Until It's Over by Nicci French

Author:Nicci French [French, Nicci]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: C429, Extratorrents, Kat
ISBN: 0312375395
Published: 2007-01-01T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

When I was dropped back at the house, dazed from the repetition of my story, I felt like a traveller who had returned home after many years to find everything different. Mick was in the hall when I arrived. He looked at me with concern. ‘Police?’ he said.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘They’ll be wanting to talk to all of you in the house. So you’d better come up with a good story about where you were at about ten this morning.’

‘I didn’t get in until three,’ said Mick. ‘So I was asleep.’

‘Can anyone vouch for that?’

‘No.’

‘That’s not exactly watertight.’

‘I’ll see you,’ said Mick, and walked past me out of the front door.

I knocked on Pippa’s door and she waved me inside without a word. She took a half-bottle of Scotch and a tumbler from a shelf, then glanced around. There was another tumbler on her desk, next to her opened laptop. It was filled with pens, pencils, a chain of paperclips. She emptied them out with a clatter. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I’ll have this one.’

She pulled the front of her T-shirt out from under her belt and used it to wipe the tumbler. Then she tipped Scotch into both. ‘Water?’ she said.

‘This’ll do fine,’ I said.

‘I’m tempted to say that we need clear heads,’ said Pippa. ‘But on second thoughts, I don’t see the point. Cheers.’

We gulped at the Scotch a little too deeply and both flinched, as if in pain, at the same time. Pippa smiled. ‘Was Seth all right?’

‘He spent half his time trying to shut me up. But thanks. What’s happening?’

‘Gnashing of teeth,’ said Pippa. ‘Wailing. Rending of garments. What do you expect?’

‘Who’s in?’

‘I came home early. I haven’t seen Mick or Owen, though I believe they’re both here somewhere. Miles was around, looking like a ghost. Whimpering. Dario freaked out. I went up to see him and he was scrubbing his room with bleach, terrified that Forensics were going to find traces of drugs. I tried to explain that the police would find traces of bleach more suspicious. He started raving about what he should do to get rid of the bleach. I stumbled on Mel sobbing in the kitchen with Davy comforting her. That’s suspicious behaviour for a start. Anyone who’s upset about Leah really must have a screw loose.’

‘Pippa, for Christ’s sake,’ I said, ‘she was murdered today. You can’t mean that.’

Pippa took a sip of her drink. She didn’t seem particularly chastened by what I’d said. ‘It’s a strange kind of guilt,’ she said. ‘You wish someone ill and they get more ill than you wanted.’

‘I know.’

Pippa lit a cigarette and took a drag. ‘I’m sorry she died,’ she said. ‘And shocked. But I’m not going to pretend I didn’t hate her.’

‘Don’t you think life’s too short to waste on hating people?’

‘That’s a bit Zen for me,’ said Pippa.

‘Were the police round?’

‘A couple of officers were holed up with Miles for ages. They left just before you arrived. They’ll be interviewing the rest of us tomorrow.

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