“Coming here brings me close to her. Or I feel like I am anyway.”
“This must be a special place to you. Did you bring Holly here?” Mark shot him a dark look.
“I didn’t kill her!” Feeling threatened now, he looked around for the quickest route to run but there was nowhere. However, the thought was at the forefront of his mind now. The policeman was calm, though. His demeanour hadn’t changed at all.
“I’m not suggesting you did. Only, this is a special place for you and Holly was left here. That’s quite a coincidence. I’m wondering how that came to pass.” He sounded sincere. “Did you ever bring her here?”
“Yes.” The answer came without thinking. He shouldn’t say anything. That’s what his father drummed into him at every opportunity. Perhaps he was wrong about this one. He didn’t seem out to hassle the McCalls even if the others were. “She came with me. I wanted to be here with her. Show her what she meant to me.”
“Did she like it too?”
He found the question curious. After all, Holly had no connection with the place, just with him. “Nah. She wasn’t interested really. Not in the place or in me either as it happens.” He looked across, again wondering if he’d said too much. “That wasn’t a shock. I hoped… hoped that maybe I wasn’t misunderstanding our… friendship… but deep down I always knew.”
“That you were only friends?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Sometimes it seemed like it was more but… I reckon Holly saw me as a kid. She didn’t dress up as she did the other night for me. I don’t even know why she came to the beach party. Maybe it was for me, so I could go. The others wouldn’t invite me in otherwise.”
“Your fellow students?” the policeman asked. He nodded again. “But she came out here with you.”
“Yes, for a bit. Then she left. She said she had to be somewhere. That she had to leave.”
“Did she say where?”
He couldn’t say for he didn’t know. Holly hadn’t told him. He was so disappointed… no, angry with her for leaving that he hadn’t even asked where she was going. He chose not to share those feelings. The man was nice but even so, he was still looking for a murderer. “She left me here. I stayed for a while, until I got cold and then I went home.”
“Who else knew you were bringing Holly up here?”
Mark thought on that for a moment. As far as he was aware, no one could have known. They slipped away without saying anything to the others and because Holly kept them away from the fire, and therefore the group, no one else would have noticed once the beer was flowing and the party was in full swing. He shrugged. “No one.” He hadn’t meant for his reply to be so meek but it sounded feeble in his head.
“Was she wearing shoes, do you remember? Only she wasn’t wearing any when we found her.”
“Yes, of course she was. I wouldn’t be able to carry her up here and it would hurt to walk without them.” His mind went to the red heels found back at the house and he fell silent, trying not to look like he was hiding anything or appearing defensive.
“What did they look like?”
This time his response was immediate. “Just shoes,” he shrugged, accompanying the gesture with a shake of the head to indicate he didn’t know. Was that convincing? He wasn’t sure. The policeman didn’t pursue it.
“You’ve not been going in to the sixth form much.” It was said as a statement, not a question. Now he was being nosey, interfering. His father was right after all. “The kids, are they giving you a hard time?”
“They all think I did it!” He couldn’t help it, the reply tripping off his tongue before he could stop himself. They may not have spoken the words aloud or to his face but their expressions said it all, even some of the teachers. He was a McCall and a strange one at that. “They think I killed Holly.” The fact that he loved her, would never intentionally harm her and would give anything to see her again didn’t cut much ice with people at the school. They were looking for someone to blame and not one of them would believe him, so why would the police. “I wasn’t truthful with you before.” He heard his own voice, barely audible.
“About what?” The policeman was interested, his eyes brighter now. Focussed.
“About Holly… and her life. I knew she was going to see the artist.”
“Ken Francis?”
“Yeah.” There was no need to lie about it. If the police didn’t know already then they soon would. Provided they did their jobs right, anyway, and this man looked serious, someone you would rely on if you were ever in trouble. His father told him this one was different, he would give as good as he got, his father had said. “Holly loved drawing, art… painting and stuff. That was what she wanted to be, an artist, but it was never going to happen around here. She thought he would help her to do it. To get away from here.”
“Was she planning to leave?”
“I think so. I mean, she didn’t say when but now… after what happened to her… I think she might have been saying goodbye to me that night. When she said she was leaving.”
“And you reckon Holly thought Ken was going to help her?”
“She thought so… but he used her, much like everyone else.”
“You say everyone else. What do you mean by that?”
Thinking about it, he realised he wasn’t sure. “That’s just what Holly used to say.”
“How did you feel about her relationship with Ken? You could be forgiven for being annoyed.”
He didn’t want to answer that question. Nor did he wish to reveal how he would follow her sometimes when she went to
