13 Minutes (23 page)

Oh, you’re all heart.
She bit her tongue from asking more questions. Was that what Bennett wanted? Was she trying to lure Becca into confessing something, too? Did she think Becca and Aiden had conspired together?

‘Thanks.’ She forced the word out and left.

In the cool corridor, Becca’s face was hot, her breathing rapid. She had no intention of going straight back to English. Bennett clearly still thought Aiden was somehow involved and she needed to prove her wrong.

She ran across the quad to the sixth form common room, cold air burning her lungs. Her heart had lifted a little, though, she couldn’t help it. Aiden hadn’t gone off her. He wasn’t ignoring her. He just couldn’t answer her texts. A second thought followed which made her want to cringe with embarrassment. Shit, when he
did
turn his phone on again he was going to get
all
her messages and texts, and there were a lot of them. Some were properly passive-aggressive, too. Why wasn’t there some fucking app that would let you recall unseen texts? Why hadn’t someone Kickstarted that? Why did she have to be such an idiot? Aiden
loved
her. Why couldn’t she believe that?

She pushed it all away in her head. When she cleared Aiden’s name, he’d forgive her for all her shit. She wouldn’t look so needy and insecure then. But first she had to find Tasha. Any suspicions still on Aiden would be blown out of the water if she and Tasha took what they suspected to Bennett. The phone shop CCTV footage combined with the evidence in the clearing would surely exonerate him. She took the stairs two at a time and arrived in the common room sweaty and panting. Smoking and running might work for Hayley but they weren’t a good mix for her.

Natasha was at her usual place in the corner and she looked up, confused. ‘I thought you were supposed to be in Eng—’

‘Listen.’ Becca cut her off. ‘That Detective Bennett was here. I think she thought Jenny bought the phone that texted you. Something to do with her coat, and someone in the shop that day looking like her. Only I think she believed Jenny when she said she wasn’t there because she stopped asking questions and now she’s leaving.’

She was talking too fast, that was clear from Tasha’s face.

‘Slow down,’ Tasha said. ‘Bennett thinks Jenny’s the one who sent that text?’ Colour was draining from her almond-perfect complexion. The truth of their suspicions was suddenly sinking in.

‘Yes.’ Becca nodded. ‘But we have to tell her the rest of it.
Come on, Tasha, we have to tell her. You’ve got her number, right? Call her. Like
now
.’

Tasha seemed to shrink into her chair. ‘I can’t,’ she said. ‘It’ll sound so stupid. What will my mum say? What will
they
say?’

‘Who gives a shit what
they
say?’ This wasn’t the reaction Becca expected at all.

‘Maybe we should forget about it, Becca. Maybe it’s all just crap. I mean, we don’t
know
anything, not really.’ Her eyes glanced up to Becca’s face and then lowered back to the carpet. ‘I don’t know, Bex, perhaps I’m just being stupid. What if they’re right and I’m making connections that aren’t there?’

‘Like the way Jenny was at lunchtime? Like Hayley calling you paranoid every time you say you’ve remembered something?’ Becca was almost shouting with frustration and Tasha flinched. ‘Jenny’s off her tits at school. She’s scared. And look at Hayley all trying to be Miss Nice-As-Pie. Why would she be like that? Why would she be like that with
me
?’

‘I know.’ Tasha leaned over, hugging her stomach as if she suddenly had bad period pains. ‘But I keep thinking about it. What if it’s something else? What if we’re wrong? What if by accusing them, whoever actually did it gets away with it?’

‘But we’re
not
wrong! You
know
that. What are you afraid of?’

‘Say I talk to Bennett. What if they find out? What if she doesn’t believe me? What will they do
then
?’

Becca suddenly got it. It wasn’t that Tasha had changed her mind about anything. She was just afraid. Pure and simple. Frustrated as she was, Becca could understand it. Tasha had died in that freezing water. Tasha was the one who was lucky to be resuscitated. And it was Tasha who was faced with the truth that maybe her two best friends had something to do with it.

‘They already think you’re getting your memory back so staying silent isn’t going to keep you safe. Not if they’re the ones who pushed you into the river.’

