A Good Girl's Guide to Murder(92)

Rucksack settled beside her, Pip watched as Elliot closed her door and climbed in the driver’s seat. When Cara and Pip had clicked in their seat belts, he started the engine.

‘So what happened, Pip?’ he asked, waiting for a group of kids to cross the road before pulling out of the car park and on to the drive.

‘I’m not sure,’ she said. ‘I think I just landed on it funny.’

‘You don’t need me to take you to A&E, do you?’

‘No,’ she said, ‘I’m sure it’ll be fine in a couple of days.’ She pulled out her phone and checked it was on silent. She’d had it turned off most of the day and the battery was almost full.

Elliot batted Cara’s hand away when she started flicking through the radio stations.

‘My car, my cheesy music,’ he said. ‘Pip?’

She jumped and almost dropped the phone.

‘Is your ankle swollen?’ he said.

‘Um . . .’ She bent forward and reached down to feel it, the phone in her hand. Pretending to knead her ankle, she twisted her wrist and pushed the phone far underneath the back seat. ‘A little bit,’ she said, straightening up, her face flushed with blood. ‘Not too bad.’

‘OK, that’s good,’ he said, winding through the traffic up the high street. ‘You should sit with it raised up this evening.’

‘Yeah, I will,’ she said and caught his eye in the rear-view mirror. And then: ‘I’ve just realized it’s a tutoring day. I’m not going to make you late, am I? Where do you have to get to?’

‘Oh, don’t worry,’ he said, indicating left down Pip’s road. ‘I’ve only got to get over to Old Amersham. It’s no bother.’

‘Phew, OK.’

Cara was asking what was for dinner as Elliot slowed and swung into Pip’s drive.

‘Oh, your mum is home,’ he said, nodding towards Leanne’s car as he pulled to a stop.

‘Is she?’ Pip felt her heart doubling, scared that the air around her was visibly throbbing. ‘Her viewing must have been cancelled last minute. I should have checked, sorry.’

‘Don’t be silly.’ Elliot turned round to her. ‘Do you need help to the door?’

‘No,’ she said quickly, grabbing her rucksack. ‘No, thank you, I’ll be fine.’

She pushed open the car door and started to shuffle out.

‘Wait,’ Cara said suddenly.

Pip froze. Please say she hasn’t seen the phone. Please.

‘Will I see you before your exam tomorrow?’

‘Oh,’ Pip said, breathing again. ‘No, I have to register at the office and go to the room first thing.’

‘OK, well, goooooood luuuuuuuck,’ she said, drawing out the words in sing-song bursts. ‘You’ll do amazing, I’m sure. I’ll come find you after.’

‘Yes, best of luck, Pip,’ Elliot smiled. ‘I would say break a leg but I think the timing is a little off for that.’

Pip laughed, so hollow it almost echoed. ‘Thanks,’ she said, ‘and thanks for the lift.’ She leaned into the car door and pushed it shut.

Limping up to the house, her ears pricked, listening to the rumble of Elliot’s car as it drove away. She opened her front door and dropped the limp.

‘Hello,’ Leanne called from the kitchen. ‘Do you want the kettle on?’

‘Um, no thanks,’ she said, loitering in the doorway. ‘Ravi’s coming over for a bit to help me study for my exam.’

Her mum gave her a look.

‘What?’

‘Don’t think I don’t know my own daughter,’ she said, washing mushrooms in the colander. ‘She only works alone and has a reputation for making other children cry in group projects. Studying, indeed.’ She gave her the look again. ‘Keep your door open.’

‘Jeez, I will.’

Just as she was starting up the stairs a Ravi-shaped blur knocked at the front door.

Pip let him in and he called, ‘Hello,’ to her mum as he followed her upstairs to her room.

‘Door open,’ Pip said when Ravi went to close it.

She sat cross-legged on her bed and Ravi pulled the desk chair over to sit in front of her.

‘All good?’ he said.

‘Yep, it’s under the back seat.’

‘OK.’

He unlocked his phone and opened the Find My Friends app. Pip leaned in closer and, heads almost touching, they stared down at the map on screen.

Pip’s little orange avatar was parked outside the Wards’ house on Hogg Hill. Ravi clicked refresh but there it stayed.

‘He hasn’t left yet,’ Pip said.

Shuffled footsteps drew along the corridor and Pip looked up to see Josh standing in her doorway.

‘Pippo,’ he said, fiddling with his springy hair, ‘can Ravi come down and play FIFA with me?’

Ravi and Pip turned to look at each other.

‘Um, not now, Josh,’ she said. ‘We’re quite busy.’

‘I’ll come down and play later, OK, bud?’ Ravi said.

‘OK.’ Josh dropped his arm in defeat and padded away.

‘He’s on the move,’ Ravi said, refreshing the map.