Page 129 of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Pip turned now, her eyes falling on Ravi behind her, standing sheepishly next to the uneven slab that must have tripped him up.

‘Hi,’ he said, ducking his head and raising his hand, ‘I’m Ravi.’

He came to stand beside Pip and as he did Nat’s grip on the door loosened and she let it swing back open.

‘Sal was always nice to me,’ she said, ‘even when he didn’t have to be. The last time I spoke to him, he was offering to give up his lunch breaks to tutor me in politics because I was struggling. I’m sorry you don’t have your brother any more.’

‘Thank you,’ Ravi said.

‘It must be hard for you too,’ Nat carried on, her eyes still lost in another world, ‘how much this town worships Andie Bell. Kilton’s saint and sweetheart. And that bench dedication she has:Taken too soon.Not soon enough, it should say.’

‘She wasn’t a saint,’ Pip said gently, trying to coax Nat out from behind the door. But Nat wasn’t looking at her, only at Ravi.

He stepped up. ‘She bullied you?’

‘Sure did,’ Nat laughed bitterly, ‘and she’s still ruining my life, even from the grave. You’ve checked out my hardware.’ She pointed to her ankle tag. ‘Got this because I punched one of my housemates at university. We were deciding on bedrooms and this girl started pulling a stunt, exactly like Andie would’ve, and I just lost it.’

‘We know about the video she put up of you,’ Pip said. ‘She should have faced charges over it; you were still a minor at the time.’

Nat shrugged. ‘At least she was punished in some way that week. Some divine providence. Thanks to Sal.’

‘Did you want her dead, after what she’d done to you?’ Ravi asked.

‘Of course I did,’ Nat said darkly. ‘Of course I wanted her gone. I skipped two days of school because I was so upset. And when I went back on the Wednesday, everyone was looking at me, laughing at me. I was crying in the corridor and Andie walked by and called me a slut. I was so angry that I left her a nice little note in her locker. I was too scared to ever say anything to her face.’

Pip glanced sideways at Ravi, at his tensed jaw and furrowed brows, and she knew he’d picked up on it too.

‘A note?’ he said. ‘Was it a . . . was it a threatening note?’

‘Of course it was a threatening note,’ Nat laughed. ‘You stupid bitch, I’m going to kill you, something like that. Sal got there first, though.’

‘Maybe he didn’t,’ Pip said.

Nat turned and looked Pip in the face. Then she burst into loud and forced laughter, a mist of spit landing on Pip’s cheek.

‘Oh, this is too good,’ she hooted. ‘Are you asking me whetherIkilled Andie Bell? I had the motive, right, that’s what you’re thinking? You want my fucking alibi?’ She laughed cruelly.

Pip didn’t say anything. Her mouth was filling uncomfortably with saliva but she didn’t swallow. She didn’t want to move at all. She felt Ravi brushing against her shoulder, his hand skimming just past hers, disturbing the air around it.

Nat leaned towards them. ‘I didn’t have any friends left because of Andie Bell. I had no place to be on that Friday night. I was in playing Scrabble with my parents and my sister-in-law, tucked in by eleven. Sorry to disappoint you.’

Pip didn’t have time to swallow. ‘And where was your brother? If his wife was home with you?’

‘He’s a suspect too, is he?’ Her voice darkened with a growl. ‘Naomi must have been talking then. He was out at the pub drinking with his cop friends that night.’

‘He’s a police officer?’ Ravi said.

‘Just finished his training that year. So yeah, no murderers in this house, I’m afraid. Now fuck off, and tell Naomi to fuck off too.’

Nat stepped back and kicked the door shut in their faces.

Pip watched the door vibrating in its frame, her eyes so transfixed that it looked for a moment like the very particles of air were rippling from the slam. She shook her head and turned to Ravi.

‘Let’s go,’ he said gently.

Back in the car, Pip allowed herself to just breathe for a few slow seconds, to arrange the haze of her thoughts into actual words.

Ravi found his first: ‘Am I in trouble for, well, literally tripping into the interrogation. I heard raised voices and –’