‘What book?’
‘ Of Mice and Men.’
‘And what did you think of it?’
‘That it was so sad.’
‘A beautiful book.’
‘It is, isn’t it.’
‘I told you she was clever, Inspector,’ commended a proud father.
‘We had a long chat about my favourite books. We almost took over all of Esther’s lesson, not that she minded.’
‘Esther’s an emotional girl, Inspector, not bookish like our Stacie. She’s got her head screwed on right.’
‘Stella said I ought to speak to my parents about coming to see her myself. I said that we’d been advised to before but couldn’t… But the next day Esther came around with her family, and they said they’d be happy to pay for me as well.’
‘He’s a good man, Esther’s dad. An honest man.’
‘I… don’t think he is her dad, Dad.’
‘No, I remember now, she called him Jeff.’
‘Missed a lot of school, you say?’ asked Cori.
‘I think she may have been moved around a bit, had a tough childhood. She told me bits of it, but didn’t like to talk about it too much.’
Grey could see there would never be such problems at the Kehoes. He continued,
‘Monday would have been Esther’s evening with Stella?’
‘Yes, Mondays and Wednesdays.’
‘Did she attend that lesson?’
The girl now only nodded, looking downward.
‘And did you know she was still at the Cedars at ten that evening?’
Those sullen eyes shocked opened wide.
‘You didn’t know she was there that night?’
Stacie gave the kind of unguarded look that adults become too good at covering.
Grey guessed, ‘But you knew something was up? She’s told you? You’ve spoken to her since?’
Stacie nodded.
‘She hasn’t been in school this week?’
‘Not since Monday, no.’
‘Come on Stacie, love. Tell him what you know.’
‘After this, can we go and get something to eat?’
With her father’s encouragement, she spoke slowly,
‘On some days we have different lessons, so I don’t get to see her much. At lunchtime on Tuesday though, her form tutor found me in the corridor and asked me why she hadn’t come in that day. I checked my phone — we’re meant to switch them off in class, but I keep mine on silent — but I hadn’t felt it buzz all morning and she hadn’t messaged me. I called and got no answer, but she texted later.’ Stacie fumbled with her phone, holding the screen open for the officers to see the message from Esther:
‘NOT GOING TO SCHOOL TODAY. FOUND SOMETHING OUT, NEED TO CHECK. DON’T GO TO CLASS TONIGHT!!!
LOVE XXXXX
‘And then I got this one, after I tried to call again and got no reply to my messages,
‘DON’T WORRY BUNNY. CAN’T TALK YET. WILL TELL YOU ALL SOON. COULD BE AMAZING!!! BUT SHHHH! BIG SECRET!! XXXXXX’
‘Did you know what she meant?’
‘No.’
‘She gave you no more indication of what it was she’d found out? Whether it was something to do with Stella?’
‘I… don’t know.’
‘And “Bunny”?’
‘That’s just one of her silly nicknames for people.’ Stacie couldn’t help but smile as she remembered her friend’s ways.
‘So what did you do?’
‘I still went to my lesson after school, and saw the people outside Stella’s building and ran home.’
‘You knew it was Stella that had died?’
She nodded, ‘They were talking about her. And then I was really scared.’
Her father took her in his arms, ‘Oh, honey, why didn’t you tell us you were worried about your friend?’
‘I didn’t know what to say, Dad. And you were already being so nice about Stella.’
‘We’d seen the news in the afternoon paper you see, Inspector.’
Grey nodded.
‘That’s not all,’ continued Stacie. ‘We’ve got a number for Esther’s family — or step-family, whatever they are — so that evening I called them.’
‘Go on.’
‘I didn’t know what to say at first, I didn’t want to get Esther into trouble you see, so I started just by telling them about Stella, that she’d died, and that I knew they’d want to know.’
‘And?’
‘And they told me that they already knew, that they’d read it in the evening paper, and that Esther already knew. They told me not to worry, even though they sounded worried, though they were trying to hide it. So I just told them everything: about Esther not being at school, and her teacher asking where she was, and about Esther’s messages. I even broke her promise, and told them she had this secret.’
‘And what did they say?’
‘They said they’d called the school and spoken to her teacher, and that that was all sorted out now and for me not to worry about it.’
‘No response regarding the “secret”?’
‘No. So I pushed them, asked to speak to Esther. They told me she wasn’t there, that she’d gone away for a few days, and that she’d be back when she was ready.’
‘Those were their exact words?’
‘Yes, as I remember them.’
‘Who did you speak to?’
‘Her father, Jeff, or whoever he is; but I could hear his wife was there too.’
‘Do you have that number?’
Stacie again moved quick fingers over the touchscreen to bring up her ‘Calls Dialled’.
Cori checked her notebook, ‘Yes, that’s the number we’ve been calling, and only getting their answerphone.’
Mr Kehoe said, ‘They do normally answer. That’s the number we called to tell them Stacie was ill one week and so Esther couldn’t stop over as arranged.’
Grey paused; then continued,
‘Stacie. You may not have known this, but Esther was at the Cedars only a short while before Stella was attacked. If nothing else we need to keep her out of danger.’
‘I know.’
‘You’ve been a tremendous help, but we need you to do one more thing for us.’
‘You want me to tell you when I hear from Esther?’
‘It will be for the best, sweetie.’
‘I know, Dad.’
Cori had dialled the number again,
‘I’m still getting the answerphone; and we’ve already left two messages. I’ll call the school and see if they have her last address.’
