Page 137 of Making a Killing

She looks at it solemnly, then points. ‘And that’s the wolf.’

Curled up asleep on the bed, like a big sloppy hound.

‘OK, I see. So why don’t you like it?’

‘Oh,Ilike it. It’s Julie who didn’t like it.’

I frown. ‘Julie as in the Team Leader?’

She nods.

‘She actually said she didn’t like it? That doesn’t sound like her.’

I’ve met her, she’s a nice woman. If anything a bit too full-on jolly, but I guess you need that working with kids.

‘She said he wasn’t scary. The wolf. That he was supposed to be scary and wouldn’t have gone to sleep on the bed. But I said he would.’

‘Why do you think that?’

Lily gives me a look like,it’s obvious, duh.

‘Because he’s just a big dog. Dogs always want to sleep on the bed.’

She’s thinking of Dino, Alex’s sister’s cockapoo, who’s thesize of a small polar bear but still manages to sneak into the bedrooms without anyone noticing.

‘So you think that, given the chance, he’d be more interested in a quick nap than in eating Red Riding Hood?’

She shrugs. ‘There was loads of food in the cottage. He didn’t need to eat her.’

See what I meant about Lily’s lawyer brain?

‘So he acted that way because that’s what dogs always do? He couldn’t help himself?’

‘It’s like people,’ she says, starting to lose interest. ‘Even if you’re pretending, like in a play, you’re still the same underneath.’

OK, so maybe not a lawyer. Maybe a profiler.

She’s looking out of the window now. ‘Julie said fairy tales don’t work like that. That they’re supposed to teach you a lesson.’

But she’s wrong. It’s just that Lily’s is a subtler version of the world.

She puts the drawing down on the seat and smiles at me. ‘What’s for tea?’

***

Importance: URGENT

Date:Fri 2/08/2024, 18.06

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Subject: Re: Robin Tierney

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