Good Girl, Bad Blood

by Holly Jackson

  ‘Did you ask him where he was?’ said Pip.

  ‘No. Luke doesn’t like to be asked questions.’ Nat shifted in her chair. ‘But after Jamie never showed up and was ignoring my calls, I went over to Luke’s house to see him. He wasn’t there. And his car was gone.’

  ‘What time was this?’

  ‘Around midnight. Then I went back home.’

  ‘So, you don’t know where Luke was?’ Pip leaned forward, elbows on the table.

  ‘I do now.’ Nat withdrew one of her hands to pull her phone out, laying it on the table. ‘Last night, I was thinking about what you said yesterday, that maybe Luke had something to do with Jamie’s disappearance. So I, uh, looked through his phone while he was asleep. Went through his WhatsApps. He’s been talking to a girl.’ She laughed again, small and hollow. ‘She’s called Layla Mead.’

  Pip felt the name creeping along her skin, climbing up her spine, jumping rung to rung.

  ‘You said Jamie’s been talking to her too,’ Nat said. ‘I stayed up till four, listening to your two episodes. You don’t know who Layla is, but Luke does.’ She ran her fingers through her hair. ‘That’s where he was, the night of Jamie’s disappearance. Meeting Layla.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘That’s what his messages say. They’ve been talking for several weeks, I scrolled back and read every message. Looks like they met on Tinder, so that’s great for me. And the messages are, you know, explicit. Also great for me. But they hadn’t met yet, not until last Friday night. Here.’ She unlocked her phone, thumbing on to her photos app. ‘I took two screenshots and sent them to my phone. I was already thinking of showing you, because, you know . . . you came back, so I didn’t have to be alone. And when I heard about Max’s house, that’s when I decided to message you. Here.’ She passed the phone into Pip’s waiting hands.

  Pip’s eyes trailed down the first screenshot: Luke’s messages on the right in green boxes, Layla’s left and white.

  I’ ve been thinking about you . . .

  Yeah? Been thinking bout you too

  Nothing good I hope : )

  You know me

  I’ d like to.

  I don’ t wanna wait any more. Wanna meet tonight?

  Alright where?

  Car park in Lodge Wood

  Pip’s breath stuttered at Layla’s last message. The car park at Lodge Wood; her search party team had walked through that car park on Wednesday. It fell inside their zone.

  She glanced up quickly at Nat before swiping to the second screenshot.

  A car park?

  I won’ t be wearing much . . .

  When?

  Come now.

  Then ten minutes later, at 11:58 p.m.:

  Are you coming?

  Almost there.

  And then much later, at 12:41 a.m. from Luke:

  What the fuck, I’ m gonna kill you

  Pip’s eyes shot up to Nat’s.

  ‘I know,’ she said, nodding. ‘No more messages from either of them after that. But he knows who Layla is, and you think she had something to do with Jamie?’

  ‘Yeah, I do,’ Pip said, sliding Nat’s phone back across the table. ‘I think she had everything to do with Jamie.’

  ‘I need you to find him,’ Nat said, and there was quiver to her lip now that wasn’t there before, a sheen to her dried-out eyes. ‘Jamie, he . . . he’s really important to me. And I-I just need him to be OK.’

  It was Pip who reached across the table now, taking Nat’s hand in hers, her thumb hovering above the sharp ridges and falls of Nat’s knuckles. ‘I’m trying,’ she said.

  Thirty-Five

  Ravi was jittery, moving too much, disturbing the air beside her as they walked.

  ‘How scary did you say this guy is again?’ he asked, his fingers finding their way into the pocket of Pip’s jacket, hooking on.

  ‘Pretty scary,’ she said.

  ‘And he’s a drug dealer.’

  ‘Think he’s higher up than that,’ she said as they turned on to Beacon Close.

  ‘Oh good,’ Ravi said. ‘Howie’s boss. Are we going to blackmail this one too?’

  Pip shrugged, pulled a face at him. ‘Whatever works.’

  ‘Great. Cool,’ Ravi said. ‘Really love that new motto, covers all bases. Yep. Cool. This is all fine. Which house is he?’

  ‘Number thirteen.’ Pip pointed out the house with the white BMW parked outside.

  ‘Thirteen?’ Ravi squinted at her. ‘Oh fabulous. Another good sign, that is.’

