The Reborn (11 page)

‘A group of girls got pregnant as a pact?’

‘Our experience during the last six months or so suggests this may have been the case. The girls here are all high achievers, expected to succeed. There is a lot of pressure on them from parents, from their peers.’

‘And from the school?’

‘Morvern supports its pupils in every way we can, but we do expect them to make the most of the gifts they’ve been given. However, it is not always easy being clever.’

‘And getting pregnant is one way out of the clever club.’

‘It may appear to be.’

‘Did you ask Kira to leave the school when you discovered she was pregnant?’

‘No. We supported her when she wanted to stay.’

This surprised him. An obviously pregnant girl wearing the Morvern uniform was not a great advert for the school.

As if interpreting his thoughts, she said, ‘Kira came in in normal dress.’

It was one way to save face, both for Kira and the school.

‘And what about the others?’

‘It wasn’t apparent at the time that there were others. That came later.’

‘So there have been four reported pregnancies since Kira?’

‘Yes.’

‘And what happened to those girls?’

‘In view of the circumstances and after discussions with their parents, they all left, including Kira.’

‘I take it these girls were friends?’

‘Yes. A small clique of very high achievers.’

‘You suspect Kira’s pregnancy started a trend?’

‘We became aware of two more pregnancies six weeks after Kira’s was revealed.’

‘And the remaining two?’

‘A month after that.’

‘Did you bring the girls together as a group and try and work out why this had happened?’

‘The parents decided that wasn’t appropriate.’

‘And they removed their daughters from the school?’

‘Yes. If they hadn’t, the governors would have asked them to.’

One pregnancy could be attributed to a wayward pupil. Five pregnancies in so short a time would look like the school’s fault.

He thought about the mirror writing on Kira’s hands and the daisy tattoo on the small of her back. He didn’t want to reveal either fact but he was interested in finding out if they could have had anything to do with this supposed pact.

‘Did any of these girls have a tattoo?’

‘Parents are advised that tattoos and piercings other than in the earlobe are not permitted.’

In his experience, forbidding a teenager to do something often achieved the opposite result. You needed evidence of being eighteen to get a tattoo in a licensed parlour but fake ID wasn’t uncommon.

‘I’d like the names of the other pregnant girls.’

‘You plan to interview them?’ She looked concerned.

‘You said these girls were close friends, maybe even close enough to form a pregnancy pact. I need to speak to them about Kira. I also need to see their school records.’

‘Our student records are normally confidential . . .’

‘But not to the police,’ he said firmly.

She rose. ‘Everything’s on computer now. We don’t store hard copies. I’ll organise Joan to help you access them.’

‘Thank you. Also, did Kira have a guidance teacher, someone responsible for her pastoral care?’

‘We have a tutee system in our sixth form. Dr Frank Delaney was Kira’s tutor.’

‘May I see him before I look at her records?’

‘Of course.’

She walked over to the desk and buzzed through to her secretary, summoning Dr Delaney to her office.

‘This may take a few minutes. If he is with a class, his Head of Department will have to organise cover.’

She returned to the coffee table and asked if he wanted more tea. Her calm demeanour had returned, her hand steady as she poured.

‘Do you have any idea why Kira was killed?’ she asked.

‘No, we don’t.’

‘And what about the baby?’

‘We’re still looking for it.’

Dr Delaney arrived a few minutes later. He was very tall, easily six foot four, and stick thin. His face was all angles, the nose prominent and sharp, the look penetrating. Bill imagined him flapping the black gown as he strode around the classroom like a giant raven.

The Principal introduced them, then said, ‘I’ll have Joan retrieve Kira’s records for you. If you just come through when you’re finished here.’

‘Thank you.’

Bill thought he glimpsed concern in Delaney’s eyes at the thought of being abandoned, but it didn’t last long. When Ms Porter had closed the door behind her, Delaney folded his long frame into the seat.

