The Pact (6 page)

10

The Ecology of Pond Life took less than an hour, thanks partly to one of the textbooks Parva had bought in Bristol and partly because of her photographic memory. The girls left the classroom with the most complicated flow diagram of pond organism interactions imaginable, although Parva was quick to call one of them back before she could escape.

“Emily?”

The girl ignored her until the third time Parva said her name. Then she came shuffling back, her bag slung over her shoulder, her eyes downcast, as if the most interesting thing in the room was the grey linoleum.

Parva
sighed. “Do I really have to call your name three times to get your attention?”

Emily
shrugged.

“Well
never mind. I need to speak to you.”

There
was still no reply. Instead Emily kicked at the floor and looked away.

Parva
pressed on regardless. “You know you said I should leave things alone?”

Another
shrug.

“Well
I can’t. It’s all much too important. Something serious has happened in the town and I’m thinking it might be related to what happened to those girls.”

Emily’s
words were a mumble as she kept her face averted. “What do you want me to do about it?”

“I
just want you to answer some questions. I’m not going to tell anyone you spoke to me. You won’t get into any trouble for this.”

“No,”
said the girl. “But you will.” Finally she looked at Parva. “And why would you want to? What have you got to do with all of this? Why should I trust you any more than the others who came?”

Parva
frowned. “What others? Do mean the ones who came to take the bodies away?”

“No.”
They’d lost eye contact again. “The ones who came before that. The ones from London. The ones who said we had to keep quiet or there’d be trouble.”

“I’m
not from London, I’m from Bristol.”
Oh way to go
, Parva thought, mentally kicking herself as soon as the words had escaped her lips.
That’s really going to make all the difference
.

“I
don’t care where you’re from,” came the deserved reply. “Who are you really? And why do you want to know what’s going on here?”

It
would be a risk taking this girl into her confidence, on both their parts. But Parva could see there was no way she was going to be able to get this girl to open up otherwise. It was difficult enough getting her to talk.

“My
name in Dr Parva Corcoran,” she said. “I’m here undercover to try and find out the truth behind the suicides. There’s concern that the girls might have been murdered, and the more I see of this place the more I’m starting to be convinced it might be true.”

Emily
smiled, which must have been a new experience for her, Parva thought. Then she did something else quite unexpected. She held out her hand.

“That’s
a lot more than any of the others were willing to come out with,” she said. “You’ve just made yourself a friend, Dr Corcoran.”

“We’d
better stick with ‘Miss Corcoran’ for the moment.” It was strange, shaking hands with this girl, but it was also oddly reassuring. “So what can you tell me?”

Emily
shook her head. “Not much, really. Miss Arbuthnot found them. We all heard about it when we got back from the half-term break.”

“So
it happened when most of you were away?”

“I
guess so. When I got back,” she wrinkled her brow, “that must have been around nine on Sunday evening, there was a helicopter taking off and police still had the building cordoned off.”

“Were
they definitely police?”

“How
do you mean?”

“Were
they in uniform?”

Emily
bit her lip. “No, but the next day in assembly Miss Arbuthnot told us they were special investigators from London who had been sent up because of who the girls were. We weren’t to say anything about it to anyone because all that would do would be to bring the newspapers here.” She gave a shiver. “And nobody wanted that.”

Parva
nodded. If you were the child of someone famous, for whatever reason, it must be difficult avoiding the press when you were at home, never mind at school. “So what happened after that?”

Emily
shrugged. “Nothing much. Life went on as before. We figured there would be more of a fuss, but there’s been nothing. I reckon it’s all been hushed up, and that anyone who’s tried to do any digging has either been paid off or kept quiet in some other way. You know what I mean.”

Parva
did, but it was still disconcerting to hear it from a seventeen-year-old girl.

“Anyway,
we were told they’d killed themselves which is, you know, really shit, don’t you think?”

“What?
That they killed themselves or that it’s what they told you?”

