The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5)(77)

One of Julia’s eyebrows flicked; that was all. ‘OMG. I’m like totally shocked.’

‘Yeah. Orla says it’s a copy of one you had.’

Julia sighed. ‘Oh, Orla,’ she said to the air. ‘Who’s a predictable little girl? You are! Yes you!’

‘You’re saying Orla’s lying?’

‘Um, duh? I’ve never had a key to that door. But Joanne isn’t stupid. She knows that anyone who had that key could’ve been outside the night Chris died, plus anyone who had that key is in huge trouble with McKenna, like possibly expelled trouble. Of course she’s going to share the love.’

‘Joanne didn’t tell us. Orla did.’

‘Right. With Joanne’s hand up her arse.’

‘Why would Joanne want to get you lot in hassle?’

Eyebrow. ‘You didn’t notice that she’s not exactly our biggest fan?’

‘Yeah,’ Conway said. ‘We noticed. Why’s that, again?’

Julia shrugged. ‘Who cares?’

‘We do.’

‘So ask Joanne. Because I don’t.’

‘If someone was pissed off enough with me to try and get me expelled and arrested, I’d care why.’

‘That is why. Because we don’t care what Joanne thinks. In her tiny mind, that’s like a mortal sin.’

Conway said, ‘Not because Selena was going out with Chris.’

Julia mimed banging her forehead off her palm. ‘Oh my God, if I have to hear that one more time I’m going to stick pens through my eardrums. It’s a rumour. Like, first-years know not to believe everything they hear unless there’s actual proof. You don’t?’

‘Gemma saw them. Snogging.’

Flash of something, just the one: that had caught Julia off guard. Then a finger-wag. ‘Uh-uh. Orla says Gemma says she saw them. Which isn’t the same thing.’

Conway leaned back against the wall beside Julia’s bed. Held up the bag and tapped it with a finger, watched it spin.

‘What’s Selena going to say, if I give up on you and go ask her? You know I don’t ask nicely.’

Julia’s face pulled tight. ‘She’s going to say the same thing she said when you asked her last year.’

Conway said, ‘I wouldn’t bet on it. You have to have noticed: Selena’s not the same as she was last year.’

That hit home. I saw Julia weigh something up, stacking and balancing. Saw her decide.

She said, ‘Selena wasn’t the one going out with Chris. Joanne was.’

‘Right,’ Conway said. ‘You say she was, she says Selena was, me and Detective Moran get to play Here We Go Round the Rumour Bush till early in the morning.’

Julia shrugged. ‘Believe it or don’t, whatever. But Joanne was going out with Chris for a couple of months, before last Christmas. Then he dumped her flat on her arse. She didn’t like that one little bit.’

Conway and I didn’t look at each other, didn’t need to. Motive.

If it was true. This case was jammed with lies, couldn’t grab hold of it without getting a handful.

Conway said, jaw hardening, ‘How come no one said anything about this last year?’

Shrug.

‘Jesus f*cking Christ.’ Conway didn’t move, but the line of her spine said she was ready to shoot through the ceiling. ‘This wasn’t about someone smoking in the jacks. This was a murder investigation. Everyone just decided not to mention this? Are yous all morons? What?’

Julia’s eyes and her palms turning up to the ceiling. ‘Hello? Have you noticed where we are? You found out about Joanne’s key, so the first thing she did was turn it around on me. If anyone had told you about her and Chris, she’d have done exactly the same thing: got back at them by dragging them into the shit with her. Who wants that?’

‘So how come you’re telling us now?’

Julia gave Conway the teen slouch-stare. ‘We did civic responsibility this year.’

Conway had her temper back. She was focused on Julia the same way she’d been on that sandwich. ‘How do you know they were together?’

‘I heard it around.’

‘From who?’

‘Oh, God, I don’t remember. It was supposed to be this big secret, but yeah, right.’

‘Rumour,’ Conway said. ‘I thought even first-years knew not to believe everything they hear. Got any proof?’

Julia scraped something off the frame of her Max’s poster. Balancing things inside her head again.

She said, ‘Yeah, actually. Sort of.’

‘Let’s hear it.’

‘I heard Chris gave Joanne a phone. A special phone, so they could text each other without anyone finding out.’

‘Why?’

Another shrug. ‘Ask Joanne. Not my problem. Then when he dumped her, I heard she made Alison buy the phone off her. I’m not swearing on my mother’s life or anything, but Alison got a new phone after last Christmas, all right. And I’m pretty sure she hasn’t changed it since.’

‘Alison got a new phone? That’s your proof?’

‘Alison’s got a phone that Joanne was using to do whatever she and Chris did over the phone, which I don’t even want to think about. Obviously I bet she erased all the texts after Chris died, but can’t you guys do something about that? Get them back?’