by Tana French
I said, ‘That’s here, yeah?’
Holly had moved in, hovering, like I might smash it. ‘It’s Kilda’s a hundred years ago. We researched what it used to be like – we got old photos and everything – and then we built it.’
The bedrooms: tiny copper-wire beds, wisps of tissue paper for sheets. In the boarders’ wing and the nuns’, fingernail-length parchment scrolls swung in the windows, from threads fine as spiderweb. ‘What are the bits of paper?’ I asked. My breath set them spinning.
‘The names of people who were listed living here in the 1911 census. We don’t actually know who had what room, obviously, but we went on what age they were and the order they were listed in – like probably friends would be one after the other, because they would’ve been sitting together. One girl was called Hepzibah Cloade.’
Conway was spinning chairs into place around one of the long tables. One for Holly. One six feet down the table: Mackey. She brought them down hard, flat bangs on the lino.
I said, ‘Whose idea was it?’
Holly shrugged. ‘All of ours. We were talking about the girls who went to school here a hundred years ago – if they ever thought about the same things as us, stuff like that; what they did when they grew up. If any of their ghosts ever came back. Then we thought of this.’
Chair across the table from Holly, for me. Bang. Chair opposite Mackey, for Conway. Bang.
Four scrolls hanging in the air above the main staircase. I said, ‘Who’re those?’
‘Hepzibah and her friends. Elizabeth Brennan. Bridget Marley. Lillian O’Hara.’
‘Where are they going?’
Holly reached between wires and touched the scrolls with the tip of her little finger, set them whirling. She said, ‘We don’t even know for sure they were friends. They could’ve all hated each other’s guts.’
I said, ‘It’s beautiful.’
‘Yeah,’ Conway said. Like a warning. ‘It is.’
From behind us: ‘Fancy meeting you here.’
Mackey, in the doorway. Leaning back on his heels, bright blue eyes scanning, hands in the pockets of his brown leather jacket. Barely changed from the first time I’d seen him; the long fluorescents picked out deeper crows’ feet, more grey mixed in with the brown, but that was all.
‘Hiya, chickadee,’ he said. ‘How’s tricks?’
‘OK,’ Holly said. She looked at least half glad to see him, which is pretty good for a sixteen-year-old’s daddy. Another thing that hadn’t changed much: Mackey and Holly made a good team.
‘What’ve you been chatting about?’
‘Our art project. Don’t worry, Dad.’
‘Just making sure you haven’t made mincemeat of these nice people while I wasn’t there to protect them.’ Mackey switched to me. ‘Stephen. Too long no see.’ He came forward, held out his hand. Firm handshake, friendly smile. At least to start with, we were going to play this like everything was hunky-dory, all friends together, all on the same side.
I said, ‘Thanks for coming in. We’ll try not to keep you too long.’
‘And Detective Conway. Nice to meet you, after all the good things I’ve heard. Frank Mackey.’ A smile that was used to getting a response, got none off her. ‘Let’s step outside while you brief me.’
‘You’re not here as a detective,’ Conway said. ‘We’ve got that covered. Thanks.’
Mackey tossed me an eyebrow-lift and grin: Who pissed in her cornflakes? I got caught, not sure whether to smile back or not – with Mackey, you never know what he could turn into ammo. The paralysed gawp on me just made his grin get bigger.
He said to Conway, ‘Then if I’m just here as a daddy, I’d like a quick chat with my daughter.’
‘We need to get started. You can have a chat when we take a break.’
Mackey didn’t argue. Probably Conway thought that meant she’d won. He wandered off around the room, past the chair we’d set out for him, having a look at the art projects. Gave Holly’s hair a quick rub on his way. ‘Do us a favour, sweetheart. Before you answer any of the lovely detectives’ questions, give me a fast rundown of what we’re doing here.’
Shutting her down would wreck the vibe right there. Conway’s look said she was starting to see what I meant about Mackey. Holly said, ‘This morning I found a card on the Secret Place. It had a photo of Chris Harper and it said, “I know who killed him.” I took it to Stephen, and they’ve been hanging around here all day. They just keep interviewing all of us and all of Joanne Heffernan’s idiots, so I think they narrowed it down to one of us eight must’ve put the card up.’