Emily’s
eyes glared. “What they told us of course! There’s no way any of them would have wanted to do that. Jesus Christ, Tor stood to inherit millions, Rachel was looking forward to backpacking in South America in the summer holidays, Kerry’s dad was going to take her on tour with him next year, and despite all of Jen’s boyfriend problems she was still being asked to come to London to visit him.”

Parva
looked over at the classroom door. Was it her imagination or did she just see a shadow pass by? She lowered her voice to a whisper. “But why would anyone want to kill them?”

Emily
followed suit, and now her voice was so quite Parva could barely hear it. “I think someone wanted to kill one of them,” she said. “The others were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up being done in as well.”

It
was still weird to hear such a young girl talk like that about people she knew.

“Emily,”
Parva didn’t want to involve the girl any more than possible, but she had to ask her. “Do you know where all this happened?”

“Oh
yes,” she replied. “Would you like me to show you?”

“I
should probably go there myself. You never know who might be watching.”

“We
should go at night then,” Emily said, “and dress in black.”

Parva
almost laughed. That shouldn’t be too difficult for either of them. “You can’t come with me,” she said. “It could be dangerous.”

If
Emily was the type she would have folded her arms and pouted at this point. Instead she turned to leave. “Well I’m not going to tell you,” she said, walking away. “Just let me know when you’re ready to go and I’ll take you.”

“Hang
on!” Parva was chasing after her. “How many detective movies have you seen?”

Emily’s
face creased with lack of understanding. “A few,” she said. “Why?”

“Because
if you’ve seen as many as I have you’ll know that anyone saying what you’ve just said is next in line to be bumped off. Before they give the detective the vital clue.”

“This
isn’t a film, though.”

“No,”
said Parva. “This is serious, and I don’t want you disappearing on me. You tell me the location now and I promise we’ll meet there tonight.”

Emily
noticeably brightened. “At midnight?”

Parva
nodded. “Seems as good a time as any,” she said. “Now where are we meeting?”

For
a moment she was worried that the girl still wasn’t going to tell her, then Emily skipped up to her and whispered, “Twelvetrees Hall. Room 312.”

11

Parva slipped out of Pelham House at a quarter to midnight, thanked the heavens that it wasn’t raining, and made her way to Twelvetrees Hall, doing her best to keep to the shadows. Under any other circumstances she would have giggled at what she was up to, behaving like she used to when she was a little girl and had aspirations to be a spy. It was hardly likely there would be anyone around at this time, but Parva had a feeling that things were far from resolved at St Miranda’s. For all she knew someone walked these grounds every night on the lookout for anyone who might be connected with what was going on, something that had resulted in the deaths of four girls and an unexplained disaster in town. It was fortunate no one had died there, and Parva knew she had to get on with things if further deaths were to be prevented.

There
were two figures standing at the entrance to Twelvetrees Hall.

Parva
ducked behind a tree.
Who the hell would be up at this time?
Then she remembered how late she had used to stay awake, her thoughts racing, her mind filled with the possibilities of what the next year, the next week, even the next day held for her.

It
was probably just a couple of the girl. Nevertheless she picked up a stone from the loose gravel around the tree’s tangled roots and threw it towards the building. It landed with a clatter.

A
figure stepped into the light.

It was t
he girl Parva had nearly run over when she arrived here.

A
hand reached out to drag the girl back into the shadows, the arm clad in black. Even from here Parva could see the black varnish on the fingernails.

Emily.

Parva skipped over from her hiding place, circling round behind them as she did so. Confident the girls hadn’t seen her; she crept up and placed a hand on Emily’s shoulder.

The
girl jumped high enough Parva immediately regretted it, but at least she didn’t cry out.

“It’s
you!” Emily looked shocked.

“Of
course!” Parva tried to give her a reassuring smile. “Who else do you think it could be?”

“I
don’t know,” the girl mumbled. “Are you a ninja or something?”

Parva
stifled a chuckle. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend, who I might add you never mentioned you were bringing?”

“Oh,
yeah, sorry about that.” Emily nudged the other girl, who was doing her best to become one with the brick wall behind her. “This is Jocelyn. She’s the one...”

