time. And Andie tells Nat to drop out of the play or she will go to the police and say she was statutorily raped by Nat’s brother. And Nat dropped out because she was scared of what Andie would do.
Pip:
Was it true? Did Andie have a relationship with Nat’s brother?
Naomi:
I don’t know. Nat didn’t know for sure either, that’s why she dropped out. But I don’t think she ever asked him.
Pip:
Do you know where Nat is now? Do you think I could talk to her?
Naomi:
I’m not really in contact with her, but I know she’s back at home with her parents. I heard some stuff about her, though.
Pip:
What stuff?
Naomi:
Um, I think at uni she was involved in some kind of fight. She got arrested and charged with ABH and I think she spent some time in prison.
Pip:
Oh god.
Naomi:
I know.
Pip:
Can you give me her number?
Fourteen
‘Did you get all dressed up to come and see me, Sarge?’ Ravi said, leaning against his front door frame in a green plaid flannel shirt and jeans.
‘Nope, I came straight from school,’ said Pip. ‘And I need your help. Put some shoes on –’ she clapped her hands – ‘you’re coming with me.’
‘Are we going on a mission?’ he said, staggering back to slip on some old trainers discarded in the hallway. ‘Do I need to bring my night-vision goggles and utility belt?’
‘Not this time,’ she smiled, starting down the garden path as Ravi closed the front door, following behind her.
‘Where we going?’
‘To a house where two potential Andie-killer suspects grew up,’ Pip said. ‘One of them just out of prison for committing an “assault occasioning actual bodily harm” ,’ she used quotation fingers around her words. ‘You’re my back-up as we’re going to speak to a potentially violent person of interest.’
‘Back-up?’ he said, catching up to walk alongside her.
‘You know,’ Pip said, ‘so there’s someone there to hear my screams of help if they’re required.’
‘Wait, Pip.’ He closed his fingers round her arm and pulled them both to a stop. ‘I don’t want you doing something that’s actually dangerous. Sal wouldn’t have wanted that either.’
‘Oh, come on.’ She shrugged him off. ‘Nothing gets in between me and my homework, not even a little danger. And I’m just going to, very calmly, ask her a few questions.’
‘Oh, it’s a her?’ Ravi said. ‘OK then.’
Pip swung her rucksack to whack him on the arm.
‘Don’t think I didn’t notice that,’ she said. ‘Women can be just as dangerous as men.’
‘Ouch, tell me about it,’ he said, rubbing his arm. ‘What have you got in there, bricks?’
When Ravi stopped laughing at Pip’s squat and bug-faced car, he clicked his seat belt into place and Pip keyed the address into her phone. She started the car and told Ravi everything she’d learned since they last spoke. Everything except the dark figure in the forest and the note in her sleeping bag. This investigation meant everything to him, and yet, she knew he would tell her to stop if he thought she was putting herself in danger. She couldn’t put him in that position.
‘Andie sounds like a piece of work,’ he said when Pip was done. ‘And yet it was so easy for everyone to believe that Sal was the monster. Wow, that was deep.’ He turned to her. ‘You can quote me on that in your project if you want.’
‘Certainly, footnote and everything,’ she said.
‘Ravi Singh,’ he said, drawing his words with his fingers, ‘deep unfiltered thoughts, Pip’s bug-faced car, 2017.’
‘We had an hour-long EPQ session on footnotes today,’ Pip said, eyes back on the road. ‘As if they think I don’t already know. I came out of the womb knowing how to do academic references.’
‘Such an interesting superpower; you should call up Marvel.’
The mechanical and snobby voice on Pip’s phone interrupted, telling them that in 500 yards they would reach their destination.
‘Must be this one,’ Pip said. ‘Naomi told me it was the one with the bright blue door.’ She indicated and pulled up on to the kerb. ‘I rang Natalie twice yesterday. The first time she hung up after I said the words “school project”. The second time she wouldn’t pick up at all. Let’s hope she’ll actually open the door. You coming?’
‘I’m not sure,’ he said, pointing at his own face, ‘there’s that whole murderer’s brother thing. You might get more answers if I’m not there.’
‘Oh.’
‘How about I stand on the path there?’ He gestured to the slabs of concrete that divided the front garden up to