13 Minutes (40 page)

It was brilliant. Becca had to give her that. ‘And Hannah?’

‘Oh, be fair. That was as much you as me. If you hadn’t wanted that light moved and got Hayley to do it, the idea would never have occurred to me. I improvised, but you set it up so well. I thought it would be perfect for keeping the pressure on Hayley and Jenny, and give me a wonderfully dramatic moment to “remember”. It wasn’t meant to fall on Hannah. It was meant to look like they’d tried to drop it on me. I mean, to be honest, Hannah messed everything up a bit. She got in the way. Trust her to die so easily. I didn’t want Hayley and Jenny to go away
forever
. Just for a while. Just to learn their lesson. To remember that I’m the one who made them and without me they’re nothing. I mean, we’re still pretty much best friends. They need to remember that.’

An owl hooted and Becca nearly jumped. Tasha was talking so casually. So clinically. As if Hayley and Jenny would ever be her friends now. How badly wired
was
her head? Sociopath, not psychopath. Maybe both.

‘It feels good to talk about it all,’ Tasha said. They were nearly at the river. ‘It’s been a lot to hold inside.’ Her voice quietened. ‘Maybe now I’ve shared everything, the dreams will let me go.’

‘And of course,’ Becca said, wanting to get everything clear, ‘once Hannah died, that was the perfect time to get your memory back.’

‘When I saw Hannah drop and Bennett walked in, it was sublime. Everything fell against them at once. No one was going to question that evidence. Not with my statement to back it up and that notebook I was keeping. Why do people always believe diaries? They’re just words.’

They had reached the river and Becca’s heart thumped hard as they turned to walk along the uneven bank. Had Tasha turned right on purpose, so that Becca would be closest to the water? Easier to shove?

‘Why didn’t you say they pushed you? In your statement.’

‘I thought about it, but I didn’t need to. Far more convincing to say I didn’t remember how I fell in, don’t you think? Spelling it out would have been too much. It’s like in that diary – I wasn’t perfect in it, but I was believable.’ She smiled, broad and happy. ‘Believable is all that matters. See?’

She’s enjoying this
, Becca realised. Tasha was loving showing off how clever she’d been. How far ahead of everyone. How meticulous.

‘But
why
, Tasha? Why do any of it in the first place?
Why
were you punishing them? Surely not just for keeping Mr Garrick a secret.’ Now that she had the full confession, she needed to understand why. And sociopath or not, it must be more than just that.

Tasha stopped walking. Close up, Becca could see something like hurt in her face. Hurt and maybe anger. A lot of anger. For a fraction of a second, Tasha looked truly ugly. Moonlight cut pale across her face, highlighting the dips in her cheeks, and her eyes shone from deep black circles. Her mouth was a tight slit as she seethed with memory. Even her hair, now so golden-blonde, appeared tar-streaked in the night. She looked like a dead girl from a horror film to Becca. And emotionally maybe that’s what she was. Finally Becca was seeing the
real
Tasha. The one on the inside. The fucked-up crazy one.

‘They didn’t want to be my friends any more,’ Tasha said, eventually. She was staring at a point somewhere beyond Becca. ‘I knew it. They started going off together just the two of them. Not inviting me. Making excuses to not include me. I couldn’t believe it. Their
arrogance
.’ She spat out the last word. ‘One night, Jenny got high and said I was too controlling. Too judgemental.’ She shook her head a little. ‘How dare she?
I’m
the Barbies.
Of course
I controlled them. I made them the most popular girls in school. I
shaped
them. How could
I
be dumped by
them
? I have always been the most popular girl, Becca, you know that. Ever since primary school. Now, with only sixth form left, they wanted to take that from me? How would everyone view me if they left me? I’d be a loser. I don’t lose, Bex, you know that. I tried to make it better for a while, but then I overheard them talking about me. Calling me cold. Psycho. Control freak. They thought I was a bitch to them. They said there was something wrong with me in my head.’

No shit
, Becca thought. She wondered if there had been other incidents like the green dress over the years. How many times had Natasha played Jenny and Hayley off each other until they got wise and decided they’d had enough?

