‘We’re aware of that, Mrs Hamilton,’ Daniel interrupted. He sounded gruff. ‘My partner left home twenty minutes ago to see the headmaster and pick up Oliver.’
Olly? What had happened to Olly?
Mrs Hamilton looked as bewildered as Iris felt. But Daniel ended the call before they could get any answers.
‘Let’s go and see the headmaster, shall we?’ Mrs Hamilton said.
Iris trailed behind Mrs Hamilton down the corridor to Mr Brook’s office.
‘Not now,’ came the bark from inside, when Mrs Hamilton knocked on the door. But she ignored the headmaster and opened the door.
‘Ah, come in and take a seat,’ Mr Brook said when he saw Iris and Mrs Hamilton.
Iris was astounded to see Mum and Olly, who was wearing his running kit, in the headmaster’s office. What was going on? The headmaster filled in Mrs Hamilton in a few sentences. Iris listened, but it took her several minutes to compute the information. Olly had been suspended for a week for punching Josh at cross-country training. Mrs Davis, the matron, had called an ambulance as she suspected Josh’s nose was broken. The headmaster already knew about Iris’s video. He and Mrs Hamilton would take action first thing tomorrow morning.
Iris hung her head. She couldn’t look anyone in the eye. This was all her fault. She’d caused trouble for her brother. She’d brought shame on her whole family. She wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole. She wanted to be someone else – anyone else – somewhere else.
She wanted to die.
Chapter 17
Ash
NOW
Iris only needs one adult present and Ash has had to rearrange a meeting and two appointments at work, but there’s no way he’d leave Iris and Carla to go through this without him. They’re doing this round at his place – Mayflower Farm. Carla thought it would give them more privacy than at Crooked Oak Cottage on a Saturday morning. Ash is secretly pleased he won’t have to face Dandruff. He’s not a bad bloke, but Ash doesn’t like him. Perhaps it’s an alpha male thing. Perhaps it’s just because Ash resents Dandruff for living in Crooked Oak Cottage, which used to behishouse, under the same roof ashiskids. His dislike for the guy has grown over the past few months. Dan wasn’t as supportive as he should have been with Iris. Carla didn’t say so, not in so many words, and fair enough, Iris isn’t Dan’s daughter and Ash lives just up the road. But Carla is a great stepmother to Margo – the kid even calls her ‘Mum’ – whereas Dandruff failed to measure up as a stepfather. And as a partner.Don’t be judgey, Ash.
He hears Carla’s car pull into the driveway and watches out of the window as his ex-wife and their daughter make their way to his front door. He opens it before they can knock. Carla is dressed in smart casuals and she’s wearing make-up. Most of the women in Ash’s life – and there have been a few – get togged up on weekdays, but can’t be arsed to make an effort at the weekends, unless he takes them out to dinner or something. But Carla is the other way round, probably because she works from home. She sits at her laptop, in pyjamas or jeans and a hoodie, and she sees more people at weekends than during the week. She doesn’t need make-up anyway. She turned fifty at the beginning of the year – quietly, in the middle of all the chaos – and she’s still the most beautiful woman he knows. With the possible exception of their daughter, who has also made an effort with her make-up and clothes. Everyone always said his daughter looked like him, but that was because of the blond hair. She’s all Carla, really. Now Iris has cut her hair and dyed it dark, she resembles her mother more than ever. Standing next to each other, on his doorstep, both with anxious expressions on their faces, they make him think of a before-and-after advert.
They have time for coffee before Roly is due to arrive. Ash makes it in the kitchen and ushers them through to the living room. They’ll be more comfortable in there than sitting up to the table in the kitchen. They’re careful about what they say in front of Iris, although Ash doubts she’s listening. She’s barely looked up from her phone since she arrived. Ash’s eyes flit from his daughter to his ex-wife. He sees half a dozen questions race across her face. He notices her hands trembling slightly, even before she drinks from the coffee cup she’s cradling. She’s leaning forwards in the armchair, her elbows on her knees.
‘All right, Iris? Nothing to worry about,’ Ash says, as much to reassure Carla as Iris, who looks like she couldn’t care less.
‘Yeah, I know. Routine. Mum said.’
Ash knows her nonchalance is an act. He doesn’t remember seeing her glued to the screen of her smartphone like this for a long, long time. And she’s chewing gum so fast her jaws must ache. She’s no doubt playing the role she thinks a typical teenager would play.
Ash is stressed, too. He thinks he’s doing a better job of hiding it than Carla and Iris, but his mouth is dry despite the coffee and he can’t sit still. Roly has insisted that this is an informal chat, nothing to worry about, and that Iris is not a suspect. But how long, realistically, before the police zero in on Iris?
When Roly arrives, he’s not alone. Neither he nor the officer with him, who Roly introduces as Detective Constable Gail Ward, is wearing a uniform. Ash thinks this is standard, that CID get to wear plain clothes, but perhaps it’s to put Iris at ease. What does he know? He leads them through the kitchen to the sitting room, where Carla has stood to greet them. Iris has remained seated on the sofa, but at least she has put away her phone.
‘Hi, Carla. Hi, Iris,’ Roly says, then introduces his DC again for their benefit.
Ash leaves the armchairs for Roly and his colleague, and sits back down on the sofa, next to Iris, who is sitting in the middle, bracketed by him and Carla.
Both Roly and DC Ward refuse Ash’s offer of tea or coffee.
‘Iris, you know why we’re here?’ Roly gets straight to the point.
She nods. ‘To talk about Josh.’
‘That’s right. We’ve been talking to his family and friends and, basically, anyone who knew him. If we can build up a picture of him and how he lived, we might be able to find out more about how he died and ultimately arrest his killer.’
‘OK.’
‘Now, I know you were once close to Joshua, so you knew him well and that could help us. What can you tell us about him?’
‘He was my boyfriend. We went out for, like, six months. He liked cross-country running; he was good at running. He was average at school. In the bottom sets. He flunked his A levels and didn’t even get into his last-choice university.’ Ash thinks his daughter sneers just a little as she says this. ‘He decided to work – he was working in The Grove as a bartender – and then travel around South America when he’d saved up enough money.’
