Page 55 of Making a Killing

‘Spit it out, for Christ’s sake – you two may have all day, but I’ll be lucky if I see the year out.’

I take a breath. ‘Some of that material was hair. It’s a DNA match for your daughter.’

She was pale before but she goes white now. I’ve never seen anyone change colour so brutally. The guard takes a step forward. ‘You OK, Sharon?’

But she gets no answer. Sharon’s eyes are still locked on mine. ‘Say that again. Say it again,slowly.’

‘Your daughter’s hair has been found during an ongoing investigation. There’s only one explanation for that –’

‘She’s alive,’ she whispers, her lips ashen.

‘Is, or at least was very recently, yes.’

But she’s not listening. She doesn’t care that her daughter may still be dead, or how her hair could have ended up at a crime scene. She’s staring at the floor, her hands gripped on to the side of the chair, her shoulders heaving. The guard comes quickly forward and crouches down next to her – ‘You can’t afford to upset yourself’ – but Sharon pushes her angrily away.

She raises her head again and looks me straight in the eyes, and when she speaks it’s as if the breath is being scoured from her lungs.

‘That – evil – little –bitch–’

***

‘Three so far.’

Baxter looks up; DC Roberts has appeared at his elbow.

‘Three what?’

‘Three of Daisy Mason’s friends who were interviewed in 2016 are still in Oxford. In fact, they’re all at the same school.’

Baxter sits back. ‘Let me guess. St Eustace’s?’

But Roberts hasn’t been in Oxford that long: the name means nothing to him. ‘No, somewhere called the Griffin?’

Baxter gives a wry smile. ‘Would have been my second guess. On the river, up towards Summertown. Massive grounds, massive facilities, massive fees.’

Roberts smiles. ‘Figures.’

Baxter pulls his chair across to look at Roberts’s screen.

Millie Connor

Portia Dawson

Megan Webster

Baxter checks back in the original file.

‘OK, so this is pretty good. The only significant one we don’t have is Nanxi Chen, but her father was a visiting professor so the family probably went back to the States. Megan Webster wasn’t just a schoolmate either – they lived a couple of doors down from the Masons, and it was the Connor girl who switched costumes with Daisy before the party. That’s why it took so long for anyone to realize she was missing.’

He pulls a picture from the file and holds it out. The dress, the green tights and shoes, the petal headdress with the yellow centre.

‘But that flower thing only covers her eyes,’ says Roberts. ‘You can easily see the rest of her face.’

Baxter nods. ‘I know –’

‘And you’re saying her own family still didn’t realize it wasn’t her?’

Baxter gives him a heavy look. ‘The parents certainly didn’t. We were pretty sure Leo clocked it, but we could never get him to admit it. He and Daisy had a huge row that afternoon and he was basically just keeping out of her way.’

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