Stacey was waiting outside Cornbow High School when the dinner bell rang at 12.30 p.m.

It had taken her less than ten minutes to find the smoking spot just outside the school gates, evidenced by the collection of nub ends smoked and dumped before heading into school.

Oh, how she remembered this spot at her own high school. All the cool girls had gathered each lunchtime to either smoke or pretend to in order to be in with the popular girls. She would have liked to say she cared nothing for such social acceptance, but she had indeed stood amongst them, holding a cigarette and copying the other girls. One taste had been enough and she hadn’t gone back again.

As expected she saw Emma Weston heading towards her.

Stacey watched carefully the fifteen-year-old girl that hadn’t yet learned to master her face. And the first emotion Stacey saw was fear.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked, taking a pack of smokes from her pocket.

‘Just wanted a word about Jessie,’ Stacey said, moving a few feet away as more kids began to congregate and light cigarettes. A sudden mushroom cloud of smoke rose from the group.

‘So, you lied to me yesterday,’ Stacey said.

‘Nah, I never,’ Emma said, narrowing her eyes.

‘Yeah, you did. You told me Jessie left your house normal time, alone, and that was the last time you saw her.’

‘That’s right,’ she said, stubbornly.

‘Emma, you were lying. You both left the house around eight thirty.’

‘Nah, we never,’ she said, drawing on the cigarette.

Stacey could see the girl was going to need more detail to freshen her memory.

‘You were arguing, Emma,’ Stacey said.

Emma shook her head as she blew out a stream of smoke. ‘Nah, we don’t argue. She’s my bestie. Whoever told you that is lying.’

‘I saw you,’ Stacey said.

‘Don’t be stupid,’ she said, a vein of doubt creeping into her voice.

‘That really how you talk to a police officer and an adult?’ Stacey snapped, tiring of the girl’s attitude. ‘Wind it back a notch or we’ll be doing this down the station, got it?’

Emma offered her a face puckered with annoyance but she nodded.

‘So, I saw you walk down the path together and you were arguing. Jessie said something you didn’t like and you slapped her.’

Emma’s face reddened, but she said nothing.

‘What was it about, Emma?’

The girl shrugged and looked away. ‘Don’t remember. We’re mates. We argue.’

‘You slap all your friends?’ Stacey asked.

‘Only the ones who won’t listen,’ Emma bit back, giving herself away.

‘And what wouldn’t Jessie listen to?’ Stacey asked, realising she’d hit a nerve.

‘Can’t remember,’ she said, shaking her head.

‘Emma, try harder. It could be important. Your bestie has now been missing for more than forty-eight hours and you don’t seem all that fussed, which is beginning to annoy the hell out of me not to mention making me suspicious of your—’

‘She said she wanted to go to Dale’s house, and I didn’t want her to go. That’s it. Happy now?’

‘Ecstatic. Is Dale her boyfriend?’ Stacey asked.

Emma nodded. ‘S’posed to be.’

‘Do her parents know?’ Stacey asked. Her mother had insisted there was no boyfriend.

‘You’re kidding. They’d throw her in a tower or dungeon or something.’

‘And you never thought to mention this Dale kid to anyone until now?’ Stacey asked, trying to keep hold of her temper. The girl had been spoken to twice and this was the first time she’d heard his name. ‘Or that she was headed to his house the last time she was seen?’

She shrugged and looked away.

Stacey shook her head in wonder and counted to ten. She had to remember she was questioning a minor without consent of an adult. She couldn’t go in hard. What she really wanted to do was grab the kid by the shoulders and shake some understanding into her.

‘Emma, you do get the gravity of this situation, don’t you?’

‘’Course I do. She’s my buddy.’

‘So, why didn’t you want her to go to Dale’s house?’ Stacey asked.

‘Just didn’t,’ she said, kicking at something on the floor.

‘You went after her?’ Stacey asked.

‘Yeah, to tell her I was sorry, but she wouldn’t listen, so I let her go and do whatever she wanted, and that was the last time I saw her. I swear.’