Dead Girls

by Abigail Tarttelin

  EA: No, he isn’t.

  TW: We left and he didn’t even say goodbye, did he? He was upstairs, on the bed, bleeding from his head. The base of your lamp made a good weapon. I think it was, like, marble, right?

  EA: You’re lying.

  TW: No, I’m not. He crawled on top of me. I got the lamp and swung it at his head. It was one thud. Then we switched places, and I bounced on top of him hitting him with the lamp over and over again.

  EA: No. No. He’s too strong! You’re tiny!

  TW: I overpowered him.

  EA: You couldn’t do that alone!

  TW: Oh, I wasn’t alone.

  EA: You weren’t?

  TW: Nope.

  EA: Who else was there? I didn’t see anyone.

  TW: [calmly] You’ve met two of them, apparently.

  EA: [louder] I’ve met them? Is it your school friends? Is there another one of you little sickos somewhere in the woods?

  TW: In fact, there’s quite a few of us little sickos here, Eve. And you know what? We’re all mad at you.

  Screaming.

  Banging.

  Wet sounds.

  Light footsteps coming closer [to the tape recorder]. A noise as it is picked up.

  Tape ends.

  Shortly after they play the tape for us to listen to, they bring Billie’s bag and her diary and Nano Pet into the room, and I have to identify them as the things she had on her that day. Nick had them in a cupboard, along with keepsakes from the other girls, including Ellie’s My Little Pony and the older girl’s school tie. They tell me they’ve found him, on the bed in his and Mrs. A’s house. The whole interview is much more exciting than the one on the night Billie went missing. I feel finally like I’m being helpful, and adults are taking me seriously. We really get into the nitty-gritty of things.

  I tell them how I realized Mrs. Adamson had been involved (minus Billie’s message). I tell them how I had made a plan. When Nathan saw the jeep, he would run immediately over to my house and I would run back with him and get in the jeep. I didn’t tell Nathan this part of the plan. I remember tucking myself down as the jeep drove away, a final vision of him running out into the road, calling my name. I knew he wouldn’t agree to the whole thing. To avenging Billie’s death by killing her killer. If the plan didn’t work the first time, I was willing to wait and keep trying. If it had been in term time, I would have been able to climb in Mrs. A’s car and go home with her from school, but without Nathan I couldn’t have found her. It wasn’t term time anymore, and I didn’t know where she lived, and I didn’t know how to differentiate her jeep from all the other bloody jeeps that drive around the village all the time.

  My plan was to get to their house in the jeep, tie them both up and get them to confess to Billie’s rape and murder, and then kill them and tape the entire thing. In the event, I was alone with him upstairs and I didn’t want him to rape me, so I had to kill him then, and quickly, so Eve didn’t hear anything. That was why I hit him so hard the first time with the lamp. After that he was pretty much dead, I think. On the way, anyway. Like what Mrs. A said about Ellie. Then we went to the woods, and I thought that was perfect because I would have plenty of time to talk to her and no one would disturb us. Which maybe is what she wanted from me, although I expect she would have preferred me just to listen to her go on and on.

  After I have finished explaining all of this, Macintyre gives me a cold stare and says, “We played a little of your tape for your parents.”

  “You probably shouldn’t play the whole thing for them.”

  “Quite,” he says.

  I laugh and take a sip of my tea. I feel better now I have had some sleep, and seeing their faces look so amazed at what I have been able to accomplish has cheered me up. I enjoyed getting the confession out of Eve, but I’m relieved that it’s over. In fact, the sense of relief is making me feel light-headed. Kind of euphoric— Granddad word!—and powerful. Which, weirdly, is what Eve said she felt like after killing the girls…

  It’s confused in my head now. This afternoon feels like a long time ago, and all blurry. She said she felt kind of powerful, though, and I do too. Except I’ve killed bad guys. And I could kill more bad guys now that I know how easy it is. Maybe the dead girls will come back and help me! When I tune back in from this thought, Chief Inspector Macintyre is talking.

