‘I can’t even imagine,’ Pip said quietly. It didn’t matter that five years had passed; this was still raw for Ravi – it was written all over his face.

‘It’s not just that he’s gone. It’s that . . . well, we’re not allowed to grieve for him, because of what happened. And if I were to say “I miss my brother”, it makes me some kind of monster.’

‘I don’t think it does.’

‘Me neither, but I’m guessing you and I are in the minority there.’

Pip took a sip of her tea to fill the silence but it was far too hot and her eyes prickled and filled.

‘Crying already? We haven’t even got to the sad parts.’ Ravi’s right eyebrow peaked up on his forehead.

‘Tea hot,’ Pip gasped, her tongue feeling fluffy and scorched.

‘Let it cool down for a jiffy , or, you know, one one-hundredth of a second .’

‘Hey, you remembered.’

‘How could I possibly forget that introduction of yours? So what questions did you want to ask me?’

Pip looked down at the phone in her lap and said, ‘Firstly, do you mind if I record us, so I can type it up accurately later?’

‘Sounds like a fun Friday night.’

‘I’ll take that as you don’t mind.’ Pip opened the zip on her metallic brass-coloured rucksack and pulled out her bundle of notes.

‘What are those?’ He pointed.

‘Pre-prepared questions.’ She shuffled the papers to straighten the stack.

‘Oh, wow, you’re really into this, aren’t you?’ He looked at her with an expression that quivered somewhere between quizzical and sceptical.

‘Yep.’

‘Should I be nervous?’

‘Not yet,’ said Pip, fixing him with one last look before pressing the red record button.

Pippa Fitz-Amobi EPQ 04/08/2017

Production Log – Entry 4

Transcript of interview with Ravi Singh

Pip:

So, how old are you?

Ravi:

Why?

Pip:

Just trying to get all the facts straight.

Ravi:

OK, Sergeant, I just turned twenty.

Pip:

(Laughs) [Side note: OH MY GOD, MY LAUGH IS ATROCIOUS ON AUDIO. I’M NEVER LAUGHING AGAIN!] And Sal was three years older than you?

Ravi:

Yes.

Pip:

Do you remember your brother acting strangely on Friday the twentieth of April 2012?

Ravi:

Wow, straight in there. Um, no, not at all. We had an early dinner at, like, seven before my dad dropped him at Max’s, and he was just chatting along, like normal Sal. If he was secretly planning a murder, it wasn’t at all obvious to us. He was . . . chirpy, I’d say was a good description.

Pip:

And what about when he returned from Max’s?

Ravi:

I had already gone up to bed. But the next morning, I remember him being in a really good mood. Sal was always a morning person. He got up and made breakfast for us all and it wasn’t until just after that he got a phone call from one of Andie’s friends. That’s when we all found out she was missing. From that point, obviously, he wasn’t chirpy any more, he was worried.

Pip:

So neither Andie’s parents nor the police rang him during Friday night?

Ravi:

Not that I know of. Andie’s parents didn’t really know Sal. He’d never met them or been to their house. Andie usually came around here or they hung out at school and parties.

Pip:

How long had they been together?

Ravi:

Since just before Christmas the year before, so about four months. Sal did have a couple of missed calls from one of Andie’s best friends at, like, 2 a.m. that night. His phone was on silent, though, so he slept through them.

Pip:

So what else happened on that Saturday?

Ravi:

Well, after finding out Andie was missing, Sal literally sat on the phone, calling her every few minutes. It went to voicemail each time, but he figured if she’d pick up for anyone, it’d be him.

Pip:

Wait, so Sal was calling Andie’s phone?

Ravi:

Yeah, like a million times, throughout that weekend and on the Monday too.

Pip:

Doesn’t sound like the kind of thing you’d do if you knew you had murdered the person and they would never pick up.

Ravi:

Especially if he had her phone hidden somewhere on him, or in his room.

Pip:

An even better point. So what else happened that day?

Ravi:

My parents told him not to go to Andie’s house, because the police would be busy searching it. So he just sat at home, trying to call her. I asked him if he had any idea where she’d be, and he was stumped. He said something else I always remembered. He said that everything Andie did was deliberate, and maybe she’d run off on purpose to punish someone. Obviously by the end of the weekend he realized that probably wasn’t the case.