Eighteen Kisses

buy some. The next thing I knew we were heading to the shop.’

‘We walked pretty fast,’ said Andrew, leading us up the path. ‘None of us had drunk that much.’

‘While you were walking to the shop, did you notice anything suspicious?’ I asked.

‘No,’ Andrew responded. ‘Like I said, everything seemed normal. Kayla was being kind of quiet, but Amy said that’s what she’s like anyway, so I didn’t think much of it at the time.’

I looked round at Amy; she hadn’t said anything at all on the walk. She stayed a short distance behind us.

‘Is this how you remember it too?’ I asked. She just nodded. It must have been a particularly messy break-up or else this journey was particularly difficult for her.

‘So, we crossed the road here,’ said Andrew. ‘Then went this way.’

We were on a busier road now and I could see the mini-supermarket up ahead, its OPEN 24 HOURS sign shining brightly.

Andrew crossed the path and walked ahead of us.

‘Did she talk at all?’ I said. ‘On the walk?’

‘Oh yeah, she talked about the party, and all the presents she’d got so far, that sort of stuff.’

‘Did she mention a fight with anyone?’

‘No, she didn’t talk about anything like that,’ said Andrew.

I felt like I wasn’t making much progress at all.

‘Did you notice anyone hanging around on the way up?’ I asked, desperate for some new information.

‘Nope. We passed a man walking a dog here, then we crossed at these traffic lights.’ Andrew hit the pedestrian button. It turned green almost immediately. ‘We crossed the road and arrived at another set of lights. We didn’t have to wait for these to change, just like now, because there was no traffic.’

It was so strange to walk like this, hearing Andrew recount every detail. It was like I could see it all unfolding in front of me. Kayla had walked this path, completely oblivious to what was about to happen. I wanted to go back in time and tell her to turn round.

Andrew walked into the shop and Amy and I followed. It was a small supermarket, with two cashiers. ‘Marshmallows were down the back somewhere,’ he said. ‘I waited here while the girls went and got them.’

The next part was the one I was most interested in, the part where they left Kayla alone.

We walked back the way we’d come. This time Amy took the lead, staring straight ahead and not looking at either of us as she talked.

‘We always stopped here,’ said Amy. ‘I always left her here.’ We were at the top of Kayla’s street.

I looked down the road. You could see Kayla’s house from where we were standing. It wasn’t very far away at all. This made me think that maybe someone was waiting for her, someone from the party who had been holding out until she was alone.

When I got home I looked at the video from the party again. I’d told Amy and Andrew that they could go after we’d walked back from the shop – there wasn’t much more I could ask from them at this stage. They’d left separately without even a word of goodbye to each other. Sitting on my bed and watching the video on my laptop, over and over, they seemed like a different couple, standing together, hands entwined, and I thought about how much could change over such a short time.

I scanned the rest of the people in the semicircle that had formed round Kayla’s chair. I could see Ellie, wearing a pretty purple strapless dress, her hair tied up in a loose ponytail. And Libby was there too, smiling broadly. She had her arm round a guy, presumably her boyfriend Rob, whose name had been scratched off the list. He was a really good-looking guy, exactly the kind I’d expect Libby to go for. Amy watched as Andrew went up to kiss Kayla on the cheek. Another guy, who was tall and skinny, went up after him. He kissed her on the lips and she smiled. I looked carefully at the crowd, searching for anything suspicious, but nothing jumped out at me. I heard somebody shout ‘Fifteen!’ and then Hazel gave Kayla a quick kiss on the lips. A guy wolf-whistled and then walked up to Kayla. He kissed her on the lips too. This time she didn’t smile though. He leaned in, and I couldn’t hear it, but I was sure he whispered something in her ear. I rewound the video and it definitely seemed like he had whispered something to her. He didn’t get to say much though because another guy playfully pushed him away and gave Kayla her eighteenth and final kiss.

Chapter 11

I was grateful that Electric gave us an hour lunch break: it meant that I could gather my thoughts together and review what I’d learned about Kayla over the last couple of days. I bought some mint ice cream from the ice-cream shop on the square. I loved the ice-cream place. All its tables were outside on Temple Bar Square, so it was a great place to people-watch. They served their ice cream in blue tubs with colourful plastic spoons. I always got sprinkles. They made my mint ice cream look like a tiny rainbow had exploded into millions of pieces on top of it. When Hannah and I were younger, my dad would often bring us here on Saturdays. If we got cones, he’d always manage to talk the lady who was working there into giving him two flakes. Everybody loved my dad. Being back here, I was beginning to understand why Mum had wanted to move. There were reminders of Dad everywhere in this city, from the places we used to go, to the things he liked. Mostly I found it comforting, but I could see why Mum needed to start a new life.

I sat down outside and took out my notebook, forcing myself to stop thinking about the past and instead focus on everything I’d learned about Kayla and the people who knew her. I wrote down all the important things so far, like the last time each of the people had seen Kayla, what they thought had happened and what their relationships were to each other. I’d only talked to five of the eight possible suspects, and already I had tons to consider.

‘Ice cream for lunch! I like your style, Jacki King.’

I looked up, surprised to see Dillon standing there. He had rushed off as soon as lunch break came. I’d been shelving stuff in the archive and saw him practically run out of the office. I thought he was going to meet Maggie. There were still unconfirmed rumours that they were going out, but Hannah didn’t have very high hopes for them. Apparently Mark had told her that Dillon hardly ever stayed with the same girl for more than two weeks, that he hardly ever went out with anyone in fact. He didn’t seem to be a girlfriend type of guy.

He sat down across from me, putting a yellow bag he’d been holding on the ground beside him and picked up the ice-cream menu.

‘I was in Tower Records,’ he said. ‘The new Mighty Stef single is out today. There were signed copies for the first one hundred people.’

‘You ran to Tower Records to get the new Mighty Stef single?’

‘Is that crazy?’ he said.

‘Impressive,’ I said with a smile.

‘You like the Mighty Stef?’ he asked.

‘Love him.’

‘I thought you would,’ he said. ‘When you were in Ellie’s office the other day I heard one of the guys say he might be the special guest at the Unsigned gig, although it’s not confirmed. What did she want you for anyway?’ he added, pulling the record out of the bag.

‘Oh, she just wanted me to address invitations,’ I said. ‘Nothing important.’

Sometimes I surprised myself at how quickly I was able to lie now, how fast the lies came to me.

He held the record out to me and I examined it.

‘It looks deadly,’ I said. ‘I really like the artwork.’

I handed it back to him.

‘That one’s yours,’ he said.

‘What?’

‘I got you one too.’

‘Why?’

Dillon blushed.

‘I mean… thanks!’ I said. ‘This is really cool.’

‘No problem,’ he said.

I told myself he’d just bought it for me as a friend. I mean, I got Colin stuff all the time. But I also knew this