The Last Girl (44 page)

‘You do realise that it’s a massive responsibility, looking after her.’ I could feel myself losing my grip on my temper. ‘If this is just your way of getting back at your father, you’d better tell me now so I can find somewhere else for Lydia to go. You need to be serious about giving her the care she needs.’

‘Don’t patronise me,’ Savannah spat.

‘I’m not. It’s just––’

‘Do you think I haven’t seen plenty of eating disorders in my line of work? And cutting? Burning, even?’ Savannah got up to pace around the room. ‘It’s hardly unheard of. Models aren’t the most stable people.’

‘I wouldn’t have thought you could get away with self-harm if your body is your job.’

‘You can always find somewhere to hurt yourself that doesn’t show. Between the toes is an old favourite. Inside the mouth. The genitals, even.’

‘You do sound familiar with it. More than me, I have to admit. What about you? Have you ever tried it?’

‘Me?’ She laughed. ‘No. I’m too much like Dad for that. I don’t do self-destructive. I just destroy other people.’

‘What does that mean?’

She shrugged. ‘It sounded good in my head.’

‘Come off it, Savannah,’ I snapped. ‘What did you mean?’

‘Just that Zoe doesn’t have it easy. And the boyfriend I broke up with to be with her – he wasn’t too pleased.’ She sighed. ‘I try not to do any harm, but I take after Dad. I take advantage of people and I can see myself doing it but I can’t stop.’

‘It must be hard. Looking the way you do, I mean.’

‘Why?’

‘Because people want to please you. Or they want you to live up to their fantasies.’

‘That’s it. They have expectations.’ Savannah frowned. ‘How do you know?’

I hesitated. ‘Let’s just say I know all about unwanted attention and leave it at that.’

‘Unwanted attention? I really doubt you do know about it. I’ve had ten or twelve stalkers in the last year alone. Proper, serious, police-involved harassment.’

‘I’m sorry about that.’ I wasn’t going to compete, even though I could have tried.

‘Comes with the territory, like I said.’ She laughed humourlessly. ‘That’s why I’d like to be normal, really. Do an ordinary job; look ordinary, even. So I didn’t have to put up with that kind of thing.’

‘I hate to break it to you but plenty of ordinary people have to cope with being harassed. And most of them don’t have your resources. They can’t afford to hide away in rural splendour with their secret girlfriend.’

‘This wasn’t my idea, actually. Zoe suggested it.’

‘Really?’ That wasn’t the impression I’d had.

‘Look, I grew up not knowing one end of a cow from the other. I’ve never lived in the country. I can’t get used to how quiet it is out here, or how far you’ve to drive to get a pint of milk. This is completely not my kind of place but I like it. It makes her happy. And that makes me happy.’
She
shook her head. ‘How did we get on to talking about this?’

‘Because I wanted you to be aware you may need to keep an eye on Lydia.’ I opened the door, checking that she was still downstairs.

‘Keep her away from sharp knives, you mean?’ Savannah bit her lip. ‘God. That sounds as if I think she did the murders. I don’t, obviously.’

‘Obviously,’ I agreed.

‘But there’s no way she could have, is there? I mean, the injuries she had – they weren’t from a fight.’

‘I don’t believe so,’ I said carefully. It intrigued me that Savannah was bothered about it. ‘Why do you ask? Do you have concerns about her being involved?’

Savannah shifted restlessly. ‘I don’t know. Not really. I mean, she’s just a kid. But it was something that Zoe said to me that made me wonder about it. And now you say she had a serious cut on her arm and it makes me edgy. I just thought I’d ask.’

‘I’m a bit surprised you didn’t think about it before you asked her to stay with you.’

‘Well, I didn’t.’

‘Are you still happy to have her here? Because if you want us to take her away––’

‘No! I want her here. I really do.’ Savannah wriggled again. ‘Besides, what’s the alternative? Back to Renee?’

‘Probably.’

‘There’s no way.’

‘What do you have against her?’ I asked, curious.