  “The problem with this tape, Thera, is that, yes, it shows Eve killed Billie, but it also shows that you planned to kill Eve, and then executed that plan when she was defenseless, in cold blood.”

  “Well, it wouldn’t have been very clever to attack her when she could defend herself, would it? She’s bigger than me.”

  “Why did you kill Eve, Thera?” Macintyre asks.

  “Because she deserved to die.” I don’t understand why he doesn’t get it.

  He pauses, rubs his lips together and looks at Georgie. She seems nervous, standing near the door, balancing with her hand on the back of a plastic chair and one foot scratching the back of the other. He turns back to me. “Did you feel threatened by Eve when you decided to kill her?”

  “Not really. She was tied up.”

  “So there wasn’t a possibility that she could kill you?”

  “Well, if she wasn’t tied up, obviously she would have tried.”

  “Were you worried she would break free?”

  “Oh, no. I used three nylon cable ties around her wrists and ankles.”

  “Where did you get those?”

  “From the hardware shop near Nanny and Granddad’s.”

  “And why did you use cable ties instead of rope?”

  “I went to look for some rope, but they were in the same aisle, and they looked like they’d be more effective.”

  “We know that you were in a bunker in the woods.”

  “That’s right. Did you find it okay? Because I didn’t move her or anything. And I left the door open so you could get in.”

  “We did. How did you end up there?”

  “She drove me there. Then when she drove down the track to the parking lot, I knew for sure she was going to try to kill me.”

  “What happened then?”

  I smile and lean forward over the table. “I bashed her on the head with my brick-in-a-sock, and then I took the sock off and taped it in her mouth. I should have brought another sock, but I didn’t think of that,” I add. “Then I tied her up and dragged her to the bunker.”

  “And the tape starts from when you arrived at the bunker?”

  “Just about, yeah.”

  He sighs. He seems to be taking issue with something, but I don’t understand what. When I told him about the brick-in-the-sock I expected he would be glad, and tell me how well I had done. I mean, I went up against two killers and I didn’t die! And I’m eleven and smaller than both of them. And they’ve killed plenty of girls my age. I frown.

  “You know they killed Jenny Ann Welder, right?”

  Macintyre looks at Georgie and then back at me. “Why did you think that, Thera?”

  “It’s obvious! From the tape. Eve is totally lying.”

  “Yes, well. We’ll look into that. But what I meant is why did you originally suspect that they had something to do with her disappearance?”

  Well…” I hesitate. I don’t want to tell the police about the dead girls. Adults won’t believe me about them, unless they are cool, like Granddad. They might think I’m going crazy if I say the ghost of Jenny Ann Welder and Billie’s ghost and a bunch of her dead friends told me to kill Nick and Eve. In the end, I say, “I saw about Jenny on TV. Ages ago, when she went missing. So I thought…maybe…”

  “We don’t know if it’s connected in any way, Thera,” Georgie says quietly.

  “But they never found her killer, right?”

  “No, but they had a suspect. He fled the country.”


  “I’m pretty sure they did it. Check Nick’s wallet. Check the pictures.”

  “We’re searching their house now. We’ll find evidence if they did kill Jenny, or other girls,” Georgie says.

  “Why do they suspect this other guy?”

  “He…killed a young girl before. He served a prison sentence. He was quite old.”

  I gape and then bang my fist on the table. “So he’s still out there? Another perv who kills girls?”

  “Calm down, Thera, this is a police interview,” Macintyre says. “We need you to stay calm.”

  “Well, who’s looking for this other guy? Is someone going after him?”

  Georgie and Macintyre exchange a look. “Why, Thera?” says Macintyre. “Would you?”

  “Me? Well, I would if no one else was doing it. He needs to be stopped! No wonder—” I was going to say no wonder there were so many dead girls haunting me, but I stop myself just in time.

  “No wonder what?” Macintyre asks.

  “Nothing.” I smile. “I forgot what I was going to say.”

