All the Rage

Adam Fawley
9 April 2018
21.35

Gallagher pushes open the incident-room door and sits down heavily on the nearest chair. She's just been briefing Harrison. I don't need to ask how it went: I've seen the look on her face too many times before `“ in my own mirror.

`˜Someone please explain to me how Nadine Appleford's prints got on that handbag,' she says wearily, `˜because I am all out of viable explanations.'

Gislingham shakes his head. `˜I don't care what forensics said, Nadine couldn't have killed Sasha `“ not on her own, anyway. She'd have struggled getting that body into the river on her own for a start, apart from anything else. Patsie could've, yes, but Nadine's a good three or four inches shorter.'

`˜Oh, I dunno,' says Quinn, `˜she may be small but she looks pretty sturdy to me `“ and what with the slope of the bank, I reckon she could have just rolled it down.'

`˜That it was a fifteen-year-old girl,' says Somer curtly.

`˜And Nadine is fifteen too,' replies Gislingham. `˜And why would she attack Sasha anyway? They didn't even know each other.'

Baxter looks up. `˜Actually, they might. I just checked. They were in the same year at Summertown High.'

Silence. More silence.

`˜Oh fuck,' says Gallagher.

`˜So that's it,' sighs Gislingham. `˜That's what we missed.'

`˜Don't blame yourself,' says Gallagher quickly. `˜We all missed it. It's been right under our noses all this time. We just never thought to ask.'

`˜But even if they knew each other,' says Somer, `˜they weren't friends. They can't have been. I went through Sasha's room, remember. There were loads of pictures of her and her mates, but Nadine wasn't in any of them. Not a single one. Why would Nadine kill someone she barely even knew?'

Everett shrugs. `˜Perhaps that's the whole point. Sasha had everything Nadine doesn't `“ friends, looks `“'

`˜What `“ seriously?' says Quinn.

Ev shakes her head. `˜You were clearly never a teenage girl.'

Baxter wasn't either, but he's starting to buy the theory. `˜I'm with Ev. And remember what Gow said `“ that it was almost certainly the same person who attacked both girls? We've got evidence linking Nadine to the assault on her sister, so doesn't she have to be the number-one suspect for Sasha too?'

`˜So she's a psychopath?' says Somer. `˜A serial predator who suddenly, out of the blue, for no apparent reason, brutalizes one girl and kills another, all in the space of a single week? Not to mention doing everything she possibly can to make those assaults look like the work of a sexual predator `“ I just don't think Nadine's that devious `“'

`˜But Patsie is,' I say quietly.

Gallagher holds up her hands. `˜Look, let's remember the prints were only partials. We might be barking up completely the wrong tree `“ it might have nothing to do with Nadine at all. I, for one, am clinging to that hope, however flimsy it feels right now.'

Asante turns to her. `˜So what do we do now?'

Gallagher gets slowly to her feet. `˜There's only one thing we can do. But we have a lot of work to do first.'

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