‘It could have been an accident,’ Tasha said slowly. ‘Maybe we did argue. They were doing something mean, maybe that’s all true. But maybe I got away, like you said, and fell in the river? So it might not be anything as major as we think? Shouldn’t we try and find out for definite first? I mean,
why
would they do it?
Why?
’

Becca wanted to scream. Tasha was blowing so hot and cold about this when
she
was the one who’d started it!

‘I get that you’re shitting yourself about this, Tasha, I do. But the police have got Aiden and this could clear him,’ she said and turned for the door. ‘If you’re not going to talk to her, then I will.’

*

‘Wait!’

DI Bennett was about to get into her car when Becca ran into the car park from the back of the school. She was still warm from her last sprint and her face was burning pink when she came to a halt. Bennet had a mouthful of flapjack and was carrying a sandwich from the canteen, the silver coat stuffed awkwardly under one arm as she ate, and Becca felt a surge of relief. She was sure she’d have missed her.

Bennett swallowed and wiped sticky oat flakes from the corners of her mouth. She looked slightly awkward about having got her lunch from the school canteen and Becca almost warmed to her. A large flapjack and a BLT, and eating the flapjack first. DI Bennett would never have made a good Barbie.

‘Look, if this is about Aiden –’ Bennett opened the car door and dropped the coat onto the passenger seat ‘– I can’t tell you any more right now. But—’

‘No, no, it’s not about him,’ Becca said, breathless. ‘It’s about Jenny and Hayley.’ She waited until she had the woman’s full attention. ‘You think Jenny bought the phone that texted Tash that night, don’t you?’

Bennett studied her. She didn’t take another bite of her flapjack. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Actually, I don’t.’

‘But that coat – you said—’

‘I know what I said. But that coat comes from Primark – Hayley was right, there are hundreds of them. This one belongs to someone at the station. And the footage we have simply shows a blonde girl wearing that coat in the shop. Not at the counter. Not with anything in her hand. There’s no CCTV footage from that area.’

‘Well, can’t you get it?’ Becca said. ‘I mean—’

‘Have you been in the One Cell Stop? To any of their shops?’ Bennett said, calm. Becca shook her head. This wasn’t what she’d expected.

‘They’re cheap for a reason. They skimp on everything. They’ve got a shit security camera set-up, for one thing. Now look, I know you want to—’

‘But there’s more,’ Becca blurted, just wanting her to shut up and listen. ‘You don’t know everything. That text said to go to
the usual place
, right? That’s what they call a clearing out in the woods, their
usual
place
. Tasha hasn’t been there for months, as far as she knows, but the other night we found stuff that shows they’ve all been there recently – her, too! And there was some cut rope. Only she doesn’t remember it so it must be from that night.’

‘Slow down,’ Bennett said. ‘Where is this place?’

‘I can show you later.’ Becca couldn’t slow down. It was rushing out of her, all of it, like a tidal wave. ‘There’s more, too. Tasha said they’ve been acting weird with her for a while, like maybe they didn’t want to be her friend any more – right up until her accident. And now all they care about is if she remembers anything. You need to search their stuff, their homes and their lockers. Because if they’ve got that phone or anything else that proves they did something to Tash, then after today they’re going to get rid of it and then you’ll never know!’

Bennett was looking at her with something close to pity. ‘Friends have spats,’ she said, and Becca felt her hope crumble with that word.
Spats.
What did Bennett think they were, ten years old? ‘Don’t tell me you’ve not fallen out with anyone recently. People do it all the time. It doesn’t mean they go around pushing each other into freezing rivers. Don’t let your imagination run away with you.’

‘Or you could just
listen to me
,’ Becca snapped, hoping to sound in control but knowing she sounded both desperate
and
like she was stamping her feet. ‘We told Hayley that Tasha was starting to remember and now they’re both freaking out. Did you look at Jenny? She’s off her face on something and she’s cracking up.’ Her hands waved madly as she ranted, as if they could add weight to her words. ‘And Hayley’s all over me wanting to know if Tasha’s told me anything or if she’s remembered any more. It’s all shit like that. I’m telling you, if you don’t search their stuff today, then as soon as rehearsals are done and they go home, anything they’ve got will be gone. Jenny might be a mess, but Hayley’s fucking nails.’

‘All right,’ Bennett said. ‘So where’s Natasha, then? If she thinks the same then why isn’t she here?’

