Catherine

by A J Hollingsworth

  He was ready to shatter her illusions and tell her that behaviour wasn't appropriate and there should be a cautious distance between the pair. He didn't say it though, he looked at her sorrow filled eyes as she was preparing for the rejection and he couldn't be that brutal to her. It would have hurt her. 'I'm not sure if that is the best idea, Beth,' he said softly, breaking the news as gently as he could to her.

  'Of course Nathan. I'm sorry,' she replied dejected.

  He instantly felt guilty and throw his arm over her shoulder, 'let's carry on walking,' he said whilst taking his first step encouraging her to follow. They continued around the path, past the large willows that were spread out in different positions across the lawn areas. They arrived at the gates on the opposite side of the park, the cast iron archway matched the other side and there were a small pair of cast iron gates in the archway.

  'My flat is not far from here Nathan,' Beth stated casually as the pair looked each way down the deserted road. It had been a quiet midweek evening in the city centre, only a few cars driving past and the pavements were now completely empty.

  'One cup of coffee at most Beth.'

  'What else would be on offer?' she said suggestively.

  'Nothing more than coffee,' he replied sternly, knowing fully well what she was suggesting. He did slightly admire her persistence though.

  'Of course, but I have a surprise I believe you won't want to miss.'

  He looked at her intrigued and she smiled almost smugly back at him, 'what kind of surprise?'

  'I have a first edition of 'The Great Gatsby!' she exclaimed with a flick of her hair.

  His eyebrows automatically raised as this had been his favourite novel growing up as a child. The pull to see such a book was too strong, he could have walked away and tried to forget about it, but there it would remain in the back of his head, always asking the same question. What if she was being truthful? He had to find out and had already justified the risk of going with it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to view an extremely rare book. He placed his arm around her again and asked her to lead the way.

  Chapter 35

  Rachel entered the police station five minutes after Logan had. He had already reached the investigation room and currently booting up the computer ready to download the CCTV footage. Logan had a feeling this would reveal that Mark was lying. He thought Nathan was more involved than Rachel cared to admit, but he also didn't trust Mark, he didn't trust anyone.

  Logan had the compact disc loaded when Rachel arrived with Tanya.

  'Watch out everyone, here comes the unstoppable duo,' Logan said sarcastically.

  'Do you work hard at being an arsehole or does it come natural?' Tanya snipped back at him.

  'Don't forget who your superior-'

  'Don't forget who your superior is too, DC Langley,' Rachel shot down Logan with no reprise to Tanya.

  He chuckled to himself, before looking at the keyboard in front of the flat-screen, poised to press play on the video player software.

  Rachel gave the instruction to play as all three of them stood around in a semi-circle to watch. The time given by Mark was right, it was clear from the clear definition expensive CCTV footage that he had entered the library and swiped when he said he had.

  'Can we follow him on the cameras through the library?'

  Logan clicked on the pause button on the screen and then flicked through the screen options looking at almost twenty different cameras located on each of the three floors. He clicked on the camera half way up the stairwell to the first floor and clicked play again. Mark followed the staircase to the first floor, turning right he was lost from the camera. Once again Logan adjusted the camera from the stairwell to the one in the corner.

  Mark made his way across to a solitary empty desk at the back of the room and sat down once he had placed his backpack on top of the desk. He reached in to his pocket and removed his mobile phone from inside. The angle of the camera was too far away to ever catch a glimpse of the screen.

  He was swiping and clicking away at the screen in an almost frantic manner and in all different directions and places on the screen.

  'Anyone have an idea on what he is doing?' asked Logan looking the most confused of the three of them.

  Rachel and Tanya didn't have an answer, not immediately anyway, Rachel and Tanya both pulled out their phones from their pockets. They were studying where their applications laid out on the screen, email, text messages, camera and all the others including Candy Crush. They concentrated on the locations, comparing each others phones and the pattern that Mark was clicking away with, didn't match any useful patterns they could have seen and suspected he was most likely playing a game of some sort. Five minutes later and he placed the phone on top of the desk at the side of his ruck-sack.

  He then stretched out his arms, beginning to yawn. He raised them above his head and backwards taking them to a similar position that a bird would before flight. He held the position, just for a few seconds, after the yawn had finished. It was a second later when he opened his rucksack and began searching through, underneath the canvas material it was clear to see his hands moving around with various shaped items held in them, he was looking for something. After a minute her pulled out a A4 sized notebook and placed it on the desk near his phone. He then placed his backpack on the floor beside his feet.

  He spent the next five minutes jotting in the notepad, once again the camera was far too away for any of them to figure out what the jottings where and even if they could, it may not help them anyway. He could be doing an assignment, to be honest, he could be doing anything really. Either way they couldn't find out the answer through the footage that was available. Logan paused and clicked through the other cameras, there were none that would help.

  'I don't think you going to find anything useful watching every second. I'm sure we can skip past the next few minutes,' Tanya stated.

  'You are probably right Tan, but it may just prove prudent to check them anyway. We need to keep watching.'

