The Last Girl Read Online Free Page B

no matter how many murder files he was currently handling. I stared at the inspector meaningfully.
Just drop it. It’s not going to happen
.
    ‘Let me interview the girl.’
    ‘I told you, you aren’t the right person for that.’ Godley leaned against the kitchen door, edging it open. ‘We’ll make it quick.’
    He held the door open and I darted through it without meeting Derwent’s glare; it wasn’t my fault and I wasn’t going to allow myself to feel guilty. On edge, perhaps … There would be retribution. I could count on that.
    She was sitting at the kitchen table, a slab of white oak that could have accommodated ten people easily. A female officer was sitting beside her with a box of tissues on her knee. The inevitable cup of tea stood in front of the girl, steam rising from it. It didn’t look as if it had been touched. Her hair hung down in front of her face in narrow rats’ tails and I recalled that she had been swimming even as I noticed the faint tang of chlorine in the air. She hadn’t showered since she’d been in the pool, I thought, but she was dressed, in jeans and a long-sleeved top that hung off her tiny frame. I knew she was fifteen, but she looked no older than twelve.
    ‘Hello, Lydia.’ Godley pulled out a chair on the other side of the table and sat down. ‘I’m Superintendent Godley. I’m leading the investigation.’
    There was no response.
    ‘This is Detective Constable Kerrigan.’
    I sat down too, lacing my fingers in front of me on the table. I had pinned a pleasant smile to my face, a smile that was completely unnecessary because, despite Godley’s best efforts to get her to respond, Lydia didn’t so much as look up.
    After a few unproductive minutes, Godley turned to the uniformed officer and motioned to her to join us on the other side of the room, out of Lydia’s hearing. The officer was in her forties but glamorous with it, made up to the nines and with carefully dyed blonde hair. She wore a wedding ring, and I was willing to bet she was a mother herself and that was how she’d been given the job of minding the girl. ‘Is she all right?’
    ‘Out of it,’ she said quietly. ‘The doctor had to give her something to calm her down. She hasn’t said anything since.’
    Godley nodded. ‘No point in trying to interview her now, then. Did she say anything to you before she was medicated? Did she notice anything?’
    The officer shook her head. ‘She said not. She was swimming. Had her head underwater. Not surprising she didn’t know anything or see anyone.’
    ‘It was worth a try. If she had seen something we’d need to know about it.’ He looked across at her, his lips compressed. ‘It’s frustrating, though. I’d love to know what she thinks about her mother and her sister, and how they died.’
    ‘I imagine she’s trying not to think about it,’ I pointed out. There was something about the girl that made me feel she needed someone to stand up for her, to protect her. She was completely still, except for an occasional shudder that passed through her entire body. I couldn’t imagine what it must have felt like to find her mother like that, and her sister. I couldn’t imagine how she would live with the memory, once the sedatives wore off. She might have been uninjured, but that didn’t mean she was unharmed.
    ‘Shame the doctor couldn’t hold off a bit longer, though.’
    It wasn’t like Godley to be so hard-edged and I knew the expression of shock on the uniformed officer’s face mirrored my own. It was a sign of the stress he was under, but that didn’t make it any more pleasant.
    ‘Well, you didn’t see her earlier. She was completely hysterical. Screaming.’ The officer shuddered. ‘You wouldn’t have got any sense out of her. I only just got her to shake her head when I asked if she’d seen or heard anything, and I had to ask about a million times.’
    Months of practice at Derwent-soothing came to my assistance. ‘It doesn’t matter.