‘There’s no warmth in her. No caring. The only thing that worries her is her reputation. And her precious family. She was the one who made Vita tell Dad to cut me off.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘He told me. I only met her once. I thought she was a witch, and I was right. You know, I asked Dad once why Vita stayed with him. He told me she asked him for a
divorce
a couple of years ago, then backed down on Renee’s instructions. Renee told her she’d made her choice and she had to live with it. Not what I would want to hear from my big sister, if I had one.’

‘Me neither. I did wonder why Vita stayed in the marriage.’

‘I think it was her obsession. That and the girls. But it was Renee who guilt-tripped her into staying with him through thick and thin. She basically gave him a licence to behave as he wanted and he took full advantage. You’d think she liked him or something.’

‘Not the impression I got.’

‘Maybe he shagged her and then never called.’ Savannah’s eyes widened. ‘Hey, you don’t think––’

‘Lydia’s coming back.’ It was with genuine regret that I called a halt, but there were things Lydia didn’t need to hear about her parents, and it was all pure speculation anyway. From the thumps and bumps and low-pitched swearing, she had recruited Derwent as a porter.

‘You need a lift.’ He shouldered the door open and threw the bag at the bed, just missing Savannah. ‘This is all right, though.’

‘Thanks. I’d have thought it was a bit girly for you.’

‘And I’d have thought it was a bit girly for you.’ He swivelled on the spot. ‘Where’s the TV?’

‘No TV.’

‘You need a little plasma-screen job just there.’ He pointed to a space on the wall near the bath. ‘Sit in the bath with a cold beer, watching Man U getting thumped – I’d die happy.’

‘As long as you died, I wouldn’t care how.’ Savannah wasn’t bothering to hide her feelings for Derwent any more. ‘Is there anything else I can do for the two of you or are you prepared to leave us in peace?’

‘Couldn’t make me stay.’ He looked at me. ‘Ready, Kerrigan?’

‘I think so.’

Derwent and I took our leave of them with varying degrees of politeness, Derwent making no attempt to be subtle as he double-checked Zoe’s story about the car. I sat in the passenger seat waiting while he lay full-length on the ground, searching every inch with his torch. Zoe and Savannah watched without comment. Lydia had wandered over to stand by the gate, accompanied by the dog who seemed to have adopted her. When Derwent eventually got into the car, the look on his face was pure triumph.

‘Nothing.’

‘And that’s good news.’

‘Well, objectively no.’ He had the grace to look mildly ashamed. ‘It does mean Lydia may be in danger, I suppose.’

‘But more importantly, you were right.’

‘That’s where I was coming from, yeah.’

‘You’re a prince among men.’

‘Finally, you’re prepared to admit it.’ He started the engine and nosed forward, giving Lydia time to unlock the gate. ‘I knew I’d wear you down.’

‘But if you think they’re lying––’

‘To be honest, if I thought she was in danger I’d have her out of here in a heartbeat, but I can’t see it. I think these ladies thought we needed there to be an alibi and cooked one up, just to reassure us. The physical evidence says they’re lying about it, but that doesn’t mean the clothes-horse is a murderer.’

‘Give it a rest.’ I put my hand on Derwent’s arm. ‘Just stop for a second.’

He braked beside Lydia, enveloping her in a cloud of dust. ‘Whoops.’

I put down my window and handed the coughing teenager a card. ‘Sorry about the dust. I just wanted to tell you to put my number in your phone, since you do have one after all.’

‘Okay.’

‘You know how to add someone to the contacts, I presume.’

‘I’ll work it out.’

‘And use it if you need it.’

She nodded. ‘Thank you.’

‘You know where to find me.’

She ran back to the gate, closing it behind her so we were shut out again. Beside me, Derwent stirred, putting the car into gear.

‘It was interesting about the phone. Would you have picked her for a liar?’

I didn’t need to stop to think about it. ‘Actually, I would.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Because it seems to run in the family.’

Derwent grunted his agreement. The car bumped slowly down the track while I watched the house getting smaller in the mirror and thought about deceit, and suspicion, and family secrets, and whether anyone really wanted us to solve this case at all.

