Page 115 of Good Girl, Bad Blood

‘No, don’t think so. No phone.’

Pip sighed. Tom wasn’t making this very easy for her.

‘OK, what else did you see? Did it look like he was heading somewhere? Maybe a house?’

‘Yeah,’ Tom nodded.

‘Yeah, what?’

‘A house. He was walking to a house,’ he said. ‘Like maybe halfway up the lane.’

Nat da Silva’s house was about halfway up, Pip’s thoughts intruded, demanding her attention. She felt a thrumming in her neck as her pulse picked up. Palms growing sticky, and not from the rain.

‘How do you know he was heading to a house?’

‘Because I saw him. Go into a house,’ he said.

‘Inside?’ The word came out, louder than she’d intended.

‘Yes.’ He sounded exasperated, likeshewas the one making this difficult.

‘Which house?’

‘Ah,’ Tom said, scratching his hair, switching the parting to the other side. ‘It was late, I wasn’t looking at the numbers. Didn’t see.’

‘Well, can you describe what the house looked like at all?’ She was gripping the wall now, fingertips grazing against it. ‘What colour was the front door?’

‘Um,’ he looked at her. ‘I think it was white.’

Pip exhaled. She sat back from him, unhooked her fingers and dropped her gaze. Not Nat da Silva’s house, then. Good.

‘Wait,’ Tom said suddenly, eyes settling on her again. ‘Actually no, I don’t think it was white. No, I remember now . . . it was bl-blue. Yeah, blue.’

Pip’s heart reacted immediately, a beating in her ears, quick couplets that almost sounded like:Nat-da Sil-va, Nat-da Silva, Nat-da Sil-va.

She forced her mouth shut, and reopened it again to ask: ‘White-bricked house? Vine on one side?’

Tom nodded, more life in his face now. ‘Yeah, that’s the one. I saw Jamie going into that house.’

‘Did you see anyone else? Who was at the door?’

‘No. Just saw him go in.’

Into Nat da Silva’s house.

That had been the plan after all, for Jamie to go to Nat’s house after the memorial. That’s what he’d told Connor. That’s what Nat had said to Pip. Except she also said he never turned up. That the last time she saw him was when he walked away from her into the crowd to find ‘someone’.

But Tom saw Jamie going into her house at 10:50 p.m. After the calamity party.

So, somebody was lying here.

And who would have reason to?

‘Tom,’ she said. ‘Would you mind if we went over this again, in a recorded interview?’

‘Sure. No problem.’

Twenty-Two