‘Sorry. Place is a bit crazy. I don’t get many visitors.’
‘You obviously like comics,’ Cody says.
‘I collect them. Some people collect coins or stamps or watches or whatever. I collect comics. Any money I have left at the end of the month goes on comics. I got some rare ones in my bedroom cupboard. I don’t normally tell people that, but I guess it’s okay to tell you guys. You like comics?’
‘Used to. I prefer books now.’
‘Oh, I like them too, but comics are much better. Some of the artwork is incredible. Like masterpieces, you know? Who’s your favourite superhero?’
Finding himself drawn in, Cody begins to summon memories of the comics he read as a kid. He is interrupted by Webley.
‘Toby, we need to ask you about something, okay?’
‘Uh, sure. I haven’t done nothing wrong, have I?’
‘That depends. We want to ask you about a woman you know.’
‘I don’t know many women. Actually, I don’t know many people.’
‘I think you know this one. Her name’s Alexa Selby.’
Toby’s face drops, his voice becomes sullen. ‘Oh. Her.’
‘Why do you say it like that?’
‘She got me into trouble. Is that what this is about?’
‘Tell us about how she got you into trouble.’
‘You don’t know?’
‘We want to hear your side of the story.’
‘She… she works at the leisure centre in Heswall. I used to go to her exercise class. She got me thrown out. I can’t ever go back there again.’
‘Why did she have you thrown out?’
‘She told them I was saying inappropriate things about her. But I wasn’t.’
‘What was it you said?’
‘I just told her she looked nice.’
‘Nice? That was it? You wouldn’t get thrown out for that, Toby. There must have been more to it.’
‘A little. But nothing terrible. I told her she looks a lot like Kara Zor-El.’
‘Who?’
Toby turns to point at one of the posters on his walls. ‘Her! Supergirl. I told Alexa that she looks a lot like her, and that she would look great in that costume with the short skirt and everything because she has such a fit body, you know, and—’
‘Okay, Toby, I get the picture. So, she reported you for saying those things and then your membership was cancelled, is that right?’
‘Yeah.’
‘And what made you start going to those classes in the first place? Was it because of her?’
‘Kind of. I’ve never been very fit. At school I was hopeless at sports.’
Cody doesn’t find this difficult to believe. He has to stop himself feeling too sorry for this man who, until proven otherwise, could still be their murderer.
Toby reaches for one of his superhero comic books and shows the cover to the detectives.
‘I wanted to look more like these guys. Have you seen those muscles? People don’t bully you or tease you when you look like that.’ He puts the comic down again, staring wistfully at it. ‘I mean, I know I could never look exactly like that. But I wanted to be fitter, you know? So, I started looking around for classes, and I found Alexa’s body conditioning class on the internet. She had videos online, and I could see that both men and women were doing it. And besides, she looked a lot like Supergirl…’
‘So, you signed up. But not just because of how she looked, or how other women in the class were dressed?’
Toby stares at Webley. ‘No. Of course not. What sort of guy do you think I am?’
‘We don’t know anything about you, Toby. A staff member at the leisure centre told us that Alexa said you were staring at her and other women in the class.’
‘What? No. I mean, I had to look at Alexa because she was the instructor, right? And sometimes I would check out the other people in the class to see if I was doing the moves properly. But I wasn’t being a perv or nothing. Maybe… maybe Alexa got the wrong idea about me because of the way I spoke to her. I’m not very good at talking to women, especially pretty ones. Like you, for instance.’
Webley blinks. ‘Me?’
‘Yeah. I think you’re beautiful, but maybe I’m not supposed to say that, with you being in the police and everything, but that’s what I think, and sometimes I just come right out and say what’s in my head. Is that bad?’
Cody sees that Webley is looking somewhat flustered and decides to help her out.
