Page 210 of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

‘She can’t have done.’

‘The man who supplied her gave her a secret second phone, a burner phone, to use in her deals,’ Pip carried on over Becca’s protests. ‘He said that Andie hid the phone along with her stash in her wardrobe.’

‘I’m sorry but I think someone’s been playing a trick on you,’ Becca said, shaking her head. ‘There’s no way my sister was selling drugs.’

‘I understand it must be hard to hear,’ Pip said, ‘but I’m learning that Andie had a lot of secrets. This was one of them. The police didn’t find the burner phone in her room and I’m trying to find out who might have had access to her room after she went missing.’

‘Wh . . . but . . .’ Becca sputtered, still shaking her head. ‘No one did; the house was cordoned off.’

‘I mean, before the police arrived. After Andie left the house and before your parents discovered she was missing. Was there any way someone could have broken into your house without you knowing? Had you gone to sleep?’

‘I . . . I –’ her voice cracked – ‘no, I don’t know. I wasn’t asleep, I was downstairs watching TV. But you –’

‘Do you know Max Hastings?’ Pip said quickly before Becca could object again.

Becca stared at her, confusion glassing over her eyes. ‘Um,’ she said, ‘yeah, he was Sal’s friend, wasn’t he? The blonde guy.’

‘Did you ever notice him hanging round near your house after Andie disappeared?’

‘No,’ she said quickly. ‘No, but why –’

‘What about Daniel da Silva? Do you know him?’ Pip said, hoping this quick-fire questioning was working, that Becca would answer before she thought not to answer.

‘Daniel,’ she said, ‘yeah, I know him. He was close with my dad.’

Pip’s eyes narrowed. ‘Daniel da Silva was close to your dad?’

‘Yeah,’ Becca sniffed. ‘He worked for my dad for a while, after he quit that caretaker’s job at school. My dad owns a cleaning company. But he took a shine to Daniel and promoted him to a job in the office. He was the one who convinced Daniel to apply to be a police officer, supported him through the training. Yeah. I don’t know if they’re still close; I don’t speak to my dad.’

‘So did you see a lot of Daniel?’ asked Pip.

‘Quite a bit. He often popped round, stayed for dinner sometimes. What has this got to do with my sister?’

‘Daniel was a police officer when your sister went missing. Was he involved in the case at all?’

‘Well, yeah,’ Becca replied, ‘he was one of the first responding officers when my dad reported it.’

Pip felt herself tilting forward, her hands against the sofa cushion, leaning into Becca’s words. ‘Did he do a search of the house?’

‘Yeah,’ Becca said. ‘He and this policewoman took our statements and then did their primary search.’

‘Could Daniel have been the one that searched Andie’s room?’

‘Yeah, maybe.’ Becca shrugged. ‘I don’t really see where you’re going with this. I think you’ve been misled by someone, really. Andie was not involved in drugs.’

‘Daniel da Silva was the first to access Andie’s room,’ Pip said, more to herself than to Becca.

‘Why does that matter?’ said Becca, annoyance starting to stir in her voice. ‘We know what happened that night. We know Sal killed her, regardless of what Andie or anyone else was up to.’

‘I’m not sure he did,’ Pip said, widening her eyes in what she hoped was a meaningful way. ‘I’m not so sure Sal did it. And I think I’m close to proving it.’

Pippa Fitz-Amobi

EPQ 23/10/2017

Production Log – Entry 34

Becca Bell did not respond well to my suggestion that Sal might be innocent. I think asking me to leave was proof enough of that. It’s not surprising. She’s had five and a half unwavering years of knowing that Sal killed Andie, five and a half years to bury the grief for her sister. And here I come, kicking up the dirt and telling her she’s wrong.