All the Rage

Adam Fawley
11 April 2018
13.35

`˜Have you got everything?'

Alex sighs. `˜God, Adam, I can't wait to get home. If I never see another cottage pie it'll be too soon.'

I pick her coat up from the bed and hold it out. She's a little unsteady on her feet, after so long in bed. She brushes against me as I help her find a sleeve. Her hair smells different. Hospital shampoo.

`˜I've got chicken and chips ordered for tonight, by the way. From that French place.'

That gets a smile. It's her guilty pleasure. Along with the Meursault she's not currently allowing herself to have.

She picks up her handbag and takes a last look round. `˜OK, pardner. Time for you and me to get the hell outta Dodge.'

* * *

`˜Show me that email again?'

Somer hands Giles the phone and watches as he scrolls down.

`˜We thought we had them,' she says. `˜Fawley worked out it must have been Leah who got that bus ticket and gave it to Isabel. And he was right `“ her prints were on it. And we all thought, there we are, that's the proof.'

`˜Only now Leah's saying she can explain how those prints got there,' says Giles, handing her back the phone.

`˜Right. She says she looked for something in Isabel's bag when they were at school the following day and must have touched the ticket then. Which I don't buy for a single nanosecond.'

He looks up. `˜But you won't be able to prove it either way, will you. That's the problem.'

`˜We were already facing an uphill battle convincing a jury. The defence will be able to call a whole truckload of witnesses to say what great friends Sasha and the others were. And everyone's got a daughter or a sister or a niece who looks like one of those girls. No one's going to want to believe them capable of something like this.'

`˜You wouldn't have any trouble convincing me `“ it happens a lot more often than you think. There was a bloody awful case in the States where a sixteen-year-old kid was stabbed repeatedly by two of her closest friends just because they `њdidn't like her any more`ќ.'

Somer wraps her arms around herself. `˜I just can't stop thinking about it, Giles. About Sasha `“ how she must have realized at some point that they weren't going to stop `“ that her best friends were going to kill her. Imagine that `“ imagine knowing that.'

He reaches out and touches her on the shoulder. `˜You're doing your best.'

`˜But what if it's not enough? What if we can't even persuade the CPS to run with it? Because right now, I don't think we have a hope in hell. It'll just be poor bloody Nadine carrying the can. And all this time that vicious little cow Patsie's been cosying up to Sasha's mother, eating her food, sleeping in Sasha's bed `“ that poor woman has no bloody idea `“'

Saumarez stares at her. `˜Say that again.'

`˜Patsie's been round at Sasha's house pretty much non-stop ever since she disappeared. We thought she was just trying to be nice `“ to give Fiona some support `“ but now of course it's starting to look like something else entirely `“'

She stops. Giles has got his own phone out now and is tapping at the screen. `˜What is it?'

He holds out the mobile to her. `˜This is from the late nineties, in LA. The Michele Avila case. Any of it sound familiar?'

Somer reads what's on the screen and looks up at him, the colour draining from her face. `˜What the `“'

He nods. `˜Two of Avila's friends beat her to death, just because she was prettier and more popular than they were. And all the time the police were searching for her murderer, one of the killers was holed up in her house, `њcomforting`ќ her mother. They very nearly got away with it, too.'

Her eyes widen. `˜Are you saying Patsie and the others could have known about this? That they could actually have copied it?'

`˜Has to be a possibility.'

She's reaching for her own phone now. `˜I'll ask Baxter to check the phones and laptops `“'

But he's shaking his head. `˜Patsie's way too clever for that, Erica. Same goes for the school PCs `“ they keep records of what the kids look at online.'

Her face falls. `˜Please don't tell me it's another dead end.'

`˜No, not necessarily. The internet's not the only way they might have found out. You said Patsie and the others were well up on forensics and GPS tracking and stuff like that? Well, maybe I'm not the only one who watches too much crime on TV.'

His voice trails off. He's looking at his phone again, frowning this time.

`˜What `“ what is it?'

`˜I'm just wondering `“ maybe the Avila case isn't the only one Patsie's been boning up on.' He looks up at her. `˜Didn't you say Fawley thought this whole thing could be a copycat?'

She nods.

He holds out the phone again. `˜Well, looking at this, I think he might be right.'

* * *

***

Baxter doesn't know who he is `“ not at first anyway. But it doesn't take him long to work out it must be Somer's new squeeze. He remembers Gis making snide remarks about Saumarez when she first started seeing him, and you only need to take one look at him to see why. All that and a DI as well. Some buggers have all the luck.

He opens the car door and gets out as Somer comes up the road towards him, her bloke a step or two behind.

`˜This is Giles,' she says. `˜He's been helping me out.'

Saumarez smiles and holds out his hand. `˜Good to meet you. Erica's told me a lot about you. She says you're the team computer ace.'

`˜Giles is pretty good with computers, too,' says Somer quickly. Baxter eyes her `“ her cheeks are flushed and he's never seen her looking so jumpy or trying so hard. As if she's introducing Saumarez to her dad, not just some random work colleague.

`˜Oh yes?' he says heavily, turning back to Saumarez. `˜Digital forensics, is it?'

Saumarez smiles again. A clean smile, without sarcasm. Somer has to hand it to him: he's almost miraculously even-tempered.

`˜Nah, just a common or garden copper.'

Somer looks from one to the other. `˜OK, so are we good to go?'

* * *