Page 229 of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

‘OK, well, goooooood luuuuuuuck,’ she said, drawing out the words in sing-song bursts. ‘You’ll do amazing, I’m sure. I’ll come find you after.’

‘Yes, best of luck, Pip,’ Elliot smiled. ‘I would say break a leg but I think the timing is a little off for that.’

Pip laughed, so hollow it almost echoed. ‘Thanks,’ she said, ‘and thanks for the lift.’ She leaned into the car door and pushed it shut.

Limping up to the house, her ears pricked, listening to the rumble of Elliot’s car as it drove away. She opened her front door and dropped the limp.

‘Hello,’ Leanne called from the kitchen. ‘Do you want the kettle on?’

‘Um, no thanks,’ she said, loitering in the doorway. ‘Ravi’s coming over for a bit to help me study for my exam.’

Her mum gave her a look.

‘What?’

‘Don’t think I don’t know my own daughter,’ she said, washing mushrooms in the colander. ‘She only works alone and has a reputation for making other children cry in group projects. Studying, indeed.’ She gave her the look again. ‘Keep your door open.’

‘Jeez, I will.’

Just as she was starting up the stairs a Ravi-shaped blur knocked at the front door.

Pip let him in and he called, ‘Hello,’ to her mum as he followed her upstairs to her room.

‘Door open,’ Pip said when Ravi went to close it.

She sat cross-legged on her bed and Ravi pulled the desk chair over to sit in front of her.

‘All good?’ he said.

‘Yep, it’s under the back seat.’

‘OK.’

He unlocked his phone and opened the Find My Friends app. Pip leaned in closer and, heads almost touching, they stared down at the map on screen.

Pip’s little orange avatar was parked outside the Wards’ house on Hogg Hill. Ravi clicked refresh but there it stayed.

‘He hasn’t left yet,’ Pip said.

Shuffled footsteps drew along the corridor and Pip looked up to see Josh standing in her doorway.

‘Pippo,’ he said, fiddling with his springy hair, ‘can Ravi come down and playFIFAwith me?’

Ravi and Pip turned to look at each other.

‘Um, not now, Josh,’ she said. ‘We’re quite busy.’

‘I’ll come down and play later, OK, bud?’ Ravi said.

‘OK.’ Josh dropped his arm in defeat and padded away.

‘He’s on the move,’ Ravi said, refreshing the map.

‘Where?’

‘Just down Hogg Hill at the moment, before the roundabout.’

The avatar did not move in real time; they had to keep pressing refresh and wait for the orange circle to jump across its route. It stopped just at the roundabout.

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