The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5)(119)

Keep her isolated, so she couldn’t spread the story. I stood up, kept my smile nailed in place. One of my feet had gone to sleep.

Alison pulled herself up by the banister rail, but she stayed there, holding onto it with both thin hands. In the white air her face looked greenish. She said, to Conway, ‘Orla told us about that case you did. With the—’ A shudder twisted her. ‘The, the dog. The ghost dog.’

‘Yeah,’ Conway said. More hair had come out of her bun. ‘Nasty one, that was.’

‘Once the guy confessed. Did the dog – did it keep coming back for him?’

Conway examined her. Said, ‘Why?’

Alison’s face looked bonier, fallen in. ‘Chris,’ she said. ‘In there, in the common room. He was there. In the window.’

Her certainty hooked me in the spine, pulled a shiver. The hysteria rising up again, somewhere behind the air: gone for now, not for good.

‘Yeah,’ Conway said. ‘I got that.’

‘Yeah, but . . . he was there because of me. Earlier, too, out here in the corridor. He came to get me, because I hadn’t told you about Holly with the phone. In the common room’ – she swallowed – ‘he was looking right at me. Grinning at—’ Another shudder, rougher, wrenching at her breath. ‘If you hadn’t come in then, if you hadn’t . . . Is he . . . is he going to come back for me?’

Conway said, stern, ‘Have you told us everything? Every single thing you know?’

‘I swear. I swear.’

‘Then Chris won’t be coming back for you. He might hang around the school, all right, because there’s plenty of other people keeping secrets that he wants them to tell us. But he won’t be back for you. You probably won’t even be able to see him any more.’

Alison’s mouth opened and a little rush of breath came out. She looked relieved, right to the bone, and she looked disappointed.

Far away down the corridor, through the silence, a long soft wail. For a second I thought it was coming from a girl, or something worse, but it was only the creak of the common-room door opening.

McKenna said, and I know a deeply f*cked-off woman when I hear one, ‘Detectives. If it’s not too much trouble, I would like to speak with you. Now.’

‘We’ll be there in ten minutes,’ Conway said. To McKenna, but she was looking at me. Those dark eyes, and the silence falling like snow between us, so thick I couldn’t read them.

To me: ‘Time to go.’





Chapter 20


An April afternoon, finishing up after-school volleyball. It’s spring, the grounds are exploding with bluebells and daffodils in every corner, but the sky is thick and grey, and it’s airless without actually being warm; the sweat won’t dry off their skins. Julia flips her ponytail up to cool the back of her neck. Chris Harper has just under a month left to live.

They’re picking up the volleyballs, taking their time because the showers will be full anyway by the time they get inside. Behind them, the Daleks are taking down the nets, slowly, bitching about something – Gemma calls, ‘. . . thighs like two walruses shagging, disgusting . . .’ but it’s not clear if she’s talking about someone else or about herself.

Julia calls, ‘Saturday night. We’re going, yeah?’ It’s the social evening at Colm’s.

‘Can’t,’ Holly yells back, from a corner of the courts. ‘I asked. Family time blah blah.’

‘Same,’ Becca says, tossing a ball into the bag. ‘My mum’s home. Although she’d actually probably be delighted if I put on an entire makeup counter and a miniskirt and went.’

‘Make her day,’ Julia says. ‘Come home drunk, E’d up and pregnant.’

‘I’m saving those for her birthday.’

‘Lenie?’

‘I’m at my dad’s.’

‘Well, f*ck,’ Julia says. ‘Finn Carroll owes me that tenner, and I need it. My earbuds are going.’

‘I’ll sub you,’ Holly says, spiking the last ball at the bag and missing. ‘It’s not like I’m going to get any shopping in this weekend anyway.’

‘I want to rub it in, though. That smug bastard.’ Julia has just noticed how much she’s looking forward to seeing Finn.

‘He’ll be at the debating next week.’

For a second Julia considers going to the social on her own, but no. ‘I know, yeah. I’ll catch him then.’

They give the courts one more scan, and head off. ‘Water,’ Julia says, as they pass the tap by the gate, and peels off from the other three. Up ahead, Ms Waldron calls, ‘Chop-chop, girls! Hup, two, three, four, march!’ The others drift on, Becca spinning in circles swinging the bag of volleyballs, leaving Julia to catch up.

She drinks out of her hand, splashes her face and her neck. The water is underground-cold and gives her a quick, pleasurable shiver. A stream of geese pour overhead, honking, and Julia squints up to see them against the clouds.

She’s turning away from the tap when the Daleks march up. Joanne stops right in front of Julia, folds her arms and stares. The other three fan out and stop one step behind Joanne, fold their arms and stare.

They’re blocking Julia in. None of them say anything.