  Maybe he’s understanding more than I think, because he says, “Why did you say you weren’t alone, at the end of the tape?”

  “Um…I wanted to scare her,” I lie.

  “Were you referring to Nathan Nolan?”

  “Oh!” I sigh with relief. “No, no, he just told me about the jeep.”

  “But did he plan the killing with you?”

  “No, he didn’t know what I was going to do. I feel like he’d have been freaked out about it. He’s a bit jittery. He’s not as tough as me.”

  “I’ll tell them to let him go home with his mum,” Georgie murmurs, and leaves the room.

  I frown. “Is Nathan here?”

  “He was worried about you and rang us, but you were already with us by then,” Macintyre says. “So we brought him in for a little chat. He’s been here for a long time, like you.”

  “Why, what time is it?”

  “It’s nearly midnight.” Macintyre is being really snappy and short with me. I shake my head, annoyed at him. What is his problem?

  When Georgie gets back, he starts asking me more questions.

  “What did you kill Eve with?”

  “A knife.”

  “Was it her knife?”

  “No, it was my mum’s Japanese veggie-chopping knife.”

  “Did you bring it with you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And why did you bring it with you?”

  “Because it’s really sharp and Dad confiscated the one I bought at the shopping center.”

  Macintyre sighs. “Did you know you were going to kill Eve when you got up today, Thera?”

  “Sure.”

  “Think about this before you answer,” Georgie says, talking over me.

  “Waters!” Macintyre snaps at her, then turns back to me. “Thera?”

  “I’ve known I was going to kill the murderer pretty much since I found Billie dead,” I tell him. “I just had to make sure first to find out who it was who murdered her. I didn’t want to kill the wrong person. Or people, in this case.”

  Macintyre frowns. “Do you think killing people is wrong, Thera?”

  “In general, yeah.”

  “Do you think killing Eve was wrong?”

  Now it’s my turn to frown back. “Look, maybe you think that, since you’re behaving so weird and moody with me, but I don’t care what you think. Killing bad people makes kids safer.”

  “If we let you go now, and Nick and Eve were free, or even bad people were free generally, would you go after them?”

  I shrug. “Sure. If you weren’t doing your job properly.”

  He leans forward in his chair. “Why didn’t you go for help? When you found out about Nick and Eve, why didn’t you come and get us?”

  “Because you wouldn’t have believed me. No one believes kids, or listens to them. I had to take matters into my own hands. And I had to get Eve’s confession, to be totally certain she was the killer, and to make Mum and Dad, and you guys, believe me. Besides, it would have been dumb to be like, ‘Oh, you’re the killer? Cool, I’ll just turn my back on you and walk because obviously I can’t drive, all the way to the police station.’ This isn’t a film. I had to be realistic.”

  “If you had left them both alive, they would have been sent to prison. Children wouldn’t be in danger. Justice would have been done.”

  I raise my eyebrows. “Oh, would it?”

  “It would,” he says certainly.

  “Justice, maybe, but not vengeance. Vengeance wouldn’t have been done. Billie would have died for nothing.”

  “Vengeance?” He seems like he’s totally not following. “Why did you want that, Thera? Is this something you’ve seen on television? Why did you have to take revenge?”

  I blink slowly at him. “Because Billie was my best, true, forever friend. You don’t let your best, true, forever friend die and not find and murder her killer. It’s like you didn’t even really care about them if you don’t do anything. I promised her, anyway. I promised her.”

  There is a short silence, and Macintyre blinks back at me. “You were gone awhile this afternoon, and this tape is only an hour long. How long did it take Eve to die, Thera?”

  I sigh impatiently. “Ages.”

  “How long is ages?”

  “Ages!” I shout at him. I’m annoyed now. “I took my time about it too! I didn’t want it to be over quickly for her. I wanted her to think while it happened. That’s why I stopped the recording halfway through the killing.” I look up at Georgie, explaining. “It was almost full, and when you get to the end of the tape there’s a danger it’ll rewind and start recording over what you’ve got. I didn’t want to record over her confession.” (I’m proud of this. I thought of everything. Well, everything important anyway.)

