Killing Rachel (26 page)

‘Joshua?’

‘Yes?’

‘Do you mind if we turn left at the next lane and just head down to the boathouse. There’s someone I want to say goodbye to?’

‘Another hold-up!’

‘Come on. I went back to the cottage with you. This’ll be ten minutes. No more. The girl I want to speak to might not even be there but at least I will have tried.’

The lane was coming up and Rose smiled when she saw Joshua indicate.

‘Thanks,’ she said.

Molly was at the end of jetty. Rose saw her as soon as she turned the corner of the boathouse. She was sitting down, her back against the wall, staring out at the lake. Rose waved at her and smiled but Molly didn’t respond. For a moment Rose wondered if Molly hadn’t seen her or whether she was upset because Rose had been sharp with her earlier on.

She looked back at Joshua sitting in the front seat of the car. He’d parked alongside one of the Mary Linton College minibuses. He was talking on his mobile. No doubt another conversation with Skeggsie about what had happened and what they were going to do.

She walked round the boathouse and on to the jetty. The lake was still and cold with a thin mist forming above the surface. Her feet sounded on the wood and she kept a smile on her face, hoping that Molly would cheer up when she got closer.

‘Hi,’ Rose said, when she reached her.

‘Oh, hi,’ Molly said as if she’d only just noticed Rose was there.

Molly’s hair was pulled back in a tie and she was wearing a dark jacket over her uniform. She had thick tights on and knee-length boots. For once she had no silly slides in her hair.

‘Having a break out here?’ Rose said, looking down on her.

Molly nodded.

‘Get away from everyone talking about Rachel?’

She nodded again.

Rose felt awkward standing up. She pulled her jacket down so that it comfortably covered her bottom and then sat down on the planks, crossing her legs and leaning back against the wall. She felt the cold immediately and wondered how long Molly had been sitting there.

‘Look, Molly, I was a bit rude earlier when you were telling me about Rachel seeing Tania dressed up . . .’

Rose realised then that she hadn’t told Lauren Clarke that piece of information. In the face of all the new things she’d heard it had been completely forgotten. Maybe it was of little importance.

‘It’s all right, Rose, I know you didn’t mean it.’

‘I think the police are beginning to piece together what happened. They know that Rachel came out here late on Monday night and found Tim and Tania together in the boathouse. There was a row and Rachel stormed off with their bottle of vodka. She threatened to tell Mrs Abbott but then I think she must have just come down here and sat drinking the vodka by herself.’

Molly nodded.

‘So it’ll all be over soon,’ Rose said, using a soft voice and patting Molly on the arm.

‘I’m not a child, Rose – don’t treat me like one,’ Molly said, pulling her arm away.

‘I wasn’t . . .’

‘Everyone treats me as though I’m a child. I’m not. I’ve got brains. I’ve got feelings. That’s why I liked being friends with Rachel. She didn’t treat me like a child.’

‘She was difficult, though.’

‘I knew all that. I knew what she was like. I’d seen her over the years. When
we
got together she seemed different. We used to spend a lot of time in her room and we’d talk and she asked me all about my life and then she’d tell me about hers.’

Rose wondered if Rachel told Molly the truth or simply fabricated another life, new parents, new siblings, new problems. She shivered with the cold. Now wasn’t the time to puncture Molly’s memories of her dead friend.

‘Aren’t you cold?’

Molly shook her head. ‘I helped Rachel. I was a good friend to her.’

‘I know.’

‘When she needed someone she knew she could trust me. When she was seeing Tim Baker and slipping out in the night she knew she could depend on me to let her back into the school. I keep my phone by my pillow and when she sent a text I went downstairs and opened the door and let her in. She never got caught and that was because of me.’

Rose remembered going out of the laundry door very early that morning. She’d left the door on the snib to stop it shutting.

‘But the last few weeks she’d been different. Unhappy. She said she was being haunted and it made her snappy and horrible. I felt sorry for her. I tried to talk her out of it. I didn’t for one minute think it was a ghost but she did. That’s why she was so furious when she saw Tania dressed up to look like Juliet Baker. She came to my room. That was the first time ever! She came to my room and she went mad.’

Rose instinctively went to pat Molly’s arm but held back. Molly was fired up, talking non-stop. Rose’s eyes drifted in the direction of the boathouse and car park behind it. Was Joshua getting impatient? He would have to wait.

‘She stayed in my room all evening and it was like she was the Rachel who had first been friends with me. But the next day she got angry again. She kept telling me to go away. She said some cruel things to me.
You’re just a kid
.
Grow up
.
Leave me alone
.
Stop following me around
. She said I was like a puppy dog.’

Rose felt a flash of guilt. She had been part of this once.

‘She didn’t answer my texts and I didn’t see her around. So I just went to my room after dinner. I went to bed and about midnight I got this text. Look, I’ve kept it.’

Molly got her phone out of her coat pocket. She fiddled with it. Rose rubbed her freezing hands together. Molly passed her mobile over. Rose read the text from Rachel.
Just seen Tania going out with torch. Trying the ghost bit again??? Going to follow her. I’ll text when I need the door unlocked.

‘Even though she hadn’t bothered with me all day she still wanted me to open the door for her.’

Molly had misery written all over her face.

‘Molly, my friend’s in his car over there. Why don’t you get in and we’ll take you back to Eliot House. Your mother might have arrived.’

‘I don’t want to!’

‘Look,’ Rose found herself getting irritated, ‘Rachel Bliss was a real hard case. I can’t begin to tell you how she messed around with me when we were friends. How she . . . how she broke me up, lied to me, hurt my feelings. She wasn’t a true friend to me ever and the truth is she wouldn’t have made anyone a good friend.’