‘Interesting,’ Mackey said. Leaned over, examined the wire school from different angles. ‘That’s coming along nicely. Anyone else’s parents get brought in?’
Holly shook her head.
‘Professional courtesy,’ Conway said.
‘Makes me feel all warm and squishy,’ Mackey said. He pulled himself up onto a windowsill, one foot swinging. ‘You remember the deal here, sweetheart, am I right? Answer what you want to, leave what you don’t. You want to discuss something with me before you answer it, we’ll do that. Anything upsets you or makes you uncomfortable, tell me and we’ll make tracks. That all sound OK?’
‘Dad,’ Holly said. ‘I’m fine.’
‘I know you are. Just laying out the ground rules, so everyone’s clear.’ He winked at me. ‘Keeps everything nice, amn’t I right?’
Conway swung a leg over her chair. Said, to Holly, ‘You are not obliged to say anything unless you wish to do so, but anything you do say will be taken down in writing and may be used in evidence. Got it?’
You try to keep it casual, the caution, but it changes the room. Mackey’s face giving away nothing. Holly’s eyebrows pulling together: this was new. ‘What . . . ?’
Conway said, ‘You’ve been keeping stuff to yourself. That makes us get careful.’
I took my seat, opposite Holly. Held out a hand to Conway. She sent the lost-and-found phone, in its evidence bag, shooting down the table.
I passed it over to Holly. ‘Ever seen this before?’
A puzzled second; then Holly’s face cleared. ‘Yeah. It’s Alison’s.’
‘No. She has one the same, but that’s not it.’
Shrug. ‘Then I don’t know whose it is.’
‘That’s not what I need to know. I’m asking if you’ve seen it before.’
Longer puzzled look, slow head-shake. ‘Don’t think so.’
I said, ‘We have a witness who saw you drop it in the lost-and-found bin, the day after Chris Harper died.’
Total blank; then realisation dawned across Holly’s face. ‘Oh my God, that! I’d totally forgotten that. Yeah. We had a special assembly that morning, so McKenna could give us this big speech about a tragedy and assisting the police and whatever.’ Talky-mouth hand sign. ‘At the end we were all coming out of the hall into the foyer, and that phone was on the floor. I thought it was Alison’s, but I couldn’t see her; everything was a mess, everyone was talking and crying and hugging, the teachers were all trying to get us to shut up and go back to our classrooms . . . I just shoved the phone into the lost-and-found bin. I figured Alison could get it herself; not my problem. If it wasn’t hers, then whose was it?’
Flawless, even better than the real thing. And – clever clever girl – her story kept the whole school in the frame for having owned the phone. Conway’s jaded look said she’d spotted the same thing.
I took the phone back. Put it to one side, for later. Didn’t answer Holly’s question, but she didn’t push.
I said, ‘Julia and Selena must’ve told you: we know you guys used to get out at night, last year.’
Holly shot a fast glance at Mackey. ‘Don’t worry about me, chickadee,’ he said, pleasant grin. ‘My statute of limitation’s run out on that one. You’re OK.’
Holly said, to me, ‘So?’
‘What’d yous do out there?’
Her chin was out. ‘Why do you want to know?’
‘Come on, Holly. You know I have to ask.’
‘We just hung out. Talked. OK? We weren’t doing bath salts or having gang bangs or whatever you think the young people do these days. A couple of times we had a can, or a cigarette. Oh my God, shock horror.’
‘Don’t smoke,’ Mackey said severely, pointing. ‘What’ve I told you about smoking?’ Conway gave him a warning stare and he lifted his hands, all apologetic, all responsible dad who would never mess with the interview.
I ignored the pair of them. ‘Ever meet up with anyone? Guys from Colm’s, maybe?’
‘Jesus, no! We see enough of those morons already.’
‘So,’ I said, puzzled, ‘you were basically doing stuff you could’ve done indoors, or during the day. Why go to all that hassle, risk getting expelled?’
Holly said, ‘You wouldn’t understand.’
