A Good Girl's Guide to Murder(90)

‘Oh yeah, sorry, the days are blurring.’ She paused, thinking. ‘I’ve always wondered why your dad does tutoring; surely he doesn’t need the money.’

‘Why,’ Cara said, ‘because my mum’s side of the family are minted?’

‘Exactly.’

‘I think he just enjoys it,’ Naomi said, placing a lit tea light through the mouth of her pumpkin. ‘He’d probably be willing to pay his tutees just to let him garble on about history.’

‘I can’t remember when he started,’ Pip said.

‘Um.’ Naomi looked up to think. ‘He started just before I was about to leave for university, I think.’

‘So, just over five years ago?’

‘Think so,’ Naomi said. ‘Why don’t you ask him? His car’s just pulled up.’

Pip stiffened, a million bumps flaring up out of her skin.

‘OK, well, I’m going to head off now anyway. Sorry.’ She grabbed her rucksack, watching the headlights flick off to darkness through the window.

‘Don’t be silly,’ Cara said, concern lining around her eyes, ‘I get it. Maybe you and I can redo Halloween when you have less on?’

‘Yeah.’

A key scraping. The back door shoved open. Footsteps crossing the utility room.

Elliot appeared in the doorway. The lenses in his glasses steamed up around the edges as he entered the warm room, smiling at the three of them. He placed his briefcase and a plastic bag down on the counter.

‘Hello, all,’ he said. ‘Gosh, teachers do love the sound of their own voices. Longest meeting of my life.’

Pip forced a laugh.

‘Wow, look at these pumpkins,’ he said, eyes flicking between them, a wide smile splitting his face. ‘Pip, are you here for dinner? I’ve just picked up some spooky Halloween potato shapes.’

He held up the frozen packet and waved it, singing a haunted ghost-like howl.





Forty-One



She got home just as her parents were leaving to take a Harry-Pottered Josh out trick-or-treating.

‘Come with us, pickle,’ Victor said as Leanne zipped him into his Ghostbusters Stay Puft Marshmallow Man costume.

‘I should stay in and study,’ she said. ‘And deal with any trick-or-treaters.’

‘Can’t give yourself the night off?’ Leanne asked.

‘Can’t. Sorry.’

‘OK, sweetie. The sweeties are by the door.’ Her mum giggled at her own joke.

‘Got it. See you later.’

Josh stepped outside waving his wand and shouting, ‘Accio candy.’

Victor grabbed his marshmallow head and followed. Leanne paused to kiss the top of Pip’s head and then closed the door behind them.

Pip watched through the glass pane in the front door. When they reached the end of the drive, she pulled out her phone and texted Ravi: COME TO MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW!

He stared down at the mug clasped between his fingers.

‘Mr Ward.’ He shook his head. ‘It can’t be.’

‘It can, though,’ Pip said, her knee rattling against the underside of the table. ‘He doesn’t have an alibi for the night Andie disappeared. I know he doesn’t. One of his daughters was at Max’s house all night and the other one was sleeping round mine.’

Ravi exhaled and it rippled through the surface of his milky tea. It must have been cold by now, like hers.

‘And he has no alibi for the Tuesday when Sal died,’ she said. ‘He called in sick to work that day; he told me himself.’

‘But Sal loved Mr Ward,’ Ravi said in the smallest voice she’d ever heard from him.

‘I know.’

The table suddenly seemed very wide between them.

‘So is he the secret older man Andie was seeing?’ Ravi said after a while. ‘The one she was meeting at the Ivy House?’

‘Maybe,’ she said. ‘Andie spoke of ruining this person; Elliot was a teacher in a position of trust. He would have been in a lot of trouble if she told someone about them. Criminal charges, jail time.’ She looked down at her own untouched tea and the shaky reflection of herself in it. ‘Andie called Elliot an arsehole to her friends in the days before she went missing. Elliot said it was because he found out Andie was a bully and contacted her father about the topless video. Maybe that’s not what it was about.’

‘How did he find out about the hit-and-run? Did Naomi tell him?’

‘I don’t think so. She said she’s never told anyone. I don’t know how he knew.’

‘There are still some gaps here,’ Ravi said.

‘I know. But he’s the one who threatened me and killed Barney. It’s him, Ravi.’

‘OK.’ Ravi locked his wide and drained eyes on hers. ‘So how do we prove it?’

Pip moved her mug away and leaned on the table. ‘Elliot tutors three times a week,’ she said. ‘I’d never really thought it was weird until tonight. The Wards don’t need to worry about money; his wife’s life insurance paid out a lot and Isobel’s parents are still alive and are super rich. Plus Elliot is head of department at school; he’s probably on a really good salary. He only started tutoring just over five years ago, in 2012.’