“...I
nearly ran over. Yes, I remember. Nice to meet you again, Jocelyn.”

The
girl said nothing but gave Parva a tiny nod.

“She
makes you seem positively loquacious,” Parva whispered to Emily. “And you still haven’t told me what she’s doing here.”

“She
wanted to come,” Emily whispered back. “She used to live in this block and she wants to know what really happened. She even thinks she might have seen something.”

“So
there were other people on campus that night?”

“Of
course.” In the light from the fluorescent strips set into the ceiling of the Twelvetrees Hall entryway, Parva could see Emily rolling her eyes. “Not everyone goes away for half term. Jocelyn’s parents live in Hong Kong so when there’s a break of just a week she stays here.”

“Doesn’t
she have any friends she could stay with?” Parva bit her lip. It was obvious from the Jocelyn’s reaction to her question that she didn’t. “And you think you saw something, do you?”

Jocelyn
nodded again but still kept silent.

“She
hasn’t said much since it all happened,” Emily explained.

“Why
didn’t you tell the people who came to investigate?” Parva asked.

Jocelyn
shook her head and tried to shrink further back into the shadows.

“She
didn’t trust them,” Emily said, “and to be honest I don’t blame her. They weren’t exactly polite.”

Parva
nodded. She could guess exactly what they were like. Then she remembered that one of them could well have stayed behind to keep an eye on the place.

“We
should get inside,” she said, pointing at the electronic keypad next to the door. “Do either of you know the code?”

“Jocelyn
does,” Emily said. “Let’s hope they’ve not changed it since she was here.”

The
code was the same. With a buzz and a click the door opened and the three of them piled in. Emily located the foyer light and switched it off.

“What
did you do that for?” Parva said into the darkness next to her.

“You
never know who’s watching,” Emily replied. “We don’t want to give anyone a reason for coming over here.”

“Turning
the light off might be a reason,” said a tiny strangled voice that had to be Jocelyn’s.

Parva
agreed with her. “Never mind that now,” she said. “If you turn it back on again it’ll be as good as a flashing beacon if anyone is on the lookout for anything strange. Let’s get to the stairs. Where are they?”

“Go
to the right and they’re straight ahead of you.” Jocelyn sounded a little bit more confident now that she was indoors.

As
Parva’s eyes began to adjust to the blackness she could see the staircase, lit dully from the glow of a light saving bulb somewhere up on the next floor.

“There’s
a lift as well,” Jocelyn added.

“I
think we’ll stick with stairs.” Parva laid a reassuring hand on Jocelyn’s shoulder and the girl shrieked. Parva made a mental note not to try and reassure anyone else this evening. “The lift might make too much noise. I want to attract as little attention as possible.”

With
Parva in the lead, the three of them climbed the stairs, keeping tight to the right hand wall. When they were halfway up Parva glanced back. Was it her imagination or had something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye?

“Are
you ok?” Emily had sensed she’d stopped.

“Yes,
fine. Just my imagination.” Parva started moving again, reminding herself that she was the grown up here, and that it would be very foolish indeed to start putting ideas in these girls’ heads when they were scared enough already.

As
Parva has guessed, a single, dim, energy-saving bulb that was at the opposite end to the staircase lighted the first floor corridor. Her mind was doing its best to make her see weird shapes moving in the gloom down there, so to shut it up she said to Emily, “Is the room down here?”

“No,
silly,” came the reply. “It’s room 312, remember? Next floor up.”

Of
course. How silly.

“Two
more flights then,” Parva said, more to herself that to the others.

They
were approaching the next floor up when there was the sound of a door opening. They all crouched at the same time and waited, collective breaths held, until the sound of a toilet flushing almost caused Parva to laugh with relief.

“There
are people living here, after all,” she whispered to the others.

Room
312’s floor was in darkness.

Parva
waved her hands before her and came into contact with something stretched across the exit to the staircase. She took out her pen torch and in the thin pencil-beam of light read the warning on the crime scene tape that must have been left by the police. Or whoever it was who had helicoptered the girls’ bodies out of here in double quick time. So much of the tape had been used that it was impossible to crawl around it.

