Pip walked back towards her car on Romer Close, her tread much lighter on this, the return journey. Lighter because now she knew for sure. And she could say it in her head. Sal Singh did not kill Andie Bell. A mantra to the beat of her steps.
She dialled Cara’s number.
‘Well, hello, sugar,’ Cara answered. ‘What are you doing now?’ Pip asked.
‘I’m actually doing homework club with Naomi and Max. They’re doing
job applications and I’m cracking on with my own EPQ. You know I can’t focus alone.’
Pip’s chest tightened. ‘Both Max and Naomi are there now?’ ‘Yep.’
‘Is your dad in?’
‘Nah, he’s over at my Auntie Lila’s for the afternoon.’ ‘OK, I’m coming over,’ Pip said. ‘Be there in ten.’
‘Wicked. I can leech some of your focus.’
Pip said goodbye and hung up. She felt an ache of guilt for Cara, that she was there and would now be involved in whatever was about to come out.
Because Pip wasn’t bringing focus to the homework club. She was bringing an ambush.
Cara opened the front door to her, wearing her penguin pyjamas and bear- claw slippers.
‘ Chica ,’ she said, rubbing Pip’s already messy hair. ‘Happy Sunday. Mi club de homeworko es su club de homeworko .’
Pip closed the front door and followed Cara towards the kitchen.
‘We’ve banned talking,’ Cara said, holding the door open for her. ‘And no typing too loudly, like Max does.’
Pip stepped into the kitchen. Max and Naomi were sitting next to each other at the table, laptops and papers splayed out in front of them. Steaming mugs of just-made tea in their hands. Cara’s place was on the other side: a mess of paper, notebooks and pens strewn across her keyboard.
‘Hey, Pip,’ Naomi smiled. ‘How’re you doing?’
‘Fine thanks,’ Pip said, her voice suddenly gruff and raw.
When Pip looked at Max, he turned his gaze away immediately, staring down at the surface of his taupe-coloured tea.
‘ Hi, Max,’ she said pointedly, forcing him to look back at her.
He raised a small closed-mouth smile, which might have looked like a greeting to Cara and Naomi, but she knew it was meant as a grimace.
Pip walked over to the table and dropped her rucksack on to it, just across from Max. It thumped against the surface, making the lids of all three
laptops wobble on their hinges.
‘Pip loves homework,’ Cara explained to Max. ‘Aggressively so.’
Cara slid back into her chair and wiggled the mousepad to bring her computer back to life. ‘Well, sit,’ she said, using her foot to pull a chair out from under the table. Its feet scraped and shrieked against the floor.
‘What’s up, Pip?’ Naomi said. ‘Do you want a tea?’ ‘What are you looking at?’ Max cut in.
‘Max!’ Naomi hit him roughly on the arm with a pad of paper.
Pip could see Cara’s confused face in her periphery. But she didn’t take her eyes away from Naomi and Max. She could feel the anger pulsing through her, her nostrils flaring with its surge. She hadn’t known until she saw their faces that this was how she would feel. She thought she would be relieved. Relieved that it was all over, that she and Ravi had done what they set out to do. But their faces made her seethe. These weren’t just small deceits and innocent gaps in memory any more. This was a calculated, life-changing lie. A momentous treachery unburied from the pixels. And she would not look away or sit until she knew why.
‘I came here first just as a courtesy,’ she said, her voice shaking.
‘Because, Naomi, you’ve been like a sister to me nearly my whole life. Max, I owe you nothing.’
‘Pip, what are you talking about?’ Cara said, her voice strained with the beginnings of worry.
Pip unzipped her bag and pulled out the plastic folder. She opened it and, leaning across the table, laid the three printed pages out in the space between
Max and Naomi.
‘This is your chance to explain before I go to the police. What do you have to say, Nancy Tangotits?’ She glared at Max.
‘What are you on about?’ he scoffed.
‘That’s your photo, Nancy. It’s from the night Andie Bell disappeared, isn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ Naomi said quietly. ‘But, why –’
‘The night Sal left Max’s house at ten thirty to go and kill Andie?’ ‘Yes, it is,’ Max spat. ‘And what point are you trying to make?’
‘If you stop blustering for one second and look at the photo, you’ll see my point,’ Pip snapped back. ‘Obviously you’re no stickler for detail or you wouldn’t have uploaded it in the first place. So I’ll explain. Both you and Naomi, Millie and Jake are in this picture.’
‘Yeah, so?’ he said.
‘So, Nancy, who took that picture of the four of you?’
Pip noticed Naomi’s eyes widen, her mouth hanging slightly open as she stared down at the photo.
‘Yeah, OK,’ Max said, ‘so maybe Sal took the photo. It’s not like we said he wasn’t there at all. He must have taken this earlier on in the night.’
‘Nice try,’ Pip said, ‘but –’
‘My phone.’ Naomi’s face fell. She reached up to hold it in her hands. ‘The time is on my phone.’
Max went quiet, looking down at the printouts, a muscle tensing in his jaw.
‘Well, you can hardly see those numbers. You must have doctored this photo,’ he said.
‘No, Max. I got it from your Facebook as it is. Don’t worry, I’ve researched this: the police can access it even if you delete it now. I’m sure they’d be very interested to see it.’
Naomi turned to Max, her cheeks reddening. ‘Why didn’t you check properly?’
‘Shut up,’ he said quietly but firmly.
‘We’re going to have to tell her,’ Naomi said, pushing back her chair with a scrape that cut right through Pip.
‘Shut up, Naomi,’ Max said again.
‘Oh my god.’ Naomi stood and started pacing the length of the table. ‘We have to tell her –’
‘Stop talking!’ Max said, getting to his feet and grabbing Naomi by the shoulders. ‘Don’t say anything else.’
‘She’ll go to the police, Max. Won’t you?’ Naomi said, tears pooling in the grooves around her nose. ‘We have to tell her.’
Max took in a deep and juddering breath, his eyes darting between Naomi and Pip.
‘Fuck,’ he shouted abruptly, letting go of Naomi and kicking out at the table leg.
‘What the hell is going on?’ Cara said, pulling at Pip’s sleeve. ‘Tell me, Naomi,’ Pip said.
Max fell back into his chair, his blonde hair in wilting clumps across his face. ‘Why have you done this?’ He looked up at Pip. ‘Why didn’t you just leave everything alone?’
Pip ignored him. ‘Naomi, tell me,’ she said. ‘Sal didn’t leave Max’s at ten thirty that night, did he? He left at twelve fifteen, just like he told the police. He never asked you all to lie to give him an alibi; he actually had one. He was with you. Sal never once lied to the police; you all did on that Tuesday. You lied to take away his alibi.’
Naomi squinted as tears glazed her eyes. She looked at Cara and then slowly over to Pip. And she nodded.
Pip blinked. ‘Why?’
