Page 86 of Darling Girls

The dogs went crazy around them as they grinned at each other like idiots.

‘Ishir, you arsehole! Get back behind the bar before I call your mother!’

Ishir’s grin faded. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I guess our date is over.’

‘That was adate?’

‘I hope it was.’

It didn’t resemble any date she had been on before. No meal, no exchange of awkward personal information, no list of odd jobs that needed doing.

No nudes required. No videos.

She didn’t hate it. She didn’t hate it at all.

42

ALICIA

Jessica had parked across the road from the pub, in the police station car park. As the three women crossed the road, a beaten-up old station wagon pulled up next to their car. A man in a baseball cap emerged from it.

‘Dirk,’ Jessica said quietly, but there was no one else around so her voice carried.

Alicia peered at the man.Wow, she thought.ItisDirk.

He hadn’t aged well. The hair visible beneath his cap was still red, but there were flecks of grey, and though he was a relatively young man his posture was stooped. He slammed the door and glanced at them over the roof of the car, smiling quizzically. He clearly didn’t recognise them.

‘Oh. My. God,’ Norah said, a few seconds behind, as usual.

‘Do you remember us?’ Jessica asked. ‘I’m Jessica. These are my sisters, Alicia and Norah. We’re the foster kids who grew up at Wild Meadows.’

She sounded so calm. As if she’d slowed herself down to .75, like Alicia often did with a podcast or audiobook. Considering she was normally at least a 1.5, it was a big improvement.

Dirk’s smile vanished abruptly and his eyes darted around the car park.

Interesting, Alicia thought.He’s nervous.

Jessica, strangely, didn’t seem nervous at all. ‘Can I ask you something?’ she said. ‘The little girl the police questioned you about all those years ago. Amy. Did you really not see her?’

Dirk dug his hands into his pockets. ‘Look –’

‘It’s important,’ Jessica persisted, cutting him off. ‘Think back.’

Dirk glanced towards the police station, then back at Jessica. ‘If I did see her,’ he said, ‘why would I lie about it?’

‘You tell us,’ Jessica replied. ‘Maybe you were rewarded for lying? Or blackmailed? Or maybeyoudid something to her.’

Alicia’s gaze, which had been on Jessica, suddenly bounced back to Dirk. She’d always assumed he’d lied for Miss Fairchild; it had never occurred to her he might be covering his own tracks. She hadn’t thought he’d be capable of harming Amy himself. Had she been wrong about that?

‘I didn’t do anything to her,’ he said, ‘because I never saw her.’

‘Bullshit!’ Norah called. ‘If the bones turn out to be Amy’s, you’ll have blood on your hands.’

‘Hey!’

They all turned. Detective Tucker was leaning in the entrance of the police station. His relaxed posture suggested that he’d been watching them for a while.

‘You ready, Dirk?’