Ravi.
That was Ravi’s car, Pip realized as it passed her, scanning the last three letters of the number plate in her mirror.
He was slowing down behind her, swinging dangerously across the road to turn.
What was he doing? What was he doing here?
Pip indicated and pulled off the road, on to a drive that dissected it, right up to a gate that blocked her off from an old half-torn-down petrol station. Her headlights lit up red, dripping graffiti against the dilapidated white building as she pushed open the door and stepped out.
Ravi’s car was pulling in behind her now. Pip held her sleeve up to her eyes against the glare of his headlights, to wipe her rubbed-red eyes.
He had barely stopped the car before he jumped out.
It was just the two of them, no one else around except the shushing of a passing car, too fast to pay them any mind. Just them and fields and trees, and the rundown building behind. Face to face, eye to eye.
‘What are you doing?’ Pip shouted across the dark wind.
‘What are you doing?’ Ravi shouted back.
‘I’m going to the police station,’ she said, confused as Ravi started shaking his head, stepping towards her.
‘No, you’re not,’ he said, his voice deep, taking on the wind.
The hairs rose up Pip’s arms.
‘Yes, I am,’ she said, and she was pleading, that’s what that sound was. Please, this was already the hardest thing. Although at least now she had seen him before.
‘No, you’re not,’ Ravi said, louder now, still shaking his head. ‘I’ve just come from there.’
Pip froze, trying to understand his face.
‘What do you mean you’ve just come from there?’
‘I’ve just been at the station, talking to Hawkins,’ he said, yelling over the sound of another passing car.
‘What?!’ Pip stared at him, and the black hole in her chest gave everything back: the panic, the terror, the dread, the pain, the shiver up her back. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘It’s going to be OK,’ Ravi called to her. ‘You’re not confessing. You didn’t kill Jason.’ He swallowed. ‘I’ve fixed it.’
‘You what?!’
The gun went off in her chest six times.
‘I fixed it,’ he said. ‘I told Hawkins it was me – the headphones.’
‘No, no, no, no.’ Pip stepped back. ‘No, Ravi! What have you done?’
‘It’s OK, it’s going to be OK.’ Ravi walked forward, reached for her.
Pip batted his hand away. ‘What did you do?’ she said, her throat tightening around her words, breaking them in half. ‘What exactly did you say to him?’
‘I told him that I borrow your headphones all the time, sometimes without you knowing. That I must have had them with me when I went round to the Bells’ house to see Jason one evening a couple of weeks ago. The 12th, I said. Accidentally left the headphones there.’
‘Why the fuck would you have gone round to see Jason?’ Pip shouted, and her mind was reeling away from him, pushing her feet back, almost against the gate. No, no, no, what had he done?
‘Because I was talking to Jason about an idea I had, to set up some kind of scholarship scheme in Andie and Sal’s name, a charity thing. I went to discuss ideas with Jason, showed him some print-outs and that’s when the headphones must have fallen out of my bag. We were in the living room, sitting on the sofas.’
‘No, no, no,’ Pip whispered.
‘Jason liked the idea but said he didn’t have time to be involved – that’s how we left things, but I must have also left the headphones there. I’m guessing Jason later found them and didn’t realize they belonged to me. That’s what I said to Hawkins.’
Pip clamped her hands to her ears, like she could make this go away if she couldn’t hear him any more.
‘No,’ she said quietly, the word just a vibration against the back of her teeth.
Ravi finally reached her. He pulled her arms away from her face, held her hands in his. Grip tight, like he was anchoring her to him. ‘It’s OK, I fixed it. The plan is still in play. You didn’t kill Jason. Max did. There’s no direct link to you any more. You haven’t had contact with Jason since April, and Hawkins didn’t catch you in a lie. It was me; I left your headphones there. You knew nothing about it. You told me about your interview today, and that’s when I realized it was me who had had contact with Jason, who left the headphones there. So, I went down to the station to clear things up. That’s what happened. Hawkins believed me, he will believe me. He asked me where I was on the evening of the 15th and I told him: I was in Amersham with my cousin, listed all the places I went. Got home just before midnight. Air-tight, iron-clad, just like we planned. And no connection to you. It’s going to be OK.’