Eye-roll. ‘You think?’
‘Chris wouldn’t be the boyfriend I’d choose for my best mate.’
‘Obviously. Not unless your best mate liked them underage.’
Mackey was grinning, not bothering to hide it. I said, ‘So what did you do about it?’
Her chin went out. ‘Um, hello, same as before: what was I supposed to do? Get her a Chris voodoo doll and some pins? I’m not actually magic. I couldn’t wave my wand and make her feel all better.’
Sore spot. I pressed it. ‘You could’ve texted him to leave her alone. Or arranged to meet up with him, tell him face to face.’
Holly snorted. ‘Like that would’ve done any good. Chris didn’t even like me – he could tell I didn’t fall for his cute-little-puppy thing, which meant he was never going to get up my top, which meant I was a bitch and why would he bother even talking to me, never mind doing anything I asked him to?’
‘You, young one. No one gets up your top till you’re married.’ Mackey, from the windowsill.
I said, ‘I just can’t get my head round the idea that you did nothing. This guy’s making your best mate miserable, and you just went, “Ah, well, stuff happens, it’ll toughen her up”? Seriously?’
‘I didn’t know what to do! I feel like crap about it already, thanks very much, I don’t need you telling me what a shit friend I was.’
I said, ‘You could’ve talked to Julia and Rebecca, see if the three of you could come up with a plan together. That’s what I’d’ve expected you to do. If yous are as close as you say.’
‘I’d already tried. Remember? Becca got upset, Julia didn’t want to know. Probably I would’ve told Jules if Selena had been any worse, but it wasn’t like I thought she was going to kill herself over that wanker. She was just . . . unhappy. There was nothing any of us could do about that.’ Something blowing across Holly’s face again. ‘And she obviously really, like really didn’t want any of us knowing. If she’d found out that I knew, it would’ve just made her feel worse. So I acted like I didn’t.’
The thing was it wasn’t true, the little insomnia story, or not all the truth. I couldn’t risk a glance at Conway to see if she’d spotted the lie. There had been no name attached to Chris’s number, in Selena’s phone; no names in the texts. No way a skim through the phone could have told Holly who Selena was texting.
Maybe the lie was Mackey reflex, always keep some nugget to yourself in case it comes in useful later on. Maybe not.
Holly moved like she felt that cold-rain something fingering the back of her neck, trailing across her shoulders. Said, ‘I wasn’t just ignoring the whole thing. Back then, I thought the same as Becca: everything would be OK as long as we had each other. I thought, if we just stuck close to Lenie . . .’
‘Did it work? Did she seem like she was snapping out of it?’
Holly said, quietly, ‘No.’
I said, ‘That had to be scary. You’re used to dealing with everything together with your friends, the four of yous: no secrets. All of a sudden, you’re stuck dealing with this all on your own.’
Holly shrugged. ‘I survived.’
Trying hard for ice-cool, but that veil had wrapped her round. Those few days last spring had set things shifting, in the way the world looked to her. Left her lost, stripped raw in cold wind and no one’s hands finding hers.
That was when I knew: Conway wasn’t the only one who had Holly in her sights. Not any more.
‘Course you did,’ I said. ‘You’re well able; I know that from last time. But that doesn’t mean you don’t get scared. And being out on your own where your mates can’t help, that’s one of the scariest things around.’
Slowly her eyes came up, met mine. Startled and clear, like this was more than she’d expected from me. A tiny nod.
‘Hate to break up the little chat when it’s going so nicely,’ Mackey said lazily, swinging himself off the windowsill, ‘but I’m gasping for a smoke.’
‘You told Mum you’d quit,’ Holly said.
‘It’s been a long time since I had your mum fooled about anything. See you in a few, chickadee. If these nice detectives say a word to you, you just stick your fingers in your ears and sing them something pretty.’ And he headed off, left the door swinging open behind him. We heard his footsteps down the corridor, him whistling a perky tune.
Conway and I looked at each other. Holly watched us, under those enigmatic curves of eyelid.
I said, ‘I could do with some fresh air.’
In the foyer, the heavy wooden door was swinging wide. The rectangle of cold light spilling onto the chequerboard tiles was notched with a shadow that moved, one sharp flick, when my steps echoed. Mackey.
