Kim and Sophie head across the school grounds towards the accommodation block. Sophie has her laptop pinned beneath her arm. Kim taps in Kerryanne Mulligan’s apartment number and a female voice responds.
‘Hi, Lexie. It’s me, Kim. Can I come in, do you think, just for a minute?’
‘Er, yeah. Sure.’
The lock buzzes and they push open the gate and head towards the lift.
‘Shall I do the talking?’ Kim asks Sophie.
‘Yes,’ says Sophie. ‘Definitely. Definitely you.’
Lexie meets them at the door to her apartment. She’s barefoot in patterned leggings and a hoodie. She looks from Kim to Sophieand then questioningly back at Kim. She says, ‘Oh. Hi,’ before holding the door open for them and leading them into the living area. The sofa is pulled out into a bed and her suitcase is on the floor by its side, with clothes spilling out of it. ‘Sorry,’ she says. ‘I haven’t unpacked yet. I’m a bit of a nomad, I’m so used to living out of a suitcase, you know.’ She kicks some clothes away with her bare foot and says, ‘Let’s sit at the breakfast bar.’
They perch themselves on the bar stools lined up in front of the kitchenette and Lexie turns to Kim and says, ‘Everything OK?’
Sophie throws Kim an encouraging look that she hopes conveys the fact that she is here if Kim needs backup.
‘Well, no,’ Kim replies, opening up her laptop. ‘Not really. It’s all been a bit unsettling, all this business with the signs and the things being dug up. Got me raking everything up, all the stuff that’s been racing around my head since Tallulah went, and then Sophie found a video online, posted by that girl who was there that night, Mimi. Remember Mimi?’
Lexie nods; then she says, ‘Yeah. Well, sort of. I mean, it all feels quite blurry now. But I do remember there was another girl there.’
‘Anyway, this girl, Mimi, in the video she made she seemed to know what was happening here at the school. Which is strange, as the only people who know what’s happening here are the people who actually live here. So it looks like someone in the village has been in touch with Mimi. Or maybe even been in touch with her the whole time.’
Kim pauses and Sophie sees something pass very quickly across Lexie’s face, too fleeting for her to get a grip on it.
‘Anyway,’ Kim continues. ‘That set me off thinking, so I came over to see Sophie and we’ve just been going through all the social media again, but this time from the starting point of this Mimi girl, and it led us to an Instagram account for a girl called Cherryjack.’
Kim pauses again and this time the startled look that crosses Lexie’s face is more pronounced. But the expression passes quickly and she gives her head the tiniest of shakes before nodding and saying, ‘Right. OK.’
‘So, this appears to be Scarlett Jacques, on a boat. And look.’ Kim turns the screen slightly to face Lexie. ‘Here, on this post, from just last month, you’ve liked it, from your account.’
Another pause follows and now the atmosphere is so thick with Lexie’s discomfort that Sophie can almost touch it.
‘That is you, isn’t it? Lexiegoes? Yes?’
‘Well, yes,’ says Lexie. ‘Yes, that’s my account but I have no memory of ever liking that post. And I have no idea who this Cherryjack is. I mean, how do you even know it’s her?’
‘Well,’ says Kim. ‘First there’s the name. Cherry Jack. Scarlett Jacques. Then there’s the dog – look – not many dogs have paws that huge. And the Jacqueses had that big dog, didn’t they? And then there’s this …’ She zooms in on Scarlett’s foot. ‘This tattoo. Which I saw with my own eyes the day after Tallulah disappeared.’
‘Honestly,’ Lexie cuts in. ‘Honestly. Kim. I don’t even follow this account. Look …’ She switches on her phone and starts scrolling and touching the screen. ‘Look.’ She turns her phone to face them. ‘Look, I hardly follow anyone. See? And there’s noCherryjack here. Seriously, I don’t know why that photo was liked by my account.’
Sophie gazes at Lexie. She seems incredibly genuine, highly believable. But then, this is the same Lexie who lets her Instagram followers believe that she lives in a huge Georgian manor house, the same Lexie who told the police that she saw the second ‘Dig Here’ sign from her terrace when she couldn’t possibly have.
‘You don’t have to follow an account to like someone’s post,’ Sophie says, measuredly. ‘You just have to know it’s there.’
‘Does anyone else have your login?’ asks Kim.
Lexie shrugs. ‘Well, my mum does. I sometimes ask her to reply to some of my comments when I’m travelling or can’t get to them.’
‘Your mum?’
‘Yes.’ She looks from Sophie to Kim and back again. ‘Well, obviously it’s not my mum.’
Sophie inhales sharply. ‘But your mum was friends with Scarlett, wasn’t she?’
‘I guess. But there’s no way my mum would know where Scarlett is now. There’s no way she’d have found her on Instagram.’
‘Why not?’ Sophie asks simply.