13 Minutes Read Free Page A

no-nonsense ponytail. She looked tired as she gave Alison a soft smile. ‘See if we can piece together Natasha’s movements. The doctors say you can go in and sit with her for a while if you’d like.’
    ‘Thank you,’ Gary said, one hand on his wife’s elbow.
    The DI held the door open and Natasha’s parents hurried out, Alison in tears again. It was horrible, Becca concluded. Bright and clinical and real and yet not-real. Natasha was here somewhere fighting for her life. Natasha. Unbreakable, perfect Natasha.
    ‘Shall I wait outside?’ Becca asked.
    ‘Are you a friend of Natasha’s?’
    Becca wasn’t sure how to answer that honestly. ‘Kind of. I used to be, anyway. We go to the same school but we haven’t been close for a few years.’ She glanced at the two blondes. ‘Hayley and Jenny are her best friends.’ Hayley dropped her eyes. Hayley who used to throw herself from tree branch to tree branch until Tasha and Becca were shrieking with fear and giggles that she might fall. Hayley who had faltered slightly when Natasha closed ranks against Becca. Sneaking round for tea once or twice, but then choosing her side and sticking to it. The winning side. The cool side. Natasha’s side. Yeah, Hayley could go fuck herself.
    The policewoman looked from the two Barbies to Becca and back again, mentally piecing the story together. It wasn’t exactly unusual. Dull friend gets dumped for more popular, prettier friends. Given Inspector Bennett’s scruffy appearance – how old was she? Thirties? Less? Old, anyway – maybe she’d been on the receiving end of similar treatment when she was at school.
    ‘You may as well stay,’ the woman said. ‘This isn’t a formal interview. And you might have a different perspective.’
    Oh, yeah , Becca thought. I bet I do.
    ‘What do you think happened?’ Jenny asked.
    ‘We’re not sure. It might have just been an accident. A prank gone wrong.’
    ‘Did someone hurt her?’ Hayley’s eyes were wide. ‘Gary said you’d told them that she wasn’t . . . no one had . . .’
    ‘She wasn’t raped, no.’ Inspector Bennett’s direct answer startled Becca away from her inner sneer at the way Hayley had said Gary . So faux-adult. She hadn’t even thought about rape until now. Which was crazy because often it was all anyone did talk about, even if it was only an undercurrent. Don’t drink too much because something could happen. Don’t wear that, you’ll send the wrong signals. Always walk home with a friend or get a taxi. Don’t lead anyone on. Blah blah blah. At least since she’d been with Aiden her mother had stopped with those kind of comments. As if now that Becca had a boyfriend she had someone to protect her. She wondered if her mum realised how shitty that was.
    ‘We need to figure out what Natasha was doing last night and during the early hours of this morning.’ The policewoman sat down and, like sheep, the three girls followed suit. ‘There’s no blame here, no one’s going to get in any trouble, but if she was attacked, then it’s vital we have as much information as possible.’
    ‘Is she hurt, then?’ Becca asked. ‘I mean, other than . . .’ She trailed off. Other than having been dead for thirteen minutes.
    ‘A few cuts and bruises, but they could have come from being in the river. As I said, we really don’t know if this was an accident or intentional, or an incident involving someone else.’
    Intentional. The word, one that didn’t quite fit, clunked around in Becca’s brain trying to make sense of itself. Jenny, surprisingly, got there first, barking out a harsh laugh at odds with the solemnity of the room.
    ‘You think Tash might have tried to kill herself?’
    ‘We’re exploring all avenues.’
    ‘No,’ Jenny said, shaking her head, adamant. Her hair wasn’t quite as long or perfectly straight as Hayley’s, and she tucked a stray curl behind one delicate pierced ear. The stud was cheap glass, not diamond. The Cinderella