The Secret Place (32 page)

‘Jaysus, no,’ Conway agreed. ‘She could’ve imagined the whole thing.’

‘Well,’ I said, poking through shoes. ‘She didn’t imagine that arm.’ Nothing on the wardrobe floor.

‘Nah, not that. I guess that could’ve maybe been allergies or whatever, though; who knows?’ Shrug, unconvinced. ‘All I’m saying is, if I knew anything that had anything to do with Chris, and I kept it to myself, I wouldn’t fancy turning out the lights tonight.’

I dialled the number that had texted me. All the phones stayed dark. No ringing coming from under a bed, from a stack of clothes I’d skimmed over.

‘Hate to admit it,’ I said. Glanced over my shoulder, did a shiver. ‘Me neither.’

Orla’s eyes skimming the room, hitting the corners, the shadows. Real fear.

Conway’s story had hit the mark. And Orla wasn’t the only one she’d been aiming at. The ghost story, or as much of it as Orla could remember, would be round the fourth-years inside half an hour.

‘Speaking of which.’ Conway swept up her satchel, plopped herself down nice and comfy on Joanne’s bed, right on top of her uniform – Orla’s eyes widened, like Conway had done something daring. ‘You might want to take a look at this.’

Orla edged closer. ‘Have a seat,’ Conway said, patting the bed. After a second Orla moved Joanne’s skirt carefully out of the way and sat down.

I swung the wardrobe shut, leaned against it. Got out my notebook. Kept an eye on the door for flickers of shadow moving behind it, out in the hall.

Conway flipped open the satchel, whipped out the evidence bag and smacked it down on Orla’s lap, all before Orla had a chance to work out what was going on. Said, ‘You’ve seen this before.’

Orla took one look at the Thérèse book and bit down on both lips, hard. Hiss of in-breath through her nose.

Conway said, ‘Do us a favour. Don’t try to tell us you don’t know what’s in there.’

Orla tried to shake her head and shrug and look innocent, all at once. It came out like some kind of spasm.

‘Orla. Pay attention. I’m not asking you if this was yours. I’m telling you we already know. You try to lie about it, all that’ll happen is you’ll get us pissed off and you’ll get Chris pissed off. You want to do that?’

Trapped between thick and terrified, Orla dived for the only way out she could see. ‘It’s Joanne’s!’

‘What is?’

‘The key. That was Joanne’s. It wasn’t mine.’

And bingo. Straight in there, our Orla, dobbing her mates in as quick as she could. The flare of Conway’s nose said she smelled it too. ‘Same difference. Yous robbed it out of the nurse’s office.’

‘No! Swear to God, we never stole anything.’

‘Then how’d you get it? You telling me the nurse gave it to you ’cause she couldn’t resist your pretty faces?’

Orla’s face lit up with that thin malice. ‘Julia Harte had it. Probably she stole it, or one of them did. We got a copy off her – Joanne got it, I mean. Not me.’

Not bingo. All eight of them in the frame for the card, now all eight in the frame for eyewitnesses. And all eight in the frame, opportunity clicking into place, for the killer.

Conway’s eyebrow was up. ‘Right. Joanne asked nicely, Julia said, “No problem, anything for you, darling.”  Yeah? ’Cause you’re all best buddies?’

Orla shrugged. ‘I mean, I don’t know. I wasn’t there.’

I hadn’t been there either, but I knew. Blackmail: Joanne had spotted Julia on her way in or out,
Share or we tell
.

‘When was that?’

‘Like, for
ever
ago.’

‘When’s forever?’

‘After Christmas –
last
Christmas. I haven’t even, ohmyGod,
thought
about it all year?’

‘How many times did you use it?’

Orla remembered she could get in trouble here. ‘I didn’t. I swear. I totally
swear
.’

‘You gonna keep swearing when we find your prints all over it?’

‘I got it out a few times, or put it back. But for Joanne, and Gemma. Not for me.’

‘You never snuck out? Not once?’

Orla went cagey. Ducked her head down.

‘Orla,’ Conway said, close above her. ‘You need me to explain again why keeping your mouth shut is a bad idea?’