‘Try me.’
After a moment she sighed noisily. ‘Because out there in the dark was a better place to talk, is why. And because probably you never ever broke any rules in school, but not everyone always feels like doing everything exactly like they’re supposed to. OK?’
‘OK,’ I said. ‘That makes sense. I get that.’
Thumbs-up. ‘Wahey. Good for you.’
Almost four years of her teens left. I didn’t envy Mackey. I said, ‘You know Selena was sneaking out on her own to meet Chris Harper. Right?’
Holly pulled out the teenage vacant stare, bottom lip hanging. Made her look thick as pig shite, but I knew better.
‘We’ve got proof.’
‘Did you read it in your favourite gossip mag? Right under “R-Patz and K-Stew broke up again”?’
‘Behave,’ Mackey said, didn’t bother looking up. Holly rolled her eyes.
She was being a bitch because, for this reason or that one, she was scared. I leaned forward, close, till against her will she caught my eye. ‘Holly,’ I said gently. ‘This morning, you came to me for a reason. Because I was never thick enough to patronise you, and because you thought there was a chance I might understand more than most people. Right?’
Twitch of her shoulder. ‘I guess.’
‘You’re going to end up talking to someone about this stuff. I’d say you’d love to go back to your mates and pretend all this never happened – and I don’t blame you – but you don’t have that option.’
Holly was slumped in her chair, arms folded, eyes on the ceiling, like I was boring her into an actual coma here? She didn’t bother answering.
‘You know that as well as I do. You can talk to me, or you can talk to someone else. If you want to stick with me, I’ll do my best to live up to your good opinion. I don’t think I’ve let you down yet.’
Shrug.
‘So. You want to stick with me, or you want someone else?’
Mackey was watching me, under his eyelids, but he kept his mouth shut, which couldn’t be a compliment. Another shrug from Holly. ‘Whatever. Stick with you, I guess. I don’t care.’
‘Good,’ I said, and gave her a smile: We’re a team. Pulled my chair up closer to the table, ready for work. ‘So here’s the story. Selena’s already told us she was seeing Chris Harper. She’s told us she had a phone matching this description, which she used to text him. We have the phone records between the two of them. We have the actual texts setting up late-night meetings.’ Fast glance from Holly, before she could stop herself. She hadn’t known we could do that. ‘It’s not like I’m asking you to tell us something we don’t already know. I’m only asking for confirmation. So, one more time: did you know Selena was meeting Chris?’
Holly glanced at Mackey. He nodded.
‘Yeah,’ she said. The teen-brat shtick was gone, that fast. She sounded older. More complicated; more careful. ‘I knew.’
‘When did you find out?’
‘Last spring. Like a couple of weeks before Chris died, maybe? It was over by then, though. They weren’t meeting any more.’
‘How’d you find out?’
Holly was meeting my eyes now, cool and under control. She had her hands folded together on the table. She said, ‘Sometimes, when it’s hot, I can’t sleep. This one night, it was boiling, I was going mental trying to find cool bits of the bed; but then I thought, OK, maybe if I stay totally still I’ll fall asleep, right? So I made myself do it. It didn’t work, but Selena must’ve thought I’d gone to sleep. I heard her moving around and I thought, Maybe she’s awake too and we can talk, so I opened my eyes. She was holding a phone – I could see the screen, lit up – and she was kind of curled over it, like she didn’t want anyone to see. She wasn’t texting, or reading messages; just holding it. Like she was waiting for it to do something.’
‘And that made you curious.’
Holly said, ‘There’d been something wrong with Lenie. She’s always really calm, no matter what. Peaceful. But the last while before that night, she’d been . . .’ Something rippling that cool, as she remembered. ‘She seemed like something terrible had happened to her. Half the time she looked like she’d been crying, or she was about to. We’d be talking to her and a minute later she’d go, “What?” like she hadn’t even heard us. She wasn’t OK.’
I was nodding along. ‘And you were worried about her.’