He was at the top of the steps, leaning against a column, smoke unlit between his fingers. His back was to me and he didn’t turn. Above him, the sky was a blue aimed for night; it was gone quarter past eight. Faint and delicate, arcing somewhere in the great stretches of dimming air out there, bats’ intent shrills and girls’ intent chatter.
When I came up beside Mackey he raised the smoke to his lips, glanced at me over the click of the lighter. ‘Since when do you smoke?’
‘Just needed some air.’ I loosened my collar, took a deep breath. The air tasted sweet and warm, night flowers opening.
‘And a chat.’
‘Long time no see.’
‘Kid. You’ll have to forgive me if I’m not in the mood for small talk.’
‘Nah, I know. I just wanted to say . . .’ The squirm was real, and the red face. ‘I know you’ve been . . . you know. Putting in the odd good word for me, along the way. I just wanted a chance to say thanks.’
‘Don’t thank me. Just don’t fuck up. I don’t like looking stupid.’
‘I’m not planning on fucking up.’
Mackey nodded and turned his shoulder to me. Smoked like it was fuel and he was going to get every last inch to the gallon.
I leaned against the wall, not too near. Tilted my face up to the sky, just chilling.
Said, ‘I’m dying to ask, man. How’d you pick out St Kilda’s?’
‘You figured I’d have Holly down the local community school?’
‘Something like that, yeah.’
‘The tennis court wasn’t up to my standards.’
Narrowing his eyes against the smoke. Only one corner of his mind was on me.
‘This place, but? When I saw it . . .’ I blew out a half-laugh. ‘Fuck me.’
‘It’s something, all right. You didn’t think I appreciated fine architecture?’
‘Just didn’t think it would be your scene. Rich kids. Holly living somewhere else most of the week.’
I waited. Nothing, just the rise and fall of his cigarette. I said, ‘You wanted to get Holly away from home, yeah? Too much teen drama? Or you didn’t like her mates?’
One corner of Mackey’s mind was more than enough. Wolf-curl to his mouth, slow click of his tongue. ‘Stephen, Stephen, Stephen. Here you were doing so well. All the working-man-to-working-man stuff, I was really feeling that. And then you went and got impatient, and you went straight back into cop mode. Is your daughter a problem teen, sir? Does your daughter have any undesirable associates, sir? Did you ever see any sign that your daughter was shaping up to be a cold-blooded killer, sir? And just like that, the nice little bond we were building up: gone. Rookie mistake, sunshine. You need to practise your patience.’
He lounged against the column, grinning at me, waiting to see what I’d come out with next. His eyes had turned alive; I had his attention now.
I said, ‘The school I can see, just about. Maybe Holly’s ma went here, or maybe your local community school’s a kip, Holly was getting bullied or offered drugs – most people’s principles go out the window when it’s their kid on the line. But boarding? Nah. I don’t see it.’
‘Always fuck with people’s expectations, sunshine. It’s good for their circulation.’
‘Last time we worked together, you and Holly’s ma were split up. Had been for a while, far as I could tell. You’ve already missed out on years of Holly, and now you send her off to boarding school so you can miss even more? It doesn’t fit.’
Mackey pointed his smoke at me. ‘That was cute, kid. “Last time we worked together”; like we’re working together now. I like that.’
‘You and Holly’s ma are back together, that’s your chance at being a family again. You wouldn’t miss out on that unless there was a good reason. Either Holly was acting up and you needed her somewhere strict to straighten her out, or she was getting into bad company and you wanted her well away from that.’
He was nodding away, doing a thinking face. ‘Not bad. It plays. Or maybe, just maybe, my wife and I felt we needed some time by ourselves to reconnect, after that whole nasty separation thing. Rekindle the romance. Us time, isn’t that what I’m meant to call it?’
I said, ‘You worship the bones of that girl. You’ve never wanted less time with her in her life.’
‘My attitude to family is a little quirky, kid. I assumed you’d gathered that, last time we worked together.’ Mackey tossed his smoke onto the lawn. ‘Maybe the chance to be an adorable nuclear unit doesn’t mean the same to me as it would to you. So sue me.’