A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder #1) - Holly Jackson Page 0,60
to the police,’ Ravi said.
‘Yeah, it could have been that blonde guy.’
Pip cleared her throat to give herself some thinking time.
‘OK,’ she said. ‘How often would you and Andie meet?’
‘We met whenever we needed to, whenever she had orders to collect or cash to give me. I’d say it was probably about once a week, sometimes more, sometimes less.’
‘Where did you meet?’ Ravi said.
‘Either at the station, or she sometimes came over here.’
‘Were you . . .’ Pip paused. ‘Were you and Andie involved romantically?’
Howie snorted. He sat up suddenly, swatting something near his ear. ‘Fuck no, we weren’t,’ he said, his laughter not wholly covering the annoyance creeping up his neck in red patches.
‘Are you sure about that?’
‘Yes, I’m sure.’ The cover of amusement was cast aside now.
‘Why are you getting defensive then?’ Pip said.
‘Course I’m defensive, there’s two kids in my house berating me about stuff that happened years ago and threatening cops.’ He kicked out at the crumpled beer can on the floor and it sailed across the room, clattering into the blinds just behind Pip’s head.
Ravi jumped up from the sofa, stepping in front of her.
‘What are you going to do about it?’ Howie leered at him, staggering to his feet. ‘You’re a fucking joke, man.’
‘All right, everyone, calm down,’ Pip said, standing up too. ‘We’re almost finished here; you just have to answer honestly. Did you have a sexual relationship with –’
‘No, I already said no, didn’t I?’ The flush reached his face, peeking out above the line of his beard.
‘Did you want to have a sexual relationship with her?’
‘No.’ He was shouting now. ‘She was just business to me and me to her, OK? It wasn’t more complicated than that.’
‘Where were you the night she was killed?’ Ravi demanded.
‘I was passed out drunk on that sofa.’
‘Do you know who killed her?’ said Pip.
‘Yeah, his brother.’ Howie pointed aggressively at Ravi. ‘Is that what this is, you want to prove your murdering scum brother was innocent?’
Pip saw Ravi stiffen, looking down at the jagged hilltop knuckles on his fists. But then he caught her eyes and shook the hardness out of his face, tucking his hands into his pockets.
‘OK, we’re done here,’ Pip said, laying her hand on Ravi’s arm. ‘Let’s go.’
‘No, no, I don’t think so.’ In two giant leaps Howie darted over to the door, blocking their way out.
‘Excuse me, Howard,’ Pip said, her nervousness cooling into fear.
‘No, no, no,’ he laughed, shaking his head. ‘I can’t let you leave.’
Ravi stepped up to him. ‘Move.’
‘I did what you asked,’ Howie said, turning to Pip. ‘Now you have to delete those pictures of me.’
Pip relaxed a little. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘Yes, that’s fair.’ She held up her phone and showed Howie as she deleted every single picture from the car park, until she swiped right on to a photo of Barney and Josh both asleep in the dog bed. ‘Done.’
Howie moved aside and let them pass.
Pip pulled open the front door and as she and Ravi stepped outside into the brisk night air Howie spoke one last time.
‘You go around asking dangerous questions, girl, you’re going to find some dangerous answers.’
Ravi yanked the door shut behind them. He waited until the house was at least twenty paces behind them before saying, ‘Well that was fun, thanks for the invite to my first blackmailing.’
‘Welcome,’ she said. ‘My first time too. But it was effective; we found out that Andie had a second phone, Howie had complicated feelings for her and Max Hastings had a taste for Rohypnol.’ She raised her phone and clicked on to the photo app. ‘Just recovering those photos in case we need future Howie leverage.’
‘Oh, fantastic,’ he said. ‘Can’t wait. Maybe then I can add blackmail as a special skill to my CV.’
‘You know you use humour as a defence mechanism when you’re rattled?’ Pip smiled at him, letting him through the hedge gap ahead of her.
‘Yeah, and you get bossy and posh.’
He looked back at her for a long moment and she broke first. They started laughing and then they just couldn’t stop. The adrenaline comedown descended into hysterics. Pip fell into him, wiping away tears, snatching staccato breaths between cackles. Ravi stumbled, his face creased, laughing so hard he had to bend over and hold his gut.
They laughed until Pip’s cheeks ached and her stomach felt tight and sore.
But the after-laugh sighs just set them off again.