Ravi was jittery, moving too much, disturbing the air beside her as they walked.
‘How scary did you say this guy is again?’ he asked, his fingers finding their way into the pocket of Pip’s jacket, hooking on.
‘Pretty scary,’ she said. ‘And he’s a drug dealer.’
‘Think he’s higher up than that,’ she said as they turned on to Beacon Close.
‘Oh good,’ Ravi said. ‘Howie’s boss. Are we going to blackmail this one too?’
Pip shrugged, pulled a face at him. ‘Whatever works.’
‘Great. Cool,’ Ravi said. ‘Really love that new motto, covers all bases.
Yep. Cool. This is all fine. Which house is he?’
‘Number thirteen.’ Pip pointed out the house with the white BMW parked outside.
‘Thirteen?’ Ravi squinted at her. ‘Oh fabulous. Another good sign, that is.’
‘Come on,’ Pip said, suppressing a smile, patting him twice on the backside as they walked up the path alongside the car, the one they’d chased on Wednesday night. Pip glanced at it, and back at Ravi, then she pressed her finger into the doorbell. The sound was shrill and piercing.
‘I bet everyone dreads the day they get a knock at the door from Pip Fitz- Amobi,’ Ravi whispered.
The door pulled open sharply, and Luke Eaton stood before them, wearing the same black basketball shorts and a grey T-shirt which clashed with the colour of the tattoos scaling the pale skin of his neck.
‘Hello. Again,’ he added gruffly. ‘What is it this time?’
‘We need to ask you some questions, about Jamie Reynolds,’ Pip said, standing as tall as she could.
‘Shame,’ Luke said, itching one leg with the foot of the other. ‘I really don’t like questions.’
He slapped his hand forcefully against the door.
‘No, I –’ Pip said, but it was too late. The door slammed shut before her words could make it through the gap. ‘Fuck,’ she said loudly, an urge to hit the door with her fist.
‘I didn’t think he’d talk . . .’ But Ravi’s voice trailed off as he watched Pip crouch by the front door, pushing her fingers against the letterbox to hold it open. ‘What are you doing?’
She drew her face close and shouted through the small rectangular opening: ‘I know Jamie owed you money when he went missing. If you talk to us, I’ll give you the nine hundred pounds he owes you!’
She straightened up, the letterbox closing with a metallic clang. Ravi narrowed his eyes angrily at her, mouthing, ‘What?’
But Pip didn’t have time to offer an answer, because Luke was pulling the door open again, his jawbone protruding and retreating as he chewed on an answer.
‘All of it?’ he said with a click of his tongue.
‘Yes.’ The word rushed out of her, breathy but firm. ‘All nine hundred.
I’ll get it to you next week.’
‘In cash,’ he said, eyes alighting on hers.
‘Yes, OK,’ she nodded, ‘by the end of next week.’
‘Alright.’ He pulled the door fully open on its hinge. ‘You’ve got a deal there, Sherlock.’
Pip stepped up over the threshold, feeling Ravi right behind her as Luke closed the door, shutting them all in inside this too-narrow corridor. Luke passed them, his arm brushing against Pip’s as he did, and she couldn’t tell whether it had been intentional or not.
‘In here,’ he barked over his shoulder, leading them into the kitchen.
There were four chairs, but no one sat down. Luke leaned against the counter, knees cocked and careless, tattooed arms out wide anchoring him there. Pip and Ravi stood together, at the entrance, toes in the kitchen, their heels left behind in the corridor.
Luke opened his mouth to speak, but Pip couldn’t let him take charge, so she rushed out her question first.
‘Why does Jamie owe you nine hundred pounds?’
Luke dropped his head and smiled, licking the front of his teeth. ‘Was it something to do with drugs, did he buy from –’
‘No,’ Luke said. ‘Jamie owed me nine hundred pounds because I lent him nine hundred pounds. He came to me a little while ago, desperate to borrow money. Guess Nat mentioned to him I did that sometimes. So, I helped him out – with a high interest rate, of course,’ he added with a dark laugh. ‘Told him I’d beat the shit out of him if he was late paying me back, and then the fucker goes missing, doesn’t he?’
‘Did Jamie say what he needed the money for?’ Ravi asked.
Luke turned his attention to Ravi. ‘I don’t ask people’s business because I don’t care.’
But Pip’s mind had jumped instead to when, not why. Was Luke’s threat a little stronger than he was letting on, something Jamie might have considered life or death? Had he asked his dad to borrow money, and then tried to steal from Pip’s mum’s office because he was scared of what Luke would do to him if he couldn’t pay him back on time?
‘When did Jamie borrow money from you?’ said Pip. ‘Dunno.’ Luke shrugged, his tongue between his teeth again.
Pip worked out the timeline in her head. ‘Was it Monday the 9th?
Tuesday the 10th? Before then?’
‘No, after,’ Luke said. ‘Pretty sure it was a Friday, so must have been three weeks ago today. He’s officially late repaying me now.’
The pieces rearranged in Pip’s head: no, Jamie borrowed the money after asking his dad and trying to steal the credit card. So, going to Luke must have been a last resort, and something else had been life or death. She glanced at Ravi, and from the quick movement of his eyes, back and forth, she knew he was thinking the same.
‘OK,’ Pip said. ‘Now I need to ask you about Layla Mead.’ ‘Of course you do,’ he laughed. What was so funny?
‘You went to meet Layla, last Friday, around midnight.’
‘Yes, I did,’ he said, only looking off-guard for a moment, then drumming his fingers on the counter, the sound offsetting Pip’s heartbeat.
‘And you know who she really is.’ ‘Yes, I do.’
‘Who is she?’ Pip said, her voice desperate, giving her away. Luke smiled, showing too many of his teeth.
‘Layla Mead is Jamie.’
