Page 204 of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Max looked down, picking at the skin around his thumbs. Naomi covered her face again.

‘Sal was innocent.’

‘We don’t know that for sure,’ Max said.

‘Sal was innocent. Someone killed Andie and then they killed Sal, after making sure he’d look guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Your best friend was innocent, and you’ve all known it for five years.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Naomi wept. ‘I’m so, so sorry. We didn’t know what else to do. We were in too deep. We never thought that Sal would end up dead. We thought if we just played along, the police would catch whoever had hurt Andie, Sal would be cleared and we’d all be OK. We told ourselves it was just a small lie at the time. But we know now what we did.’

‘Sal died because of yoursmalllie.’ Pip’s stomach twisted with a rage quieted with sadness.

‘We don’t know that,’ Max said. ‘Sal might still have been involved in what happened to Andie.’

‘He didn’t have time to be,’ said Pip.

‘What are you going to do with the photo?’ he said quietly.

Pip looked over at Naomi, her red puffy face etched with pain. Cara was holding her hand, staring at Pip, tears trickling down her cheeks.

‘Max,’ Pip said. ‘Did you kill Andie?’

‘What?’ He stood up, scraping the messy hair out of his face. ‘No, I was at my house the whole night.’

‘You could have left when Naomi and Millie went to bed.’

‘Well, I didn’t, OK?’

‘Do you know what happened to Andie?’

‘No, I don’t.’

‘Pip,’ Cara spoke up now. ‘Please don’t go to the police with that photo. Please. I can’t have my sister taken away as well as Mum.’ Her bottom lip trembled and she scrunched her face, trying to hold back the sobs. Naomi wrapped her arms round her.

Pip’s throat ached with a helpless, hollow feeling, watching them both in so much pain. What should she do? What could she do? She didn’t know whether the police would take this photo seriously anyway. But if they did, Cara would be left all alone and it would be Pip’s fault. She couldn’t do that to her. But what about Ravi? Sal was innocent and there was no question of her abandoning him now. There was only one way through this, she realized.

‘I won’t go to the police,’ she said.

Max heaved a sigh and Pip eyed him, disgusted, as he tried to hide a faint smile crossing his mouth.

‘Not for you, Max,’ she said. ‘For Naomi. And everything your mistakes have done to her. I doubt the guilt has played much on your mind, but I hope you pay in some way.’

‘They’re my mistakes too,’ Naomi said quietly. ‘I did this too.’

Cara walked over to Pip and hugged her from the side, tears soaking into her jumper.

Max left then, without another word. He packed up his laptop and notes, swung his bag on his shoulder and took off towards the front door.

The kitchen was silent as Cara went to splash her face in the sink and filled up a glass of water for her sister. Naomi was the first to break the silence.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she said.

‘I know,’ Pip said. ‘I know you are. I won’t go to the police with the photo. It would be far easier, but I don’t need Sal’s alibi to prove his innocence. I’ll find another way.’

‘What do you mean?’ Naomi sniffed.

‘You’re asking me to cover for you and what you did. And I will. But I will not cover up the truth about Sal.’ She swallowed and it grated all the way down her tight and scratchy throat. ‘I’m going to find who really did all this, the person who killed Andie and Sal. That’s the only way to clear Sal’s name and protect you at the same time.’

Naomi hugged her, burying her tear-stained face in Pip’s shoulder. ‘Please do,’ she said quietly. ‘He’s innocent and it’s killed me every day since.’

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