Page 15 of Nothing Left

He frowned. "I really don't remember. There was so much going on. Someone went out or went to the door for some reason, but I don't remember why. I was busy pouring us more drinks. I think Enzo left at some stage."

"Do you think that Heather could have killed her friend?"

He stared at Juliette, then shook his head.

"None of us would have done such a thing," he insisted.

Juliette sighed.

Her gut feeling was that Diego was innocent. Witness versions could not always be proven. A drunken man whose girlfriend went to throw up and who'd then succumbed to his own excessive drunkenness was understandable. Also, Juliette remembered, she hadn't seen a trace of blood anywhere between the bathroom and the bedroom, and the forensic team would have tested Diego's clothing and bedding. If there were any results to be found there, they would know soon.

"For the time being, that's all the questions I have," she said. "There may be more. Don't leave Barcelona, and please keep your phone open at all times in case we need to contact you again."

Now, he looked crestfallen, as if the full impact of the terrible death had hit him all over again.

"I'll do that," he said.

Juliette turned and headed out. A glance at Wyatt during the conversation had confirmed to her that he was thinking along the same lines.

Enzo had been wanting to get together with Samantha, but she hadn’t been that keen.

Had something gone wrong between them? Had he stabbed her in anger after being rejected and then fled?

Diego's statement might have given them a lead to the killer.

CHAPTER NINE

As soon as Juliette was out of the student apartment, she had a quick pow-wow with Wyatt and Sierra, standing right there in the corridor, now overlooking the twinkling lights of town and the darker facade of the university building.

"Enzo left during the night? That is important, and I'm wondering if it was noted down in the case file?" she said.

Wyatt shook his head. "I don't remember his statement saying that. So somewhere down the line, was he lying? Or just confused?"

"Let's get back to the car and check," Juliette said. "It's now urgent that we interview Enzo, and we should go there right away." She turned to Sierra. "Did you pick anything up from Diego's flatmate?"

Sierra nodded, speaking quietly. "He told me that Diego was totally traumatized when he came home. Diego kept on saying how awful it was, and he had no idea what happened, and he wished he hadn't been so drunk because he should have protected the women. He didn't seem to think Diego was lying at all. I get the feeling he's a kind person from some of the small things that the flatmate said."

Juliette nodded. The flatmate's observation confirmed her own thoughts that Diego probably had not committed this crime but that the killer was still out there.

"Okay. Now that we've aligned all our versions, let's go looking for Enzo," Juliette said.

They headed straight back to the car. The Barcelona nightlife in this student area was starting to pump with activity. The murder might have caused international waves, but with so many students and young people crammed into these couple of square miles, the atmosphere was still cheerful and festive.

A small car crammed with about six dark-haired men honked its horn at Juliette as it sped past, loudspeakers pulsing with a dance beat. She heard wild laughter coming from a nearby apartment. The smells of food were wafting through the air, with garlic and spice aromas adding an exotic flavor and rich smells of seafood from every restaurant door. There were strains of conversation and music and shouts, the squealing of brakes, running footsteps as people headed home and headed out.

Walking through this party atmosphere felt like a strange disconnection, given the gravity of what they were investigating.

As soon as they were in the car, Juliette checked two important facts.

Firstly, Enzo's address.

He lived a few miles away, out of town, and she estimated it would take half an hour to get there. So as not to waste any time, she began driving immediately, heading north on the coastal road, while Wyatt looked up the case notes to see what Enzo had said so that they could confirm his version.

"Here it is," Wyatt said, scanning his phone. "Enzo said he stayed for one drink, and then he left. He didn't mention anything about leaving later during the night."

Was that simple confusion, or was it an intentional lie to deflect the police's suspicion? Juliette thought it was the latter. The police could have nipped it in the bud at the time by cross-checking with Diego's version, but she was the first to admit that in the stress of a murder investigation, you didn't dot every ‘I’ and cross every ‘T’ the first time. Especially when you thought you had the killer in custody.

"At least the police have asked him to stay at home and not to leave town. So they did prioritize him as a witness who would need to be re-interviewed," Wyatt said, reading the case notes.

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