It was Becca’s turn to give Bennett a withering glare. ‘Why do you think? Because she’s afraid!’

Caitlin Bennett stared at her, then took another small bite of the flapjack and chewed on it. ‘Go back inside,’ she said, when she’d swallowed. ‘You’ll freeze out here without a coat.’

Becca searched her face for a flicker of hope but there was nothing.
Shitting hell.
She let out a grunt of frustration, turned around and stomped back into the school.
The woman is a fucking idiot
, she thought.
She’s too focused on accusing Aiden to see the truth.
Fuck DI Bennett. And fuck Natasha. If Becca had to prove it by herself, then she would. She’d find a way.

Thirty-Six

With Aiden’s interview suspended, Jamie had gone to the small café of a nearby supermarket to grab a coffee and return some some work calls. He was about to head back and see what was going on when the police rang him to say Aiden was being released without charge. He was on the steps outside waiting when Jamie got there, hunched over in the cold and dragging hard on a cigarette. He did manage a smile, though.

‘They spoke to Emma. She said she was with me. Plus she said she was too cold to really sleep and was pissed off she was stuck, so spent most of the time just dozing after I passed out. No way I could have got out of the car without her knowing.’

Jamie grinned. ‘So that’s that, then.’

‘Fucking hope so.’

‘How did Bennett take the news? Disappointed?’ He couldn’t help but ask. He hoped the DI was above pinning it all on one person until she could make it stick, just because she’d decided it fit. She’d been warm and kind when she’d spoken to him in the hospital. So different from the cool, closed woman he’d seen today. That was the job, he guessed, but he wondered if he’d met the real Caitlin Bennett at all. Who was she when she got home and relaxed? Cat person? Dog person?
Married
person?

‘Didn’t see her again,’ Aiden said. ‘Don’t think she came back. Some uniformed bloke came in and told the sergeant, who then told me and said I could go.’

‘You want to get a beer?’ Jamie asked. The day was screwed anyway, they might as well write it off and start again tomorrow. ‘You look like you might need one.’

‘Fuck, yes. But not anywhere within sight of this place.’

‘Deal.’

They parked and walked in an amiable quiet while Aiden smoked, lighting a second cigarette from his first.

‘They didn’t let you out for a smoke?’

‘I didn’t want to ask.’

‘So,’ Jamie said, as they stopped outside the King’s Arms, ‘what are you going to tell Becca? The truth?’

Aiden shrugged and shuffled his feet. ‘Dunno. She’s been calling and texting all day. I might just say I’ve been working and had my phone switched off?’

‘Why lie again? You’re worried about this Emma girl?’

‘It’s complicated.’

‘Something going on there?’ Jamie was suddenly reminded of how young Aiden was. Nineteen, with a sixteen-year-old girlfriend. However grown-up she was, that might as well be ten years between them.

Aiden shook his head. ‘Not really. A snog once, but that was ages ago. It’s not like that with Emma.’

Something in his body language was saying otherwise, but however attracted Aiden might be to this Emma, Jamie didn’t think he’d done any more than kiss her. He had no reason to lie to Jamie.

‘She’s just different from Bex, you know? Becca’s so insecure all the time. Emma’s laid back. Older. Knows her shit.’

‘Well, if you’re just friends, why don’t you tell Becca about her?’
Oh, poor Becca
, Jamie thought.
This boy is going to hurt your heart.

‘She wouldn’t get it.’ He threw the cigarette butt down and trod on it. ‘I care about her and everything but it’s all too much sometimes. I just want to chill and have fun and play music.’

‘It’s your call,’ Jamie said, pulling the pub door open, ‘but if I was you I’d tell her. Maybe not the kissing bit, but that this girl is your friend and you got stoned with her that night. The truth has a habit of coming out. What if Bennett talks to her? What if the press get hold of it? They knew about the police talking to you. And if Becca’s pissed off, she’s pissed off. You haven’t done anything wrong. You can’t live in each other’s pockets.’

‘I don’t know, man,’ Aiden said, following him into the warmth and letting the door swing shut behind them. Despite having just been released from the police, Jamie thought he had the air of a condemned man. That was women for you. Aiden was learning that fast. ‘I’m not sure the truth is worth the hassle.’

‘I hope you didn’t use that line on Bennett,’ Jamie said and signalled the barman.