‘The WiredRip article.’ Cara glanced down at the phone in her hand. ‘Someone linked to it on the Facebook event you made for Jamie.’
‘No,’ Pip said. ‘Why, what does it say?’
‘Um, it . . .’ Cara trailed off. She looked down, thumbs tapping away at her phone and then she held it out on her open hand, offering it to Pip. ‘I think you should just read it.’
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder made an explosive return to our ears this week, with the first episode of a new mystery released on Tuesday. Jamie Reynolds, 24, has gone missing from host Pip Fitz-Amobi’s hometown. The police won’t look for him, so Pip has stepped up to the plate, uploading episodes during the course of her investigation.
But is there a real reason the police aren’t looking for Jamie?
A source close to Pip has told us, exclusively, that this entire season of the podcast is, in fact, a set-up. Jamie Reynolds is the older brother of one of Pip’s closest friends, and our source says that Jamie’s disappearance has been plotted by the three of them together, to create a thrilling new season for the podcast and capitalize on the popularity of the first. Jamie’s incentive in playing along with his own disappearance is financially motivated, with Pip promising the brothers a large pay-out once the season airs and she has secured new major sponsorship deals.
So, what do you think – is Jamie Reynolds even missing at all? Are we being duped by the teen queen of True Crime? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Thirty
Another corridor lined with eyes. Circling.
Pip kept her head down as she stumbled through, towards her locker. It was the end of the day, enough time for that article to have spread around the entire school, clearly.
But she couldn’t get to her locker. A group of year elevens were standing in front of it, talking in a tight circle of bumping backpacks. Pip drew to a stop and stared at them, until one of the girls noticed her there, eyes widening as she elbowed her friends, shushing them. The group immediately disbanded, scattering away from her, leaving their whispers and giggles behind.
Pip opened her locker, placing her politics textbook inside. As she withdrew her hand, she noticed the small, folded piece of paper that must have been pushed through the gap above the door.
She reached for it, opened it.
In large, black printed letters it read: This is your final warning, Pippa. Walk away.
The scream inside her flashed again, climbing up her neck. How imaginative; the exact same note Elliot Ward had left in her locker last October.
Pip’s hand tightened into a fist around the note, screwing it up. She dropped the ball of paper to the floor and slammed her locker shut.
Cara and Connor were standing just behind it, waiting for her.
Everything OK?’ Cara asked, her face soft with concern.
‘I’m fine,’ Pip said, turning to walk with them down the hall.
‘Have you seen?’ Connor said. ‘People online are actually believing it, saying they thought it was all a bit too elaborate. That it felt scripted.’
‘I told you,’ Pip said. Her voice came out dark, remoulded by her anger. ‘Never read the comments.’
‘But –’
‘Hey,’ Ant’s voice called as they turned the corner past the Chemistry block. He, Lauren and Zach were just behind them, coming from the other direction.
They waited for the others to catch up and slot in between, Ant’s steps falling in line with Pip’s.
‘Whole school’s talking about you,’ he said, and Pip could see him watching her out of the corner of her eye.
‘Well the whole school is full of idiots,’ Cara said, hurrying to walk on Pip’s other side.
‘Maybe.’ Ant shrugged, with a glance back to Lauren. ‘But we were just thinking that, I don’t know, it does seem kind of convenient.’
‘What seems convenient?’ Pip said, and there was a growl in her voice. Maybe no one else could hear it, but she did.
‘Well, the whole Jamie thing,’ Lauren spoke up now.
‘Oh really?’ Pip shot her a warning look, trying to hurt her with her eyes. ‘Connor, has it felt convenient to you that your brother is missing?’
Connor’s mouth opened, but he was unsure how to answer, and all that came out was a croak between yes and no.
‘You know what I mean, though,’ Ant carried on. ‘Like, the whole catfish thing, so you don’t actually have to name a culprit because it’s someone who doesn’t really exist. Everything happening the night of the memorial for Andie and Sal. The missing knife, and you just happening to find it by that creepy farmhouse. It is all a bit . . . convenient, isn’t it?’
‘Shut up, Ant,’ Zach said quietly, falling back to keep his distance like he could sense something was coming.
‘What the fuck?’ Cara stared incredulously at Ant. ‘Say the word “convenient” one more time and I will end you.’
‘Whoa.’ Ant chuckled, holding up his hands. ‘I’m just saying.’
But Pip couldn’t hear what he was just saying, because her ears were ringing, a hiss like static, broken up by her own voice asking her: Did you plant the knife? Could you have planted the knife? Is Jamie missing? Is Layla Mead real? Is any of this even real?