  “And afterward, you walked here?”

  “Yeah. You know that already. Look, this is all a waste of time. It’s done. The killers are dead. Justice, vengeance, whatever you want to call it, it’s done. You’re welcome. Can I go home now? ’Cause I’ve had a long day and I’m really, really sleepy.”

  Macintyre stands up.

  “Wow, you’re tall,” I comment.

  “We’ll find out about where you can go, Thera,” Georgie says. “To make sure you’re well looked after.”

  “I don’t need a hospital or anything,” I say, exasperated. “I’m fine! A good night’s sleep’ll put me right. I mean…” I feel bad for snapping at her. “Thanks, though, Georgie,” I add sincerely. “For the tea and putting the tape into evidence and everything.”

  She nods and gives me a weak smile. You’d think they would be happier. I mean, I just caught a serial killer.

  “You can’t go home, Thera,” Macintyre says.

  “What? Why not?”

  He shakes his head.

  “Why?” I say.

  Macintyre ignores me and says, “That’ll be all for now.” He looks at Georgie and opens the door for her. She goes out in front of him. Outside, there is some bustling in the corridor and a lot of noise from reception.

  I stand up, knocking my chair back. “Why can’t I go home?” I cry after them. “I’m tired!”

  “It’s a lot to go through, for a child that age,” I hear Georgie say pleadingly, as the door closes. Chief Inspector Macintyre holds up his hand to shut her up.

  I wait there for what seems like hours. Why aren’t they letting me go home? Why are Mum and Dad here but don’t come in and see me? I’m getting pissed off now. Eventually a lady comes in. She isn’t in uniform. She’s wearing a dark red-patterned blouse and black pants. She is almost as old as Nan and is holding a steaming cup of tea and some toast.

  I sit up, lifting my head from the table. “Is that for me?”

  “
Yes, it is,” she says.

  “Good, I’m starving.” I start in ravenously, and she sits down in the empty chair, and takes her bag off her shoulder.

  “I want to go home,” I say through chewed bread. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Dr. Anita Kapoor, I’m a forensic psychiatrist,” she says. “Do you know what that means?”

  I think about the word “forensic,” and sigh. “Something to do with evidence?”

  “In a way. I’m here to talk to you and give the police some advice about what we should do. Sort of just having a chat to see what you’re thinking and feeling. I also have to say whether you’re a risk to the public.”

  “Great, okay,” I say, settling into my chair, yawning, holding my tea. “Let’s get on with it.”

  “Are you tired?”

  “I’ve had a nap. I just want to get all this over with and go home. For bleep’s sake, I only came here to hand in the evidence tape.”

  “I thought Chief Inspector Macintyre explained you couldn’t go home.”

  “He didn’t say why.”

  “Well, you killed two people, and the police have to look at the evidence and listen to what you say—”

  “But they’ve done that already. I identified Billie’s bag and stuff.”

  “They have to look at the evidence from where Eve was killed and where Nick was killed, and then they have to decide if they are going to charge you with a crime.”

  “Me?” I say, incredulous. “What about them killing Billie?”

  “Oh, the police are certainly looking at all that evidence too. But you did kill people, Thera, and you have to expect there will be some punishment.”

  “But they were bad people! They killed Billie and Ellie and Jenny Ann Welder and—” I cut myself off before I reveal I know about the other two dead girls. They’ll find the pictures in Nick’s wallet anyway. I checked for them after I killed him and before I went down to Mrs. A. Their pictures were all there. I guess it’s why he took mine—as a souvenir. “They deserved to die!” I sit back in my chair, astounded. “This is crazy. The police are idiots if they think that’s a crime. They should be thanking me. What about this don’t you all get? I got the bad guys! I’m the good guy. Why am I having all these stupid conversations? The police didn’t find the killers or anything. How come they seem surprised and ungrateful that I went and did their job for them?”