The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5)(60)

‘Cold,’ I said.

‘Ice. And I’d swear it was the real thing. This year, though: there’s something else there. Usually a kid puts on the tough at first, till she gets tough for real. Julia, but . . .’

She shoved in the last of her sandwich. ‘Here’s the difference,’ she said, when she could talk. ‘See the way most of them looked at us? Hardly saw us. Julia was the same, last year. Me and Costello, far as she was concerned, we weren’t people; just grown-ups. Just this background noise that you have to put up with, so you can get back to stuff that matters. I remember that, that age, except I didn’t bother putting up with it.’

I believed it. ‘I used to tune it out. Smile, nod, do my own thing.’

‘Yeah. But this year Julia’s watching us like we’re actual people, you and me.’ Conway finished her coffee in one long gulp. ‘I can’t work out if that’s gonna be a good thing or a bad one.’

I said, ‘Holly?’

‘Holly,’ Conway said. ‘Back when you first met her, what was she like?’

‘Sharp. Stubborn. Plenty going on.’

Wry flip to the corner of her mouth. ‘No change there, anyway. The big difference, you already picked up on. Last year, we had to drag every word out of her. This year, Little Miss Helpful, card in one hand, theory in the other, motive up her sleeve. Something’s going on there.’ She stuffed the clingfilm into her coffee cup. ‘What d’you think of her theory? Someone else got one of these eight to put up the card for her?’

‘Not a lot,’ I said. ‘You’re aiming to stay anonymous, so you get someone else in on the game? Someone who isn’t even one of your best mates?’

‘Nah. Your Holly’s just spreading the love. She wants us looking at the whole school, not focusing on her gang. You know what that makes me want to do?’

‘Focus on her gang.’

‘Too f*cking right. Even though, say one of them knows something and Holly doesn’t want us identifying her: why bring in that card at all? Why not bin it, give your mate the tip-line number, keep it anonymous?’ Conway shook her head. Said, again, ‘Something’s going on there.’

The tip line gets you whoever’s on duty. The card had got her me. I wondered.

Conway said, ‘If we keep talking to Holly and her lot. She going to call Daddy?’

The thought itched my back. Frank Mackey is hardcore. Even if he’s on your side, you need to be watching him from more angles than you’ve got eyes. He was the last thing I wanted in this mix.

‘Doubt it,’ I said. ‘She basically told me she doesn’t want him on board. What about McKenna?’

‘Nah. You joking? He’s a parent. She’s up there saying rosaries that none of the parents find out we’re here till we’re good and gone.’

The itch went; not gone, but down. ‘She’ll be lucky,’ I said. ‘One kid phones home . . .’

‘Bite your tongue. We’re on McKenna’s side there. For once.’ Conway jammed the clingfilm down harder. ‘So how about Julia and Rebecca’s theory? A gang from Colm’s came in here, something went wrong.’

I said, ‘That one could play. If the lads were planning on a bit of vandalism, maybe digging another cock and balls into the grass, they could’ve nicked the hoe out of the stables. They’re messing about, fighting or pretending to fight – guys that age, half the time there’s no difference. And someone gets carried away.’

‘Yeah. Which puts the card on Joanne, Gemma or Orla. They’re the ones going out with Colm’s guys.’ The boyfriend question, suddenly making sense. The sardonic slant to Conway’s eye said she’d seen the penny drop.

I said, ‘Whatever happened to Chris, it’s been bothering one of the guys who was there. He doesn’t want to talk to an adult, but he opens up to his girlfriend.’

‘Or he tells her because he thinks it’ll make him sound interesting, get him into her knickers. Or he makes the whole thing up.’

‘We’ve ruled out Gemma and Orla. That leaves Joanne.’

‘Her fella, Andrew Moore, he was matey enough with Chris. Arrogant little prick.’ Snap of anger. One of those complaints had come from Andrew’s da.

I said, ‘Did you work out how Chris got out of Colm’s?’

‘Yeah. Security over there was even shittier than in this place – they didn’t have to worry about any of their little princes coming back pregnant after a night on the tiles. The fire door in the boarders’ wing was alarmed, supposedly, but one kid was an electronics whiz, worked out how to disable the alarm. Took some doing to get it out of him, but we got there in the end.’ Grim smile in Conway’s voice, remembering. ‘He got expelled.’

‘When’d he disable it?’

‘A couple of months before the murder. And the kid, Finn Carroll, he was good mates with Chris. He said Chris knew all about the door, had snuck out plenty of times, but he wouldn’t name any other names. Not a chance him and Chris were the only two, though. Julia and Rebecca could be on to something: gang of Colm’s boys on the prowl, they’re going to think of this place.’ Conway rubbed her apple to a shine on her trouser thigh. ‘If Chris is out for a bit of vandalism with the lads, though, what’s he doing with a condom?’