Bitter Fruits: DI Erica Martin Book 1 (Erica Martin Thriller) Read Online Free PDF Page A

building.
    ‘Do all the student residences have security systems?’ Martin asked.
    ‘Yes, the main doors all have private codes, and then the students have keys for their rooms.’
    Mrs Earl opened the door and stepped inside. As she made to go in after her, Martin noticed a tracksuited figure wearing a hoodie drawn down over their face on the other side of the street. Whoever it wasducked behind a car as soon as she noticed them. She waited for a moment, but the figure didn’t reappear. Following Mrs Earl with a frown, she ascended the stairwell to the first floor, sweating in her jacket despite the cold outside. ‘Did you know Emily well?’ she asked as they approached the door to Emily’s room.
    The receptionist shook her head. ‘Not well. Just to see around the place. It’s a small college in comparison with some of them, but there are still five hundred or so students.’ She looked up at Martin. ‘You’re not from the city, are you?’
    Martin shook her head. ‘Not from Durham itself, no.’
    Tears sprang into Mrs Earl’s eyes. ‘We’re close to each other here,’ she said. ‘It’s murder, isn’t it?’ She looked wide-eyed at Martin, who said nothing. ‘It’s a terrible thing to happen in a place.’ She wiped her eyes disbelievingly. ‘To think that Simon, of all people …’
    ‘Don’t make assumptions,’ Martin said, patting her on the arm. ‘We don’t know what’s what just yet.’
    Mrs Earl sniffed and nodded. ‘Here you are, then,’ she said, gesturing at a door covered in stickers and posters. There was a notebook stuck on the door with a pen attached with a piece of string. There was no message, but as Martin peered closer, she could see that the last page of the notebook had been ripped off, leaving a jagged edge. A faint impressionhad also been left on the page underneath, a note of some sort. Martin made a mental note to tell the SOCOs to bag it.
    ‘Thank you, Mrs Earl. You can go now if that’s all right.’ Martin smiled at her with her back to the door. After a short pause, Mrs Earl nodded again and walked away back down the corridor. Martin opened the packet she had been thrown and carefully put on the required protective clothes. She pushed open the door slowly, a pile carpet halting its progress. She wanted a moment alone in there to try and sense who Emily was – get the nub of her – before the room was turned upside down by the SOCOs, before she became subsumed in the tunnel of the investigation.
    She also wanted time to think through what had just happened – thoughts shuttling through her like headlights over tarmac on a dark country road. What was behind Rush’s confession? Was it the truth? She wasn’t sure. Why would he confess outright? Was he indeed a zoomer – insane? What was his relationship with Emily? She sighed and began to look around the room. Maybe something here could provide a clue to it all.
    It was a large room yet stifling hot as the radiators appeared to have been turned up to full. The windows were covered in condensation, undrawn curtains either side of them. A sink had been drilled into the right-hand wall next to what looked like the door ofa built-in cupboard. Two big windows faced the door through which Martin had entered and looked down on to the street below. She went to stand over the desk, which sat under the left-hand window. If she craned her neck, she could just see the central tower of Durham Cathedral to the left. To her right, the road curled away downhill, towards the hub of the city centre. If you squinted, you could imagine carriages and horses trotting down its streets instead of the BMWs and Range Rovers which glided noiselessly over the cobbles these days.
    On the desk sat a small MacBook. Martin let her gloved fingers touch the top of it lightly. She turned away from the desk. There was a lull in time; silence heavy in the air as Martin scanned the room, her eyes resting on every item for a millisecond,