to shreds.’
She’s not wrong. I can hear the defence lawyer now, telling us we’ve got it all wrong – that it must have been a random predator, some pervert who happened to pass Sasha at the bus stop. Or someone else who knew her – someone who could have been stalking her. Like Graeme bloody Scott, for instance.
‘But we know Patsie was involved somehow.’ I turn fully and look at her. ‘Don’t we? Or am I on my own on this?’
Gallagher shakes her head. ‘No, I think you’re right – not just because of what the lip-reader said but the way she reacted just now. I just don’t see how we square the circle on how.’ She sighs. ‘And as for why –’
I turn back to the map and then the timeline. ‘OK, let’s start with what we know. The bus arrived at 9.43, Patsie, Isabel and Sasha got on and Leah started to walk home.’
She nods. ‘Which is supported both by Isabel’s bus ticket and what we got from Leah’s mother.’
‘Right. But we only have that one ticket, don’t we? What if Isabel got on that bus alone? What if Patsie went off with Sasha much earlier than that – even as early as 9.00 – and Leah and Isabel then hung around on their own for half an hour or so before going home?’
Gallagher’s eyes widen. ‘You mean they did it deliberately? To create a fake timeline?’ She gives a low whistle. ‘You’re talking about a pretty sick conspiracy there, DI Fawley. But OK, let’s play it through. Have we ever nailed down where they went after they left the pizza place?’
‘They claimed they just “hung out”. You know – on those benches up by South Parade. Which are conveniently out of range of any CCTV.’
Gallagher nods. She knows the place, of course she does – she lives up that way herself. And there are always kids mooching about there in the evenings. Smoking, drinking cider. ‘Hanging out.’
I take a step closer to the board; my head is buzzing. ‘What if this whole thing is a lie? What if Patsie and Sasha started for home straight after leaving the restaurant? Only they didn’t get a bus. They walked.’ I trace the route – down the Banbury Road and then along the Marston Ferry Road towards Cherwell Drive. And then I stop and tap the map.
‘Here,’ I say, turning to her. ‘This is where they stopped. This is where they turned off.’
The footpath leading to the Vicky Arms. Barely a hundred yards from where Sasha’s body was found.
Gallagher considers. ‘It would have been pretty dark along there at that time of night.’
‘Patsie could easily have brought a torch. If it really was that premeditated.’
Gallagher glances at me. ‘But why would Sasha go with her?’
I shrug. ‘She didn’t know Patsie intended her any harm, did she? They were supposed to be best friends – they’d known each other since playschool. Perhaps Patsie said she wanted to go to the pub. Perhaps they were supposed to meet some boys. Who knows.’
‘OK,’ she says. ‘Then what?’
‘As soon as they’re out of sight of the road, Patsie turns on Sasha and kills her, then drags the body into the river –’
‘Sasha’s phone,’ says Gallagher suddenly. ‘The last signal was at 9.35. We thought her battery had run out, but perhaps it wasn’t that at all. Perhaps the phone went dead then because Patsie had just chucked it in the Cherwell.’
It fits; it all fits.
Gallagher moves closer to the map. ‘And after that Patsie just heads off home on foot as if nothing had happened?’
I nod. ‘And when she gets there, she makes a big point of talking to someone in the street, so they’ll remember seeing her. Meanwhile Isabel gets on the 9.43 bus in Summertown, making sure to ask the driver the time when they’re approaching Headington.’
‘Perfect little alibis, gift-wrapped and ready to go,’ says Gallagher. ‘All they have to do after that is keep on insisting all three of them were on that same bus.’
I sense someone come up behind me now and turn to see Gislingham at my shoulder.
‘Good news,’ he says. ‘Someone called in – looks like we’ve found Sasha’s handbag. It was up near the Vicky Arms. Quinn’s on his way to the lab to take a look.’
I stare at him. ‘Where was it – where exactly?’
He goes up to the map and points. ‘About there, I think – in a ditch on the corner of Mill Lane.’
Halfway