Read Online Fell Purpose by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - Free Book Online Page A

heard about Zellah, then?’ Hart asked.
    ‘Heard what? What are you talking about?’
    She was no more than averagely pretty, Slider thought, so perhaps her extreme make-up was her way of giving herself distinction; but under it he saw no fear or consciousness in her expression. She genuinely didn’t know – and was probably not interested to know, either, which was that generation’s least attractive feature.
    ‘When did you see her last?’ he asked.
    ‘See her last? Oh fuck, she’s not run away, has she?’
    ‘Just answer the question, please.’
    ‘Yeah, and can the language, babe,’ Hart added for him.
    She looked wary now. ‘Well, she came over for a couple of days. Her mum and dad knew about it. She stayed Sunday night and last night and went home this morning.’
    Slider shook his head. ‘Don’t you know it’s a very serious matter to lie to the police?’
    ‘I’m not lying,’ she said, her eyes flitting from Slider to Hart and back.
    ‘We know you are, love,’ Hart said, ‘so don’t make it worse for yourself. We know Zellah wasn’t here this morning. She was found dead yesterday.’
    ‘Dead?’ Sophy received the word with absolute blankness. ‘You’re joking.’
    Hart winced on Slider’s behalf. ‘It’s nuffing to joke about, is it, girl? She was murdered. Somebody strangled her. Got it? Now are you going to sit down and answer our questions and try and help your mate, or d’you wanna get nicked for obstruction? It’s up to you.’
    ‘She can’t be dead,’ Sophy said, but she sat down on the bed, her demeanour compliant now. ‘She’s younger than me.’
    A glance at Slider told Hart he wanted her to ask the questions, so she sat on the chair, pushing the clothes to one side, while he remained standing by the door. The poodle and whippet took the excuse to jump up on the bed, but the two bigger dogs remained on faithful-hound duty at Slider’s feet.
    ‘Never mind that,’ Hart said. ‘Just tell us about Zellah’s visit. We know what her mum and dad thought was happening, but what did you really plan on doing?’
    ‘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