Page 31 of The Guilty Girl

‘Where were you last night?’ Lottie began.

‘Here.’

‘We know you were at Lucy McAllister’s party, so I’ll ask you again. Where were you last night?’

‘If you know, why are you even asking me?’

She tapped a finger on the table without answering.

‘Okay, okay,’ he said. ‘Yes, I was at Lucy’s party.’

‘Were you invited?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Cormac, I can drag your arse down to the station and lock you up in a windowless cell for twenty-four hours if you insist on being a belligerent pup.’ She couldn’t without it being evidence-based, but he wasn’t to know that.

He played with three stale crumbs on the table, balling them up between his fingers. She thought he was about to flick them at her, but he continued rubbing them, head bowed.

‘Okay, so maybe Lucy didn’t invite me.’ He looked up. ‘But she asked everyone else. The guy on the door didn’t stop me. Are you going to lock me in a cell for that?’

‘Was she annoyed to see you there?’

‘She was a bit smart with me, which is nothing new. She didn’t really tell me to leave, so I stayed.’

‘Who did you talk to last night?’

‘Can’t honestly remember.’

‘Names.’

‘Hannah Byrne, for a while.’ Cormac stared hard at Lottie, then he dropped the shredded crumbs and pointed a freckled finger at her. ‘I spoke to Sean Parker. Hey, you’re his mother! I play F1 with him online. He’s good. And he’s building up his live-stream subscriptions.’ He grinned, but it was half-hearted. Lottie didn’t approve of the amount of time Sean spent gaming, but it seemed to keep her son calm, which suited her.

She studied Cormac and dived straight in. ‘Where did you get the drugs?’

‘What drugs?’

‘You really don’t want to piss me off, Cormac, and I’m well on the way to getting truly pissed off. Tell me the truth.’

He seemed to consider his options. ‘Has something happened to Hannah?’

‘Why would you think that?’ Folding her arms, Lottie had an urge to scratch the back of her hands. The small house was grubby, and if she had to spend much longer in it, she thought she’d burst out in a flurry of hives.

‘You’re here, aren’t you? Besides Sean, I really only talked to Hannah. She’s a nice girl.’

‘Nice enough that you filled her with drugs?’

‘Hey, come on, that’s not true. I don’t do drugs.’

‘But it is true that you gave her a pill, isn’t it?’

He drummed a finger on the table, his face suddenly flushed. ‘Whatever. I didn’t force her.’

Reaching out, Lottie grabbed for his hand before she realised she was doing it. ‘I’m warning you …’

‘Okay, okay. It was just one pill. She doesn’t even drink, for God’s sake.’

Lottie pulled back and wiped her hand on her jeans. ‘One pill can do immense damage to someone who doesn’t normally take drugs, you know?’