Page 93 of Dream a Little Dream

Aaron furrowed his brow. He had a hunch where this was now going. “Yes.”

“Why would you do that? If you, as you say, weren’t friends?”

“Because I was hungry.”

“Did it ever occur to you he might have been avoiding you? That he might not want to see you? That, maybe, he might have felt intimidated by you?”

“I’m the least intimidating bloke in our Halls of Residence.”

“You believe that?”

“I believe other people believe that.”

Bentley scanned through his notes and Aaron noticed his left ring finger had an engagement band wrapped around it. He had a hunch that he and Kenny had a past together. It was based on nothing but instinct, but the deeper Aaron looked at him, the more he could see it. And he didn’t like it. Regardless that Jack was clearly engaged to someone else. He wondered how Kennyfelt about it. Then threw that thought away. Because how Kenny felt was of no concern to him if being here was down to him.

“You alerted the accommodation office on Friday evening. Is that correct?”

“Yes. Which I have now told you or one of your minions thrice.”

“Why did you wait until Friday evening?”

Aaron shrugged. “Thought I was being a good citizen. Had I realised it would land me in here, facing you again, I wouldn’t have fucking bothered.”

Bentley leaned forward, the shift in his posture subtle but deliberate. “Where were you last night, Aaron?”

Aaron flinched, not expecting that. “Why? What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Did you visit the location where Rahul was found?”

Aaron clamped his mouth shut. How the fuck did he know that? And if he knew that, was it because Kenny had told him? And if Kenny had told him, had he also told him what they’d done against a tree? How Kenny had taken him home, stripped bare and cuddled him?

Aaron turned to his solicitor. “Do I have to answer that?”

“You don’t have to answer anything,” Julian said, “and it would be judicious to know where this line of questioning is going, DI Bentley.”

“We are ascertaining Aaron’s involvement with Rahul Mishra. As we don’t believe it was as innocent and trivial as you’ve been telling us.”

“What would lead you to believe I was anything more than a bloke who liked his daal?”

“You told us before you gave Rahul your number.”

“Yeah. I shoved it under his door. Looked like he could use a friend. Didn’t use it. What happened to him kinda proves me right.”

“Are you saying you had no communication with Rahul Mishra via a messaging service?”

“No. He didn’t text me. I didn’t have his number.”

“You didn’t contact him in any other way? Email? Via the university messaging service? A social media app?”

“No. We only ever spoke in person. Literally twice.”

Bentley stared him down again. When Aaron didn’t rise to his bait to fill the silence, to offer more than he already had, he continued to question him. Question after question. Some directly to do with Rahul. More to do with his first few weeks at university, where he’d been, who he’d met. Aaron either didn’t answer, or he gave one word. Yes. No. He even probed into his life prior to becoming a student. The questions were met with silence. Aaron had been told, in no uncertain terms, that no matter who asked him those questions, he didn’t divulge unless he was told by the UKPPS he could. He had no such memo.

He hadn’t last night either, but Kenny had that way about him. Because he didn’t use questions. He used his mouth. His hands. Histongue.

Aaron switched off for a while, throwing out yes and no’s willy nilly. Until Bentley brought up the arguments with Archie. “Can you tell us what happened with Archie Leopold?”

“I smacked his face into a kitchen door.”

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