Howie’s cold eyes alighted on Ravi, and Pip could feel him tensing where their arms almost touched.

‘We met up and I set her some ground rules, like about keeping the stash and money hidden, about using codes rather than names. Asked what kind of stuff she thought kids at her school would be into. I gave her a phone to use for business stuff and that was it really. I sent her out into the big wide world.’ Howie smiled, his face and stubble unnervingly symmetrical.

‘Andie had a second phone?’ Pip asked.

‘Yeah, obviously. Couldn’t be arranging deals on a phone her parents pay for, could she? I bought her a burner phone, pre-paid in cash. Two actually. I got the second one when the credit on the first ran out. Gave it to her only a few months before she got killed.’

‘Where did Andie keep the drugs before she sold them on?’ said Ravi.

‘That was part of the ground rules.’ Howie sat back, speaking into his can. ‘I told her this little business venture of hers would go nowhere if she didn’t have somewhere to hide the stash and her second phone without her parents finding it. She assured me she had just the place and no one else knew about it.’

‘Where was it?’ Ravi pressed.

He scratched his chin, ‘Um, think it was some kind of loose floorboard in her wardrobe. She said her parents had no idea it existed and she was always hiding shit there.’

‘So, the phone is probably still hidden in Andie’s bedroom?’ Pip said.

‘I don’t know. Unless she had it on her when she . . .’ Howie made a gurgling sound as he crossed his finger sharply across his throat.

Pip looked over at Ravi before her next question, a muscle tensing in his jaw as he ground his teeth, concentrating so hard on not dropping his eyes from Howie. Like he thought he could hold him in place with his stare.

‘OK,’ she said, ‘so which drugs was Andie selling at house parties?’

Howie crushed the empty can and threw it on the floor. ‘Started just weed,’ he said. ‘By the end she was selling a load of different things.’

‘She asked which drugs Andie sold,’ said Ravi. ‘List them.’

‘Yeah, OK.’ Howie looked irked, sitting up taller and picking at a textured brown stain on his T-shirt. ‘She sold weed, sometimes MDMA, mephedrone, ketamine. She had a couple of regular buyers of Rohypnol.’

‘Rohypnol?’ Pip repeated, unable to hide her shock. ‘You mean roofies? Andie was dealing roofies at school parties?’

‘Yeah. They’re for, like, chilling out, though, too, not just what most people think.’

‘Did you know who was buying Rohypnol from Andie?’ she said.

‘Um, there was this posh kid, I think she said. Dunno.’ Howie shook his head.

‘A posh kid?’ Pip’s mind immediately drew a picture of him: his angular face and sneering smile, his floppy yellow hair. ‘Was this posh kid a blonde guy?’

Howie looked blankly at her and shrugged.

‘Answer or we go to the police,’ Ravi said.

‘Yeah, it could have been that blonde guy.’

Pip cleared her throat to give herself some thinking time.

‘OK,’ she said. ‘How often would you and Andie meet?’

‘We met whenever we needed to, whenever she had orders to collect or cash to give me. I’d say it was probably about once a week, sometimes more, sometimes less.’

‘Where did you meet?’ Ravi said.

‘Either at the station, or she sometimes came over here.’

‘Were you . . .’ Pip paused. ‘Were you and Andie involved romantically?’

Howie snorted. He sat up suddenly, swatting something near his ear. ‘Fuck no, we weren’t,’ he said, his laughter not wholly covering the annoyance creeping up his neck in red patches.

‘Are you sure about that?’

‘Yes, I’m sure.’ The cover of amusement was cast aside now.

‘Why are you getting defensive then?’ Pip said.

‘Course I’m defensive, there’s two kids in my house berating me about stuff that happened years ago and threatening cops.’ He kicked out at the crumpled beer can on the floor and it sailed across the room, clattering into the blinds just behind Pip’s head.

Ravi jumped up from the sofa, stepping in front of her.

‘What are you going to do about it?’ Howie leered at him, staggering to his feet. ‘You’re a fucking joke, man.’

‘All right, everyone, calm down,’ Pip said, standing up too. ‘We’re almost finished here; you just have to answer honestly. Did you have a sexual relationship with –’

‘No, I already said no, didn’t I?’ The flush reached his face, peeking out above the line of his beard.

‘Did you want to have a sexual relationship with her?’

‘No.’ He was shouting now. ‘She was just business to me and me to her, OK? It wasn’t more complicated than that.’

‘Where were you the night she was killed?’ Ravi demanded.

‘I was passed out drunk on that sofa.’

‘Do you know who killed her?’ said Pip.

‘Yeah, his brother.’ Howie pointed aggressively at Ravi. ‘Is that what this is, you want to prove your murdering scum brother was innocent?’