Too brazen, that hair-flick. Holly was putting it on.

That morning, she’d been grand with the card. Since then, something had happened.

I said, ‘That just means you weren’t worried this morning. How about now?’

‘What would I worry about?’

Conway said, ‘That one of your friends knows something that could put her in danger. Or that someone knows something that you might not want us to find out.’

Holly threw herself back in her chair, hands flying up. ‘Oh my God, look. Nobody in school knows what happened to Chris. Joanne invented the card because she was looking for attention. OK?’

Conway lifted an eyebrow. ‘How come you didn’t say this to Detective Moran when you brought him the card? “Here you go, and by the way, it’s a load of bollix, this girl Joanne Heffernan made it up.” Or did something happen since this morning, to make Joanne into your favourite theory?’

‘Joanne keeps trying to get us into shit, is what’s happened. When you guys showed up, obviously she totally freaked out – she probably wasn’t expecting actual police, because she’s an actual idiot. So she’s spent all day frantically trying to make you look at us, so you won’t figure out what she did and she won’t get in trouble for wasting your time. Why would she be arsed, unless she had something she didn’t want you noticing?’

Conway said, ‘If she wanted to make us look at you and your mates, she’s done a good job.’

‘Yeah, obviously. Or I wouldn’t be sitting here. It never even occurred to you that she might be a huge liar?’

‘I’d say she is, all right. But we don’t need to take her word for anything. Selena meeting Chris, for example: when all we had was Joanne’s word for it, we weren’t too impressed. But then she showed us video. Of the two of them together.’

Something skidding across Holly’s face. Not surprise.

That video was how Holly had known about Chris and Selena.

She said, coolly, ‘What a pervert. I’m not even surprised.’

Conway said, and I felt her mind right there next to mine, ‘Did she show it to you?’

Snort. ‘Yeah, no. Joanne and I don’t share stuff.’

Conway shook her head. ‘I wasn’t thinking about sharing and caring. I was thinking about blackmail.’

Blank. ‘Like how?’

‘Joanne went out with Chris for a while. Before he was with Selena.’

Holly’s eyebrows went up. ‘Yeah? Shame it didn’t work out.’

Still no surprise. I asked, ‘You think Joanne was happy that he dumped her for Selena?’

‘I doubt it. I hope it gave her a brain aneurysm.’

‘Just about,’ Conway said. ‘You know Joanne better than I do. You think it would piss her off enough that she’d want him dead?’