  ‘Come on,’ Pip said, suppressing a smile, patting him twice on the backside as they walked up the path alongside the car, the one they’d chased on Wednesday night. Pip glanced at it, and back at Ravi, then she pressed her finger into the doorbell. The sound was shrill and piercing.

  ‘I bet everyone dreads the day they get a knock at the door from Pip Fitz-Amobi,’ Ravi whispered.

  The door pulled open sharply, and Luke Eaton stood before them, wearing the same black basketball shorts and a grey T-shirt which clashed with the colour of the tattoos scaling the pale skin of his neck.

  ‘Hello. Again,’ he added gruffly. ‘What is it this time?’

  ‘We need to ask you some questions, about Jamie Reynolds,’ Pip said, standing as tall as she could.

  ‘Shame,’ Luke said, itching one leg with the foot of the other. ‘I really don’t like questions.’

  He slapped his hand forcefully against the door.

  ‘No, I –’ Pip said, but it was too late. The door slammed shut before her words could make it through the gap. ‘Fuck,’ she said loudly, an urge to hit the door with her fist.

  ‘I didn’t think he’d talk . . .’ But Ravi’s voice trailed off as he watched Pip crouch by the front door, pushing her fingers against the letterbox to hold it open. ‘What are you doing?’

  She drew her face close and shouted through the small rectangular opening: ‘I know Jamie owed you money when he went missing. If you talk to us, I’ll give you the nine hundred pounds he owes you!’

  She straightened up, the letterbox closing with a metallic clang. Ravi narrowed his eyes angrily at her, mouthing, ‘What?’

  But Pip didn’t have time to offer an answer, because Luke was pulling the door open again, his jawbone protruding and retreating as he chewed on an answer.

  ‘All of it?’ he said with a click of his tongue.

  ‘Yes.’ The word rushed out of her, breathy but firm. ‘All nine hundred. I’ll get it to you next week.’

  ‘In cash,’ he said, eyes alighting on hers.

  ‘Yes, OK,’ she nodded, ‘by the end of next week.’

  ‘Alright.’ He pulled the door fully open on its hinge. ‘You’ve got a deal there, Sherlock.’

  Pip stepped up over the threshold, feeling Ravi right behind her as Luke closed the door, shutting them all in inside this too-narrow corridor. Luke passed them, his arm brushing against Pip’s as he did, and she couldn’t tell whether it had been intentional or not.

  ‘In here,’ he barked over his shoulder, leading them into the kitchen.

  There were four chairs, but no one sat down. Luke leaned against the counter, knees cocked and careless, tattooed arms out wide anchoring him there. Pip and Ravi stood together, at the entrance, toes in the kitchen, their heels left behind in the corridor.

  Luke opened his mouth to speak, but Pip couldn’t let him take charge, so she rushed out her question first.

  ‘Why does Jamie owe you nine hundred pounds?’

  Luke dropped his head and smiled, licking the front of his teeth.

  ‘Was it something to do with drugs, did he buy from –’

  ‘No,’ Luke said. ‘Jamie owed me nine hundred pounds because I lent him nine hundred pounds. He came to me a little while ago, desperate to borrow money. Guess Nat mentioned to him I did that sometimes. So, I helped him out – with a high interest rate, of course,’ he added with a dark laugh. ‘Told him I’d beat the shit out of him if he was late paying me back, and t
hen the fucker goes missing, doesn’t he?’

  ‘Did Jamie say what he needed the money for?’ Ravi asked.

  Luke turned his attention to Ravi. ‘I don’t ask people’s business because I don’t care.’

  But Pip’s mind had jumped instead to when, not why. Was Luke’s threat a little stronger than he was letting on, something Jamie might have considered life or death? Had he asked his dad to borrow money, and then tried to steal from Pip’s mum’s office because he was scared of what Luke would do to him if he couldn’t pay him back on time?

  ‘When did Jamie borrow money from you?’ said Pip.

  ‘Dunno.’ Luke shrugged, his tongue between his teeth again.

  Pip worked out the timeline in her head. ‘Was it Monday the 9th? Tuesday the 10th? Before then?’

  ‘No, after,’ Luke said. ‘Pretty sure it was a Friday, so must have been three weeks ago today. He’s officially late repaying me now.’

