Page 73 of Making a Killing

It takes a while – to explain, explain again, answer questions that can’t yet be answered – but Somer’s done this many times now. She’s had the training and she understands why kids this age ask what they do, questions which can seem illogical, even callous, to older, cooler minds.

It’s Portia who takes the most convincing, but – as Somer knows – she has the most at stake: maybe that childish act of blind revenge told Portia something about herself she’s been repressing ever since. And now to find out, all these years later, that Daisy was never dead at all – small wonder it’s taking a while to sink in.

But in the end, they get there, and Somer can finally ask a question of her own.Thequestion.

‘As I’ve explained, we don’t believe a stranger could have taken Daisy from her home without someone noticing – her brother, a neighbour, a passer-by,somebody. And she couldn’t have got away from Oxford on her own, either – she was only eight, just like you all were. She must have gonewithsomeone – almost certainly someone she knew. So is there anyone – anyoneat all– who you think that could have been?’

The girls look at one another.

‘Well,’ begins Millie, ‘there was that half-brother of hers. Can’t remember his name –’

‘Jamie.’

‘Yeah, him.’

Somer nods. ‘Yes, we’ll definitely be talking to him. But his alibi was checked at the time and he was at least twenty miles away that day.’

Megan frowns. ‘But he had a mate with a car, didn’t he? Didn’t they pick up Daisy after school once or am I remembering that wrong?’

Somer’s heart skips: Baxter forwarded her the email from Morris. But she can’t lead the witness. ‘Azeem Rahija,’ she says evenly, ‘that’s right.’

‘And didn’t he have something to do with that paedo grooming thing – down the Cowley Road? That was pretty dodge –’

‘Some of Azeem’s family members had been convicted, yes. But he was never charged.’

Megan makes a face. ‘Never actuallycharged, maybe. But he could have been in on it, couldn’t he.’

Somer takes a breath. ‘One of the theories we’re working on – insofar as we have any theories right now – is that Daisy went willingly, that she knew this person. So, yes, in theory it could have been Azeem.’

None of them look like they’re buying that. Somer ploughs on. ‘And we think the reason she went with this person – whoever it was – is because they promised to give her a better life than the one she had at home –’

‘Ha,’ mutters Portia, ‘well,thatwouldn’t be hard.’

‘Yeah,’ says Millie, turning to her, ‘but like,duh, Azeem? Like I just said, he lived down theCowley Road.’

‘Yeah,’ says Portia quickly, ‘but that Jamie didn’t, did he?’

‘Jamie had an alibi,’ says Somer steadily. ‘It wasn’t Jamie.’

There’s a silence. The girls appear to have lost interest.

‘So if it wasn’t Azeem, and it couldn’t have been Jamie, who else was there? Someone who maybe left the school around that time and you haven’t seen since?’

***

‘What’s all this, then?’

He’s standing in the kitchen door, one hand on the frame. Grimy singlet, sweatpants, bare feet. He must be twenty-odd now; the spots have gone and he’s filled out. Looks like he works out too. He’s more like his father than ever. Or how his father must once have been.

‘Jamie,’ says Gislingham. ‘How nice to see you again after all this time.’

‘It’s the filth,’ says Barry, not looking round. ‘Nothing for you to worry about.’

A frown flickers across Jamie’s brows. He goes to the fridge and pulls out orange juice, then gulps it straight from the carton.

‘Fuck sake,’ grumbles Dunlop. ‘How many more times.’

Jamie wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘Oh stop whinging, you miserable cow.’

---