Or I could drink wine.
“She told me about a man called Logan who has fair hair. He would come round to her house and Cara would lock Mia in her room, but Mia did see him sometimes. He made a threatening gesture to her.” I demonstrated it, pointing my fingers to Liv rather than Cassian. It didn’t seem appropriate to make the sign at my daughter’s headteacher. I had no issue doing it to a police detective though. “Mia was scared of him but she said he didn’t touch her.”
“This could be really helpful.” Liv opened the fridge and found the wine. “I’m off duty so I’m going to have a glass or two from your stash and sleep on your sofa, if that’s okay?”
I nodded, relieved. “You can’t get the boyfriend to end all boyfriends to pick you up?”
“I could but I’m not.” She glanced at Cassian. “I’d feel better if I stayed here tonight, because tomorrow we’re adding a few more locks and an alarm here.”
I started to add ice cream, milk and red fruits into the blender. The girls could have a milkshake but I’d be getting one of their five a day in there. “Why? What do you know?”
“No more than you do. We’re trying to get intelligence about what Cara was up to before she disappeared, who she was mixing with, where she was working. Uniforms will be going door to door to see if anyone saw her on Friday or Thursday night. A last known sighting will be helpful for that, and I think we’ll have to speak to Mia – we have a really good detective who kids like and they’ll open up to him – he looks like a children’s television presenter. Do you think there’s something else she’s not telling you?” Liv topped up everyone’s wine and put the now empty bottle next to the door to go into the recycling. “You have a lot of alcohol in.”
“Because people buy it for me and I don’t drink it.” Which was the truth. “And you haven’t been round for months.”
“I’d be round more if people would stop committing crimes.” She turned to Cassian. “How’s being the new headteacher of the finest primary school in Wales?”
He laughed, probably not sure how to take Liv. “Good so far. I take it you went there as a pupil?”
“I was expelled from there three days before I left to go to secondary school.” There was no remorse at all in her tone.
“What for? I think I might’ve heard about this – the only pupil to be permanently excluded in the last half a century,” Cassian said, grinning. “And now a police officer.”
Liv shrugged. “I found my way onto the school roof. The headmaster told me to get down and I refused because Joel McAllister was there and he was the reason I was up there in the first place.” She eyed me, full of mischief.
“Isn’t that Heidi’s dad, Romy?” Cassian’s words were quiet, as if he was unsure how to phrase my relationship with Joel. Dead husband didn’t sound right coming out of anyone’s mouth, ex-husband wasn’t right and he wasn’t my husband anymore, unfortunately. The Strait had seen to that.
Some days I felt like my world ended the day I found out he wasn’t coming home; some days I felt like I was drowning in guilt for still being able to smile. It was those days I remembered how Joel was and how he lived every day. He’d want me to do the same.
“That’s Heidi’s dad.” I shook my head. I’d heard this story countless times since Liv and I had been friends. “He always gets the blame for this.”
“It was his fault. I know he’s a hero and he ended up being a nice guy, but he was an arsehole at the age of eleven.” Liv bullied me away from the blender and poured the milkshake into the two large glasses I’d gotten out. “He dared me to get on the flat roof of a temporary classroom, one that we weren’t meant to go anywhere near, and stay there for ten minutes without falling through it.”
“Did you manage it?”
Liv grinned. “I managed twelve minutes before I fell through it. Tell me there’s still a discoloured patch in Classroom Three. I think there should be a plaque there to commemorate my incredible feat.”
“There’s still a patch there where the roof was fixed,” Cassian said. “No plaque though. The roof’s got spikes on it now so I suggest you don’t go climbing up there again.”
Liv shook her head. “Unlikely. I think my roof climbing days are over. I could see Heidi going up there when she’s older.” She side-eyed me. “Would not be surprising.”
“It’s a possibility.” She was spirited. “But not Mia.”
“Mia will be persuading her not to climb up there,” Cassian said. “She doesn’t like it when anyone gets told off or if anyone shouts. I saw her flinch in the playground today when one of the midday assistants was yelling about something that really didn’t matter.” He shook his head.
I figured he had some work to do there.
“Probably Mrs Marriott.” Liv held both milkshakes in her hands, which now looked like masterpieces, garnished with cream and strawberries and some chocolate flakes which were probably out of date, but I doubted it would cause anyone any issues. “She was hideous back then. I can’t think she’s mellowed.”
Cassian looked surprised, but didn’t say anything.
“I’m right, aren’t I? Malevolent Marriott strikes again. That’d be a good idea for a kids’ book. Isn’t there a writer around here who could do it?”
“He writes crime.” I was talking to air, Liv now out of the door and heading up the stairs, leaving me alone with Cassian. “Have you met Gulliver?”
“I have,” he said, amused. “He’s on the football team with his brothers and he likes a dirty tackle. He nearly took my leg off yesterday.”
“Sounds like Gully. He’s good fun though.”