‘So when I found out about Mr Garrick, I knew what I had to do. I had to show them. To teach them a lesson. They needed to see what I was capable of. There were less than two years left of school and I would
not
be shamed. I would
not
be threatened. Not by
them
.’ Tasha looked at Becca. ‘
I
decide who stays or goes, not them.’

‘So this had nothing to do with Mr Garrick at all?’

‘Of course not.’ Tasha barked out a harsh, unpleasant laugh. ‘Like I care who Jenny’s fucking? If she’d told me about it I might actually have helped her – made it work far more in her favour. But they didn’t trust me with
that
little secret. Oh no, they wanted to keep that for themselves. As if they could. As if they could ever keep anything from me. They thought I’d do something horrible to him. That’s what Hayley said. And they didn’t want that. It made me laugh. Like they’ve ever really known what was best for them. That’s why they’ve always had me. They thought I was going to put that film on YouTube and make them a laughing stock. And I could have. But that would have been too obvious, wouldn’t it? That’s what someone ordinary would have done. That would have just been spiteful. What I did, well, I wanted them to
learn
from it. What I did had a point. Things just got slightly out of hand.’

You’re crazy
, Becca wanted to say.
Proper batshit crazy
. Instead, she shrugged. ‘They kind of deserved it.’

‘Exactly!’ Tasha said. ‘They don’t get to dump me.’ She turned and stared out over the dark water. ‘They don’t even get to dare think that way. They should have been grateful to me. They
belonged
to me.’

Although the weather had been warmer, now that it was the dead of night and they were riverside, the breeze was cold as it lifted Becca’s hair and she shivered. She was ready to go home now. She was just about done here.

‘You going to throw that in or what?’ she asked, nodding at the laptop. Tasha looked down at it for a long second and then spun it like a Frisbee, out to the middle of the river. There was a flash of silver and then a splash. They both stared after it.

‘Well, that’s that, then,’ Becca said.

‘That’s that.’

Becca had taken a small step back from the bank, her heart racing, willing her feet to stick like glue to the earth beneath. This was Natasha. There was no way of knowing where she would take this next.

‘Don’t worry,’ Tasha said, still looking out over the water. ‘I’m not going to push you in.’ She looked over her shoulder. ‘I admit I thought about it. I mean, it wouldn’t even be suspicious. You committing suicide where I’d nearly died. It would have so much pathos, wouldn’t it? Like you actually wanted to
be
me.’

‘Everyone wants to be you, Tasha.’ For a moment Becca thought she might have overplayed it. She was never
that
directly complimentary. Tasha just kept talking, though.

‘And all that stuff on Facebook and me dating Aiden would be enough to push you over the edge.’ She giggled. ‘Literally.’

‘How come you changed your mind?’ Becca said.

‘I don’t know. Affection for you, I guess. You’ve been so clever to figure it all out. It would be a waste of a brain to drown you. I think we can have some fun. For a while, at least.’

Becca wondered how long Tasha would allow her to play before she changed her mind. A week? A month? Becca would always be looking over her shoulder, waiting for the axe to fall.

‘Best friends forever,’ she said softly.

Natasha turned around and, unexpectedly, pulled Becca into a tight hug. ‘Best friends forever,’ she agreed, her warm breath in Becca’s ear.

Her father’s old Dictaphone in Becca’s pocket suddenly beeped loudly and the girls jumped apart, startled. Becca’s heart raced as Tasha’s eyes widened and then darkened with rage.

‘What?’ Becca said, trying to sound casual. Normal. Relaxed. She took a step backwards and almost fell over a clump of earth.
Shit, shit, shit
, she thought. The tape had ended.
Shit shit shit
.

‘What was that?’ Tasha said through suddenly thinned lips. ‘Were you recording this? Recording
me
?’ Her voice turned into a snarl, and as her shoulders hunched and she coiled to strike, Becca saw her like an animal, a predator of the night, a wolf or a fox, all teeth and hunger.

‘No . . .’ Becca started, lamely, knowing how pathetic and scared she sounded. ‘No, it must just have been my phone running out of battery.’ It hadn’t been her phone and Tasha knew it.

‘Give it to me!’ Tasha shrieked, lunging forward and grabbing at Becca’s pockets.

‘Stop it, Tasha!’

