll need to talk to you again, of course. I’ll have a car run you home.’

‘I’ll stay, thanks. I want to be with the others when you’ve finished interviewing them.’