Another flash of that fear. Orla said, ‘I mean, I went one time. All four of us went. We were meeting some guys from Colm’s out in the grounds, just for a laugh.’ And a can and a spliff and a snog. ‘But it was
so scary
out there. I mean, it was really dark; I hadn’t realised it would be that dark. And there were all these noises in the bushes, like animals – the guys kept saying they were rats,
ew
? And we’d have been expelled if we got caught. And the guys
.
.
.’ A wiggle, uncomfortable. ‘I mean, they were weird, that night. Mean. They were, they kept
.
.
.’

The guys had tried to push the girls. Drunk, maybe. Maybe not. No way to know how that had ended. Not our problem.

‘So no thank you, no way was I going again. And I never went out on my own.’

‘Joanne did, though. And Gemma.’

Orla sucked in her bottom lip and did the titter. That fear, forgotten, just like that: zapped away, the moment sex gossip came into the story. ‘Yeah. Only a few times.’

‘They were meeting guys. Who?’

Hunched-up shrug.

‘Chris? No, hang on—’ Conway’s finger going up, warning. ‘Remember: you don’t want to lie on this one.’

Promptly: ‘Uh-uh. Not Chris. And they would’ve said if it was.’

‘Was he there the night yous all went out?’

Head-shake.

I said, ‘Is that how you guys knew Selena and Chris were together, yeah? Saw them outside one night?’

Orla swayed forward towards me, wet-lipped smirk widening, loving her moment. ‘Gemma saw them. Right here in the grounds. They were, like, all
over
each other. She said, if she’d watched for another five minutes, they’d’ve been
.
.
.’ Breathy snigger. ‘See? They were
with
each other. You guys were all “Oh, you’re just making it up.” Obviously we couldn’t tell you how we knew, but see? We totally did know.’

This was some kind of triumph, apparently. ‘Fair play to yous,’ I said.

Conway said, ‘When was this?’

Blank look. ‘Like, last spring? Maybe March or April? Before Chris
.
.
. you know.’

My eye caught Conway’s for a second. ‘Yeah, we figured that much,’ she said. ‘Did yous tell anyone you’d seen them?’

‘We talked to Julia. We were like, “Em, excuse me, hello, that needs sorting out?”’

‘And? Did she sort it out?’

‘I guess.’

‘Why?’ I asked, all fascinated. ‘Why didn’t yous want Selena going out with Chris?’

Orla’s mouth popped open, popped shut. ‘Because. We just didn’t.’

‘Did one of yous fancy him, yeah? Nothing wrong with that.’

That cringe again, hunching down into her shoulders. Something was scaring her worse than us and Chris combined. Joanne; had to be. Joanne had wanted Chris.

Conway tapped the book. ‘When was the last time any of yous snuck out?’

‘Gemma was out like a week before what happened to Chris. I mean, how creepy is that? We were all, “OhmyGod, if there was like a
serial
killer stalking the school, he could totally have got her instead!”’

‘You never went out after that? Any of yous? Ah-ah’ – finger lifting again – ‘think about it before you go lying to us.’

Orla was shaking her head so hard her hair whipped her in the face. ‘No. I swear. None of us. After Chris, we weren’t exactly about to go wandering around out there. Joanne actually told me to go get that key and bin it or something, and I
tried
, but I was just taking the books out and oh! my God! one of the prefects came barging in? And she was all, “What are you doing in here?” ’cause it was after lights-out ’cause I couldn’t exactly do it while everyone was in the common room? I almost had a heart attack. So after that, no way was I trying again.’

Conway lifted an eyebrow. ‘Joanne was OK with that?’

‘Oh my God, she would’ve been
so furious
! I told her
.
.
.’ Snorty giggle from Orla, hand going over her mouth. ‘I told her I’d done it. I mean, it’s not like anyone could tell it was ours anyway, or even what it was
.
.
.’ Something dawned on her. ‘How’d you guys know?’

‘DNA,’ Conway said. ‘Go back to the common room.’

