you?’
* * *
Ev turns sharply to find herself face to face with a girl with greasy dark hair and jeans with rips at the knees. A little shorter than Ev, a little heavier too. And without even thinking, the phrase that lodges in her mind is ‘no oil painting’. Everett’s own mother once said that about her, when she thought her daughter was out of earshot. Ev couldn’t have been more than ten at the time. She’d never even thought about her looks before, but once the damage was done it was impossible to go back. She started to notice how people reacted to girls she knew were prettier than her. She started to worry about what she wore, to feel she mattered less because she looked worse. And here she is now, thinking the same about someone else. She feels herself start to go red, as if she said the thought out loud. Did she judge Faith the same way, without even realizing she was doing it?
The girl is still staring at her, her face surly.
‘I’m sorry,’ Everett says quickly. ‘You’re Nadine, right?’
The girl doesn’t bother replying. ‘Did Faith say you could come in here? Don’t you need a warrant or something to poke about in people’s stuff?’
‘I wasn’t poking about – I came up for the loo and the door was open and –’
‘No, it wasn’t. She never leaves her room open. And I do mean never.’
There’s no answering that.
Nadine stands to one side and Everett makes her way past her, doubly embarrassed now. She’s never been a very good liar.
* * *
Downstairs in the sitting room, Somer is on her feet, putting her notebook back inside her jacket. When she sees Ev she gives a minute shake of the head. It seems the interview is over too.
Diane Appleford has her arm round her older daughter. ‘I only left her alone with you for five minutes and you start giving her the third degree.’
‘I wasn’t,’ says Somer, ‘really, I wasn’t –’
‘I told you already,’ she continues, cutting across her, ‘Faith said she was not assaulted. And that’s what she told you too, right?’
‘Yes, but –’
Faith’s cheeks are red and she’s staring at the floor.
‘In which case I’d like you to leave. All of you. I’m sure you have much more pressing things you should be doing. Like investigating some actual crime.’
Nadine appears in the doorway.
‘Darling, could you show the policewomen out?’ says Diane. ‘They’re leaving now.’
As she passes Faith, Somer makes sure they make eye contact. ‘You know where I am. If you want to talk.’
The girl bites her lip, then gives a tiny nod.
* * *
Out on the street Fawley is waiting by his car, looking at a piece of paper the size of a photograph. But when he sees them approaching, he hurriedly puts it away.
‘I’m guessing from your faces that we’re not much further forward.’
Somer shakes her head. ‘Sorry, sir. I was just starting to get somewhere when the mother came back with the tea and decided I was being too “intrusive”. Not sure how I could have questioned her without being at least mildly intrusive, but there you are.’ She shrugs.
‘But there was something, sir,’ says Everett. ‘Something Somer spotted.’
Fawley raises an eyebrow and turns to Somer. ‘Oh yes?’
‘It was as we were leaving,’ she says. ‘The girl’s hair. She’s in such a state I hadn’t noticed before, but when we were on our own, I noticed she kept pulling at it. On the right-hand side. I can’t be a hundred per cent sure but I think some of it is missing.’
* * *
Adam Fawley
1 April 2018
14.15
‘So what do you want us to do?’ says Baxter.
It’s just gone two and Everett is briefing the rest of the team on the Appleford case. Or rather the Appleford incident, which is all it’s ever going to be, unless and until we get a good deal more to go on. Which is pretty much what I say.
‘There’s not much we can do. Faith is claiming that it was all a misunderstanding. An April Fool’s joke that got “a bit out of hand”.’
‘Pretty nasty April Fool,’ says Quinn darkly, folding his arms. ‘And doesn’t yanking out someone’s hair without their consent count as ABH these days?’
‘It could have been cut,’ says Somer. ‘I couldn’t really see.’
I intervene. ‘Either way, Quinn is right: that’s ABH. But we’re still just guessing. Faith hasn’t actually said that’s what happened. And given she’s also refusing to say which of her friends was