  The pieces rearranged in Pip’s head: no, Jamie borrowed the money after asking his dad and trying to steal the credit card. So, going to Luke must have been a last resort, and something else had been life or death. She glanced at Ravi, and from the quick movement of his eyes, back and forth, she knew he was thinking the same.

  ‘OK,’ Pip said. ‘Now I need to ask you about Layla Mead.’

  ‘Of course you do,’ he laughed. What was so funny?

  ‘You went to meet Layla, last Friday, around midnight.’

  ‘Yes, I did,’ he said, only looking off-guard for a moment, then drumming his fingers on the counter, the sound offsetting Pip’s heartbeat.

  ‘And you know who she really is.’

  ‘Yes, I do.’

  ‘Who is she?’ Pip said, her voice desperate, giving her away.

  Luke smiled, showing too many of his teeth.

  ‘Layla Mead is Jamie.’

  Thirty-Six

  ‘What?’ Pip and Ravi said together, eyes swivelling to find each other.

  Pip shook her head. ‘That’s not possible,’ she said.

  ‘Well, it is.’ Luke smirked, clearly enjoying their shock. ‘I was messaging Layla that night, agreed to meet her at Lodge Wood car park, and who was there waiting for me? Jamie Reynolds.’

  ‘B-but, but . . .’ Pip’s brain stalled. ‘You saw Jamie? You met him, just after midnight?’ The exact time, she was thinking, that Jamie’s heart rate had first spiked.

  ‘Yep. Fucking freak clearly thought he was being clever, having one over on me. Pretending to be a girl to lead me on. Maybe he did it to try take Nat away from me, don’t know. I’d kill him if he was still here.’

  ‘What happened?’ Ravi said. ‘What happened in the car park with Jamie?’

  ‘Not much,’ Luke said, running a hand over his close-shaved head. ‘I got out the car, called Layla’s name, and it’s Jamie instead who walks out of the trees.’

  ‘And?’ Pip said. ‘What happened, did you talk?’

  ‘Not really. He was acting all weird, like scared, which he should’ve been, fucking with me.’ Luke licked his teeth again. ‘Had both his hands in his pockets. And he only said two words to me.’

  ‘What?’ Pip and Ravi said together again.

  ‘I can’t even remember exactly what it was, something strange. It was like “child broomstick” or “child brown sick”, I dunno, couldn’t really hear the second part. And after Jamie said it, it was like he was watching me, waiting for a reaction,’ Luke said. ‘So obviously I was like, “What the fuck?” and when I said that, Jamie turned and bolted, without another word. I chased after him, woulda killed him if I caught him, but it was dark, I lost him in the trees.’

  ‘And?’ Pip pressed.

  ‘And nothing.’ Luke straightened up, cracking the bones in his grey-patterned neck. ‘Didn’t find him. I went home. Jamie goes missing. So, I’m thinking someone else he was fucking with got to him after. Whatever happened to him, he deserved it. Fucking fat loser.’

  ‘But Jamie went to the abandoned farmhouse, right after meeting you,’ Pip said. ‘I know you use that place to pick up your, erm, business items. Why would Jamie go there?’

  ‘I don’t know. I wasn’t there that night. But it’s isolated, secluded, best place in town for conducting any private business. Except now I have to find a new drop-off point, thanks to you,’ he growled.

  ‘Are . . .’ Pip said, but the rest of the sentence died before she even knew what it was.

  ‘That’s all I know about Layla Mead, about Jamie.’ Luke dipped his head and then raised his arm, pointing down the corridor behind them. ‘You can go now.’

  They didn’t move.

  ‘Now,’ he said, louder. ‘I’m busy.’

  ‘OK,’ Pip said, turning to go, telling Ravi to do the same with her eyes.

  ‘A week today,’ Luke called after them. ‘I want my cash by next Friday and I don’t like to be kept waiting.’

  ‘Got it,’ Pip said, two steps away. But then the thought floating broken around her head rearranged, reached its end, and Pip doubled back. ‘Luke, are you twenty-nine?’ she asked.

  ‘Yeah.’ His eyebrows lowered, reaching for each other across the gap of his nose.

  ‘And do you turn thirty soon?’

  ‘Couple months. Why?’

  ‘No reason.’ She shook her head. ‘Thursday. I’ll have your money.’ And she walked back down the corridor and out through the front door Ravi was holding open for her, an urgent look in his eyes.