‘Selena and Chris,’ Conway said, watching down the corridor as the common-room door shut behind Orla. ‘Not bullshit after all.’

She didn’t sound happy about it. I knew why. Conway figured she should have got to this a year ago.

I said, ‘Unless Orla’s lying. Or Gemma lied to her.’

‘Yeah. I don’t think so, but.’ Neither did I. ‘Let’s see what Selena has to say.’

We’d get nothing out of Selena. I could feel it, in with that feeling that she was at the heart of the mystery: she was wrapped so deep in layers of it, we would never get through them to her. ‘Not Selena,’ I said. ‘Julia.’

Conway started to give me the glare. Changed her mind – I’d been right about Orla – nodded instead. ‘OK. Julia.’

Orla was at the centre of the common-room gabble, flopped on a sofa with one hand on her chest like she had the vapours, eating up the attention. Joanne looked ready to kill: Orla had come clean about not binning the key. Holly’s lot hadn’t moved, but their eyes were on Orla.

A nun – civvies and headgear and a grim puggy underbite – was supervising from a corner, letting them talk but keeping a tough eye on where the chat was going. For a second I was surprised at McKenna, delegating this, but then I copped. Day girls had got home, boarders had rung home. McKenna’s phone was going like goodo. She was up to her glasses in damage control.

Sooner not later, some pissed-off daddy with pull was going to ring the brass. The brass was going to ring O’Kelly. O’Kelly was going to ring Conway and take her head off.

‘Julia,’ Conway said, past the nun. ‘Let’s go.’

A beat, and then Julia got up and came. No glance back at her mates.

Their room was two doors down from Orla’s. It had that same feeling, left in a hurry: locker doors open, clothes dropped in the dash. This time, though, I knew straight off what bit belonged to who, no need to check the bedside photos. Bright red bed linen, vintage poster of Max’s Kansas City: Julia. Old-looking patchwork quilt, poem written out poster-size in careful art-project calligraphy: Rebecca. Hanging mobile made of curled silver forks and spoons, good black-and-white photo that looked like a rock against low sky, till you looked twice and it was an old man’s profile: Holly. And Conway had been bang on about Selena: no dreamcatcher, but over her bed was a print of some medium-quality old oil, unicorn bending to drink at a dark lake by moonlight. Conway caught it too. Her eyes met mine, and the shadow of a private grin flipped back and forth between us. Before I knew it, it felt good.

Julia bounced down on her bed, propped herself up on her pillow, hands behind her head. Stretched out her legs – she was in jeans, a bright orange T-shirt with Patti Smith on, hair down – and crossed her ankles. Nice and comfy. ‘Hit me,’ she said.

Conway didn’t fuck about with fairy tales this time. She whipped out the evidence envelope, dangled it from finger and thumb in front of Julia’s face. Stood over her and watched. I got out my notebook.

Julia took her time. Let Conway hold the bag while she read the book’s title. ‘Is this a hint? I should be more virtuous?’

Conway said, ‘Are we gonna find your prints on that?’

Julia pointed at the book. ‘You think this is my bedtime reading? Seriously?’

‘Cute. Don’t do that again. We ask, you answer.’

Sigh. ‘No you are not going to find my prints on this OK thank you for asking. The only way I read about saints is when I’m forced to for essays. And even then I do, like, Joan of Arc. Not some simpering wimp.’

‘Wouldn’t know the difference,’ Conway said. ‘You can explain it to me some other time. Inside that book there’s a key to the connecting door between here and the school. Belonged to Joanne and her gang, last year.’

One of Julia’s eyebrows flicked; that was all. ‘OMG. I’m like totally shocked.’

‘Yeah. Orla says it’s a copy of one you had.’

Julia sighed. ‘Oh, Orla,’ she said to the air. ‘Who’s a predictable little girl? You are! Yes you!’

‘You’re saying Orla’s lying?’

‘Um, duh? I’ve never had a key to that door. But Joanne isn’t stupid. She knows that anyone who had that key could’ve been outside the night Chris died, plus anyone who had that key is in
huge
trouble with McKenna, like possibly
expelled
trouble. Of course she’s going to share the love.’