  Logan looked pleased that this time Rachel had shot down Tanya and put her in her place. She was a police constable and both Logan and Rachel outranked her. Logan didn't believe it was her place to be butting in and offering an opinion. He may not have been the number one fan of Rachel, but he had to take his hat off to her, she wasn't taking Tanya's side for once.

  Ten more minutes went past of jotting and checking his phone, Tanya had been right he was just sitting there for all intense and purpose, studying!

  'Anyone fancy a cup of coffee?' said Tanya with a smile full of smugness.

  'That sounds like a plan Tan, do you mind?' asked Rachel calmly in an attempt to stop Logan flying off the handle, she felt like a teacher managing two squabbling children.

  'Wait!' exclaimed Logan as Tanya was walking away, reaching fifteen feet, before turning to look back at the screen. Mark was slipping his mobile phone back in his pocket and throwing his notebook back into his backpack, before slinging over his right shoulder. Was he leaving? He had been there about thirty minutes. Logan followed his path back to the top of the stairs, then down and reaching the exit. They had been told he had to swipe his student card before leaving the library by Duncan and the report showed he didn't sign out for a few hours yet. Three pairs of eyes fixated on the screen ready for Mark's next move. He lifted out his student card from his pocket and swiped through the barrier at the exit and left the library before turning right out of the the main door of the library.

  'I thought the report said he didn't leave the library until the early hours of the morning?' quizzed Tanya.

  'It didn't,' responded Rachel.

  'Or does it?' asked Logan. A thought had sprung to him. 'Mark definitely swiped out through the barrier.'

  'Yes Logan, we all saw that,' added Rachel.

  'Yes. I know. But with whose card? Duncan did a search when we were there and he only looked at when Mark's card was used. What if he used a different card to swipe out? Nobody woul
d question his alibi or so he thought anyway. He swiped in and then out at the same time he said. Inside the envelope Duncan gave me with the compact disc were the printed report of everyone who swiped in and out that evening.'

  Logan picked up the brown letter sized envelope he had placed down at the side of the computer and pulled out several printed sheets containing the login details of all students and staff who had used their cards that evening, it contained name, address and telephone numbers of each of them. He picked up an highlighter pen from the desk behind and laid the report down on the top of the desk. Reading down the list of names he came across Mark Jacobs when he swiped in to the library and struck through the log with the green highlighter pen, before continuing to read down the list. Within a few seconds he came across the time of eight-fifty-nine and thirty-three seconds, turning to look at the time on the CCTV footage he found the two times matching identical.

  'Who is Zac Winters?' asked Logan as he highlighted the name on the report.

  'I don't know, but I'm guessing Mark knows him well enough to have his student card. Tan can you do the usual searches to find out as much as you can about our mystery man?'

  'Of course,' Tanya replied and ran off over to a vacant computer at a separate desk to start researching him.

  'Logan pull up a map we need to find out where Mark was heading,' Rachel ordered.

  He carried out the order without question, looking at a satellite overview of the University library, Mark turned right from the entranceway. 'Isn't that the opposite way to his dorm room?' asked Rachel peering over Logan's shoulder.

  Dragging the map around, he located Mark's dorm block. 'You are correct,' he replied to her sarcastically.

  'Not just a pretty face you know Logan,' she responded just as sarcastically. 'We need to find out where he was heading that night!'

  Chapter 36

  Mark woke up with Daisy's right arm draped over his chest and her cheek nestled in against his breast. The second night in a row that Daisy had spent with him and she was ecstatic. She expected to feel guilty that she was now in bed with Mark less than a week after Catherine's death, but she didn't, she was upset for Catherine's family and real friends. She was neither.

  She softly kissed his neck just beneath his chin and moved her hand down over his thigh, he woke and turned towards her with a gentle smile and kissed her on her forehead. Mark looked over the top of her head towards his mobile phone checking the time, they had some to spare, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him.

  Thirty minutes later and the pair jumped into the shower together, they had less than ten minutes before they had to leave for their first lecture. Picking up his jeans off the floor and his t-shirt that had been thrown over the back of his chair, he dressed as quickly as he could and then spent the rest of the time urging Daisy to hurry up.

  Five minutes later than Mark had liked, they both left his dorm room and heading off on foot to the English building. The rain was punching hard down on the floor and temperature had dropped another couple of degrees from the previous day. Daisy wrapped her coat up over her chin, covering her mouth as Mark encased her shoulder with his arm.

  It wasn't long before Zac noticed them across the quad and chased after them, catching up he asked if he could have a quiet word with Mark. Daisy agreed and continued into the building for the lecture.

  'Save me a seat, Daisy.'

  She turned smiling, 'OK, don't be too long though.'

  'Did you murder Catherine?' Zac asked abruptly.

  Mark's good mood soon dissipated the moment after Zac stopped talking. Where would he get an idea like that from. Who has he been talking to? He might be just over-reacting, many had asked the same question since Catherine's death, but they had been strangers. This is his best friend. Why would he believe the rumours?

