Cut to the Bone (7 page)

‘Yo? Who are you?’ said a voice from the intercom.

‘Mr Grant? This is Detective Chief Inspector Riley and my colleague Detective Sergeant Harris. We need to speak to you about a friend of yours, Ruby Day?’

The door buzzed open.

Chapter Seventeen

A security guard at reception watched them walk through the foyer. Zain asked him if he could get hold of the last twenty-four hours of CCTV from the entrance. The security guard said it was digitised; he could email the recording over, if they wanted.

‘Do you know Daniel Grant, lives in flat 115? You know where he was yesterday?’ Zain asked.

The guard claimed ignorance. Kate saw astrophysics textbooks on his desk. Foreign student making extra cash, not wanting to get involved with the police.

The flat was on the fifteenth floor. As they exited the lift, they had to pass through a second security door, which someone had propped open with a box. It had a picture of a gaming control on it.

The corridor in front of them was carpeted in blue. It felt like a student hall of residence. Flat 115 was the second door on the right. The door was open, but Kate knocked anyway. A voice from inside shouted for them to come in.

Kate’s shoes, heeled, were noisy on the wooden floors of the entranceway. A hall led off to the other rooms in the flat, and immediately to the right was an open-plan kitchen/lounge. A young man, presumably Daniel Grant, was seated on a brown ergonomic sofa. The room was sparsely furnished, with just the sofa plus one other leather La-Z-Boy chair, and a glass table in the centre of the room.

Against one wall was a unit on which sat a TV, similar in size to the one the Days had. From it ran numerous cables into every gaming device Kate had ever seen.

‘All right?’ said Dan.

He was casual, dressed in shorts and a grey T-shirt, the sort of stuff you’d wear to bed. He looked dozy, yawned, scratched himself.

‘Mr Grant?’ said Kate.

‘Obviously, this is my place. Thought detectives were meant to be bright,’ he said.

Zain bristled, tension bouncing off him.

‘I’m just messing,’ said Dan. ‘You’re Harris, right? You left me them messages this morning? How can I help?’

‘We need to ask you some more questions,’ said Kate.

‘Poor Rubes. This is crazy what’s happening. I saw the vid on YouTube. Someone’s playing a sick game.’

Kate nodded when Dan indicated the empty La-Z-Boy for her to sit. Zain took a space next to Dan on the sofa, sitting a bit too close to him. Dan shuffled away slightly, looking uncomfortable.

Dan looked young to Kate, in the way that everyone below twenty-five looked like a teenager to her. Light-brown hair cut simply, close to his scalp, and big green eyes. There was still acne on his chin in places, and the room was heavy with the scent of sweat and food.

‘You just woken up?’ said Zain. ‘Late night?’

‘Something like that. Had a friend round.’

‘All night?’ said Zain, sounding solicitous.

‘Yeah. Think till about six, or something. Why? You checking for my alibi already?’ said Dan.

Zain smiled at him. There was steel in it.

‘I called your office before. Told them I didn’t know where Ruby was. What else do you want to know?’

‘You saw the video on YouTube? How did you find out about it?’ said Kate.

‘Someone emailed me, sent me the link. We all got it – Rubes’ crew.’

‘You were deliberately targeted?’ said Kate.

‘Yeah, think so. Be too random otherwise.’

‘How are you feeling about it?’ said Kate.

‘What, the video, you mean? I’m majorly disturbed, obviously, how would you be feeling if it was someone you knew? We have to help her, get her back.’

Dan stayed immobile on the sofa; glued to it, almost. He didn’t convey distress, and his half-awakened state suggested he hadn’t lost any sleep over the situation.

‘I’ve been on YouTube all day. Been trying to see if I can get the handle. I put it out on Twitter, Facebook, Vine, SnapChat. Even my Instagram. I got people looking for her. Asking if anyone knows where she is, or if they see her, to get in touch. I don’t know what else I can do.’

‘When did you last meet with Ruby?’ said Kate.

‘Don’t know, it’s been a week, I think. A bit over, maybe.’

‘A week?’ said Zain. ‘Thought you were dating?’

‘We are. It’s complicated. I just haven’t seen her, nothing weird about it.’

‘Why not?’ said Zain.

‘Just busy. Time slips, we don’t get together. Nothing major.’

‘Did you guys have an argument, or something?’ said Zain.

‘No, I told you, just busy.’

