Tana French - The Secret Place

I said, ‘Rebecca was going through the shovels and spades in the groundskeepers’ shed. The day before the murder.’

Conway went still. Stopped breathing.

After a moment: ‘Who said?’

‘Gemma. She was looking to buy diet pills, walked in on Rebecca. Rebecca jumped a mile, did a legger.’

‘Gemma. Joanne’s lapdog Gemma.’

‘I don’t think she was bullshitting me. They weren’t covering for themselves, anyway. They didn’t cop that there was anything dodgy about Rebecca being at the tools. They thought the suss bit was her being in there at all – thought she was buying drugs off the groundskeeper to give to Chris, because she was into him, and then he turned her down and she lost it. I said Rebecca was too small to do the job; they said if Chris was sitting down, she could’ve hit him with a rock. If they knew the weapon was a hoe, no way could they have stopped themselves bringing it up. They don’t have that kind of self-control. They don’t know.’

Conway still hadn’t moved: feet braced, shoulders braced, hands dug in her pockets. Things going fast behind her eyes. She said, ‘I don’t see it. The drugs thing, maybe that could play; Rebecca could’ve been bribing Chris to stay away from Selena. But remember the condom? Chris went out there expecting a ride. You think Rebecca’d been shagging him? Seriously?’

I said, ‘I don’t think the earlier meetings were Rebecca. Remember what Holly said? When she realised something was up with Selena, she tried to talk to Julia about it. Julia didn’t want to know: told her to forget it, Selena’d get over it sooner or later. Does that sound like Julia to you? She’s a scrapper. One of her mates is in trouble, she’s just going to stick her fingers in her ears, hope it goes away?’

Conway moved then. Her head went back, moonlight on the whites of her eyes. ‘Julia was already on it.’

‘Yeah. She didn’t want Holly getting involved, making things more complicated. So she told her to leave it.’

‘ Fuck ,’ Conway said. ‘Remember what Joanne told us? She put her bitches on night duty, make sure Selena had stopped sneaking out to see Chris. No sign of Selena, but they saw Julia, all right. They thought she was meeting Finn Carroll. And we went along with that. Pair of fucking fools.’

I said, ‘No way to keep a secret for long, in a room that size. Somewhere in there, Rebecca found out – either about Chris and Selena, or about Chris and Julia.’

‘Yeah. And Holly said even the thought of anything being wrong with any of them made Rebecca go mental.’

‘The thought of the four of them not being enough to make everything OK. She couldn’t handle that.’ I saw the poster, the calligraphy that had taken hours, weeks, a fresh start for every finger-slip. If crouds of dangers should appeare, Yet friendship can be unconcern’d.

Conway said, ‘This doesn’t mean Holly’s out.’

She didn’t say it the way she would have an hour or two before, a sideways eye checking me for a flinch or a flicker. Just said it. Eyes narrowed up at the school building, like it was daring her.

I said, ‘Right. Doesn’t rule out Julia, either, or the whole three of them: for all we know it was one to find the weapon, one to lure Chris to the grove, one to do the job when he had his mind on other things. All we know for sure is Rebecca’s in.’

‘Get anything else?’

After a moment I said, ‘That’s it.’

Conway’s face came round to me. ‘But what?’

‘But.’ I wanted to twist away from it, but she needed to know. ‘Joanne and them, they weren’t pleased when I said I had to head. They were trying to do something, I don’t even know what. Flirt with me, get me to stay. Something like that.’

‘Any touching?’

‘Yeah. Joanne put her finger on my leg. I talked them down, she took the hand away, I got the fuck out of Dodge.’

Conway watched me. ‘Is this you saying I shouldn’t have thrown you into the shark tank all on your ownio?’

‘No. I’m a big boy. If I hadn’t’ve wanted to talk to them, I wouldn’t have.’

‘’Cause I would’ve done it myself, if I could. But I’d have got nothing. It had to be you.’

Me, the perfect bait, whatever whoever wanted. ‘I know. I’m only telling you. I figure you should know.’

She nodded. ‘Don’t worry about it.’ She saw me shift, Easy for you to say. ‘Seriously. They won’t say anything. The amount we’ve got on them, they’d have to be mental to try and fuck with us. You think they want McKenna knowing about the diet pills? The sneaking out at night?’

‘They might not think that far.’

Conway snorted. ‘They’re experts on thinking that far. That’s what they do.’ More seriously, whatever she saw in my face: ‘They’re scary fuckers, but we’ve got them pinned down. OK?’

‘Yeah,’ I said. The way she said it – scary fuckers – like she knew, like she’d been there: that was what helped, more than the reassurance. ‘OK.’

‘Good.’ Conway clapped me on the shoulder. Awkward as a boy, but her hand felt strong and steady. ‘Fair play to you.’

I said, ‘It’s not enough. We’ve got enough to arrest Rebecca, but the DPP won’t charge her on this. If she doesn’t confess-’

Conway was shaking her head. ‘Not even enough for an arrest. If she was some skanger kid, then yeah, sure, haul her in and see how far we get. But a girl from Kilda’s? We arrest her, we have to be able to charge her. No ifs. Otherwise we’re fucked. O’Kelly’s gonna pop a vein, McKenna’s gonna pop a vein, the Commissioner’s phone’s gonna be ringing off the hook, the media’ll scream cover-up, and we’ll be sharing a desk in Records till we retire.’ That bitter curl to her mouth. ‘Unless you’ve got friends in high places.’

‘That was the best I’d got.’ I nodded upwards, towards the art room. ‘And I’d say that’s well scuppered now.’

That got part of a laugh. ‘Then we need more on Rebecca. And we need it fast. We have to get her in custody tonight, or we’re fucked. Julia and Holly, they’re both smart enough to figure out where this is going – if they don’t already know.’

I said, ‘Holly knows.’

‘Yeah. We leave the four of them together overnight, they’ll talk. We’ll come back tomorrow morning and they’ll have their stories all nice and matched up, butter won’t melt, they’ll have worked out exactly where to lie and where to keep their mouths shut. Not a chance in hell we’ll crack them.’

I said, ‘We won’t crack Holly now. She’s given us everything she’s going to.’

Conway was shaking her head again. ‘Forget her. And Selena. We need Julia.’

I remembered what she had said earlier: This year Julia’s watching us like we’re actual people, you and me. And then: I can’t work out if that’s gonna be a good thing or a bad one.

‘Mackey and Holly,’ I said. ‘Leave them where they are, yeah?’

‘Yeah. We might need them again, and we don’t want them running around getting in our way. If they don’t like it-’

This time we both froze. Only a few yards behind us, round the front of the boarders’ wing, someone’s foot had slid on pebbles.

Conway’s eyes met mine. She mouthed Mackey .

We moved fast and silent, swung round the corner together. The carriage sweep was wide and white, empty. The grass was bare. In the dark crack of the door, nothing moved.

Conway cupped a forearm round her eyes, blocking out the floodlights, and squinted into the trees. Nothing.

‘D’you know where Julia is?’

‘Didn’t see them. They’re not on the back lawn.’

She eased back into the shadow. Said, for no one farther than me, ‘They’ll be in that glade.’