he believed was Andie Bell in your old house in Wendover. He’s been arrested. Naomi will be safe, I give you my word. I know why he did it when you’re ready to hear it. I’m so sorry. I wish I could save you from this. I love you.
She’d read it over, in her parents’ bed, and pressed send, tears falling against the phone as she cradled it into her cupped hands.
Her mum made Pip breakfast when she finally woke at two in the afternoon; there’d been no question of her going into school. They didn’t talk about it again; there was nothing more to say, not yet. But still the question of Andie Bell played on Pip’s mind, how Andie had one last mystery left in her yet.
Pip tried to call Cara seventeen times but it rang out each time. Naomi’s phone too.
Later that afternoon, Leanne drove round to the Wards’ house after picking up Josh. She came back saying that no one was home and their car was gone.
‘They’ve probably gone to their auntie Lila’s,’ Pip said, pressing redial again.
Victor came home early from work. They all sat in the living room, watching old runs of quiz shows that would usually be punctuated by Pip and her dad racing to shout out the answer. But they watched silently, exchanging furtive looks over Josh’s head, the air bloated with a sad and what-now tension.
When someone knocked at the front door Pip jumped up to escape the strangeness that smothered the room. In her tie-dye pyjamas she pulled open the door and the air stung her toes.
It was Ravi, standing in front of his parents, the spaces between them perfect like they’d pre-arranged the pose.
‘Hello, Sarge,’ Ravi said, smiling at her bright and garish pyjamas. ‘This is my mum, Nisha.’ He gestured like a game-show host and his mum smiled at Pip, her black hair in two loose plaits. ‘And my dad, Mohan.’ Mohan nodded and his chin tickled the top of the giant bouquet of flowers he held, a box of chocolates tucked under the other arm. ‘Parents,’ Ravi said, ‘this is the Pip.’
Pip’s polite ‘Hello’ got muddled in with theirs.
‘So,’ Ravi said, ‘they called us in to the police station earlier. They sat us down and told us everything, everything we already knew. And they said they’d be holding a press conference once they’ve charged Mr Ward, and will release a statement about Sal’s innocence.’
Pip heard her mum and heavy-footed dad walking up the hallway to stand behind her. Ravi did the introductions again for Victor’s sake; Leanne had met them before, fifteen years ago when she’d sold them their house.
‘So,’ Ravi continued, ‘we all wanted to come over and thank you, Pip. This wouldn’t have happened without you.’
‘I don’t quite know what to say,’ Nisha said, her Ravi-Sal round eyes beaming. ‘Because of what the two of you did, you and Ravi, we now have our boy back. You’ve both given Sal back to us, and there are no words for how much that means.’
‘These are for you,’ Mohan said, leaning forward and handing over the flowers and chocolates to Pip. ‘I’m sorry, we weren’t quite sure what you’re supposed to get for someone who’s helped vindicate your dead son.’
‘Google had very few suggestions,’ said Ravi.
‘Thank you,’ Pip said. ‘Do you want to come in?’
‘Yes, do come in,’ Leanne said, ‘I’ll put on a pot of tea.’
But as Ravi stepped into the house he took Pip’s arm and pulled her back into a hug, crushing the flowers between them, laughing into her hair. When he let her go Nisha stepped up and folded her into a hug; her sweet perfume smelled to Pip like homes and mothers and summer evenings. And then, not sure why or how it happened, they were all hugging, all six of them swapping and hugging again, laughing with tears in their eyes.
And just like that, with crushed flowers and a carousel of hugs, the Singhs had come and taken away the suffocating and confused sadness that had taken over the house. They’d opened the door and let out the ghost, for at least a while. Because there was one happy ending in all of this: Sal was innocent. A family set free from the grave weight they’d carried all these years. And through all the hurt and doubt that would come, it was worth hanging on to.
‘What are you guys doing?’ said Josh in a small and baffled voice.
In the living room