I’ll message some 2012 Kilton Grammar schoolers and see if I can shed some light on what was going on at calamity parties. And if I find that what I’m suspecting is true, could Max and Rohypnol be key players in what happened to Andie that night? Like the missing cards on a Cluedo board.

Persons of Interest

Jason Bell

Naomi Ward

Secret Older Guy

Nat da Silva

Daniel da Silva

Max Hastings

Howie Bowers

Pippa Fitz-Amobi

EPQ 13/10/2017

Production Log – Entry 28

Emma Hutton replied to my text while I was at school. This is what she said:

Yeah, maybe. I do remember girls saying they thought their drinks had been spiked. But tbh everyone used to get really really drunk at those parties, so they were probably just saying it because they didn’t know their limits or for attention. I never had mine spiked.

Chloe Burch replied forty minutes ago, when I was watching The Fellowship of the Ring with Josh:

No, I don’t think so. I never heard any rumours like that. But girls sometimes say that when they’ve drunk too much, don’t they?

Last night, I messaged a few people who were tagged in photos with Naomi at calamities in 2012 and helpfully had their email addresses on their profiles. I lied slightly, told them I was a reporter for the BBC called Poppy because I thought it would encourage them to talk. If they had anything to say, that is. One of them just responded.

Pippa Fitz-Amobi EPQ 14/10/2017

Production Log – Entry 29

Two more responses this morning while I was out at Josh’s football match. The first one said she didn’t know anything about it and didn’t want to offer any comment. The second one said this:

The plot just keeps on thickening.

I think I can safely assume that drinks were being spiked at calamity parties in 2012, though the fact wasn’t widely known to partygoers. So, Max was buying Rohypnol from Andie and girls were getting their drinks spiked at the parties he started. It doesn’t take a genius to put the two together.

Not only that, Nat da Silva may very well have been one of the girls he spiked. Could this be relevant to Andie’s murder? And did anything happen to Nat the night she thought she’d been drugged? I can’t ask her: she’s what I would call an exceptionally hostile witness.

And finally, to top it all off, Joanna Riddell said that her friend thought she was spiked and reported it to the Kilton police. To a ‘young’ male officer. Well, I’ve done my research and the only young and male officer in 2012 was (yep, DING DING DING) Daniel da Silva. The next youngest male officer was forty-one in 2012. Joanna said that nothing came of the report. Was that just because the unnamed girl reported it after any drug would have shown up in her system? Or was Daniel involved somehow . . . trying to cover something up? And why?

I think I’ve just stumbled on another link between entries on the persons of interest list, between Max Hastings and the two Da Silvas. I’ll call Ravi later and we can brainstorm what this possible triangle could mean. But my focus needs to be on Max right now. He’s lied enough times and now I have real reason to believe he was spiking girls’ drinks at parties and secretly seeing Andie behind Sal’s back at the Ivy House Hotel.

If I had to stop the project right now and point my finger, it would be pointing at Max. He is suspect number one.

But I can’t just go and talk to him about all this; he’s another hostile witness and now possibly one with a history of assault. He won’t talk without leverage. So I have to find some the only way I know how: by way of serious cyber-stalking.

I need to find a way to get on to his Facebook profile and hound him through every post and picture, looking for anything that connects him to Andie or the Ivy House Hotel or drugging girls. Something I can use to make him talk or, even better, go straight to the police with.

I need to get round Nancy Tangotits’ (aka Max’s) privacy settings.

Twenty-Five

Pip ceremoniously placed her knife and fork across her plate with exaggerated precision.

‘Now may I leave the table?’ She looked at her mum, who was scowling.

‘I don’t see what the rush is,’ her mum said.

‘I’m just right in the middle of my EPQ and I want to hit my targets before bed.’

‘Yes, off you pop, pickle,’ her dad smiled, reaching over to scrape Pip’s leftovers on to his own plate.

‘Vic!’ Her mum now turned the scowl on him as Pip stood and tucked in her chair.

‘Oh, darling, some people have to worry about their kids rushing off from dinner to inject heroin into their eyeballs. Be thankful it’s homework.’

‘What’s heroin?’ Josh’s small voice said as Pip left the room.

She took the steps two at a time, leaving her shadow Barney at the foot of the stairs, his head tilting in confusion as he watched her go to that dog-forbidden place.

She’d had the chance to think over all things Nancy Tangotits at dinner, and now she had an idea.

Pip closed her bedroom door, pulled out her phone and dialled.

‘Hello, muchacha ,’ Cara chimed down the line.

‘Hey,’ Pip said, ‘are you busy bingeing Downton or do you have a few minutes to help me be sneaky?’