‘This is a terrible business. I still can’t believe it. Kira was so alive. Her parents must be devastated. Is there anything I can do to help?’

‘Tell me about her.’

‘That’s easy. Multi-talented. Fun. A powerful intellect, particularly in Maths. She was one of my best pupils.’

‘Is that why you became her tutor?’

‘The girls are allowed to choose a tutor. Provided not too many choose the same one, they are usually matched with their first choice.’

‘So you had a special bond?’

Delaney gave him an inscrutable look. ‘It’s not unusual for a pupil to choose a tutor who is an expert in her area. It’s a sensible career move.’

‘That’s why she chose you?’

‘I assumed so.’

‘Do you have any other tutees?’

He looked a little uneasy. ‘I had three originally, including Kira. Only one remains.’

‘What happened to the other one?’

‘Samantha left for the same reason as Kira.’

‘Because she was pregnant?’

‘Yes.’

‘Do you think the group of girls who got pregnant had formed a pact?’

He didn’t look surprised by the question.

‘“Pact” is probably too strong a word. Despite being brainy, Kira was also regarded as cool. That’s one of the advantages of single sex education for girls. They don’t need to pretend they’re not good at something to be cool. No boys in the classroom to play down to.’

‘You think Kira had influence over the other girls?’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t mean she told them what to do. She was like a celebrity to them. Someone to emulate. If Kira did something unusual, then it was an OK thing to do.’

‘Why do you think the girls got pregnant?’

‘You mean was it accident or design? I have no idea, I’ve been asking myself the same question ever since Kira sprung her news.’

‘She told you first?’

‘I suspect I knew before her parents, but not before her friends.’

‘Was she upset?’

‘Not in the least. She was pleased. I was the one who was upset. I knew she could go far in Maths.’

‘And a baby would stop her doing that?’

‘Mathematicians do their best work early in their career. She knew that. In fact, she told me she was thinking of switching to Medicine instead.’

‘That must have disappointed you.’

He gave a rueful smile. ‘All teachers live through their protégés in some way. Yes, I admit I was disappointed.’

‘You said you had three tutees?’

‘Sandie’s the only one still here.’

‘Did she know Kira?’

‘Yes. In fact, she was with her the night she died.’

An Alexandra Stewart-Smith had been on the list of friends with Kira that night. Sandie, David Murdoch and another boy, Owen Hegarty. He’d glanced over their statements but hadn’t yet met any of them. David he would speak to later today, but if Sandie was here, he could chat to her now.

‘I’d like to meet with Sandie if she’s in school today.’

‘She was in Maths first thing.’ Dr Delaney rose.

Bill was struck again by his height. His presence dominated even a room as large as this. An ideal requirement for a teacher, although Bill’s own maths teacher had been a tiny, bird-like woman they’d christened the Hen because of her rotund shape and stick-thin legs. The Hen may not have been tall, but she had scared the living daylights out of him and everyone else in the class.

Dr Delaney asked him to wait while he relayed his request to the Principal, and Bill was happy to do so. He spent the time at the magnificent windows observing west end Glasgow going about its business. If they could have afforded to live near the centre, this was the area he would have chosen. The home of Glasgow University, the Botanic Gardens, close to a variety of independent shops, and a short underground trip to the city centre.

Most people thought of Glasgow as the murder capital of Scotland, all street gangs, knives and booze. But there was another side to the city and this area typified it for him. It was vibrant, peopled by a mix of families, students, the average earner and the well-to-do. Morvern wasn’t the only independent school in the neighbourhood, although it was the only single sex establishment.

An anachronism really, a single sex school, particularly in this day and age. After all, life was made up of two sexes and kids had to live in the real world. Yet a lot of what had been said about Morvern was true. A higher proportion of girls from here entered the more male-dominated professions. On paper it looked as though single sex education worked – for girls, at least.

When Diane Porter returned, she was accompanied by a nervous-looking girl dressed in a school uniform of kilted skirt and dark green sweater over an open necked white shirt. Gone were the days of the school tie, apparently, even in the independent establishments.

