The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5)(122)

‘Back in a sec,’ she says to the others, and starts to speed up. It feels all wrong, wanting to get away from them snagging at her, to Finn where it’s safe and easy.

Holly says after her, ‘Careful.’ Julia rolls her eyes and doesn’t look back. She can feel Holly watching her all the way across the Field.

‘Hey,’ she says, pulling herself up onto the breeze blocks next to Finn.

His face lights up. He stops drawing and straightens. ‘Hi,’ he says. ‘How come you’re not going Saturday?’

‘Family shit.’ The Daleks have exploded into a flappy little whirlwind of sniggers and glances. Julia waves and blows them a kiss.

‘Man,’ Finn says, putting his pen away in a jeans pocket. ‘They don’t like you, do they?’

‘No shit,’ Julia says. ‘And I don’t like them, so it’s all good. What’ve you got for me?’

‘You first.’

Julia has been looking forward to this for weeks. ‘Ta-da,’ she says, holding out her phone. She can’t keep the grin off her face.

The photo shows her on the back lawn, which was dumb because any of the nuns could have looked out of their bedroom windows, but Julia was feeling daring. Duckface, hand on cocked hip, other hand flourished over her head pointing up at the clock. Midnight, bang on.

(‘Are you positive?’ Holly asked, Julia’s phone in her hand.

‘Hell yes,’ Julia said, glancing up at the clock to make sure it would fit in the shot. ‘Why not?’

‘Because he’s going to know we sneak out, is why not.’ Behind Holly’s head, Selena and Becca watched from under the trees, pale bobbing faces, waiting.

‘We never said anything about not trusting guys,’ Julia said. ‘Just not touching them.’

‘Yeah, and we never said anything about, like, skipping around telling anyone who’s a good laugh.’

‘Finn’s not going to rat on us,’ Julia said. ‘I swear. OK?’

Holly shrugged. Julia struck a pose and pointed over her head at the clock. ‘Go,’ she said.

The flash blazed white lines of trees across their eyes like lightning and Holly and Julia ran for cover, ducking low, gasping with laughter.) ‘I’ll take my tenner now,’ Julia says. ‘And an apology. I like them with extra grovelling.’

‘Fair enough,’ Finn says. ‘You want me to get down on my knees?’

‘Tempting, but nah. Just make it good.’

Finn puts one hand on his heart. ‘I apologise for saying you would be scared of anything in the universe. You’re a fearless superhero who could kick my arse, or Wolverine’s arse, or a mad gorilla’s arse.’

‘Yeah, I am,’ Julia says. ‘You’re forgiven. That was beautiful.’

‘Good pic,’ Finn says, having another look. ‘Who took it? One of your mates, yeah?’

‘The ghost nun. Told you I was badass.’ Julia takes her phone back. ‘Tenner.’

‘Hold your horses,’ Finn says, pulling out his phone. ‘I’ve got a surprise for you, remember?’

If this is a photo of his dick, Julia thinks, I will kill the f*cker. ‘Make my day,’ she says.

Finn hands her the phone and grins, that same straight-on wicked kid-grin, and Julia feels a rush of relief and guilt and warmth. She wants to touch him, hip-bump him off the breeze blocks or hook her elbow around his neck or something, to apologise for underestimating him all over again.

‘Great minds,’ Finn says, and nods at the phone.

Him, on the back lawn, in almost exactly the same spot. Black hoodie pulled up over the red hair – he played it smarter than she did – and one hand above his head, just like her, pointing up at the clock. Midnight.

The first thing Julia feels is outrage: Our place, at night that’s our place, can’t we even have— Then she realises.

‘Still want your tenner?’ Finn says. He’s grinning away, like a Labrador bringing home something rotten, looking for pats and praise. ‘Or will we call it evens?’

Julia says, ‘How’d you get out of school?’

Finn doesn’t notice the change in her voice; he’s too pleased with his big surprise. ‘Trade secret.’

Julia pulls it together. ‘Wow,’ she says. Big admiring eyes, sway in towards Finn. ‘I didn’t know you guys could do that.’

And this time she’s not underestimating. He’s delighted with himself, with how smart he is, dying to impress her even more. ‘I hotwired the fire-door alarm. Got the instructions online. It took me like five minutes. I can’t open it from outside, obviously, but I stuck a piece of wood in to keep it open while I was out.’

‘OhmyGod,’ Julia says, hand over her mouth. It’s so easy. ‘If someone had gone past and seen it, you’d have been in so much shit. You could’ve been expelled.’

Finn shrugs, all fake-casual, leaning back with one foot up and his hands in his jeans pockets. ‘Totally worth it.’

‘When’d you do it? We could’ve run into each other.’ She giggles.

‘Ages back. A couple of weeks after the dance.’

Plenty of time for Chris to set up a meeting with Selena, a dozen meetings; if he knew. ‘On your own? Was that a selfie? Jesus, you really aren’t scared of the nun, are you?’