  ‘What was that?’ Ravi said, when the door was firmly shut behind them. ‘Where are you going to get nine hundred pounds from, Pip? He’s clearly a dangerous guy, you can’t just go around and –’

  ‘Guess I’m accepting one of those sponsorship deals. ASAP,’ Pip said, turning back to look at the lines of sun skimming across Luke’s white car.

  ‘You’re gonna give me a heart attack one day,’ Ravi said, taking her hand, leading her around the corner. ‘Jamie can’t be Layla, right? Right?’

  ‘No,’ Pip replied before she’d even thought about it. And then, after she had: ‘No, he can’t be. I’ve read the messages between the two of them. And the whole Stella Chapman thing. And Jamie was on the phone to Layla outside the calamity party; he had to have been on the phone to a real person.’

  ‘What, so, maybe Layla sent Jamie there, to meet Luke?’ he said.

  ‘Yeah, maybe. Maybe that’s what they were talking about on the phone. And Jamie must have had the knife with him when he met Luke, probably in his hoodie pocket.’

  ‘Why?’ Lines of confusion drew across Ravi’s forehead. ‘None of this makes sense. And what the hell is “child broomstick”? Is Luke messing with us?’

  ‘Doesn’t seem the kind to mess around. And remember, George heard Jamie on the phone saying something about a “child” too.’

  They headed towards the train station, where Pip had parked her car earlier, so her mum wouldn’t see it if she was driving up and down High Street.

  ‘Why’d you ask his age?’ Ravi said. ‘Looking to trade me in for an older model?’

  ‘It’s too many now to be a coincidence,’ she said, more to herself than Ravi. ‘Adam Clark, Daniel da Silva, Luke Eaton, and even Jamie too – only because he lied about his age – but every single person Layla has spoken to is twenty-nine or recently thirty. And more than that, they’re all white guys, with brownish colour hair, living in the same town.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Ravi said, ‘so Layla has a type. A very, very specific type.’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Pip looked down at her trainers, still damp from last night. ‘All those similarities, asking lots of questions. It’s like Layla’s been looking for someone. Someone specific, but she doesn’t know who.’

  Pip looked over to Ravi, but her eyes escaped from her, breaking away to the side, to someone standing right there on the other side of the road. Outside the new Costa that had opened there. Neat black jacket, messy blonde hair falling into his eyes. Sharp, angled cheekbones.

  He wa
s back.

  Max Hastings.

  Standing with two guys Pip didn’t recognize, talking and laughing in the street.

  Pip emptied out and refilled with a feeling that was black and cold and red and burning. She stopped walking and stared.

  How dare he? How dare he stand there, laughing, in this town? Out where anyone could see him?

  Her hands tightened into fists, nails digging into Ravi’s palm.

  ‘Ouch.’ Ravi escaped her grip and looked at her. ‘Pip, wha—?’ Then he followed her eyes across the road.

  Max must have felt it, her gaze, because at that exact moment, he looked up, over the street and the idling cars. Right at her. Into her. His mouth settled into a line, pulling up at one end. He raised one arm, his hand open palm-out in a small wave, and the line of his mouth was a smile.

  Pip felt it growing inside her, sparking, but Ravi exploded first.

  ‘Don’t you look at her!’ he screamed at Max, over the top of the cars. ‘Don’t you dare look at her, you hear me?’

  Heads turned in the street. Mutters. Faces in windows. Max lowered his arm, but the smile never once left his face.

  ‘Come on,’ Ravi said, retaking Pip’s hand. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

  Ravi lay on Pip’s bed, throwing a pair of her balled-up socks in the air and catching them. Throwing always helped him think.

  Pip was at her desk, her laptop asleep before her, digging her finger through her small pot of pins, letting them jab her.

  ‘One more time,’ Ravi said, his eyes following the socks up to the ceiling and down to his hand.

  Pip cleared her throat. ‘Jamie walks to the car park in Lodge Wood. He’s carrying the knife from home. He’s nervous, scared, his heart rate tells us that. Layla has potentially set this up, told Luke to be there. We don’t know why. Jamie says two words to Luke, studies him for a reaction and then runs off. He then goes to the abandoned farmhouse. His heart spikes higher. He’s even more scared, and the knife somehow ends up in the grass by the trees. And Jamie’s Fitbit is removed, or it breaks or . . .’