The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5)(182)

Only the killer had known about those flowers. I felt, more than heard, a long sigh come out of Conway and spread across the clearing.

‘Rebecca,’ I said gently. ‘You know we have to arrest you. Right?’

Rebecca stared, huge-eyed. She said, ‘I don’t know how.’

‘That’s OK. We’ll walk you through everything. We’ll find someone to look after you till your parents can get here.’

‘I didn’t think this would happen.’

‘I know. Right now, all you need to do is come over here and we’ll go indoors.’

‘I can’t.’

Selena said, ‘Give us a minute first. Just a minute.’

I heard Conway breathe in for the No. I said, ‘We can do that. But it’ll only be a minute.’

‘Becs,’ Selena said, so softly. ‘Come here.’

Rebecca turned towards her voice, hands reaching, and her head bent back into that dark shape. Their arms folded around each other’s shoulders like wings, drawing tighter, like they were trying to meld themselves into one thing that could never be prised apart. I couldn’t tell which one of them sobbed.

Footsteps behind me, running, and this time I could turn. Holly, hair spraying out of its ponytail, leaping up the slope in great desperate bounds.

Behind her, and making himself take his time, was Mackey. He had seen her coming, gone down to the path to keep her there as long as he could. He had left me and Conway up here, to do whatever we were going to do. In the end, for his own reasons, he had decided I was worth trusting.

Holly came past Conway like she was nothing, hit the edge of the clearing, and saw the other three. She pulled up like she’d smacked into a stone wall. Said, voice cracking wild, ‘What’s happened?’

Conway kept her mouth shut. This was mine.

I said quietly, ‘Rebecca’s confessed to killing Chris Harper.’

Holly’s head moved, a blind flinch. ‘Anyone can confess to anything. She said it because she was scared you were going to arrest me.’

I said, ‘You already knew it was her.’

Holly didn’t deny it. She didn’t ask what would happen to Rebecca next; didn’t need to. She didn’t throw herself on the others, didn’t rush into Daddy’s arms – he managed not to go to her. She just stood there, watching her mates motionless on the grass, with one hand braced against a tree like it was holding her up.

‘If you’d known this morning,’ I said, ‘you’d never have brought me that card. Who did you think it was?’

Holly said, and she sounded way too tired and hollow for sixteen, ‘I always thought it was Joanne. Probably not actually her – I thought she made someone else do it, maybe Orla; she makes Orla do all her dirty work. But I thought it was her idea. Because Chris had dumped her.’

‘And then you figured Alison or Gemma found out, couldn’t take the pressure, put up the card.’

‘I guess. Yeah. Whatever. Gemma wouldn’t, but yeah, it’s exactly the kind of hello-are-you-actually-that-thick thing Alison would do.’

Conway asked, ‘Why didn’t you just say all this to Detective Moran, straight up? Why make us dick around jumping through hoops all day?’

Holly looked at Conway like just the thought of all that stupid made her want to sleep for a year. She let her back slump against the tree-trunk and closed her eyes.

I said, ‘You didn’t want to be a rat.’

Rustle behind her, sharp and then gone, as Mackey moved.

‘Again,’ Holly said. Her eyes stayed closed. ‘I didn’t want to be a rat again.’

‘If you’d told me everything you knew, you would’ve probably ended up testifying in court, and the rest of the school would’ve found out you’d squelt. But you still wanted the killer caught. That card was the perfect chance. You didn’t have to tell me anything; just point me in the right direction, and keep your fingers crossed.’

Holly said, ‘You weren’t stupid, last time. And you didn’t act like anyone under twenty had to be stupid. I thought if I could just get you in here . . .’

Conway said, ‘And you were right.’

‘Yeah,’ Holly said. The lines of her face, turned up to the sky, would have broken your heart. I couldn’t look at Mackey. ‘Go me.’

I asked, ‘How did you figure out it wasn’t Joanne after all? When we came to take you to the art room, you knew. What happened?’

Holly’s chest lifted and fell. ‘When that light bulb blew up,’ she said. ‘I knew then.’

‘Yeah? How?’

She didn’t answer. She was done.

‘Chickadee,’ Mackey said. His voice was a kind of gentle I’d never thought could come out of him. ‘It’s been a long, long day. Time to go home.’

Holly’s eyes opened. She said to him, like no one else existed, ‘You thought it was me. You thought I killed Chris.’

Mackey’s face closed over. He said, ‘We’ll talk about it in the car.’

‘What did I ever do to make you think I would kill someone? Like ever, in my whole life?’

‘The car, chickadee. Now.’

Holly said, ‘You just figured if anyone annoyed me I’d bash them over the head, because I’m your daughter and it’s in our blood. I’m not just your daughter. I’m an actual person. Of my own.’