Page 22 of The Guilty Girl

Hannah’s entire body shook. ‘I feel really weird. I can’t remember much. And my head is bursting.’

‘Inspector, my daughter is ill,’ Babs said.

‘Why do you think you can’t remember?’ Lottie kept her eyes on the girl.

‘Don’t know.’

‘Did you consume a lot of alcohol?’

‘Hannah doesn’t drink,’ Babs butted in.

Lottie raised a quizzical eyebrow.

‘It’s true,’ Hannah said. ‘I only had a Coke, but I …’ She glanced at her mother before making up her mind about which was the lesser evil. ‘I took a pill. But I can’t remember anything else.’

‘Where did you get this pill?’

‘Don’t know.’

‘Who gave it to you?’ Lottie persisted.

Babs nudged Hannah with her elbow. ‘How many times have I told you … Oh, forget it. Tell them.’

‘Erm …’ The girl hesitated, lowering her head. ‘From Cormac.’

‘Cormac who?’ Lottie said, as Kirby tracked his finger down the list of names Ivy had provided.

‘Can’t remember his last name.’

‘Cormac O’Flaherty?’ Kirby asked.

‘Could be,’ Hannah said with a shrug. ‘I … I was ch-chatting to him and then I was upset and angry …’

Feeling she might be on to a confession, Lottie kept her tone even and ploughed on. ‘Why were you angry, Hannah?’

‘It might’ve been because Lucy was mean to me, though that’s nothing new.’ The girl sat up straighter, as if confident that at last she could recall something of importance to get her out of the stifling room. ‘Cormac scored a few pills off the boy handing out the drinks. I must have taken one. I don’t know what happened after that.’

‘Any adults present?’

‘No. Oh, yes. Mr Glennon was there. At the front door. Maybe he was the doorman, or a bouncer. I don’t know.’

‘Mr Glennon? Who is he?’ Lottie said, noticing Babs’s mouth hanging open.

‘My athletics coach. He teaches PE at my school too.’

Lottie digested this news while forming another question. Ivy Jones hadn’t mentioned a Mr Glennon.

‘A teacher from your school was at a teenagers’ party? He was the only adult there?’

Hannah nodded. ‘Think so.’

‘Doesn’t seem right to me,’ Kirby said with a head shake.

‘Well, at least there was an adult there,’ Babs said, but she didn’t sound convinced either.

Hannah said, ‘Most of us are finished with school. Lucy said he moonlights as a bouncer at some of the nightclubs.’

‘Moonlights?’