‘The wee prick,’ said Liam, with his usual talent for understatement.
‘Someone could have seen me,’ Maggie got out. Her heart was hammering, adrenaline still pumping. Was it really possible? Nick had actually killed someone to get rid of her? So she’d be arrested and charged and convicted and sent to prison? Bye-bye, Mags? He’d gone that far?
‘Aye, well, if they did, it’s our word against theirs,’ went Liam. ‘We’ll give you an alibi.’
‘You don’t have to,’ said Maggie at once. ‘You don’t have to lie for me.’ And as the thought hit her: ‘For all you know, I could have killed the lad.’
Liam just snorted.
‘Why on earth would you do that?’ Pam shook her head. ‘Of course I’ll give you an alibi. They might not believe Liam, but I’m a law-abiding citizen without as much as a conviction for speeding. We’ll say you were here the whole time.’
‘You have to go on home, Maggie,’ said Liam, ‘like nothing happened. Pick Nick up at the school, acting like everything’s hunky-dory, and drive home.’
Maggie nodded.
Blindly, she stumbled to the toilet and threw up.
As Maggie arrived at the car park at the school, twenty minutes early, she had to make her clawed hands release the steering wheel. She clocked Carol Jardine sitting in her car, presumably waiting for Andy, and slouched down in her seat. She couldn’t be doing with chirpy Carol right now. She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and went through again in her head what she’d say to Nick.
She kept thinking of that boy lying in his own blood, the knife sticking out of him.
Would Pam and Liam really lie for her, once the police got at them? Would Liam risk it, now that he was turning his life around and determined to stay on the straight and narrow? And what about Pam? Pam came from a nice middle-class family. How was she going to cope under questioning?
Now gaggles of kids were streaming out of the school. Nick wasn’t in one of the groups. He walked alone across the tarmac to the car.
If he was surprised to see her, he didn’t let on. He ducked into the passenger seat and flashed her one of his charming smiles. ‘Have a nice catch-up?’
‘Really good, thanks. How was rehearsal?’
She couldn’t stop staring at his right hand as it pushed the catch of the seat belt. She imagined that same hand, less than an hour ago, pushing the kitchen knife into Dean Reid’s chest.
Really?
Could this boy really have done that?
But what other explanation was there for the Sunnyside kitchen knife, the one Nick had made her touch, being used as a murder weapon on Dean Reid? Could Dean and some of the other kids have gone to Sunnyside, maybe to see Duncan, and Dean stole the knife? And then they went to The Phoenix Centre, and there was a fight between them?
Nick dropped the left side of his mouth and went, in a dull monotone: ‘How now spirit whither wander you.’ He chuckled. ‘Whoever cast Meebs as Puck has a great sense of humour.’
Maggie eased out of the car park.
‘But yours is the lead role, aye?’ she made herself ask.
‘Yeah, King of the Fairies. Gives all those Neanderthals something to pin on me. I’m not gay, by the way, in case you’re wondering.’
It was the last thing on her mind. But now the thought of Nick with a partner flashed into her head. Jesus.
They waited in the queue of cars at the exit and then Maggie turned right. Soon they’d left the outskirts of Langholm behind and were into the trees.
What the hell was she going to say to Duncan?
She had to tell him she’d been there in The Phoenix Centre, tell him the truth about what had happened. She had no choice. But as Nick blethered on about the funny things that had happened during the rehearsal, her heart plummeted. Would Duncan believe her version of events, her accusation that Nick had set her up, over Nick’s? He must have left the rehearsal, somehow arranged to meet Dean at The Phoenix Centre, killed him, rushed back . . .
But the folk at the school must have noticed he was missing!
Maybe someone had even seen him going into the Centre.
But would Duncan believe her about finding Dean, that she’d done him no harm? Or would he go straight to the police with what she told him, blowing her alibi out the water? He’d been having doubts, right enough, about her mental health.
Usually, the bonnie drive through Eskdale lifted her spirits and calmed her down at the same time. Now, the fields sweeping down to the river looked all weird in the moonlight, like she’d never seen them before, and the dark hillsides against the lighter sky were spooky humps.
She looked over at Nick.
He smiled at her.
The scenario he’d set up, she supposed, was Maggie investigates a possible break-in at The Phoenix Centre, finds Dean in there and loses her rag. Volatile Maggie – God knows why she was carrying a knife from the kitchen at Sunnyside – stabs the poor lad.
When she turned up the avenue to the house, she immediately saw the police car, the fluorescent markings bright in her headlights. She wanted to throw the car into reverse, but she took a deep breath and went, ‘Is that a police car?’ like it wasn’t obvious. Like they didn’t both know why it was here.
Nick went, ‘Well, I wonder why the police are here? Been up to your old tricks, Mags?’
So the gloves were off. ‘Naw,’ she replied calmly, stopping the car next to the police car by the back door. ‘And I’ve got an alibi to prove it.’
Nick raised his eyebrows.
As they got out of the car, Yvonne came running from the back door, Isla swaddled in her arms. ‘They’re taking him!’ She shoved Isla at Maggie and ran back to the door, where Duncan appeared, his hair rumpled. His hands were handcuffed in front of him, and a big cop had a hold of his arm.
‘What the hell?’ Nick suddenly screamed. ‘No! Dad!?’ He went for the massive policeman, grabbing him, trying to pull him off Duncan.
The other policeman grabbed Nick. ‘Okay, son, okay. We’re just taking your dad to the station to answer some questions.’
‘What questions?’