Things We Have in Common by Tasha Kavanagh

Author:Tasha Kavanagh [Kavanagh, Tasha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd

I don’t remember the prayer, obviously, but because it was so good and I wondered if Miss Ward had written it herself, I did a Missing person prayer search on Google and found it.

Anyway, I did think about Alice in the two-minute silence. I thought about how she’d looked that day you were watching her from the path, walking backwards across the tennis court with her light, bouncing steps. I thought about her pale cheeks turning pink and her green eyes watching me. Then I looked along the row in front and saw Katy. Her eyes were screwed shut and tears were rolling down her cheeks.

Mum was waiting outside school in the car. I lobbed my bag on the back seat.

‘Hi, love,’ she said, but I could see straight away something was up. She pulled out into the road before she told me. ‘The police took Gary in.’

I got a nasty acidy taste in the back of my mouth. ‘What?’ I said. ‘Why?’

‘They asked to have his van too.’ She glanced across at me. ‘They said CCTV showed a Ford Transit on Rectory Road when Alice disappeared. They said they only got a part index on camera, but it’s the same as Gary’s.’

‘What’s a part index?’ I said.

‘Just part of the number plate. The last two letters, I think Gary said. That’s all they could see on the CCTV, but they match Gary’s.’

I was stunned. I didn’t really know what that meant – how unlikely it’d be for a van to have the same last letters as another van.

‘They can’t say how long they’ll have it, either. He’s furious, Yaz. They told him about what those girls are saying you said. I think he thinks that’s the real reason they pulled him in. I told him you didn’t say it, but he’s not listening. It’s shaken him, that’s why. It’s being questioned, it’s not nice.’

I tried to swallow the acid. ‘Is he still there?’

‘No, he’s at home.’

‘So he’s OK then? I mean, they let him go. They don’t think he did anything?’

She took her hands off the wheel to shrug. ‘Well, I don’t think so. But they kept his van. He won’t be able to work.’

‘But you said he went to pick up piping. The police can check it, can’t they?’

‘He said the bloke he got it off wasn’t there. He’d left the pipes out for him.’

We pulled onto our drive. Mum switched the engine off, undid her seat belt and turned to me. ‘Are you OK?’ she said. ‘You’re not getting any trouble off those girls?’

‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘I’m fine.’

Her eyes were searching mine, full of worry.

I flipped the door handle. ‘I’m fine,’ I said.

Gary was standing in the sitting room doorway when we came in, leaning against the frame with his arms folded like he’d been waiting there for us.

I didn’t like the way he was looking at me, his face set like he hated me, so I just said ‘Hi,’ then started up the stairs, even though I knew I wouldn’t get very far.

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