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‘I’m sorry we had to drag you in on such a beautiful day, but I’m hoping this won’t take very long.’
Two cool looks; Millie is still playing something on her phone.
‘So what’s it about?’ says Portia.
‘My name’s Erica. I’m not a police officer, though I used to be. What I do now is help the police talk to witnesses, especially young people like you. So that’s why I’m here, if you were wondering.’
Evidently they weren’t.
‘And your school counsellor will be acting as what we call an “Appropriate Adult”, which basically means she’s here to look out for you – make sure everything is done the right way. OK?’
‘Whatever,’ says Megan.
‘I don’t want to bring back difficult memories, but I’m sure you all remember what happened to your friend Daisy, when you were at Bishop Christopher’s.’
Definitely a reaction now. Millie looks up briefly; Portia looks out of the window, her cheeks reddening, and Somer knows why. Her friends probably never knew what she did with that voodoo doll, but police files have an immaculate memory.
‘She was weird,’ says Megan. ‘I mean,reallyweird.’
As a first reaction, that counts as unexpected.
‘What do you mean, Megan?’
‘Oh you know, she always knew loads of things she wasn’t supposed to –’
‘Do you mean the eavesdropping?’ says Somer. ‘I remember being told about that. How she sometimes wasn’t very nice about it.’
Portia’s cheeks deepen, but she’s turned away so the other girls don’t see it.
‘Yeah, there was that,’ says Millie, not looking up, just clicking on her phone, ‘but it wasn’tjustthat. There was this one day when we were round my house playing upstairs and her mum came looking for her and she wouldn’t let me say she was there. She didn’t give a toss, even though her mum was, like,seriouslylosing her shit –’
‘She was a class-one bitch,’ says Portia in an undertone, leaving it nicely ambiguous which of them she means.
‘Portia–’ says the counsellor.
Millie looks up now and the clicking on her phone stops. ‘And then there was all the sex stuff.’
‘What “sex stuff”, Millie?’ asks the counsellor, faux-casual.
‘Oh, it’s not what you think,’ says Millie airily, ‘just that she knew loads about it. None of the rest of us did, not then.’
Megan turns to look at Somer. ‘Oh yeah, shedeffoknew about sex. I remember we were in the playground one day and she said something about boys putting their thing in your knickers and stuff coming out.’ She nudges Millie and grins. ‘You werereallyfreaked out.’
Millie turns to her. ‘Still am. As you know.’ A look passes between them, then a smile. So that’s how it is, thinks Somer.
‘Was there anything else you remember now, that you maybe didn’t mention at the time?’
Portia is frowning. ‘Look, what’s this all about? I mean, it’sagesago –’
Somer takes a breath. ‘I’m afraid this is going to come as a bit of a shock. We don’t think Daisy was killed in 2016 after all. In fact, we know she wasn’t.’
Portia gapes at her. ‘No way. No. Fucking. Way.’
***
Adam Fawley
26 July 2024