‘I was crazy worried. I figured nothing terrible could’ve happened at school, because we were all together all the time, we’d have known. Right?’ Wry twist to Holly’s mouth. ‘But at home, at the weekends – Selena’s parents are split up, and they’re both kind of weird. Her mum and her stepdad have these parties, and her actual dad lets weird hippie guys stay on his sofa . . . I thought something could’ve happened at one of their places.’
‘Did you talk to anyone about it? See if maybe Julia or Rebecca had any ideas?’
‘Yeah. I tried talking to Julia, but she just went, “Jesus, dial down the drama, everyone gets moods; like you don’t? Give her a week or two, she’ll be fine.” And then I tried Becca, but Becca can’t really handle stuff like that – anything being wrong with any of us. She got so freaked out that in the end I told her it had just been my imagination, to get her to calm down.’
Trying to sound like it was nothing. But something was blowing across Holly’s face, just a wisp; something rain-coloured, something flavoured with sadness and with missing the long-lost. It startled me. Made her look older again, made her look like she understood things.
I said, ‘And she believed you? She hadn’t noticed anything up with Selena?’
‘Nah. Becca’s . . . She’s innocent. She figures as long as we’ve got each other, we’re automatically OK. It wouldn’t’ve occurred to her that Selena might not be.’
‘So Julia and Rebecca were no help to you,’ I said. Watched that wisp flicker again. ‘Did you talk to Selena?’
Holly shook her head. ‘I tried. Lenie’s excellent at not having a conversation when she doesn’t feel like it. She just does this dreamy look, and splat, conversation’s dead. I barely even got as far as asking her what was wrong.’
‘So what did you do?’
Flash of impatience. ‘Nothing. Waited and kept an eye on her. What do you think I should’ve done?’
‘Haven’t a clue,’ I said peaceably. ‘So when you saw that phone, you figured it had something to do with whatever was bothering Selena?’
‘Well, I didn’t exactly have to be a hotshot detective for that. I kept my eyes like this’ – slit open – ‘and watched till she put it away. I couldn’t see where she put it exactly, but it was somewhere down the side of her bed. So the next day I made up some excuse to go to our room during school, and I found it.’
‘And read the texts.’
Holly’s crossed knee was bouncing. I was pissing her off. ‘Yeah. So? So would you have, if your friend was in that state.’
I said, ‘They must’ve been a shock.’
Eye-roll. ‘You think?’
‘Chris wouldn’t be the boyfriend I’d choose for my best mate.’
‘Obviously. Not un
less your best mate liked them underage.’
Mackey was grinning, not bothering to hide it. I said, ‘So what did you do about it?’
Her chin went out. ‘Um, hello, same as before: what was I supposed to do? Get her a Chris voodoo doll and some pins? I’m not actually magic. I couldn’t wave my wand and make her feel all better.’
Sore spot. I pressed it. ‘You could’ve texted him to leave her alone. Or arranged to meet up with him, tell him face to face.’
Holly snorted. ‘Like that would’ve done any good. Chris didn’t even like me – he could tell I didn’t fall for his cute-little-puppy thing, which meant he was never going to get up my top, which meant I was a bitch and why would he bother even talking to me, never mind doing anything I asked him to?’
‘You, young one. No one gets up your top till you’re married.’ Mackey, from the windowsill.
I said, ‘I just can’t get my head round the idea that you did nothing. This guy’s making your best mate miserable, and you just went, “Ah, well, stuff happens, it’ll toughen her up”? Seriously?’
‘I didn’t know what to do! I feel like crap about it already, thanks very much, I don’t need you telling me what a shit friend I was.’
I said, ‘You could’ve talked to Julia and Rebecca, see if the three of you could come up with a plan together. That’s what I’d’ve expected you to do. If yous are as close as you say.’
‘I’d already tried. Remember? Becca got upset, Julia didn’t want to know. Probably I would’ve told Jules if Selena had been any worse, but it wasn’t like I thought she was going to kill herself over that wanker. She was just . . . unhappy. There was nothing any of us could do about that.’ Something blowing across Holly’s face again. ‘And she obviously really, like really didn’t want any of us knowing. If she’d found out that I knew, it would’ve just made her feel worse. So I acted like I didn’t.’