‘When did you last speak to her?’ said Kate.

Dan leaned forward, picked up one of three phones he had on his coffee table. He started scrolling through.

‘Texted her yesterday.’

‘What did you say in that text?’ said Zain, looking over at the phone.

‘I just asked her how she was, when were we hooking up. She said she couldn’t say, would be in touch.’

Zain took the phone from him. Dan tried to grab it back.

‘Give it back to me, man, what is this?’

‘Just having a look. Interesting, some of these messages. Do you mind if we hang on to this, Mr Grant?’ said Zain.

‘Yeah, I do mind. You can’t come in here, taking my stuff. What is this? North Korea?’

‘We’re trying to build a picture of Ruby, anything that might help us locate her.’

Kate threw Zain a look; he gave the phone back to Dan.

‘Apart from texting her, when did you last have a proper conversation?’

‘Dunno, probably a week ago when I saw her.’

‘When was it exactly?’

Dan flicked through his phone.

‘Last Thursday, at 5 p.m. We met for a drink in a pub called The Garter, off Charing Cross Road.’

‘Just the two of you?’

‘Yeah.’

‘What did you talk about? How did she seem?’

‘Usual stuff, about our vlogs and shit. She was all right, normal.’

‘She didn’t seem different at all? Worried about anything?’

‘No, just normal, like I said.’

‘Her parents seem to think she had ended her relationship with you.’

Red crept up Dan’s thin neck, into his face. Anger and embarrassment, she thought.

‘Those jealous twats, you wanna watch them. They can’t stand me, they’ve been trying to get between me and Rubes for ages.’

‘So they made it up? You and Ruby didn’t break up?’

‘We were just going through some stuff, that’s all. Rubes is mine. She isn’t going anywhere, we were meant to be.’

Interesting turn of phrase, charged with the idea of ownership, thought Kate. ‘Do you feel Ruby belongs to you in some way?’ she said.

Dan glared at her, but didn’t deny it.

Chapter Eighteen

‘Do you have any idea who might wish to harm Ruby in this way? Did she ever speak about anyone, a fan possibly, somebody she might have been afraid of?’ said Kate.

‘No. Well, yes. Look, we are all out there, us Youtubers, we are the future. People, they leave all sorts of comments online, proper fucked-up, hateful shit. But they’re just trolls, jealous and bitter, cowards. Hiding behind their keyboards, so we just ignore all that.’

‘Any persistent trolls?’

‘A few, but they get smacked down by our fans.’

‘So she wasn’t concerned about her safety at all?’

‘No, not that she said. Looks like she should’ve been. Fuck, to think some sicko was planning this shit, right?’ Dan looked more animated than upset.

‘Yeah, some real sicko,’ said Zain, not very subtly.

‘What do you mean? You think I’m involved with this shit?’ Dan turned crimson again, staring wildly at Kate, turning his body away from Zain.

‘Nobody is saying anything of the sort,’ Kate said. ‘We are just trying to build a picture. Anything you can tell us will help. Was there anyone Ruby was in communication with? Any new friends she’d made online?’

Dan laughed at this. ‘She’s not ten or an idiot. She’s not gonna chat to some random freak online. I used to get it, all these old pervs pretending to be girls. We’re not stupid, we got wise to that stuff quickly. She didn’t get groomed, if that’s what you’re thinking.’

‘Is it possible she turned to someone, if she was depressed, for instance?’

‘She would turn to me, turn to her friends, turn to her millions of fans. Not some loner serial killer. Fuck’s sake.’

Zain leaned closer to Dan, making him shift away again an inch.

Kate tilted her head slightly in Zain’s direction. They had agreed on the way up that they would spring it on Dan, see how he reacted.

‘Ruby’s parents told us a little story,’ said Zain, almost speaking into Dan’s ear. ‘About you, a birthday party and a swimming pool. And the woman you threw into it.’

Dan jumped away from Zain, red and sweating.

‘What? What do you mean?’

‘They said that back in July, you had a birthday party, in a flash little hotel not too far from here. Said you threw a woman off a balcony. Is it true?’ said Zain.

‘No, that’s typical of them, fucking liars. You think I’d be sitting here if I did that? What the fuck! Those bastard parents are just . . . aaargh. They’d say anything, just to get rid of me.’

‘You’re saying they made it up?’ said Zain.