And she didn’t know how she was still walking because she couldn’t feel her feet. She could feel only one thing. The scream had wound itself around her throat now, pulling tighter and tighter as it chased its own end.
‘I won’t be mad,’ Ant was saying. ‘To be honest, if this is all made up, I think it’s a genius idea. Except, you know, that you got caught. And that you didn’t tell me and Lauren.’
Cara snapped. ‘So, you’re essentially calling both Connor and Pip liars? Grow up, Ant, and stop being such a dick all your life.’
‘Hey,’ Lauren chimed in now. ‘You’re the one being a dick.’
‘Oh really?’
‘Guys . . .’ Connor said, but the word was lost as soon as he uttered it.
‘So where is Jamie?’ Ant said. ‘Holed up in some Premier Inn somewhere?’
And Pip knew that he was just prodding her, but she couldn’t control it, she couldn’t –
The double doors swung inwards at the end of the corridor, and the headteacher, Mrs Morgan stepped through. Her eyes narrowed, and then lit up.
‘Ah, Pip!’ she shouted down the hall. ‘I need to speak to you, urgently, before you go home!’
‘Busted,’ Ant whispered, making Lauren snort. ‘Go on, it’s over now. Might as well tell us the truth.’
But everything had turned to fire behind Pip’s eyes.
Her feet twisted.
Her arms swung out.
Hands against Ant’s chest, she shoved him, pushing him with all her strength across the width of the hall.
He crashed into a bank of lockers.
‘What the –’
Pip’s elbow drew up, her forearm against Ant’s neck, holding him in place. She stared him in the eyes, though hers had burned to ash, and she finally let it out.
She screamed into his face. It ripped at her throat and tore at her eyes, feeding itself from that never-ending pit in her stomach.
Pip screamed and they were all that existed. Just her and the scream.
Thirty-One
‘Suspended?’
Pip sank into the stool in the kitchen, avoiding her dad’s eyes.
‘Yes.’ Her mum was standing on the other side of the room,
Pip in the middle. Talking around her, over her head. ‘For three days. What about Cambridge, Pippa?’
‘Who was the other student?’ Dad asked, voice softening where her mum’s had grown harder, sharper.
‘Anthony Lowe.’
Pip glanced up, catching the face her dad pulled: bottom lip rolled up over the top, eyes crinkling like he wasn’t surprised.
‘What’s that look for?’ her mum said.
‘Nothing.’ Her dad rearranged his face, untucking his lip. ‘Just never really liked the kid that much.’
‘How is that helpful right now, Victor?’ her mum snapped.
‘Sorry, it’s not,’ he said, exchanging a look with Pip. It was quick, but it was enough, and she felt a little less alone out there in the middle of the room. ‘Why did you do it, Pip?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You don’t know?’ her mum said. ‘You shoved him against a locker with your arm on his throat. How do you not know how that happens? You’re lucky Cara, Zach and Connor were there and defended you to Mrs Morgan, told her Ant provoked you, otherwise you would have been expelled.’
‘How did he provoke you, pickle?’ her dad asked.
‘Called me a liar,’ she said. ‘The internet thinks I’m a liar. A jury of twelve peers think I’m a liar. My own friends think I’m a liar. So I guess I’m a liar now, and Max Hastings is the good guy.’
‘I’m sorry about the verdict,’ he said. ‘That must be really hard for you.’
‘Harder for the people he drugged and raped,’ she said.
‘Yes, and it’s unfair and awful,’ her mum said with a frown. ‘But that’s not an excuse for your violent behaviour.’
‘I’m not making an excuse. I’m not asking for forgiveness,’ Pip said, flatly. ‘It happened and I don’t feel guilty. He deserved it.’
‘What are you saying?’ she said. ‘This isn’t like you.’
‘What if it is?’ Pip rose from the stool. ‘What if this is exactly like me?’
‘Pip, don’t shout at your mother,’ her dad said, crossing over to her mum’s side, abandoning her in the middle.
‘Shouting? Really?’ Pip said, really shouting now. ‘That’s what we’re focusing on? A serial rapist walked free today. Jamie has been missing six whole days and might be dead. Oh, but the real problem is that I’m shouting!’
‘Calm down, please,’ he said.
‘I can’t! I can’t calm down any more! Why should I?’
Her phone was face down on the floor. She hadn’t looked at it for an hour, sitting here underneath her desk, her fingers hooked around her toes. Her head was pressed against the cool wood of the desk leg, eyes hiding from the light.