safest person to contact.
‘Hi, Jacki,’ she said. ‘Is everything OK?’
‘I’m sorry for calling so late,’ I said. ‘I hope I didn’t wake you?’
‘Nope, me and Sasha are just having a movie night. What’s up?’
‘I need your help with something.’
‘Where are you?’ she said. ‘It’s really loud, I can hardly hear you.’
‘I’m outside Rage. Hold on, I’ll move away from the door.’ I wove though the crowds, away from the blaring music.
‘Do you wanna come over?’ she said. ‘We’re just on Dame Street, above the milkshake shop.’
‘Are you sure that’s OK?’
‘Is it cool if Jacki comes over here, Sash?’
‘Of course, no problem,’ I could hear Sasha answer in the background.
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘I’ll be there in a few minutes.’
I rushed through Temple Bar, past the Central Bank, and waited for the traffic lights to change. I still felt sick. The after-effects of the curse pulsed through my veins. I wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep, but that wasn’t an option. I needed to figure out who’d tried to kill me, and who’d succeeded in killing Kayla.
I made my way towards the milkshake shop and pressed the buzzer for number 4.
‘Come on up!’ said Sasha’s voice on the other end. I pushed the door open. I wasn’t expecting any revelations from them, but I did think they could help me on my way to solving this.
Sasha appeared at the top of the stairs.
‘Hi,’ I said.
‘Hey!’ she said. ‘We’re watching movies! You missed
‘Hi, Jacki,’ she said.
‘Oh my god, Ryan Gosling is hot,’ said Sasha. She ran over to the couch and jumped on to it, then patted the seat beside her. ‘Sit,’ she said. ‘It’s starting.’
‘Actually, I was hoping we could watch something else,’ I said, rooting in my bag. I hated to ruin their film night, but I had a feeling they’d be able to help me. ‘This might sound a bit weird,’ I said, ‘but I have a video from Kayla’s party, of the guests, and I was wondering if you could tell me who was going out with who?’
‘You have a video from Kayla’s party?’ said Sasha, her eyes widening.
Ellie looked surprised too.
‘It’s a video of her eighteen kisses,’ I said. ‘I’ve watched it myself lots of times, but I need to get more of a feel for the dynamic of the group. I understand there were a few couples in the video?’
‘Yeah,’ said Ellie. ‘I guess there were a few… but why would you need to know something like that?’
‘I want to find out as much about the party as possible,’ I said. ‘To help me figure out what might have happened.’
‘Fair enough,’ said Sasha. ‘Put it on.’
I opened the DVD player, took out the disc that was already there, and put mine in. I pressed Play. Sasha and Ellie were silent at first, their eyes glued to Kayla, and I could tell it was upsetting for them to watch. ‘I Kissed a Girl’ blasted from the speakers. Kayla walked over to the stool; she fixed the strap of her dress. I knew this video so well.
‘Have you seen this before?’ I asked them.
‘No…’ said Ellie. ‘Nobody put any photos or videos up online after the party – it didn’t seem right. Except for the picture of Kayla in her dress. That ended up everywhere.’
‘So,’ I said, taking out my notebook and pen from my bag. ‘Were any of the people in the video going out with each other?’
‘Well, let’s see,’ said Sasha, flicking her hair back and pointing at the people on the screen. ‘Libby and Rob, obviously; Amy and Andrew; Kayla and Luke were supposedly doing it behind everyone’s back; oh, and Ellie and Sean,’ she said, winking at Ellie. ‘I think that’s it.’
‘Biggest mistake of my life,’ muttered Ellie.
‘What about before the party – had any of them previously gone out with each other, but were broken up?’
‘Um, I think Rory and Libby went out for a while,’ said Ellie. ‘And I went out with Rob for a year. Kayla went out with Kev. That’s it, I think. Calum has been with pretty much every girl in the video, but he’s never actually been on a date.’
‘Thanks,’ I said, after I’d jotted down everything she’d said.
‘You look kind of pale,’ said Sasha. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘I’m just really tired.’
I decided I was going to go home and get some sleep. I wanted to stay awake, but I didn’t think my body would be able to handle it.
‘Thanks, guys,’ I said. ‘I better head off.’
As soon as I got on the bus, I examined the list of couples. I crossed off all the people who had a solid alibi. I was still left with the same pair that kept cropping up. Amy and Andrew.
Chapter 23
The next day I got up early and headed into the city centre. I had a feeling Amy was hiding something, and even though I’d thought Andrew was telling the truth about how he got Kayla’s picture on his phone, there was still something suspicious about why he had kept it. I was sure I was on the right track. I’d finally have something to tell Detective Sergeant Lawlor. But first I was going to talk to Amy myself. Out of the two of them, I knew she’d be the easiest to crack. I’d have to meet her on her own, and soon. I didn’t want her conferring with Andrew.
I felt much better by now. I’d woken up feeling relatively normal – no thumping headache or sick stomach. I was still utterly confused about Nick and Dillon, of course, but I tried not to think too much about that.
I arrived in Temple Bar and called Amy.
‘Hi,’ I said. ‘It’s Jacki. I’d like to talk to you. Can you come and meet me?’
‘Hey, I’m just doing some shopping, and I’m in work tomorrow, but I can meet you on -’
‘Amy, I really need to talk to you.’
The line went silent.
‘Amy?’
‘OK,’ she said. I sensed panic in her voice. ‘I can meet you at the ice-cream place in half an hour.’
I ordered a hot chocolate and sat at one of the tables outside. There were lots of Saturday shoppers around, browsing in the windows of the thrift stores and the shoe shops. This was due to be my second last day in Dublin. If I’d actually managed to solve the case, then I’d be packing up my stuff and getting on a bus to Avarna tomorrow. Detective Sergeant Lawlor would see to everything else after I told him who I thought the murderer was. I was looking forward to proving him right in front of Detective Sergeant Lonergan. Proving that his faith in me hadn’t been misguided. I was also looking forward to going back. There was a chance that Nick might actually talk to me if I was there. I wanted to see him. Whatever ended up happening between the two of us, I felt like we needed to talk and sort the situation out. I didn’t want things to end nastily like they had with Cian.
As far as Kayla was concerned, I was pretty sure I was on the right track. I could imagine Andrew might have been the one to kill her, but if it was him I couldn’t understand why Amy was still covering for him. But then again, like Ger had said, you’d be surprised at the lengths people will go to to protect the ones they love. Maybe Amy had been so in love with him that she’d decided to lie, and now she was too afraid to go back on it?
Soon after that, Amy appeared, dropped her shopping bags on the ground and sitting down across from me. I was glad we were meeting in a public place. When I confronted her, she wouldn’t be able to hurt me. Not that I was scared of her. Judging by how I assumed she’d used Lauren, she probably got other people to do all her dirty work for her.
