Catwalk Criminal Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Where did you see her? What do you remember from that night?”
    Zak looked puzzled. “Er, why?”
    â€œJessica’s memory’s a bit hazy,” Becky said. “She keeps forgetting things, like telling me she’d met you.”
    Her dad buttoned his lips to suppress a smile. “It’d help if you could fill in the gaps from the time the lights went out.”
    Zak paused as Mattie returned with a large crystal vase filled with his flowers. She placed them on the table in the centre of the room and left again.
    â€œOf course, the blackout,” he continued. “That was odd. Do you think it was connected to what happened to Jessica? The newspaper said it wasn’t, but I did wonder. It was quite a coincidence that so many things happened at once.”
    â€œI’m sure the police will examine every angle,” her dad replied smoothly.
    Zak didn’t seem to notice that he’d sidestepped his awkward questions. “Yeah, sure. Well, the lights went off and everyone thought it was funny at first, but then a few people started to get nervous when they realized they weren’t coming back on any time soon and we’d have to be evacuated.”
    Jessica flicked her ponytail behind her back as Mattie returned with Zak’s coffee. “Did you see the other models?”
    He flashed another winning smile at Mattie and took a slurp of his drink.
    â€œI spotted Natalia and Sasha over on the other side of the room. There was enough light from the buildings outside to see a little bit. But Bree, no. I didn’t get a glimpse of her until after the armed police had gone up into the off-limits area. That’s when I followed.”
    â€œYou actually went up? All the way?”
    Zak smiled sheepishly. “Other people did too. We wouldn’t have had another chance like that to get to the top. Plus, it was like something out of an action film: the helicopter, the armed police. It was hard to resist. The adrenaline started pumping and I followed like a sheep. Baaaa.”
    The doorbell rang but Jessica ignored it. “That’s when you saw Bree?” she pressed. “At the very top?”
    â€œBree was already on her way down when we were all turned back,” Zak said slowly. “She was upset and said someone had attacked you. I asked her if any other models were up there, but she said only you and she had made it to the top.”
    That was an interesting snippet of information. Her dad leant forward in his seat; Zak had caught his attention too. He’d placed Bree very close to the scene of the crime. Sure, they didn’t get on, as Bree was always crying “teacher’s pet” because of her family connection to Nathan, but was there more to it than that? She’d been a total cow ever since Jessica had caught her using her mobile in the ladies’ loos during a surveillance training session at an MI6 centre where phones were strictly prohibited. It was confiscated later that day, along with Kat’s, during a spot check on bags, and they’d both blamed Jessica, accusing her of dobbing them in to her godfather. She hadn’t, but there was no reasoning with either of them.
    Was Bree really talking to a friend in the toilets at the MI6 training centre or was something more sinister going on? She’d been texting constantly in the dressing room ahead of the fashion show and seemed tense. Had she been giving away confidential information to someone on the outside on both occasions? Was that why she really hated Jessica, because she feared she could piece everything together and out her as a traitor to MI6? Bree had definitely become her number one suspect.
    â€œWhy did you and Bree go to the top of the Shard?” Zak asked. “Did you see that guy go up there? You know, the one doing the publicity stunt? Was that when you were mugged?”
    Jessica ignored Zak’s barrage of irritating questions. First, she