Pip scooped up the keys from the floor and walked out, pulling the front door closed behind her. She pressed a button on the fob and the tail lights blinked in Max’s black car, telling her that it was unlocked. She opened the driver’s side door, dropped the keys on the seat, and then shut it again, leaving the car behind her as she walked down the drive and down the street.
She pulled off the latex gloves. They were stuck fast to the sweat on her hands – sweat or Stanley’s blood, it was too dark to tell – and she had to use her teeth to rip them free. The evening air felt cold and too solid on the bare skin of her fingers, as she stuffed the used gloves in her pocket.
Her car was waiting for her just ahead. Waiting for her and the next step of the plan.
Her alibi.
‘Why hello, quelle surprise. What are you doing here, muchacha?’
The smile dropped out of Cara’s face a moment later, as she opened the door fully, the light from the hallway lighting up Pip’s eyes. She could tell. Pip knew she would be able to tell. Not just a friend, more like a sister. Something was off in Pip’s eyes, behind them, this long, horrific day imprinted in them somehow, and of course Cara knew. But she could never know. Not all of it. Just like the others. Ignorance kept them safe from her.
‘What’s wrong?’ Cara said, her voice dropping an octave. ‘What’s happened?’
Pip’s lower lip trembled, but she held it in.
‘I-I, um…’ she started shakily. Torn between needing Cara and needing to keep her safe, safe from her. Between her old, normal life – standing right in front of her, blinking – and whatever was left to her now. ‘I need your help. You don’t have to say yes, you can tell me to go away, but –’
‘Of course,’ Cara cut her off, reaching for her shoulder and guiding her through the door. ‘Come in.’ They paused in the hallway, the look in Cara’s eyes as serious as Pip had ever seen them. ‘What’s happened?’ she asked. ‘Is Ravi OK?’
Pip shook her head, sniffed. ‘Yeah, no, Ravi’s fine. It has nothing to do with him.’
‘Your family?’
‘No, it’s… they’re all OK,’ Pip said. ‘I just, I need to ask you to help me with something, but you can never know why. You can never ask me and I can never tell you.’
The background sounds of a TV cut out, shuffling footsteps drawing their way. Oh fuck, Steph wasn’t here, was she? Nonono. No one else could know about this, just those people, the ones who would have looked for Pip when she disappeared.
It wasn’t Steph. Naomi appeared in the hallway, a hand raised in a small wave.
Pip didn’t think she’d be here, she hadn’t planned on Naomi being here. But it was OK, now she thought about it; Naomi was one of them, intertwined in this same full circle. If Cara was a sister, then Naomi was too. And Pip couldn’t not involve her now; the plan shifted and adapted to take in one more person.
Cara hadn’t seen her sister.
‘What the fuck are you talking about, Pip?’ she said urgently.
‘I just said, I can’t tell you. I can never tell you.’
They were interrupted, not by Naomi, but by a high-pitched, 8-bit ringtone, coming from Pip’s front pocket.
Her eyes widened, and so did Cara’s.
‘Sorry, I have to take this,’ Pip said, reaching for the burner phone to accept the call. She turned her back on Cara and lifted the small phone to her ear.
‘Hey,’ she said.
‘Hey, it’s me,’ said Connor’s voice down the other end.
‘Everything OK?’ Pip asked him, and she could hear Naomi behind her, asking Cara what the fuck was going on.
‘Yes. All good,’ Connor said, slightly breathless. ‘Jamie’s driving us to Wycombe now. The phone is in place, behind that first rock. We didn’t go in the gate, didn’t even look. All good.’
‘Thank you,’ Pip said, her chest releasing slightly. ‘Thank you, Co—’ She almost said his name, stopping herself before it was too late with a glance up at Cara and Naomi. They shouldn’t know who else was involved, that kept them safer. All of them. ‘This is the last time we talk about this. It never happened, understand? Never mention it: not on the phone, not in texts, not even to each other. Never.’
‘I know, bu—’
Pip spoke over him.
‘I’m going to hang up now. And I want you to destroy that phone. Snap it in half, and the SIM card too. Then dump it in a public bin.’