‘Sandie, this is Detective Inspector Wilson.’

‘Hi, Sandie.’ He gave her an encouraging smile. ‘I know you talked to my colleague, DI Slater, and I read your statement. Thank you for that. I’m taking over from DI Slater on Kira’s case. When I realised you were in school today, I just wanted to introduce myself and have a little chat.’ He hoped that sounded friendly enough.

It seemed to work. She sat down opposite him, the wary look gone from her face.

‘Would you like me to stay with you, Sandie?’

Sandie looked to the Principal and then to Bill. Her reply surprised him.

‘No, I’m OK on my own.’

Ms Porter’s expression suggested she would have preferred to stay, and he couldn’t blame her. As well as her school being linked to a murder, there was a possibility that the press would get hold of the pregnancy pact story. If they did, the school’s reputation would take a further battering. He was surprised the multiple pregnancies had remained a secret until now – it only went to show that affluent Glaswegians were very good at keeping their problems out of the public domain.

He waited until Ms Porter had left before joining Sandie at the coffee table.

‘I’m very sorry about what happened to your friend.’

She gave a little sniff. ‘She just went for candyfloss. No one else likes it, so we went on to the dodgems.’ She gave him a pitiful look. ‘I should have gone with her.’

‘Did she ask you to?’

She looked uncomfortable. ‘Not exactly.’

‘What happened wasn’t your fault.’

‘I know.’

‘Tell me about Kira.’

She seemed unsure how to answer. ‘We were friends,’ she said finally.

‘Best friends?’

She shook her head. ‘Kira had lots of friends. No one special, except maybe David.’ Her tone changed when she mentioned his name.

‘They were close?’

She sounded peeved. ‘They had this thing. Always whispering to one another like you weren’t there.’

‘How long had they been going out?’

She gave him a sharp look. ‘A while. He wasn’t the father, if that’s what you think. He said he didn’t care it was someone else’s. How weird is that?’

A little weird – if it were true.

‘Was Kira seeing someone else?’

‘Well, she must have been if it wasn’t David’s.’

‘But you didn’t know who?’

She shook her head.

‘Why do you think Kira went into the Hall of Mirrors on her own?’

She looked irritated. ‘She was like that sometimes. Just did things on her own. She even went to the cinema alone.’ She looked to him for confirmation of how odd that was.

Bill didn’t find it strange at all. He’d done the same thing himself during his suspension and was surprised by the variety of people who’d shared the daytime showings with him.

‘She never thought it was sad to do things on her own.’

‘And you do?’

She struggled for a moment, then shook her head. ‘Nothing Kira did was sad.’

‘Even getting pregnant?’

‘She was happy about it.’

‘What about the other girls?’

Sandie gave a brief look round as though someone might be listening at the door.

‘We’re not supposed to talk about that.’

‘I’ve spoken to Ms Porter already.’

‘My father threatened to take me out of the school if word got out.’

‘And you don’t want that?’

‘I need to pass my exams. I want to study Medicine at Edinburgh.’ She said this as though it was a passport to prestige and riches.

It probably was.

He was silent for a moment. It hadn’t been obvious in her statement, but Bill was gaining the impression that Sandie hadn’t liked Kira very much. He wondered how many of the gang had. People tended to become leaders because others were in awe of them or simply feared them. Leaders who were loved were thinner on the ground.

‘Did you see yourself as one of Kira’s gang?’

‘I didn’t get myself pregnant just to please her if that’s what you mean.’

‘Did Kira
ask
the others to get pregnant?’

‘No! I don’t know. She didn’t talk to me about it, anyway.’ She sounded relieved and annoyed at the same time.

From what Bill had read, Slater hadn’t known about the daisy chain reference on Kira’s palms when he’d initially interviewed those with her at the funfair. Bill didn’t want to make it common knowledge, but if it was linked to this pact he needed to know.