Page 16 of The Guilty Girl

‘Take a sip of tea,’ Lottie prodded.

Ivy shook her head. ‘I’m okay.’

‘Who was at the party?’

‘Everyone. Told you that … hic … already.’

Lottie wished the girl would take a drink to stem her hiccups. ‘Who was there that you felt shouldn’t have been invited or who turned up uninvited.’

‘It was like all parties, you know? Word gets out. Snapchat, WhatsApp groups. People turn up for the free drink and … make a mess. God, the hot tub was swimming with vomit at one stage. Disgusting.’

Trying not to visualise that image, Lottie continued, ‘I noticed pizza boxes in the kitchen. When was that delivered?’

‘I don’t know. Late. Maybe an hour before things finished up.’

‘Had Lucy been threatened recently? Any enemies?’

‘Enemies? Lucy was the most popular girl in school.’

Lottie counted to five in her head. ‘Ivy, Lucy is dead and I have to gather as much information as I can as quickly as possible. We need the names of those at the party and the names of those who were there that maybe shouldn’t have been. The faster we can interview them, the closer we might be to figuring out who killed Lucy.’

‘I suppose you could start with Hannah Byrne.’

‘Did she gatecrash?’

‘She was invited, but I’ve no idea why. Lucy always called her the ugly duckling to us beautiful swans.’ Ivy actually smiled, and Lottie held her tongue. ‘She named her Little Miss Nobody, like out of the Little Miss books. Hannah was there early last night. She got changed in a guest room while we were having a few drinks and doing our make-up.’

‘Was she supposed to stay overnight?’

‘God, no.’ Ivy’s face distorted into an expression of horror. ‘Lucy would never have let her stay. To be honest, I think she might have been a little jealous of her. Hannah isn’t really an ugly duckling. She’s pretty but acts like she doesn’t know it. She’s into athletics in a big way but I don’t know a whole lot else about her. Oh, except her mum used to have a drink problem.’

Lottie had garnered enough to make this Hannah a person of interest, especially if there was no love lost between her and Lucy.

‘Then there’s Cormac O’Flaherty,’ Ivy went on.

Noting the name in her notebook underneath Hannah Byrne’s, Lottie said, ‘Was he invited?’

‘I doubt it.’

‘Tell me about him.’

‘He does gardening around our school. It’s an all-girls’ school. And he does some for Lucy’s dad too. Lucy made fun of him. Not behind his back like she did with Hannah, but to his face. He didn’t seem to care. Always came back for more. I actually think he had a crush on her.’

‘Came back for more what?’

‘Insults, I suppose.’ Another shoulder shrug. Lottie saw enough shrugs at home to make her dizzy.

‘Why did Lucy insult him?’

‘I don’t like saying negative things about my best friend, but the fact is, Lucy could be the ultimate mean girl at times. I thought it was funny, but now I’m wondering if it could have had something to do with her … with her being murdered, you know?’

‘She pushed someone to the brink, you mean?’

‘Possibly. I can’t believe she’s gone.’ Loud sniffling, and another tissue rolled onto the table.

‘Did anything happen between Lucy and Cormac last night?’

‘Not really. Oh, he spilled drink on the hall carpet and she said something about it. This was early on, before the party got going proper, like. Later Lucy had an argument with Hannah, and Cormac got involved.’

---