A Victim's Diary

19

Jonathan Wilkes didn't look like he was 56 years old. He looked like he was maybe in his early forties. He had certainly kept fit, but that didn't stop him from having a little belly. After all, from a certain age onwards everyone's metabolism slowed down and it wasn't as easy anymore to stave off any bit of weight gain. Still, it didn't make him unattractive at all. His hair was greying only a little – just the right amount to look interesting and mature. Alistair could see why Ruby would have thought him attractive.

And for someone who owned his own business, he had a strangely relaxed air about him. Almost as if he was friendly with every person in the world. It seemed quite superficial, or that's at least what Alistair thought. A young girl like Ruby might have easily been impressed by that kind of façade, especially as it was paired with the handsome face and the fact that he was her boss. Authority was something that made people more attractive almost immediately and it had always confused Alistair.

Apparently Mr. Wilkes had been very friendly and accommodating when it came to making an appointment for him to come to the station for an interview. He had heard about Ruby's death, of course. The police tried to stave the media off for as long as possible, but it was never 100% possible. And sometimes it might make sense to report about a certain crime, especially when there might be some useful tips from the public, if people might have seen something as they were out on the streets.

Either way, Mr. Wilkes' readiness to come in for an interview was both refreshing and suspicious to Alistair. It was a bit unusual for a businessman like Wilkes to just leave everything and come in for an interview last minute like this. This readiness to cooperate... it was often a cover for something. Someone who was eager to talk to the police about a certain crime was someone that most people wouldn't think had anything to hide. It was a good cover if they didn't want any detective to dig deeper into a certain matter. Or maybe Alistair had just become very cynical over the years. He wouldn't be surprised.

Wilkes arrived fashionably late at the police station – but not too late to make things awkward. He arrived somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes after he was supposed to be there and he came in with a big smile, apologizing quickly for being late and citing the traffic as the reason for why he was late.

Alistair wasn't sure whether he could trust him. Everything about him just seemed way too innocuous. He almost didn't seem like a real person that way. Especially when Alistair thought about his inappropriate behaviour in the workplace. Randomly touching the new young employee? It just seemed dodgy. It didn't fit the image that Wilkes was trying to project right now. Then again, Alistair wasn't sure whether he was being unfair. Johnson seemed to be getting along with him just fine, he even commented about how nice this guy was. But Johnson was Johnson and Alistair was sure he had no idea what he was talking about.

Either way, there was a good chance that Alistair was being unfair. He had developed a distrust of any sort of senior managers or businessmen over the years. There had been so many cases of them committing outrageous crimes that were well-documented and they got off lightly because they could pay the best lawyers. It wasn't right, it wasn't fair, but for some reason that was how things worked.

Either way, Alistair didn't think that letting Wilkes wait would really give him much of an edge here. He'd better get this thing over with. After all, there wasn't much reason to ask leading questions of any sort. All he needed to know was about their relationship and whether Wilkes had an alibi for the night of the murder.

As soon as Alistair entered the interrogation room, he was greeted with a wide smile by Wilkes. Alistair went around the table and sat down opposite him, looking at his notes, before looking up at him with a small smile.

"Good morning, Mr. Wilkes. Thank you for coming in on such short notice." he said. Wilkes nodded and took a sip of water.

"No problem at all, Detective. Miss Daniels was a great employee, so if there's anything I can do to help..." he answered.