‘Too right. I’m going to sue them, spreading shit like that. Fucked up.’

‘Why would they invent something so . . . graphic?’ said Kate.

‘I told you, they want to get rid of me, split me and Rubes up. They’re sick, like real-life trolls.’

‘So it’s a lie? The Days lied to the police? The police looking for their missing daughter?’ said Harris.

‘You think because they have nice middle-class accents, live in a posh flat and dress in M&S, that they’re decent? They’re scum. And they’re liars.’

Zain moved away, looking at Kate. His blue eyes were bright against his olive skin, and he was smiling behind Dan’s head. The boyfriend that had just lied blatantly to the police.

‘You have no idea who might have wanted to harm Ruby?’ Kate said.

‘No,’ said Dan.

Kate wanted to keep this, have a hold over Dan in case she needed it going forward. She thought about the recording of the 999 call when Millie had fallen. Dan had just shown himself to be deceitful. His words meant nothing and, right now, he was fast becoming her prime suspect.

Chapter Nineteen

Kate got up, stretched her legs, walked to the window of Dan’s apartment. Her head was mulling over his denial of something they had proof of. She tried to sift through the things he had said, picking out anything that might show further fabrication.

The view looked across towards the City. The aircraft warning light on top of One Canada Square, the building commonly referred to as Canary Wharf, was dim in the sunshine. Its towers faint, surrounded by a light mist.

‘Her parents said she doesn’t have many friends,’ said Kate.

‘She has two million,’ said Dan. ‘Her parents are just deadbeats, need to get out of Rubes’ space. They stifle her, and they don’t know jack about Rubes.’

‘What don’t they know? Enlighten us.’

Dan shrugged.

‘Who would you say are Ruby’s closest friends?’ said Zain.

Dan opened his mouth, closed it without speaking. Close friends, he should rattle off some names. His silence corroborated what the Days had said. Ruby was a loner. Lonely in the glare of two million people watching her.

‘Ruby’s parents didn’t have any numbers, said they used Facebook mainly to contact her circle. Can you help us out?’ said Kate.

You better help us, before I make you face up to your lies
, she was thinking.

‘I got numbers somewhere.’ He gave Zain a side look as he went through his phone. ‘You got an email address? I’ll send you a list.’

‘Does she have anyone she is particularly close to?’ said Kate.

‘There’s some of us, YouTubers, we get together now and again. Go to VideoCon and stuff like that. There are so many awards now, people trying to tap into what we do. They don’t get it, a lot of them, and they hate that. We did it without them, you see, just us and cameras in our rooms. No budget, no advertising, we just clicked. It’s perfect democracy; the people choose what they want to watch. And they want to bottle us.’

‘Who are
they
?’

‘All of them. Companies, film studios, brands. Anyone out there trying to make money. They want us fronting it.’

‘Had Ruby been approached by anyone, to front anything?’

‘Yeah, tons. She gets free stuff every day, almost. People send her stuff, ask her to use it in her videos. It’s like advertising, but without advertising. People watch her, and they watch what she uses. Last year, she used this eye shadow, right, and it sold out in a month all over. A month. Beyoncé has that sort of power, and here’s little Rubes doing the same. The Americans love her, they love her accent.’

Dan looked at Kate; she didn’t react. She’d heard it enough times.

‘So she was sent random things? She didn’t have a contract with anyone?’

Dan looked furtive, started stroking his arms, drawing his hands into his stomach. Classic concealment, comfort grooming: Kate had hit on something.

‘No,’ he said.

Your body is saying something else to me, she thought. What exactly was he hiding?

Chapter Twenty

They were getting ready to leave. Dan Grant had been exhausted; he didn’t have anything useful left to say.

‘What do you do, then? On YouTube? What’s your talent?’ said Zain. He rolled the word talent in his mouth, heavily mocking.

‘I have a gamer channel. I play games.’

‘What do you mean?’ said Zain.

‘I play games. All the latest games that come out, I play them. And I film it, and I do commentary, and I give tips to people. So when people struggle, they come to my videos, and they get through levels.’

‘A tutorial?’ said Kate.

‘Sort of. I film myself playing the game, and I talk over it. I literally review every second of it.’

Kate didn’t grasp it; she would have to watch a video later, get a better idea of what Dan did. Why would anybody want to watch somebody else play a video game? Wasn’t the thrill, the escape, in playing yourself?