Rose could see Molly’s eyes filling with tears.

‘But to die in the water?’

‘It’s horrible,’ Rose said. ‘But it doesn’t excuse the way she treated you, or me. Or Juliet Baker. And maybe it was an accident or maybe she drove Tim Baker mad and he just flipped out at her . . .’

Molly shook her head. ‘No, Tim Baker wasn’t even here.’

‘What?’

‘Tim Baker wasn’t around. When I got here Rachel was on her own.’

‘You were
here
? On Monday night?’

‘I was waiting for her text. To open the door. When it got to one o’clock and she hadn’t contacted me I was worried. So I got dressed and came out. I had to wedge the door open with a box. I was in a state. I was sure someone would walk past the laundry and we would get caught. I headed in the direction of the boathouse. It was dark when I got there and I didn’t know what had happened. So I walked on to the jetty and there she was sitting down. Drinking straight from a bottle.’

Rose held her breath.

‘She got up when she saw me. She came towards me. She was staggering all over the place. Drunk. I could smell the alcohol on her. It was bitterly cold and she had her coat hanging open. I grabbed her hand and said she should come back and sleep it off. She started talking about Tim and Tania and calling Tania horrible names. I tried to calm her but she was riled up and then she turned on me. She said,
What are you doing here
?
Leave me alone
.
I’m sick of the sight of you
. She was stumbling all over the place. I said,
Be careful, you’ll fall in
and she just laughed at me.
Go back in, little girl
, she said.’

Rose listened in total silence. A terrible feeling was taking hold of her. She wanted to put her hands over her ears so that she couldn’t hear any more.

‘She came staggering towards me and thrust the bottle at me.
Have a drink
, she said.
Oh no, I forgot you’re just a little girl. You can’t drink . . .
’

Rose grabbed Molly’s hand firmly, ready to overcome her resistance if she needed to. But Molly’s hand was soft and floppy and cold.

‘I pushed her. She fell back and lost her footing and the next thing I heard was the splash of the water and she was gone.’

‘Oh, Molly.’

‘I got down the steps, I called out. I expected to see her splashing about but there wasn’t a sound. It was all black and there was no movement, nothing.’

‘Why didn’t you call someone?’

‘I just ran back to school and went up to my room. I thought that somehow she might have got out. You know, been quiet to frighten me and that once I’d gone she’d swum to the side and got out and I half expected to see her the next morning.’

Rose could see Joshua at the beginning of the jetty. She pulled Molly up to a standing position.

‘Come and sit in the car. I’ll call Lauren Clarke, the policewoman. You need to tell her all about this. You do know that, don’t you, Molly?’

‘I’m not a child. I do know what I have to do.’

Rose took Molly’s arm and they began to walk towards the boathouse.

TWENTY-SEVEN

The drive back to London started almost an hour later than they planned. The early part of the journey saw Rose staring out of the window, the road whooshing past. It was bright but trying to rain, spots hitting at the glass, making it glisten for a moment before fading under the late afternoon sun. It looked cold. They passed people who were pulling their coats tight. Inside the car it felt hot. Rose had already taken her coat off.

After Lauren Clarke had come to the boathouse car park and taken Molly Wallace away, Rose and Joshua had sat in the car while she explained. He’d been surprised. He’d asked several questions but none of them were easy to answer because he hadn’t known Molly the way she had and he hadn’t known Rachel. A weariness came over her and she said she didn’t want to talk about it any more. She just wanted to get back to London.

So they’d set off through the country lanes and then on to the main road. Joshua kept a steady pace and it wasn’t long before there were signs for Swaffham. The traffic slowed and Rose saw different school uniforms as parents and children mingled on the pavements. Teenagers stood around in groups and she saw their mouths opening and shutting; a day’s gossip coming out, one story after another about this lesson and that friendship. Then they would disappear on to the bus and head home.

At Mary Linton most people didn’t head home. The joys and sadnesses of the day were carried over into the evening. Juliet Baker
had
taken her troubles home with her. Why had she never told her family about what Rachel had said about her father? She’d kept it hidden inside herself until it had turned against her; a piece of spiteful shrapnel lodged there by Rachel to cause maximum damage later. Molly too had been isolated and her hurt feelings had grown until they exploded on the jetty that evening and Rachel got pushed into the lake.

Molly had said that there was silence when she went into the water. Had Rachel hit her head on the jetty and gone into the lake unconscious? Was that why she had sunk without a struggle? An inert object that plummeted to the bottom of the lake and floated back to the surface later to be found by the groundsman when daylight broke. She closed her eyes. She felt heavy with tiredness or sadness or both. Rachel Bliss, a damaged,
dangerous
girl who had smashed her way into people’s lives. Molly Wallace, a lonely girl who people largely ignored because of her supposed immaturity. Molly’s life would never be the same.

What a mess.

Once out of the town the country road was like a pale ribbon weaving through the fields. It headed off into the dusk and Rose’s eyes sought out the failing light. Soon it would be dark. She’d done this drive a number of times with Anna but Anna’s car was bigger and she’d been higher up. Skeggsie’s Mini was low to the ground and every time another car passed them she felt like she was rumbling along the tarmac. She hadn’t noticed this discomfort on the journey to the school three days before. How long ago that seemed.

Joshua put on some music and as it played she felt him reach across and squeeze her hand. She looked at his profile and wondered about the closeness they had had over the last few days. Had it just been the affection of a surrogate brother? Or had something else been happening? Could it be that his feelings for her were changing? Or was she reading too much into it? Projecting the desire she felt on to him, because that’s how she wanted it to be.