“Let’s
take it down from the right hand side,” she whispered to the others. “And then put it back when we leave.”

The
girl followed her lead but, even with the three of them, it still took the better part of ten minutes for them to clear enough of a space for them to be able to squeeze through. Whoever had put this stuff here had done a very thorough job of it, Parva thought.

She
shone the light beam down the corridor. Emily saw the light switch, and went to flick it on.

“Don’t!”
Parva whispered hoarsely, but it was too late.

Nothing
happened.

“Looks
like the lights have blown,” Emily said.

“Or
they’ve been switched off deliberately.” That was Jocelyn, and Parva had to admit she agreed with her.

“I
wonder why anyone would want to do that?” she murmured, before asking the way to room 312 more loudly.

Emily
looked at Jocelyn, who shrugged in the near total darkness. “I never came up this high,” she said. “Maybe we could follow the numbers?”

The
nearest door was 307. Five shuffling, nervous paces down the corridor to their left they came to room 306.

“Back
the other way,” said Emily.

Parva
resisted the urge to add an ‘obviously’ as she led the way back they had come.

They
got as far as Room 311 before they found their way blocked once again.

“Wow.
They really don’t want anyone going in there,” Emily breathed as she beheld the mass of tape that had been plastered across the hallway.

“Do
you have any idea how many rooms are on each floor?” Parva asked.

“Twelve
on the ones below this,” Jocelyn said. “I lived on the floor below for a while.”

“So
we’re almost at the end of the corridor,” said Parva, “and I’m betting if there’s a fire escape that’ll have been taped off too. Let’s just hope that’s all they’ve done.”

“Why?”
asked Jocelyn.

“In
case we need an escape route, silly!” Emily hissed. She took hold of the loose end of a piece of tape and pulled. It came away with a tearing sound that sent an echo down the corridor loud enough to attract the attention of anyone who might be following them.

“We
may need that escape route sooner rather than later if you keep making that much noise.” Parva picked at a piece and tried to remove it more gently. If anything the tearing sound was even louder.

“Ok,”
Parva gave the two girls a resigned grin. “Let’s do it Emily’s way and get this stuff off as quickly as possible.”

Jocelyn
held the torch as Parva and Emily ripped off sufficient tape for them to be able to open the door. Which was locked.

“I
should have thought of that,” said Parva. “Not that I would know how to get hold of the key.”

“There
should be a copy in Arby’s office,” said Emily. “We could break in and steal it.”

“And
then come back here and expect to be able to do all that in one night undetected?” Parva shook her head. “It’s too risky.”

But
Jocelyn was already waving a key at them.

Emily’s
eyes widened. “How did you get that?”

“It’s
my old one.” Jocelyn shrugged. “We found out last year that most of the keys in this block are only one of three different patterns. It might not work but it’s worth a try.”

Parva
took the key from Jocelyn. As she slid it into the lock she realised she was holding her breath.

The
key refused to turn.

“You
have to wiggle them about a bit sometimes,” Jocelyn whispered, “and move them in and out as well.”

Parva
tried again, varying the depth to which the key was inserted in the lock, twisting it as she went. Finally she was rewarded with an uncomfortable-sounding grinding of tumblers.

“Thank
god for that,” she murmured as she pushed down on the handle.

The
door swung inwards to reveal blackness beyond.

Emily
peered in. “I don’t think I want to go in there,” she said.

“You
don’t have to,” said Parva, taking the pen torch from Jocelyn and shining it ahead of her. “I need to do this bit. You two stay here and stand guard in case anyone comes.”

From
the look Emily and Jocelyn exchanged it was abundantly clear the concept of ‘someone coming’ had not properly sunk in until that moment.

“You’ll
be fine,” said Parva. “No one’s going to come and besides, from the look of it I don’t think there’s going to be room for the three of us all stumbling around in the dark.”

The
girls seemed to relax a little at that, and more when Parva promised that she would be as quick as possible.

The
room was a mess.