Кара Хантер - All the Rage

We didn't do anything to her.VE: Yes, you did. You pulled out her hair. That's what makes it Actual Bodily Harm. And you did untold psychological damage. Faith thought she was going to be killed `“ raped `“PW: How can she be raped? She's not even a fucking girl `“DW: Patsie `“ ES: So you are admitting to involvement in the abduction of Faith Appleford on the morning of April 1st 2018?PW: For fuck's sake , it wasn't abduction , it was a joke .VE: Just now you said `˜we' didn't do anything. Who else was with you?PW: Iz. And Leah. They met me at the allotments.ES: So none of you were really ill at all. You just told your parents you were.PW: [ silence ]VE: And you drove Ashley Brotherton's van. Your boyfriend's van.DW: What boyfriend ? Since when have you had a boyfriend?PW: [ to her mother ]

Since you started spending all day every day with that creep Lee and stopped giving a toss about me, that's when.ES: Ashley told us he had no idea that you were going to borrow it.PW: Nah, well, I wasn't going to actually tell him, was I. He'd have hidden the bloody keys. He gave me all sorts of shit about it afterwards.ES: So you planned it. You knew about the funeral and you planned the whole thing.PW: Are you thick or something? It was an April Fool. It had to be that day.VE: Ashley wanted to go to the police as soon as he found out, but you told him you'd tell us he had sex with you even though you're underage. He was frightened he might lose his job `“PW: Yeah, well, he's not that bright.ES: Why did you pick on Faith, Patsie? Why her, in particular?PW: [ shrugs ]

Dunno.ES: I think you know very well. You see, when we first started investigating what happened to Faith, we assumed it must have been a hate crime. We thought her attacker must have known her secret and picked on her because of it. But however hard we tried we couldn't find anyone who actually knew about it. No one outside her immediate family had any idea.PW: [ silence ]ES: But that's the whole point, isn't it, Patsie? Nadine knew. And she told you. DW: You can't prove any of that.ES: Patsie just proved it herself. She said Faith `˜isn't even a girl'. There's only one way she could know that.PW: Like I said `“ it was an April Fool `“VE: Why did Nadine tell you about her sister, Patsie? Because she wanted to fit in? Because she wanted you to like her?PW: We were just having a laugh, all right? We said she could be our friend if she told us a secret. Something no one else knew.DW: Oh my God `“ES: But you had no intention of being her friend, did you? You were just using her. You took what she told you and used it to betray her. In the most vicious, unkind way imaginable.PW: Stupid bitch was going apeshit. About her bloody sister and how she'd never have told us if she'd known. When we heard sirens we thought she'd called the fucking police.VE: What about the carrier bag? Where did you get that?PW: Iz nicked it off her. Dozy cow didn't even notice.ES: So what about Sasha?PW: I told you, that was nothing to do with us.VE: Even though the details are almost exactly the same? The plastic bag? The cable ties? You did that deliberately, didn't you `“ so the police would think there was some sort of sexual predator on the loose `“JB: If I might say so, Officer, everything you've just said makes an extremely compelling case for Nadine Appleford as the killer of Sasha Blake. She knew exactly what had happened to Faith and was therefore in an ideal position to carry out a perfect copycat crime. She had the means, and she had an extremely powerful motive: revenge. She wanted to incriminate Patsie and the other girls, and get her own back on those who had rejected her and humiliated her sister.PW: Yeah `“ exactly. That's exactly what must of happened `“VE: So you're saying Nadine planned it `“ that she deliberately set out to kill Sasha in a carbon-copy of what had happened to Faith, just to frame Patsie and the others?JB: Can you prove she didn't?ES: So why didn't she tell us Patsie and the others had assaulted Faith right at the start? Why wait all this time on the off-chance we'd work it out for ourselves?JB: You'll have to ask her about that, Officer. Who knows what was going on in her head. She's clearly extremely disturbed.PW: Right `“ Nadine's fucking weird `“DW: Patsie, please `“JB: Does Nadine have an alibi, for example? Because my client does. As well you know. Sasha, Patsie and Isabel were all on that bus together, and you have a ticket that proves it.ES: It's a great theory, Mr Beck. There's just one problem with it. How on earth could Nadine have known where Sasha would be that night? That precise place, that precise time `“ how could she possibly have found that out?PW: That's easy. Because she bloody spied on us, that's how.* * *

`˜Do you think that's true, what Patsie said?'

Gallagher is staring at the screen, her arms folded rigid and her foot tapping against the floor.

`˜That Nadine spied on them? I'm afraid it's only too feasible. Nadine was desperate to belong `“ I can easily see her eavesdropping on what they were up to.'

`˜Let's see what Isabel and Leah have to say about that. Quinn and Gislingham are picking them up separately, so they don't get a chance to compare notes.'

It should reassure me, but it doesn't.

`˜One thing I do know is that those girls will have got their stories straight long before this. Isabel and Leah are going to back up anything Patsie comes out with. Which means whatever Nadine says, it'll only be her word against theirs. And right now we can't even place them at the scene, never mind actually charge them.'

Gallagher sighs. `˜A bunch of fifteen-year-old kids with half Thames Valley CID on to them, and we can't even break their bloody alibis.'

* * *

`˜DC Somer?'

It's Nina Mukerjee, standing in the doorway of the Applefords' kitchen.

They started upstairs. Nadine's room, Diane's room, Faith's room, the bathroom. Bagging, tagging and taking away. And now they're in the kitchen, barely twenty feet from where Somer has been sitting with Diane Appleford, trying desperately to pretend she's interested in an ancient episode of Law Order .

`˜Can you come in here for a moment?'

Nina's keeping her voice light but Somer isn't deceived. They wouldn't be calling her in otherwise.

Diane glances up, suddenly alarmed.

`˜It's OK, Mrs Appleford, I'll just be a minute.'

Nina leads her back down the hall. In the kitchen, the contents of the cutlery drawer are laid out on the table.

`˜I was just about to process these, but I thought you ought to see them first.'

The knives have metal handles and serrated edges.

`˜What's going on?' Diane Appleford is hesitating at the threshold, her face bleached greenish in the overhead light. `˜They're just bloody steak knives,' she says. `˜There must be hundreds in this sodding city. Thousands.'

`˜I know,' says Somer, `˜it's just procedure `“'

`˜What am I going to say to Faith?' she says, her voice breaking now. `˜She's refusing to come home. She won't even talk to me.'

`˜Look, that may be for the best,' says Somer, moving towards Diane. `˜Give her time. This is tough on her `“ on all of you.'

There are footsteps on the stairs now, and low voices in the hall. Low enough to be discreet, but still loud enough to be heard.

`˜You've got all the clothes?' It's Clive Conway's voice; he's talking to the junior CSI.

`˜Yup, I've got everything that was on the list. I've also bagged the shoes. One set of trainers have smears of dried mud, and I think there's other trace too, so we could get lucky.'