Chapter Nineteen

‘OKAY, WHAT’S WRONG?’
Liv plumped down on the edge of my desk.

‘Do you mind? Those are important.’ I extracted a sheaf of forms from under her rear end.

‘Come off it. It’s not like you to be pissy about paperwork. What’s up?’

‘Nothing.’

‘You’ve been staring into space for the past twenty minutes.’

‘Thinking.’

‘There’s a little puddle of drool there.’ She pointed. ‘Brain activity close to nil, I’d have said. What’s up?’

I put my face in my hands and groaned. ‘Take your pick.’

‘Is it work or personal?’

‘Both.’

‘Bad?’

‘The worst.’

‘I was going to offer to buy you a can from the vending machine to cheer you up. This sounds a bit more serious.’

‘You’re not wrong.’ I checked the time. ‘Too early to hit the pub, unfortunately. The vending machine it is.’

The one major advantage of the machine was that it was located in a small alcove two floors down from the team’s room. That and the fact that the refrigeration unit was as noisy as an oil rig made it possible to have a private conversation there without attracting too much attention,
provided
you kept it brief. We rattled downstairs in silence, by mutual consent, and Liv did the honours. Two cans clattered down into the slot and she fished them out.

‘Spill the beans.’

I took a deep breath. ‘Rob may be having an affair with his boss, Derwent and I possibly just put a key witness in danger, and something really, really bad happened last night.’

Liv blinked rapidly. ‘So the first two don’t count as really, really bad?’

‘Not in the context of the third.’ I popped the ring-pull and sipped orange fizz, wincing at how sweet it tasted. ‘God, this is rank.’

‘It’s all that was left. I can’t believe they haven’t restocked the machine. It’s not like we’re in the middle of a heatwave or anything.’ Liv hadn’t opened hers yet and was holding it to the back of her neck, trying to cool down. ‘You’d better start with the third thing, then, although I’m pretty sure you’re wrong about Rob.’

‘I wish I was.’ I squeezed the sides of the can, flexing the thin metal. ‘Do you remember Chris Swain?’

‘As in your creepy stalker, Chris Swain? As in the guy who lived in your building and filmed you and Rob––’

‘Shagging. Yes. And keep your voice down.’

A man I didn’t know was walking towards us with a preoccupied air and a handful of coins, but just because I didn’t know him I wasn’t prepared to assume he didn’t know me. We fell silent while he in his turn discovered the lack of choice, struggled with his disappointment and also settled for orange. As he disappeared around the corner, I turned back to Liv. ‘Swain’s been out of sight since Belcott and Vale found the wiring in my old flat. He disappeared before they got a chance to interview him.’

‘I remember that. They did a pretty thorough job looking for him.’

‘Yeah, Colin Vale doesn’t do any other kind of job, and
Belcott
was just insanely curious. They put in the hours all right, but they didn’t find a trace of him anywhere – his passport hasn’t been used since, nor have any of his credit cards, and there was no activity on any of the accounts he had in his name. I don’t think it’s safe to assume he killed himself from shame and we just haven’t found the body.’

‘He was ready to go underground, wasn’t he?’

‘Had it all planned.’ I drank a little bit of orange, regretting it as it fizzed up in my sinuses. ‘Anyway. I was starting to think he was gone for good.’

Liv’s eyes were round. ‘He didn’t turn up.’

‘Not in person.’

‘How, then?’

‘I’ve been getting weird things in the post at home. Underwear catalogues, that kind of thing. I thought I’d got on a dodgy mailing list.’

‘That happens. It’s a bit weird, but it does happen.’

‘Yeah. It does. But there were pictures, too, of Rob and his boss. Not doing anything in particular,’ I added quickly, seeing the look on her face. ‘Just looking a little bit more friendly than you might expect. Rob passed it off as a prank, but I don’t suppose he thought it was Chris Swain’s work either. I wouldn’t have put two and two together if I hadn’t found an envelope with our post when I got home late last night.’