‘It’s not as if it was anything bad,’ Sophy said in wounded tones. ‘We just wanted to go to the Notting Hill Carnival yesterday, but Zellah’s dad won’t let her do anything. Every time she wants to do something it’s “no, you’re too young”. I mean, she’s nearly seventeen! But he says not the Carnival, it’s too dangerous.’ She exaggerated ludicrously. ‘“You might meet nasty, rough people, you can’t go.” So we made this thing up about the Southbank Fair.’
‘You weren’t actually going to the Southbank, then?’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Duh! Of course we weren’t. Lame or what? Mimes and jugglers and roundabouts? What am I, nine? No, that was just the cover, to get him to let her come over. About the only time she gets off the leash is when she comes to see me, or stays late at school, like for a club or an extra class or something, or Saturdays when we have a ballet class and we can go somewhere afterwards. Or sometimes she says there’s a class when there isn’t, and I cover for her. I mean, it’s pathetic that she has to pretend like that, but what can you do, with dinosaurs like them?’
‘So you were actually going to the Notting Hill Carnival?’
‘Oh yeah, we were going all day, then in the evening, if we didn’t get invited to a party or anything, we were going clubbing. That’s why she was staying last night as well, so we could stay out late. Her dad would’ve wanted her home by ten.’
‘Who was going – just you and Zellah?’
‘And Chloë. Chloë Paulson. She’s at school with us. She came over Sunday night and we were just going to hang out here.’ She blushed at a memory.
‘What?’ Hart said.
Sophy looked defiant. ‘Chloë had this book of cocktails she found in a drawer at home, and we were going to work our way through them. My dad’s got all the ingredients in the drinks cupboard.’
‘What did your sister have to say about that?’
‘Abi wasn’t here. She was staying with her boyfriend. Anyway, she’s cool, as long I don’t bug her.’
‘And your parents are away?’
‘They’re skiing in the Andes. Abi’s got a contact address for them, but we’re not supposed to bother them unless it’s an emergency.’
‘Any other brothers and sisters?’
‘Hector and Theo are at camp in Colorado. They’re younger than me. And Oscar’s hiking in Chamonix with his girlfriend. He’s at Durham, so he’s hardly ever here anyway.’
She sounded sulky, and Hart said sympathetically, ‘So everyone gets away except you?’
‘Yeah, I get left to look after the dogs!’ She rolled her eyes in a martyred way, but quickly lost the attitude and said, ‘I don’t care, though. I like being on my own. I could have gone to Chile but I hate skiing. It’s more fun here. And I thought it’d be nice for Zellah to have a bit of fun too. Only she had other ideas,’ she added morosely. ‘As it happens.’
‘What d’you mean?’
‘Well, it turns out she was never planning on going to the Carnival anyway. She came over Sunday about six, the way we arranged. Chloë was already here. We’d been out in the afternoon – Zellah’s dad wouldn’t let her come earlier, said Sunday was a family day or some such shit.’ Another eye roll. ‘Anyway, she turns up, and Chloë says, “OK, girl, let’s get wrecked,” and then Zellah calmly tells us she’s got a date.’
‘A date? With a boy?’
‘Of course with a boy! But she wouldn’t tell us who. We kept asking but she just shrugged and said nobody we knew.’
‘Was it Mike Carmichael, do you think?’
The question didn’t surprise her, but she shook her head. ‘Why wouldn’t she have told us if it was him? But she wasn’t still seeing him. She did for a bit, after her dad told her not to – well, you’ve got to, haven’t you? – but I razzed her about him because he was such a dork and she dropped him’
‘Was he a dork? I heard he was cool.’
‘Per-leese! He comes from a council estate. He’s got a motorbike. He’s, like, some old greaseball rocker. I wouldn’t go out with anyone that doesn’t have his own car,’ she added proudly.
‘So she didn’t give you any hint about who it was?’
‘No, like I said, she was being all mysterious and wouldn’t-you-like-to-know, as if it was someone really good.’
‘Was she excited?’
She frowned. ‘I wouldn’t say excited, exactly. More sort of tense. Well, if it was the first date she would be nervous. Anyway, I said, “you can’t go dressed like that.” All her clothes were terrible, like a kid’s clothes, and she had hardly any make-up. Her dad wouldn’t allow it. She said it didn’t matter, but I said she couldn’t go on a date looking like that, not from my house. So we had a bit of fun, dressing her and making her up with our stuff, and Chloë made a few cocktails while we were doing it, so it was all right, we still had a good time. Then she went off.’
‘This date didn’t call for her?’
‘We’d have seen him if he did, wouldn’t we?’ she said, with a sigh at Hart’s stupidity. ‘She said he was meeting her outside the Black Lion, in the car park.’
‘And you were expecting her back that night, were you?’
‘Yeah. She was still coming to the Carnival with us. She said she might be late back, so I gave her a spare key, in case we were asleep.’
‘And you were in the whole evening?’
‘Yeah. We did think about going to the pub, but in the end we just stayed in, talking, having a laugh, a few drinks. Just hanging out.’
‘What time did you go to bed?’
‘I dunno. About one o’clock, I suppose. Zellah wasn’t back, and when we got up she still wasn’t. Chloë said, “She’s doing all right for herself.” We just thought she was staying over with him.’
‘Did she phone you at any point?’
‘No.’
‘And the next day you went to the Carnival without her?’
‘Well, yes.’ She looked as if she was being accused of something. ‘We hung around a bit, but she didn’t turn up, so we just reckoned she was spending the day with the bloke, whoever he was. And why wouldn’t she? She doesn’t get many chances like that. We reckoned it was up to us to cover for her, with her parents. I was scared they’d ring to check up on her, so I was glad we were out all day, but there was nothing on the answer-machine when we got back. So we did a quick change and went out clubbing. Chloë went home from the club and I got back here about four this morning, and there was still nothing on the machine, so I went to bed. Unless I heard from her I was going to say she left here this morning, the way we planned, and after that it was up to her. I mean, you can only do so much.’ She shrugged. ‘But she never rang or anything, so I reckoned she must have gone home.’
‘So the last time you saw her was when she left for her date at . . . what time?’ Slider asked.
She looked at him as if she’d forgotten he was there. His presence reminded her that this was serious, and her voice shed its attitude as she answered. ‘It was about half-seven, quarter to eight, I suppose.’
‘Was your sister here yesterday?’
‘Abi? No, she came home this morning, about half-eleven. She woke me up coming in.’
‘So, once more, to be quite clear,’ Slider said, ‘you have no idea where she went on Sunday night, or who she was with? Think very carefully. It’s very important you tell us everything you know.’
‘Yeah, love,’ Hart said, ‘if you’ve got an idea, it’s not dropping anyone in it to tell us. We don’t know it was the bloke she went out with that did it. She might have gone somewhere else afterwards, and he might know where.’
Sophy’s eyes grew round for once, and she looked younger than her years. ‘I don’t know, honest. If I knew, I’d tell you. I swear. I want to help. She was my mate.’ Suddenly enormous, childlike tears welled up in her eyes and rolled over, through the black stuff. ‘I can’t believe it. Who would do that? Who would do that to her?’