Becca tried to push her backwards, but Tasha was all sinewy strength, clawing and hissing at her.

‘You fucking
bitch
, Becca,’ Tasha spat into her face as they struggled. ‘You fucking nobody bitch! I was going to make you
special!
Give me that tape!
’

‘Fuck off, Tasha!’ Becca said, finally finding her own rage. ‘Just
fuck off
!’ She grabbed the other girl’s arms and shoved. Tasha held on. The world spun as both girls lost their footing.

Oh shit
, Becca thought as her eyes met Tasha’s and saw her shock and fear reflected there.
Oh shit, oh shit. We’re going in.

Sixty-Four

Sirens wailed in the night. They were getting closer, but they didn’t sound close enough for Jamie’s liking. His legs burned as he ran, his breath ragged from his chest. He could hear Caitlin behind him, swearing as she stumbled, tripping over in the dark, the torch she carried a crazy jagged spotlight that couldn’t cover enough ground to make it worthwhile.

The clearing where Natasha said the girls had tied her up. It came to him in a flash, barely ten minutes before, as Caitlin was sending officers to check the school and the graveyard where Hannah was buried. Julie Crisp, Becca’s mum, had called them back in near hysterics. While searching the house for clues to where her daughter might be, she’d found an Airbook, not her husband’s, with a mark on it where a sticker had been peeled off. It had been on his desk with a note from Becca:

If I don’t come back, I love you, and give this to the police. There’s a film on it they need to see. I don’t have the password.

Abruptly it became clear to Jamie: they’d have met in the woods. They must have. His house was on the wrong side of the river, but there was a narrow bridge maybe five or ten minutes up from where he’d found Natasha. They could cross there, he’d told Bennett. They could probably make it before her men in their cars.

She was at the door before he’d finished the sentence, and now here they were, any wine buzz vanished, running and stumbling as fast as they could. Biscuit had raced past them both and he didn’t waste any breath calling the dog back.

‘Where’s the bridge?’ Caitlin panted, catching him up.

‘That way – to your right.’

They both turned, and then Jamie grabbed her arm.

‘Stop! Wait!’

‘What?’ she snapped.

‘Listen!’

Biscuit was barking. Back the other way. A sharp, high bark. A bark that demanded attention.

One more frenzied bark, a shriek, and then just a loud splash.

‘That way!’

Not waiting to see if Caitlin was with him, Jamie turned and ran through the dark in the direction of his dog.

Sixty-Five

They were screaming at each other when they hit the cold water, and the muddy taste filled Becca’s nose and lungs. She couldn’t breathe, but still they wrestled as the currents pulled them down into that cold, dark, alien world. The night sky taunted her, moonlight dancing on the surface as she finally broke free, her arms bruised and aching. She struggled upwards, desperate for air, and then hands grabbed her again. Tasha was not giving up.
Tasha
, Becca realised, suddenly terrified that she was going to die here,
would never give up.
She twisted in the water to face her one-time best friend.

Natasha looked like a banshee, hair wild around her head in the water, eyes still filled with rage as her pale hands, almost ghostlike, clung to Becca’s coat. She was screaming something, bubbles of air escaping her lips with the words, their meaning muted and muffled by the water that was squeezing the life out of them both.

Becca kicked out, struggling, but as her lungs burned with lack of air, her blow had no impact. Weeds grasped at her feet as the water dragged them, and she pulled her heavy legs up and away as she desperately wriggled out of her jacket. She didn’t care about the tape. It would be ruined now anyway. Tasha gripped the fabric, twisting and tugging it, making Becca squirm harder to free herself. Why was Tasha still fighting her? Why couldn’t they both just get out? How crazy was she? One arm free, Becca turned away and tore her other arm out, kicking upwards with the last of her energy now the weight of the coat was gone. She glanced back towards Tasha, sure she’d be reaching for her, determined to drown her and then make her escape. Tasha wasn’t human. She was a monster.

Tasha
was
trying to follow her, her arms outstretched, grasping. She too kicked upwards, with more strength than Becca had left, and for a moment she was coming up fast, but then suddenly she stopped, halted by something that pulled her slightly downwards. Becca saw the surprise register as Tasha let go of the coat and looked down. Becca saw it then, too.