‘It’s just routine, Mr Sweeney,’ said Fleet in response to the man’s question. ‘We’re hoping your daughter can help us with a few queries, that’s all.’
‘Is this to do with Sadie?’ said Lara. Her eyebrows were arrowed and her forehead was creased. She reached and took her father’s hand. ‘It’s so awful, what’s happened to her. Just … so awful.’
‘For the moment, all we know about Sadie is that she’s missing,’ Fleet replied. ‘Nothing more than that.’
‘No, I know, but … it’s upsetting. That’s all I meant.’ Lara sniffed and lowered her head, and her father locked his eyes on Fleet’s.
Fleet turned to Nicky. They’d agreed beforehand that it might seem less confrontational if their questions came from her, particularly as they’d learned from the head teacher that the girl’s father would be present.
‘Lara?’ said Nicky. ‘I understand this is difficult for you.’
The girl nodded, eyes downcast.
‘Were you and Sadie close, would you say?’ Nicky asked her.
Lara raised her head then. She looked at Nicky, and clearly sensed the insinuation in the DS’s question.
‘I knew her, obviously,’ Lara answered. ‘Everybody knew Sadie.’ She paused for a moment, then added, ‘She was like that, you see.’
‘Like that?’
‘Always keen to be the centre of attention,’ said Lara. She smiled, as though fondly.
Nicky showed half a smile back. ‘I see.’ The DS had her notebook open on her lap, and she scribbled something on the page.
Lara waited. Her tie was neatly knotted and her blazer buttoned, with an exactness Fleet hadn’t spotted among any of the pupils out in the corridor. She’d dressed for the occasion, clearly.
‘From what we understand,’ said the DS, ‘you were one of the last people to see Sadie’s friends before they went looking for her in the woods. Is that right?’
Lara let out the lightest of exhalations, and turned towards her father.
‘I’m sorry, Lara,’ Nicky said. ‘Was there something you wanted to say?’
Lara’s father patted his daughter’s hand. ‘It’s OK, princess. You’re free to say whatever you want to. They can’t punish you for speaking your mind.’
‘It’s funny, that’s all,’ said Lara. ‘The idea that Sadie’s friends went looking for her.’
‘You don’t think that’s what they were doing?’
‘You’ll have to ask them,’ Lara answered. ‘All I’m saying is, if they were out there looking for Sadie, that suggests they didn’t already know where she was.’
Nicky gazed back at her impassively. ‘Did they say anything that would make you think that? That they already knew where Sadie was?’
‘They didn’t tell me where she was buried, if that’s what you’re asking,’ said Lara, and Fleet noticed the head teacher shift uncomfortably behind her desk. ‘But sometimes it’s not what people say, is it? It’s how they behave.’
Nicky nodded. ‘Indeed,’ she said, holding Lara in her gaze a fraction longer than was necessary. She looked at her notebook. ‘And how were they behaving, would you say? Did they seem … nervous? Upset? Agitated?’
‘Actually,’ said Lara, with the assurance of a liar finally drawing on fact, ‘they were laughing. I remember being quite shocked.’
Lara’s father gave a disapproving tut.
‘And once you’d got over your … shock,’ said Nicky, ‘did you notice in which direction they headed?’
‘They ran off. In a hurry. I didn’t notice in which direction.’
‘So you didn’t follow them?’ said Nicky, and Fleet watched Lara closely.
‘Follow them? Why would I follow them?’
‘From what we’ve gathered you were pretty upset. In the wake of an altercation that had allegedly taken place.’
Lara’s mask slipped slightly. ‘There was no allegedly about it,’ she said, bridling. ‘Mason Payne practically broke Ian’s nose. At the very least you should arrest him for that.’
‘Rest assured that any allegation of assault will be fully investigated. But in the meantime,’ Nicky went on, ‘and just for clarity, you’re maintaining you didn’t pursue Sadie’s friends into the woods?’
‘Now wait just a minute,’ said Sweeney, leaning forwards. ‘What exactly are you insinuating? Are you trying to suggest my daughter had anything to do with what happened out there?’ He gestured loosely at the window, towards the trees on the distant horizon. ‘From what I gather, a boy was killed.’
‘That’s right, Mr Sweeney,’ Nicky replied. ‘A boy was killed. And as much as this investigation is focused on Sadie, we’re also looking to establish exactly how that happened. As it stands, your daughter is the closest thing we have to an independent witness.’
Sweeney smiled and shook his head. ‘You see?’ he said to the head teacher. ‘This is exactly why I wanted you in here. Talk about independent witnesses …’ He shook his head again. ‘Rest assured, officers, that if you start putting words in my daughter’s mouth, Miss Andrews will be there at your tribunal to back me up.’
Fleet saw the head teacher stiffen slightly, whether at Sweeney’s presumption or his failure to use her preferred title, Fleet couldn’t have said.
‘Come now, Mr Sweeney,’ said Ms Andrews. ‘I’m sure that’s not the police officers’ intention. Please try to remember that someone else’s daughter is missing. This is about the safety of our children, nothing more.’
‘I think we all know what this is about,’ Sweeney said, glaring at Fleet. ‘He screws up. He’s got a bee in his bonnet about something that happened almost twenty years ago, and when he takes it out on a bunch of kids, one of them ends up dead. And now he’s looking to cover his arse by blaming my kid. Excuse my French, princess,’ Sweeney added as an aside, once again patting his daughter’s hand.
There was tension around Lara’s lips, as though she were suppressing a smile.
‘Please,’ Fleet said, and he focused on Lara. ‘Answer the question my colleague asked you. Did you follow Sadie’s friends into the woods?’
Lara didn’t even blink. ‘No,’ she said, turning to Nicky. ‘I didn’t follow them. Into the woods or anywhere else.’
Nicky turned the pages in her notepad. She spun it so that Lara could read from it. SweeneyTodd2002 and Princess_69 were written and underlined
