‘Oh, how come?’ Pip sat up a little straighter.

‘Um, I don’t know if I should say.’

‘Don’t worry –’ Pip tried to hide the desperation in her voice – ‘if it’s not relevant it won’t go in my project. It just might help me better understand the circumstances of her disappearance.’

‘Yeah, OK. Well, Andie’s little sister, Becca, had been hospitalized for self-harming several weeks before. Her parents had to go out, so they told Andie she had to stay in and take care of Becca.’

‘Oh,’ was all Pip could think to say.

‘Yeah, I know, poor girl. And still Andie left her. Only looking back now can I understand how difficult it must have been having Andie as an older sister.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Erm, it’s just, I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, you know, but . . . I’ve had five years to grow up and reflect on everything and when I think back to those times I don’t like the person I was at all. The person I was with Andie.’

‘Was she a bad friend to you?’ Pip didn’t want to say too much; she needed to keep Emma talking.

‘Yes and no. It’s really difficult to explain,’ Emma sighed. ‘Andie’s friendship was very destructive, but at the time, I was addicted to her. I wanted to be her. You’re not going to write any of this, are you?’

‘No, of course not.’ Small lie.

‘OK. So Andie was beautiful, she was popular, she was fun. Being her friend, being someone she chose to spend her time with, it made you feel special. Wanted. And then she would flip and use the things you were most self-conscious about to cut you down and hurt you. And still we both remained by her side, waiting for the next time she would pick us up and make us feel good again. She could be amazing and awful, and you never knew which side of Andie was turning up at your door. I’m surprised my self-esteem even survived.’

‘Was Andie like this with everyone?’

‘Well, yeah, to me and Chloe. Andie wouldn’t let us go over to her house much, but I saw the way she was with Becca too. She could be so cruel.’ Emma paused. ‘I’m not saying any of this because I mean that Andie deserved what she got. No, no that’s not what I mean at all, no one deserves to be murdered and put in a hole. I only mean that, appreciating now the kind of person Andie was, I can understand why Sal snapped and killed her. She could make you feel so high and then so low; it was bound to end in tragedy, I think.’

Emma’s voice slipped into a wet sniff and Pip knew the interview was over. Emma couldn’t hide the fact that she was crying, and she didn’t try to.

‘OK, those are all the questions I have. Thank you so much for your help.’

‘That’s OK,’ Emma said. ‘Sorry, I thought I was over everything. Guess not.’

‘No, I’m sorry for making you go over it all. Um, actually, I’ve also messaged Chloe Burch for an interview, but she hasn’t got back to me yet. Are you two still in contact?’

‘No, not really. Like, I’ll message her on her birthday, but . . . we definitely drifted after Andie and then leaving school. I think we both wanted it that way really, a clean break from the people we had been back then.’

Pip thanked her again and hung up the phone. She exhaled and just stared at it for a minute. She knew that Andie had been pretty and popular, that much social media had made perfectly clear. And like everyone that’s ever been to high school, she knew that popular people sometimes had their hard edges. But she hadn’t expected this. That Emma could still resent herself after all this time for loving her tormentor.

Was this the real Andie Bell, hiding behind that perfect smile, behind those sparkling pale blue eyes? Everyone in her orbit so dazzled by her, so blinded, that they didn’t notice the darkness that might lurk beneath. Not until it was too late.

Pippa Fitz-Amobi EPQ 25/08/2017

Production Log – Entry 11

UPDATE : I researched to see if I could find the owner of the car with the number plate Sal had written down in his notes: R009 KKJ. Ravi was right. We’d need to know the make and model of the car to send a request to the DVLA. I guess that particular lead is dead.

OK, back to the task at hand. I just got off the phone with Chloe. I tried a different tactic this time; I didn’t need to go over the same things I’d learned from Emma and I didn’t want to hinder the interview with any dormant Andie emotional issues.

But I stumbled into some anyway . . .

Transcript of interview with Chloe Burch

[I’m getting bored of typing out the interview intros; they’re all the same and I always sound awkward. Skipping from now on straight to juicy bits.]

Pip:

OK, so my first question is how would you describe Andie and Sal’s relationship?

Chloe:

Yeah, good, he was nice to her and she thought he was hot. Sal always seemed really calm and chilled; I thought he would mellow Andie out a bit.

Pip:

Why would Andie have needed mellowing out?

Chloe:

Oh, just because she always had some drama going on.

Pip:

And did Sal mellow her?