  'I had a phone call last night from that detective chick. She was asking me why my student card had been used at the library the night Catherine was murdered.'

  'What did you tell her?'

  'That's the question you want to ask first?'

  'What did you expect me to ask?' Mark said obliviously.

  'How about ask how I am? That could be one, for fuck sake Mark, what have you got me involved in?'

  Mark looked around, observing that some of the students nearby had stopped walking now, paying their full attention to him and Zac. 'Do you want to be quiet?, he responded pulling Zac's arm and dragging him away from the onlookers. 'I haven't done anything. It's what they believe I've done.'

  'You asked me if you could borrow my student card and then the police are questioning why it was used on that night. What do you expect me to believe?'

  Mark looked at the direction of where Daisy strolled off, he did not have time to deal with Zac right now. 'I'm going to be late for my lecture Zac!'

  'So you going to just walk away then?' Zac called after Mark who had started to stroll in Daisy's direction.

  'That's what I was planning. Yes!' he replied not breaking his stride.

  Zac chased up behind Mark, grabbing him by the shoulder and spinning him around.

  'What are you doing Zac?' said Mark taken aback.

  'Not that I should have, but I covered for you,' claimed Zac. 'I told them I had left it behind and you picked it up for me.' Mark shrugged his shoulders, not aware or at the very least not caring, about the consequences. 'You don't even give a shit do you? Whatever went on between you and Catherine that night you are not going to bring me into it.'

  'I don't know what you think I've done, but you're wrong.'

  Mark turned and began walking away from Zac. He had taken no more than six step before he felt a tap on the shoulder and turning he felt a pain in his jaw like he had never before. Zac was a well built young man, who had taken sport serious from a young age. He had spent the last ten years weight training for two hours everyday. Filled up with enough bullshit from Mark he couldn't resist any longer. He looked down, laughed and walked away, leaving Mark laying on the floor holding his jaw.

  Chapter 37

  Nathan had left the University the evening before in a rush, he had chased after Rebecca after she had seen him with his laptop. He had lost sight of her, the pause before he had decided to go after had cost him, once he had left the lecture building there was no sign of her.

  Instantly, he was concerned if the the knowledge of the contents of that laptop would make their way back to Rachel, he had rushed home to be with her. After spending a night curled up together in front of the television, he was certain she wasn't suspicious of his activities.

  He pulled up in his reserved parking spot outside the English building, reaching over for his leather briefcase that was resting on the passenger seat. He looked up and through his windscreen, watching across the quad in front, he could watch the students on their way to their first lectures of the morning.

  He gasped for air seconds later. Breaking through the crowd of sex other students were Catherine, standing there staring at him, clear as the birds in a bright blue sky above. Dressed in a long flowing black cocktail dress, with her face radiant from carefully applied make-up and her hair all curled lapping down the side of her face with a diamond encrusted butterfly designed hair clip on the right hand side, holding her hair back just of that side.

  She was beautiful, stunning, gorgeous and so elegant Nathan couldn't take his eyes of her. He stomach twisted and turned with the butterflies fluttering in his chest and the regret of what could have been between the pair of them hitting the floor of his stomach like a led weight. What was she doing there, this time in the morning, she would be late for her first lecture or was she going to attend dressed like that. How would he be able to concentrate on the material of his lecture with her sat amongst the crowd, most likely smiling at him.

  She must have been cold too, standing there with her arms exposed to cold winter elements. She didn't look cold though, just standing there without a care in the world, he had a blanket on the back seat
of the car. It had always been a puzzle why he had always carried a blanket with, it was something he had picked up from his grandfather, there was always a blanket thrown over the back seat when he visited them as a young boy.

  He pulled the blanket off the back seat and folded it as neatly as he could in a rush. He pulled the door handle and jumped out of the car leaving his briefcase still on the passenger seat. Looking down at it resting there, he considered whether he could slide it up under the right arm, but then he thought about Catherine standing there cold. He turned to look at her, but he had to look twice, she was no longer there.

  Where had she gone? She must have moved, he told himself looking around the quad and between the buildings. She was gone. No matter where he looked, she wasn't there. He opened the car door again and threw the blanket on the back seat. He reached over and picked up his briefcase. She had never been there, it was clear to him now, she was nothing more than a vision. They had been coming to him more regular lately, in his sleep and around the University. He had woken up in the middle of the night in a sweat, she her face, her lifeless colourless drawn out, hangared face.

  'Everything OK Professor?' asked a student who was passing and noticed him just standing there looking into space.

  'Of course Louise,' he said looking at her. 'I feel like I've forgotten something, but I can't for the life of me what it is.'

  'That happens to me all the time,' laughed Louise before continuing on her way.

  Nathan made his way into the English building, still with the vivid image of Catherine etched on his mind. He reached the seminar room, he had twenty minutes before his first seminar yet and he was eager to retrieve his laptop before he had to start. It wasn't on his desk, it should have been, that's where he would always leave it. Panic started to set in. Maybe he had left it inside the top drawer, moments later he had an answer and it wasn't.