I smile as warmly as I can. I don’t want her clamming up.
‘Sorry, it’s just – I don’t know if police told you this, but she had actually been attending antenatal classes, in Greenwich.’
Jane considers this. ‘Well, that’s weird,’ she agrees. ‘And she looked pregnant, did she?’
I nod. ‘That’s how she met my friend Helen, how we got to know her. I mean – she looked pregnant to us.’
‘Well, I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe she was, maybe she wasn’t.’
I walk over to the window, try to think logically. Could Rachel really have faked being pregnant? And if she wasn’t pregnant, and she didn’t live in Greenwich, what reason could she possibly have had to be at that antenatal class? There must have been something. Some reason she would want to get close to Helen. To us. I change tack.
‘Before she moved out – had Rachel been seeing anyone?’
Jane shakes her head. ‘I mean, she had blokes back here, I’m pretty sure of that. They didn’t exactly stay around for breakfast, though, if you know what I mean.’
‘Do you know who?’
She shakes her head. ‘I assumed it was just guys she picked up at the club.’
‘The club?’
‘Yeah. The club. Where she worked. What’s it called – the X?’ Her eyes narrow. ‘Hang on, I thought you said you were her friend. Didn’t you even know where she worked?’
‘She wasn’t working anywhere when we got to know her,’ I stutter. ‘Are you sure it’s that club? The X?’
‘Sure,’ Jane says. ‘I went there once. Didn’t care for it. Full of smackheads.’
I take a deep breath, try to smile. ‘OK,’ I say. ‘I guess I’m just a bit surprised that … she would work there. That she would pick up guys at a club. I didn’t think she was like that.’
Jane snorts with laughter. ‘Well, think again. Sorry, but she was a nutcase.’
I try to smile again, though I’m definitely not warming to Jane. ‘I’m sorry, I’m sure the police have already asked. But, well, we’re all so worried. Do you have any idea where she might have gone?’
‘Nope.’ Jane shakes her head, wipes a smudge of pasta sauce from the side of her mouth with her hand. ‘We had a row when she left. About the rent. She was late with it. And then I saw she had all these fifty-pound notes in her purse. Must have been at least a grand in there. I was livid. But she refused to hand it over. It was six hundred pounds she owed us. Still does.’
Jane picks her fork up again.
‘I told her if she wasn’t going to pay rent, she needed to go. My dad’s a solicitor. I told her we’d take her to court. I know it sounds harsh, but me and my flatmates – we’d had enough. It wasn’t just the drinking, the smoking, the blokes, the mess. She was just so weird, and rude. And – ugh, she was just mental.’ She shivers at the memory. ‘Sorry. Maybe she was going through a bad time, I don’t know. Anyway, she left then. Didn’t say a word. She packed up her things, took her suitcase, and left. She said we could keep her desk.’ Jane motions to Rachel’s old room with her dirty fork, gives a hollow laugh. ‘As if an old desk makes up for the ￡600. It’s a piece of shit from Ikea! I don’t know what she even used it for. It’s not as if she was studying or anything. But she would sit there for hours, playing her annoying music. She used to say she was doing some project. She had all these newspaper cuttings up on that wall at one point. She left about a thousand Blu-Tack marks. We’ll probably lose our deposit.’
‘Newspaper cuttings? Of what? What was the project about?’
‘Oh God knows. I didn’t look, I didn’t care.’
‘Do you mind if I take a look? At her cuttings?’
‘She took them all with her,’ Jane gestures to the hallway. ‘It’s just mess in there. Just a pile of old rubbish.’
‘Still, can I see? Was it the room at the end?’
Jane finishes her plate of pasta, takes it to the sink. Then she turns around and glares at me.
‘Do you know what, actually, yes. I do mind. You shouldn’t even be here. I don’t know what you’re doing, digging around, but I don’t want to get involved. I don’t want anything to do with it.’
Jane turns back to the sink and turns the tap on full, as if to indicate our conversation is over. ‘I think you should probably go now.’